As the rapid development of Chinese economy and process of urbanization, lots of catchwords popped up among common Chinese people, which widely spread through internet. Usually, traditional Chinese language featured with various kinds of literal forms and different meanings in different occasions. Those catchwords often own an improper even eccentric literal form and are endowed with unexpected meanings that you can barely learn from the language training classes. Xiu4 dou4（秀逗）, anyway, is one of those buzzwords appeared in the Chinese society. From the very look of this unique phrase, you can hardly figure out its actual meaning.”Xiu4”（秀）is a common word widely used among Chinese folks, it is usually used to describe the personal quality of elegancy owned by a man or woman who were regarded as upper classes in the olden time of China. At the same time, “Dou4”（逗）is a verb in the Chinese grammar that you can learned from the attended Chinese lessons. It means to play a trick with someone else. The use of this word is familiar with that of make fun in English. However, if you put those two words together, you must find that it is impossible to get this combination of words through in a usual thought. You can even find it becomes ridiculous. Actually, the authentic meaning of this phrase is quite different from what it looks like. It is used to describe some people who make a stupid or bad choice when facing an apparent and complain situation. Those kinds of people often been regarded as the one who has a problem in their head or owns lower intelligent quality. If you have a friend who always doing stupid thing or giving silly suggestions, you use this phrase “Xiu4 dou4” to describe his behavior. Lastly, do you want to gain more useful Chinese phrases? Go and surfer on our e learning Chinese website, where can also provide you a chance to learn Chinese free.
Dated back to thousand year time in the Chinese history, the culture of tea drinking had experienced a long period of evolving process and played an important role in the whole unity of Chinese classic culture. The first people who invited tea, the initial time of drinking the first cup of tea and even various kinds of cups and containers carried tea are recorded on the history book, which reserved the most precious wealth created by the Chinese ancestors and offered to the descendants nowadays by attending Chinese lessons. Tie3 guan1 yin1（铁观音）is classified on the top ten list of the Chinese most famous teas. In the Chinese language, the name of Tie3 guan1 yin1 hardly can be regarded as the name of a tea. From the literal form of this phrase, “Tie3”（铁）is the name of iron in Chinese and “Guan1 yin1”（观音）is the Goddess of Mercy in the God system of the Buddhism. When you combined those two words together, it is hard to access to its actual meaning of this phrase. This kind of tea is produced in the An1 xi1 county（安溪县）, where located in Fu2 jan4（福建）province. At the same time, this tea also widely spread in several regions in the northwestern China, including Guang3 dong3（广东） and Tai2 wan1（台湾）province. Tie3 guan1 yin1 is a moderate tea classified between green tea and black tea. It not only smells good when you added some hot waters, but also have a positive effect on the health protection of human beings like anti-aging, anti-cancer, reducing weight, keep vitality and so on. What’s more, the originality of this tea has a legend. Almost three hundred years ago, a farmer dreamed about a Goddess. Then, as the guidance of the Goddess, he found a beautiful leaf near the brook. The farmer brought several leafs to home and added some hot waters with those leafs. Surprisingly, he found this drink is tasty. Finally, this tea began to become popular among people. Lastly, more information of Chinese tea can be gained on our e-learning Chinese website.
