Family Relationship Names in Chinese

I stumbled across this fantastic site this morning that details, in a lovely clear table, all of the family relationship names in Chinese such as mother, uncle on the father's side, older sister etc. It includes formal and informal names in both Mandarin and Cantonese and shows the characters and pinyin. Amazingly, it goes through the generations from great-great-grandparents right down to great-great-grandchildren!

Here is the link for the detailed table. You will also see links under the heading near the top of the detailed table page that lead you to an introduction page and a page that has a diagram in English of a family tree. These are worth reading as they explain a bit of how the information is organised and how to easily use it.

I hope you find this handy!!

Flash Cards for Lesson 4

Thought it was about time I made the effort to keep uploading more sets of flashcards. I have actually had them all made for months but I don't have the translation bit done on all of them and it is time consuming to get the pinyin with the tones above the letters. Please keep in mind that the translation comes from my teachers who are native Chinese speakers and have lived there for many years. They may not be exact dictionary definitions or I may only have one meaning for a word that can actually mean a number of things. These books are aimed at children (but can still be used by adults) so some definitions are simplified and could be considered 'kiddy language'.

Click on the link below to see my flash cards.

Flash Cards for Lesson 4

If you notice any mistakes or have any suggestions, feel free to comment!

333 Hanzi In A Day

The other day I stumbled across this great e-book for learning Chinese characters (hanzi). I found it while I was browsing through scribd and managed to fine the main website which had the e-book for free and a heap of other resources.

http://www.kanji-sudoku.com/

Now, when you go to the website, you will fine a heap of stuff for learning Japanese Kanji. Don't worry, you are at the right place! Most Japanese Kanji is based off Chinese characters (hanzi) and therefore, there is a large set of characters that look identical in both languages. In many cases, the meaning is also the same but I'm pretty sure the pronunciation is always different between the languages.

Pretty much everything you will want is found in the lists of links on each side of the homepage, specifically the right hand side which contains all the links for the actual downloads. The list of links on the left seems to mainly be links to pages with information on the given topic and doesn't contain the link you need to download. As this page is made primarily for Japanese Kanji, you will see that there is not too much for Chinese but what they do have seems fantastic.

You will find:

• 333 Hanzi In A Day e-book
• Chinese sudoku using numbers 1-9 in the form they are written for legal/financial documents
• 12x12 sudoku using the Chinese Zodiac characters
• Hanzi Crossword Puzzle

These are all really useful ways to practice your basic characters. I haven't tried them out yet but after having a read through the e-book, I thought it looked very practical and really made sense learning characters that were so similar. I found even in just a few minutes of looking at some characters, it really aided my memorisation of their meaning and construction.

Flash Cards for Lesson 3

I'm on a roll tonight! Here's the flash cards for lesson 3. Just click on the link below and away you go!

Flash Cards for Lesson 3

If you want to know more about these flash cards, just take a look back through my posts (see links below) for previous flash cards and a little more info on what they are for and how to use them.

Flash Cards for Lesson 1 Post

Flash Cards for Lesson 2 Post

Flash Cards for Lesson 2

It's been ages since I've been on here. I've still been busy learning Mandarin...although this has had a setback over the last few months. My teacher had to go back to China for a few weeks and we had a new teacher who really put me off learning Mandarin. She stressed me out so much I didn't even want to look at any of my work. My normal teacher was meant to be back for this term however, so I was looking forward to that and was trying to motivate myself to catch up and get prepared over the holidays.

Well...my normal teacher never came back!!! :-( I'm partially annoyed and sad but our new teacher (still the same teacher I didn't like from last term) at least goes through our textbook more thoroughly (although nowhere near what she should) so I guess I am partially learning better. If only she would slow down and write the characters neater on the board so we can actually copy them down. On the plus side, we have new adult students in the class so she is focusing on them more and leaving me in peace. lol I feel so sorry for them though. She is going through stuff way too fast for them and they are so confused.

Anyway, I've decided that I can't always choose my teacher or have one that I really like so I will have to do the best with what I've got right now and just be thankful that I even have this opportunity to learn Chinese. I'm going to make the most of what I've got right now.

Ok, on to the real topic of this post. Here's the second set of flash cards for lesson 2. Just click on the link below.

Flash Cards for Lesson 2

Again, they follow the same format of the flash cards for lesson 1. Simply print them out, write the translation and pinyin on the back, laminate them if you wish, and then practice. :-)

Arch Chinese - Pinyin Syllable Table

This is an amazing website for learning Chinese. Most of it is free but to get the full use of it's functions, you need to subscribe. I have found however, that I have all I need in the free functions and it has been a big help with my learning.

Today I'll tell you about the Chinese Pinyin Syllable Table. It is a complete list of all pinyin syllables used in standard Mandarin. It gives you every possible pronunciation you will ever need to speak standard Mandarin. You can click on each syllable to hear it's pronunciation, view all characters with each pronunciation in each tone, and also view each character's definition. You can also click on each character and you will go to a page that gives you further info on the stroke order, radicals used, and definition. It is simply fantastic and an invaluable tool.

I am currently using the table to remind me of pronunciation because I often forget it after I go home from class. I have flash cards for all the words I have learnt so far and I simply look at the flash card and then click on the corresponding pinyin syllable and choose the correct tone. I make sure I do this without checking my flashcard first to try and memorize the pinyin for each character. After I find the syllable I think is correct, I then choose to view the characters that have that pronunciation and see if the one I am looking for is in the list. It seems quite a simple task but it really helps me to memorize the correct pinyin and even the meaning of characters.

Go here to check it out: Arch Chinese

Flash Cards for Lesson 1

Ok. So maybe sometimes I have a little too much time on my hands but I was given a sheet with flashcards for lesson 1 when I first started and I hurried home, cut them out and laminated them. Since then, I've made flashcards that match these original ones exactly and have done this for every lesson in the book.

The flashcards are very simple. They have the Chinese character on one side and on the back, it is blank. On the back of mine, I write (in pencil so it doesn't show through) the English translation, the pinyin, and then if it is hard or unusual to pronounce, the pronunciation. I get this info from my teacher. It is not found in the book which is why I recommend you find someone who speaks Chinese (a native speaker is best) to help you if you use these books.

Here's the flash cards for Lesson 1 including their translation. Just click on the link below and you can print them out for yourself. Hope you find them helpful!

Flash Cards for Lesson 1

My Textbook

This is the textbook I am using in class. It is the first book in a series of 12. As far as I know, each textbook comes with 2 workbooks to practice what you are learning. We usually do 1 lesson each week (there are 12 lessons in the first book) and I've found that if you do your homework, it's not too hard to keep up. You do need a Chinese person to translate for you though. Each word you learn has the Chinese character, pinyin and a picture. There is no English translation for the words in the books.

This series of textbooks is printed in China specifically for students from other countries.

The textbook teaches reading and writing characters as well as giving the pinyin pronunciation. I'm not totally sure what the title of the book is called but I found an American website that sells it by typing 'zhongwen chinese textbook' into google. The website is http://www.ccdcus.com/id75.html if you're interested.

I guess, from the design, the books are aimed at children, but I find them fantastic even as an adult because they are not too complicated and quite clear. I find that learning to write the characters really helps me to remember them so I can read them and recognise them in amongst Chinese text.