Even though I have a fairly high level of fluency in Mandarin Chinese, there are still numerous places in China where I can travel to and not be able to understand a word of what is being spoken by the locals. This map, posted at That’s Magazine, shows why. Image credit: @nick_kapur, via That’s Magazine Related Posts: Chinese […]
English Words Borrowed from Chinese
This is a pop quiz — what common English words are borrowed from Chinese? The answer may surprise you. How about kowtow, gung ho, and ketchup? Or typhoon. Or “long time no see.” Even though English is a language that compulsively borrows from other languages, we don’t have too many borrowed from English. A post […]
Today’s Reading Assignment– China in a Word
Have you ever wondered if there is one word that pretty much sums up Chinese society? It's a silly question, I know, but Eric Abrahamson has written a great piece on the Latitude Blog of the International Herald Tribune casting his vote for the word guan ( 管). Here's a taste of what he says: […]
“Live the Language” – a Great Beijing Video
Sitting in Minnesota, watching this short video of Beijing kind of makes me homesick! It was produced by Education First, a global study-abroad program. Click on the link and enjoy a tour of my adopted hometown. EF – Live The Language – Beijing from Albin Holmqvist on Vimeo. (HT: Yourenotfromaroundhere.com) Videos of other cities […]
Imagine Learning Chinese Without Pinyin
For those of you who are studying or have studied Chinese (in China at least), were it not for this man, Zhouo Youguang, you would be learning the language without the benefit of Pinyin.This is the guy who decided that the letter q would represent a ch sound, x an sh sound, and an i […]
Twinkling with Inheritance and Development Achievement
One of the big projects I’ve been working on the past few months is doing the English editing of some academic papers. Fortunately, most of them have been good translations, but every so often I find myself working on one that just hurts my brain. That was the case this past week, and it reminded […]