There are various kinds of careers and jobs in the world, which include almost every corner of life. People in modern time tend to classify the work into different branches, including labor work and brain work. Furthermore, most of people nowadays prefer to undertake those kinds of brain work, which needs more professional knowledge of expertise instead of doing heavy manual labor. In China, thought the major tendency of career choosing is alike, but you can also find some people who willing to took their lifetime to execute an extremely heavy labor work. Tiao1 shan1 gong1（挑山工）, in the Chinese language, is a specific kind in this queue. When you refer to the name of “Tiao1 shan1 gong1”, the first impression popped up in my head should be dated back to the junior high school time, when I firstly learnt this strange name of an old profession in Chinese lessons. I remembered that this phrase was written in an essay in my Chinese text book. The name of the essay was “Tiao1 shan1 gong1”. In this article, the author described a group of industrious and tough workers who climbed the mountain to deliver necessary goods to the people lived in the summit of the Mount Tai4shan1（泰山）. The vivid image of those brave and firm workers really impressed me at that time. Almost two years ago, I graduated from the junior high school and toured to the Mount Tian4shan1, which was regarded as a great mountain located in Shan1dong1 province（山东省）, to see the authentic living status of “Tiao1 shan1 gong1”. During the process of climbing mountain, I could constantly see a skin tanned man loaded the foods and drinking waters in his basket and carrying them by a thick shoulder pole. His shirt had already become sweating. I don’t know how much he can get paid anyway, but I do believe that he likes what exactly his name-to carry the whole mountain. Lastly, you can visit our e-Chinese website to get more useful Chinese phrases and we will also offer you some free learning materials.http://qinghai.locanto.cn/ID_213536659/Tiao1-shan1-gong1-a-Special-Career-in-China.html
An old Chinese proverb said that people always highly emphasis on the food provides their life surviving.（民以食为天）Chinese people is often regarded as the fastidious food eater, who tremendously specialized on the delicious flavor and delicate look of a cuisine. Therefore, Chinese cuisine had been developed in a complete and complicate system during the long time in Chinese history. It turns out to present different cooking styles and various eating habits in different local area. If you have been attended on the Chinese lessons, you must realize that the culture of Chinese cuisine has played an important role in Chinese people’s life. When it refers to Chinese cuisine, Cheng2 du1（成都）is one of the most attractive places that you should not neglect among Chinese cities. Different from some metropolis in China, Cheng2du1 is a great place for living and touring. It not only contains rich natural landscapes, but owns so many delicacies, which can hit your appetite. Anyway, “Mao4 cai4”（冒菜）is one of the specialties in Cheng2 du1. Mao4 cai4, in the Chinese language, is interpreted as the vegetables spilled from the containers originally. However, this explanation can hardly match up with the authentic look of this unique cuisine. The vegetables used in making Mao4 cai4 is not barely one kind. Meanwhile, this unique course concludes both various kinds of fresh vegetables and different kinds of meats and seafood, which can satisfied both vegetarians and ordinary customers. During the process of making Mao4 cai4, Chiefs often use a big spoon made in bamboo to contain those materials, which selected by the customers automatically. Then, put the spoon into a hot pot contains hot soups until it done. Next, prepare a bowl to contain those done materials and pour into a spoon of nutritious soups, which stewed with some Chinese medicines. A sweet-smelling cuisine is presented in front of you. Lastly, if you want to learn more available Chinese cuisines, visit our e-learning Chinese website. You can also access to so many useful Chinese learning materials here.
Sport is one of the most essential parts in Chinese people’s life nowadays. In order to keeps body fitness, various kinds of sports’ form thriving between adolescents and adults, like basketball, football, badmintons and tennis ball. As the popularizing of the modern sport events, Chinese people constantly involved in different styles of sports activities in China. Accompanied with the rapid growth of the sport fever, some jargons in the sports circle widely spread among Chinese people. Hei1 shao4（黑哨）, in the Chinese language, is one of the symbolic phrases, which widely used in the Chinese society. Hei1 shao4 is a common phrase, which is applied in the sports circle in recent Chinese society. You must get confused if you interpret this phrase literally. From the superficial appearance of this phrase, “Hei1”（黑）is a color word that frequently used among Chinese people in daily life. At the same time, “Shao4” is a familiar Chinese word that represents the whistle used by the referees involved in the competitive matches. Therefore, this phrase apparently means a black whistle from the grammatical structure of the combination of these two Chinese words. However, things are going quite different. From the authorized explanation in the Chinese dictionary, Hei1 shao4 is described as a derogatory term under the specific context. It illustrates a type of bad referee who is intended to make wrong penalties or mislead the right direction of the competitive sports event for being bribed or being instigated. What’s more, there are lots of scandals related to the involvement of “Hei1 shao4” in the international sport matches. In the world cup of Korea and Japanese in 2002, one of the quarterfinals competed between the host Korea and Spain had aroused a big controversy at that time. The referee in that match was doubted by most of football funs for his apparently unfair whistle. Lastly, more useful phrases can be gained in our e-learning Chinese website and we can also offer you a chance to participate in the interesting online Chinese lessons.
