Hanbridge Mandarin Chinese Online Learning

If this is not the first time you ever heard of Dragon Boat Festival, you will not be surprised by the fact that during this festival people rushed to supermarkets to buy some glutinous rice wrapped by bamboo leaves, which is called “粽子 zongzi” in Chinese. So today, in order to clear your prejudice and help you know better about this traditional holiday, I will list the most important Chinese phrases about it for you. 1. 端午节 - duānwǔ Jié (Dragon Boat Festival) Chinese people celebrate the Dragon Boat Festival, also called the Duanwu Festival or Double Fifth Festival, on the fifth day of the fifth month according to the Chinese lunar calendar. For example: A：nǐ zhī dào duān wǔ jié shì shén me shí hou mɑ? 你知道端午节是什么时候吗？ Do you know when is the Duanwu Festival? B: zhī dào, duān wǔ jié shì měi nián de nónɡ lì yuè hào. 知道, 端午节是每年的农历5月5号. Yes, Dragon Boat Festival is the May Fifth of lunar calendar. A: nà nǐ dǎ suɑn qù nǎ lǐ ɡuò duān wǔ jié ？ 那你打算去哪里过端午节？ Where do you plan to sp...

This year 2017, the Spring Festival falls on Saturday, Jan. 28th. However, generally Chinese people only get 7 days off. Chinese family members away from home would come back home to celebrate the most important festival. Food is the cornerstone of the celebrations. When mentioning Chinese new year food, what would first come into your mind? In this article, we will introduce the most common Chinese New Year food includes dumplings, fish, tang yuan, spring rolls, and niangao. 1. Dumplings 饺子 jiǎo zǐ The Chinese dumpling becomes quite popular all over the world. According to historical records, it was very popular to eat dumplings at midnight on Chinese New Year's Day in ancient times, not only in North China, but also in South China. Maybe it's because rice is becoming popular, very few people in Southern China ate dumplings in Chinese New year. Having dumplings together expresses people's hope for a year of plent. 饺 consist of 饣and 交, radical 饣means food, 交 means 交...

The Chinese New Year is nearly upon us. It's popularly known as Spring Festival, which is the biggest and the most significant holiday for Chinese people. It's a time for families to be together. The Chinese zodiac follows a 12-year cycle with an animal representing each year. The year that you are born determines your animal sign. This New Year is a year of the Monkey, which is regarded as a good year for innovation and improvisation. Below are everything that you need to know about the Chinese New Year. The Origin of Chinese New Year How Do Chinese People Celebrate Chinese New Year How to say Happy New Year in Chinese Popular Chinese New Year Greetings Chinese Food during Chinese New Year Chinese Red Envelopes Chinese's New Year Gift-Giving Guide Taboos During Chinese New Year The Origin of Chinese New Year The Chinese meaning of this festival is Guo Nian ., nian is the Chinese word for Year, literally means passing the year. The origin of the Chinese New Ye...

The Chinese character system is one of the oldest writing systems in the world. More than just communicative, it records the developmental history of Chinese culture. Chinese lifestyle and worldviews are expressed deeply in the way of making and combining a Chinese word. Chinese characters are ideograms, and composed of a square block of strokes. There are six basic strokes of Chinese characters. They are the horizontal stroke "一" (heng 横) , the vertical stroke (shu 竖) , the left-falling stroke (pie 撇) , the right-falling stroke (na 捺) , the dot (dian 点) and the rising stroke (ti 提). Here are some basic rules of Chinese character writing. 1. From top to bottom Take 二 (two) as an example, it is written with the top stroke first and then the lower stroke. This rule also can be used in other characters, such as 古，the top is 十，and the bottom is 口. 2. From left to right The character 好（good）is firstly written the left part 女，and then the right part 子。Other characters...

Look at the picture above. You will find that simplified Chinese and traditional Chinese characters are relative. If there are more than two Chinese characters forms of one word, then the one with more strokes form, we call it traditional characters, the less strokes one is simplified characters. There are many debates about traditional and simplified Chinese in recent year. What is the difference between traditional and simplified Chinese? And which one is better to learn? Keep reading and you will find your answer. Difference between traditional and simplified Chinese Traditional Chinese: Traditional Chinese refers to Chinese characters that does not contain newly created characters or character substitutions performed after 1946. Where are traditional Chinese characters used: Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau. Advantage: The traditional Chinese, most of them are hieroglyphic. It conveys more significant than simplified Chinese. Here are some examples: 爱 ài (love) : As we saw i...