One day, my online Chinese tutor told me that I should carefully use the word 黄色 because it has double meanings. Actually I was puzzled with his words. Then I checked on the Internet, and then found the answer from the Chinese dialogue website. The first meaning of 黄 (huánɡ)is yellow. For example, 黄河 means the yellow river. 黄山， the yellow mountain; 黄帝 (huánɡdì)， the legendary Yellow Emperor. The second meaning of 黄 is pornographic things, such as 黄色电影 (huánɡsèdiànyǐnɡ) means pornographic movies. 黄色书刊 (huánɡsèshūkān) means pornographic book. Do you know how did yellow come to mean pornographic? 1. There are four possible explanations as to why yellow color is associated with pornography. Orpiment (雌黃cíhuánɡ). Orpiment is a toxic orange-yellow mineral that is used as a pigment by ancient people. Due to poor bleaching technology, paper produced in the olden days was slightly yellow. When words on a paper need to be corrected, orpiment can be used to smear onto the written words, creating a layer of slightly opaque yellow close to the paper's colour, enabling a rewrite. Soon, people describe uttering nonsense as "信口雌黃xìnkǒucíhuánɡ". Subsequently, the yellow colour of orpiment and its toxicity is later extended to mean poisoning of the mind. 2. The Yellow Union. In 1887, in a city in France, a factory owner tried to prevent his workers from going on strike by bribing the Yellow Union. The workers discovered the betrayal and angrily smashed the windows of the union clubhouse. The union then used yellow paper backings as a replacement for the windows. Since then, the workers labelled these union people as "见不得人的黃色工会”, meaning a union that cannot face the public, similar to pornography. 3. The Yellow Book. In 1894, a British magazine named "The Yellow Book", gathered in a group of conservative collection of authors to produce quarterly literary periodicals that are thought to be scurrilous in content. Later, a prestigious Irish playwright, Oscar Wilde, was arrested on homosexuality charges. At the time of his arrest, Oscar was seen holding a yellow book (which turns out to be a French novel). People misidentified the material to be The Yellow Book and associated it with his personality. The next day people demonstrated in front of the publisher, and a furry of media reports soon cemented an association between yellow paperbacks and homosexual content. 4. The Yellow Kid. The end of the 19th century New York, New York World and New York Journal competed for readers intensely, posting vulgar comics content to which "The Yellow Kid" is one of them and is the origin for the term "yellow journalism". Since then, the colour yellow is associated with erotic and vulgar things. These are the several originations of the黄. So please use it properly when you want to use this word. For more information, please press elementary Chinese website.
For one month during my visit to Xian, I found there is a strange instrument. . It has a distinctively loud and high-pitched sound, and is used frequently in Chinese traditional music ensembles, particularly those that perform outdoors. But I didn’t know the name of the instrument, then I asked my old friend, who had been stayed in China for almost ten years long for help. He told me that it was special Chinese instrument in China called Suona. In order to find more information, I checked on the Chinese online lessons website. Actually, the suona or Chinese oboe, sometimes called a trumpet, is the loudest Chinese instrument, and as it is passionate and lively it frequently sets the rhythm and beat for a band. It is the musical mainstay at weddings, celebrations, parades and funerals. “The distinctively loud and high-pitched sound of suona was perfect for outdoor performances. It had been used for festival and military purposes and currently is widely used in traditional weddings and funerals in the countryside of North China. As the history of Suona that I learned from the Chinese dialogue website, the suona was originally introduced to China from Central Asia, developed from Central Asian instruments such as the “surnay” or “zurna,” from which its Chinese name probably derives. A musician playing an instrument very similar to a suona is shown in a drawing on a Silk Road religious monument in what is now the western Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, dating back to the third to fifth century AD. Suona was formerly made all of wood and it was used in military processions as bugles. People later used brass or copper to make the mouthpiece for a even louder and brighter sound. Unlike Western oboes which have keys to control the pitches, the two-octave suona has only eight holes, and they rely on the breath and fingers of a performer to control the pitches and tunes. But with such a simple structure, the instrument can vividly imitate the talking, singing or even Chinese opera singing of a human being. Mastering the suona is difficult and the eight-hole instrument has been called the “eight-eyed monkey” because like a monkey it is difficult to control. If you want to learn this kind of instrument, you’d better find a teacher to give you some instruction so that you can make great progresses. For more information, you can click out at the Chinese online website.http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_c24c50aa0101ie9u.html
I am going to study a kind of Chinese instrument recently, and then I asked my online Chinese tutor for his opinion. He said to me there is a very special instrument in China called Sanxian, which is easy to learn and had beautiful sound. Taking his advice, I decided to have a try. Then I first got some information from the Internet. The sanxian (三弦) is a Chinese lute — a three-stringed fretless plucked musical instrument. It has a long fingerboard, and the body is traditionally made from snakeskin stretched over a rounded rectangular resonator. It is made in several sizes for different purposes and in the late 20th century a four-stringed version was also developed. The sanxian has a dry, somewhat percussive tone and loud volume similar to the banjo. The larger sizes have a range of three octaves. It is primarily used as an accompanying instrument, as well as in ensembles and orchestras of traditional Chinese instruments, though solo pieces and concertos also exist. The sanxian is used in nanguan and Jiangnan sizhu ensembles, as well as many other folk and classical ensembles. As I learned from the Chinese online learning website, normally, Sanxian can be divided into two kinds, that is big Sanxian and small Sanxian. The northern sanxian (大三弦 )is generally larger, at about 122 cm in length, while southern versions of the instrument (小三弦 ) are usually about 95 cm in length. Traditionally the instrument is plucked with a thin, hard plectrum made from animal horn but today most players use a plastic plectrum (similar to a guitar pick) or, alternately, their fingernails. This use of fingers to pluck the instrument often shares technique with that of the pipa and is most commonly used in performance of sanxian arrangements of works traditionally written for the pipa. This allows for pipa techniques such as tremolo to be used. Other techniques for sanxian include the use of harmonics and hitting the skin of the instrument with the plectra or fingernail. As a traditional Chinese instrument, Sanxian still being played by many people and more and more people are fascinated with it. I believe, once you learned it, you will love it at once. For more information about the Sanxian, you can click out at the Chinese online lesson website. http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_c24c50aa0101ie9n.html
Living in Utah, Lisa finds it quite difficult to find places to practice speaking Chinese online, especially Cantonese. Apart from accosting people in stores and other public places when she happens to hear them speaking Chinese and bugging servers in Chinese restaurants, the only other Chinese she gets is to try and hone her (admittedly very poor) Mandarin with a couple of her coworkers. Then she asked me for help. Then I gave her such following answers. 1. Search online to try and find sites that provide language exchange, such as online Chinese language website. These are a good opportunity to have regular lessons and give at the same time as receiving. 2. 2. If you live close to a university you will find they have societies and other social groups which have a high number of overseas students such as "Chinese student friendship association" or something similar. Try and get connected with students via your local campus. There are plenty of students looking to share and make friends. 3. 3. Mobile: Wechat [微信] This is a little bit more a stretch for speaking, but great for connecting with Chinese. It's like whatsapp, but where you can find people in your area to connect with [look around feature searches for Chinese in the area]. Unlike whatsapp, the default communication method is Spoken. So you record Walkie-talkie like messages. If you come to Shanghai, you'll see people holding the phones to their mouths. 4. Attend Chinese community social activities. Tree planting, New Years celebrations whatever. 5. Try and find or organize meet-ups in your area. I know a friend who is learning at the moment and he catches up every Saturday morning with about 3 or 4 others. This was organized by putting up a couple of posters at local colleges that teaches different languages to adults. These are some parts of the method I can offer. There must be a lot of methods waiting for you to discover. If you want to learn Chinese online or just have the one-on-one online education, please check out at the elementary Chinese website.http://www.zimbio.com/member/learnchinese/articles/tmFJWNIZAHZ/practice+speaking+Chinese
When you refer to the culture of wine, different country represents their different characteristics. In the western world, the whisky in Scotland and the brandy in French is famous among so many countries. If you come to a bar and have a drink in New York, both of them must be the first choice of most people. Compared with those well-known wines in the western world, Mao2 tai2（茅台酒）, in the Chinese language, is regarded as the most famous liquors in China, which can match up with those foreign famous wines. In the Chinese history, the liquor culture can be dated back to the ancient times. It is said that Du4 Kang1（杜康）is a semi-legendary inventor of the Chinese liquor, who lived in the very era almost three thousand years before present. Since the first bottle of liquor appeared in Chinese people’s life, this delicious liquid had become an essential part in the daily life in China. Mao2tai2 is a specialty among various kinds of Chinese liquors and it produced in the Mao2tai2 town originally, where located in the Gui4 zhou1 province（贵州省）in China. At the same time, this unique Chinese liquor had also won the international medal prize for 15 times since 1915. The brand of Mao2 tai2 also dominates the liquor market in China and it has been listed as the exclusive provides in the state banquet. What’s more, the Mao2 tai2 liquor is made by qualified broomcorn and accompanied with some high-class wheat. The whole produce of making liquors is complicated and time-wasting. According to the initial habit of producing, all necessary materials are applied in the Chong2 Yang2 festival（重阳节）annually in order to take advantage of the suitable climate, pure waters and unique soil conditions in the producing area. If you want to learn more useful Chinese phrases, visit our e-Chinese website. We can also offer you a chance to learn Mandarin with the native teachers and free learning resources.
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