As a Mandarin teacher, students frequently ask me: “If I want to learn Chinese characters to be able to live conveniently in China, how many characters is enough?” Unfortunately, there is no accurate way to count how many Chinese characters one should know. However, depending on how one counts variants, 50,000+ is a good approximation for the current total number. It is generally accepted that one needs to know between 2,000 to 3,500 characters for basic literacy in Chinese (for example, to read a Chinese newspaper), while a well-educated person should know well in excess of 4,000 to 5,000 characters. Don’t be scared by the numbers; if you know a few thousand, you’ll be just fine. Here, I list the most frequently used Chinese characters that can help you survive in China. 1. Verbs to know: 是 shì to be 开 kāi open/hold 在 zài to be in/at/on 用 yòng use 有 yǒu have/there is 会 huì can/to meet; meeting 要 yào want/will/need 见 jiàn to meet 来 lái come 出 chū go out/come out...

Chinese pinyin is divided into initial and final, it is a set of signals for pronunciation system, should not be regarded as separate letters. Initial shēng mǔ 声母 In total 21 Financial yùn mǔ 韵母 If you have trouble with characters, you can use some free tool and make it into pinyin. 1. You can use online tool , such as: http://pinyin.supfree.net/ Input any Chinese characters, and click change. It will be Chinese pinyin accordingly. 2. You can also download some tools . Even you don’t have internet, you can change Chinese characters to pinyin if you download the tool. To read the story with Chinese pinyin. 老(lǎo) 师(shī) 说(shuō): 在(zài) 这(zhè) 有(yǒu) 两(liǎnɡ) 只(zhī) 鸟(niǎo) 一(yì) 只(zhī) 是(shì) 麻(má) 雀(què) 一(yì) 只(zhī) 是(shì) 燕(yàn) 子(zi) 谁(shuí) 能(nénɡ) 告(ɡào) 诉(su) 我(wǒ) 那(nà) 只(zhǐ) 是(shì) 燕(yàn) 子(zi) 那(nà) 只(zhǐ) 是(shì) 麻(má) 雀(què) 学(xué) 生(shenɡ) 说(shuō): 我(wǒ) 不(bù) 能(nénɡ) 直(zhí) 接(jiē) 指(zhǐ) 出(chū) 他(tā) 们(men) 但(dàn) 是(shì) 我(wǒ) 知(zhī) 道(dào) 答(dá) ...

Learn how to count numbers in Chinese is very necessary for living in China. Although the whole world is using the Arabic numerals, you still need to learn how to read them in Chinese, and how to write them in Chinese characters. 1. Number’s Chart in Chinese Character (from 0 to 10) Number Chinese character Pinyin English 0 零 línɡ zero 1       一 yī one 2 二 èr two 3 三 sān three 4    四 sì four 5    五 wǔ five 6    六 liù six 7    七 qī seven 8    八 bā eight 9    九 jiǔ nine 10    十 shí ten Pay attention to number 1 and number 2, the pronunciation of these two numbers are a bit special in Chinese, when 1 exits in tel-phone numbers or address numbers, we prefer to say " yāo " instead of " yī ", number 2 is a bit complicated, when we do the count, the number 2 is always read as " èr ", when it occurs with a measure word...

Chinese Characters 汉字 may seem, at first glance, an unorganized jumble of pen strokes, but in fact, each character has one or more components and each component contributes to the character. Although the total Chinese characters number in the tens of thousands, all characters are constructed from about 600 components in varying combinations. When you learn a character, it will be helpful if you pay close attention to components rather than look at the character as an isolated, haphazard collection of strokes. First, we will introduce Chinese symbol for love . When you pay close attention to Chinese character for Love , you will notice a heart right in the middle of it! Amazing, isn't it? Also, it is very easy to pronounce. It sounds like the English word "I" or "eye". If you are interested in Chinese Phonetics course, you can try our free Chinese Phonetics online lesson . When you see the above picture, you might find Love written resembling Simplified ...

Except for the photographic characters that originated from carved symbols, other characters have a radical or are themselves radicals. In the most widely accepted table of radicals, there are 214. A radical is used in front of another character to tell something about the meaning of the word symbolized by the particular character, such as whether it is made of metal, is tall, etc. For example, 女 is the character for woman. It is also the radical for many female things: 姐姐 for elder sister, 妈妈 for mom, etc. Western culture talks about four elements (earth, air, fire, and water). The Chinese named five elements: metal, wood, water, fire, and earth. Symbolized by characters, each can serve as an independent radical with at least one form. Today, we are going to see these and their variations. According to the Chinese traditional medicine and philosophy, the five elements are the fundamental components of the universe. 1. 金 jīn “gold” The character above is the radical for gold and...

Chinese characters are the last of the ancient (Egyptian and Sumerian being the others) character forms to stay in use until present day. Based on pictographs, Chinese characters combine shapes and connotations to form unique, block-shaped characters that carry meaning. Archaeological researchers discovered many such signs carved on earthenware excavated from Banpo Village in Xi'an City and Jiangzhai Village in Lintong. The etchings were carved during the Yangshao Culture Period some 6,000 years ago. Several examples of early characters and their modern successors follow below: Some of the most sophisticated and intricate early characters are represented on tortoise shells and animal bones that date from the Shang Dynasty (17th-11th century BC). These characters closely resemble the item they describe. The history of Chinese characters is long and rich. While the modern Chinese character list top 60,000, only about 3,000 are commonly used – making learning to read Ch...

What is your name? This is the first question when we meet someone for the first time. Learning to introduce yourself in Chinese is an important first step to learning Chinese . If you know how to write your name in Chinese, it would be even better. Many common foreign names have a corresponding translation in Chinese. We can choose the Chinese pronunciation which is usually quite similar to the original one. For example, if your name is "MARY", you want the authentic Chinese name for this, how could you say it? The Chinese translation for MARY is "mǎ lì" which is with the third and the last tone in Chinese. Of course, this is only written in Pinyin, the Chinese pronunciation. If we use Chinese characters to write this, that is, "玛丽" As another example, if your name is "JACK", then in Chinese pinyin, we translate this and to read it as "jié kè" with the second and the last tone, while the Chinese character is "杰克". Of c...

Chinese characters developed from pictographs which were formed in a regular way with a certain number of components that are comparable to the 26 letters in the English alphabet. However, these components are different from the letters in the English alphabet in that. The components are much larger in number, about 300 in which over 100 are in common use; The components are not arranged in a horizontal line but in the upper-lower, left-right, inside-outside and other forms; The components are combined in a logical or meaningful way. Structurally Chinese characters can be classified into two kinds: one-component characters and compound characters . The first kind can be further categorized into pictograms and indicative characters, and the second kind, into associative characters and picto-phonograms. The compound characters are composed of non-component characters or components evolved from them, and the two kinds generally constitute the radicals. Therefore, radicals can b...

Chinese calligraphy, 书法shū fǎ in Chinese, has been considered the quintessence of Chinese culture because it is an art that encompasses Chinese language, history, philosophy, and aesthetics. The term’s literal translation, “the way of writing” (shū: ”writing” and fǎ: “way” “method” or “standard”), identifies the core of the art, which has close bonds with Chinese written signs, on the one hand, and painting. If you want to know more about Chinese culture, learning Chinese calligraphy is a good way. If you want to learn Chinese calligraphy you should start by learning first and foremost the regular style. The Chinese say the study of calligraphy is like learning to walk. Regular learning style is learning to stand. Learn Current style is like learning to walk. And practicing the style of the grass is like running. Before starting the learning calligraphy, you should prepare the four precious articles of the writing table: Brush（máo bǐ毛笔）、tusche（máo bǐ黑墨）、rice paper(xuān zhǐ 宣纸)、In...

Normally we use input software to type Chinese characters which is researched and developed from 1980. It’s started from single character input to double words input and then a sentence input. There are many input software nowadays and two ways of them are well known, one is by Chinese pinyin, the other is by Chinese character strokes. 1. Type Chinese characters by Pinyin on PC and mobile phone This method is for those people good at Chinese pinyin. Mobile phone and pc share the same way of pinyin input. Most of the people would like to use this way. For those who know how to pronounce Chinese characters is very easy to learn how to type by pinyin. For example, if you want to type 我爱中文, you can type in pinyin “wǒ ài zhōng wén”, it will be Chinese characters accordingly. Don't know pinyin but want to try this method? Here to learn Chinese pinyin . 2. Type Chinese characters by stroke on PC We usually call it “Wubi” input. It is a typical fractal code input method. This is...