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coloring with Ohuhu markers!

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today's vocabulary : 洗衣粉 [xǐ yī fěn]

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today's vocabulary : 守株待兔 [shǒu zhū dài tù]

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15 grammar points (语法点) I wish I learned sooner

At my current level of Chinese, my biggest struggle is 词不达意 (cíbùdáyì, literally words don't convey meaning). It means poorly expressed or inarticulate. Basically, I know enough to convey my message but am often unable to do so succinctly and articulately.

Today I'm sharing 15 words/expressions that I feel really boost my ability to express myself articulately. I use them all the time and wish I had known them sooner. I hope they will be of use to you too!

(1) 万一 | 萬一 wànyī - just in case / if by any chance / contingency Ex: 万一我来不了，你就替我出席。

(2) 甚至 shènzhì - even / so much so that Ex: 他忙得甚至连吃饭时间都没有。

(3) 到底 dàodǐ - finally / in the end / when all is said and done / after all / to the end / to the last Ex: 他到底想要什么？ Ex: 我们一定要坚持到底，不能半途而废。

(4) 要不 yàobù - otherwise / or else / how about...? Ex: 快点起床了，要不就会迟到了。 Ex: 要不我们先坐下再想想办法吧。

(5) 而已 éryǐ - that's all / nothing more Ex: 我开玩笑而已，何必那么认真？

(6) 既然 jìrán - since / as / this being the case Ex: 你既然不想参加这次聚会，那就别去了。

(7) 除非 chúfēi - only if (..., or otherwise, ...) / only when / only in the case that / unless Ex: 除非大家都去，否则我不去。 Ex: 除非你去邀请，他才愿意出席。

(8) 处于 | 處於 chǔyú - to be in (some state, position, or condition) Ex: 病人的状况一直不稳定，还处于危险中。

(9) 通过 | 通過 tōngguò - by means of / through / via Ex: 很多人都想要通过看中剧提高中文水平。 Ex: 通过爸爸的帮助，我克服了害怕和紧张。

(10) 尤其 yóuqí - especially / particularly Ex: 为了完成这份工作，大家都很努力，尤其是她。

(11) 其中 qízhōng - among / in / included among these Ex: 我们班有十个学生，其中女生占百分之六十。

(12) 剩下 shèngxià - to remain / left over Ex: 放学后，同学都走光了，只剩下他一个人在教室里。

(13) 到…为止 | 到…為止 dào...wéizhǐ - until / up to Ex: 今天的讨论到此为止。 Ex: 到目前为止，这项活动只有十个人报名参加。

(14) 意味着 | 意味著 yìwèizhe - to mean / to imply Ex: 树叶开始凋落，意味着冬天的到来。

(15) 隔 gé - after or at an interval of Ex: 每隔十分钟开出一列火车。 Ex: 我们们每隔一天上一次中文课。

Happy Halloween tomorrow! 🎃👻🐈‍⬛

See similar posts: 20 measure words (量词) I wish I learned sooner 7 intermediate/advanced Chinese grammar fundamentals

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tibetan fashion by 人猿泰山

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精益求精 jing1 yi4 qiu2 jing1 to perfect something that is already outstanding, constantly improving 

精：完美；益：更加

已经很好了，还力求做的更好。指对学问、技艺的追求很高，没有止境。 「已經很好了，還力求做得更好。指對學問、技藝的追求很高，沒有止境。」

【例句】白求恩同志以医疗为职业，对技术精益求精，是个真正为人民服务的好医生。 「白求恩同志以醫療為職業，對技術精益求精，是個真正為人民服務的好醫生。」

适可而止 「適可而止」 shi4 ke3 er2 zhi3 to stop before going too far, to stop while one can, don’t overdo it

适可：刚好可以 「適可：剛好可以」

刚刚好就可以了，不要做过分的事情。 「剛剛好就可以了，不要做過分的事情。」

【例句】批评人要适可而止，既要讲清道理，又不要挫伤其积极性。 「批評人要適可而止，既要講清道理，又不要挫傷其積極性。」

翻天覆地 fan1 tian1 fu4 di4 sky and the earth turning upside down, complete confusion, everything turned on its head

翻：翻过来 「翻：翻過來」

把天和地都翻转过来。形容变化巨大、彻底。也形容事情闹得很凶。 「把天和地都翻轉過來。形容變化巨大、徹底。也形容事情鬧得很兇。」

【例句】我国实行改革开放以来，无论是乡村还是城市，都发生了翻天覆地的变化。 「我國實行改革開放以來，無論是鄉村還是城市，都發生了翻天覆地的變化。」

了如指掌 liao3 ru2 zhi3 zhang3 to know something like the back of one’s hand, to know (a person, place, etc.) inside out

瞭：瞭解，明白；指掌：指着手掌 

指着自己的手掌给人看。比喻对情况十分了解。 「指著自己的手掌給人看。比喻對情況十分瞭解。」 

【例句】什么地方什么条件下可以找到什么样的美登木，植物学家了如指掌。 「什麼地方什麼條件下可以找到什麼樣的美登木，植物學家瞭如指掌。」

variations: 了若指掌、【繁体字：瞭如指掌、瞭若指掌】

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🧑‍🔬🧑‍🔬🧪🧪 Chemical elements (化学元素) 🥼🥼⚗️⚗️

I have learned something amazing which is that the Chinese word for sodium (Na) is … 钠 (nà)! If only they all matched like that!!

Ex: 低钠酱油 (dī nà jiàng yóu) - low sodium soy sauce

Sometimes you may see the word 卤 (鹵/滷，lǔ, halogen or salt) used to describe dishes or sauces, such as 卤肉饭 (lǔ ròu fàn, braised pork rice), 打卤面 (dǎ lǔ miàn, noodles with thick gravy), 卤虾油 (lǔ xiā yóu, shrimp sauce).

Here is the first three rows of the periodic table!

Hydrogen (H) - 氢 (qīng)

Helium (He) - 氦 (hài)

Lithium (Li) - 锂 (lǐ)

Beryllium (Be) - 铍 (pí)

Boron (B) - 硼 (péng)

Carbon (C) - 碳 (tàn)

Nitrogen (N) - 氮 (dàn)

Oxygen (O) - 氧 (yǎng)

Fluorine (F) - 氟 (fú)

Neon (Ne) - 氖 (nǎi)

Sodium (Na) - 钠 (nà)

Magnesium (Mg) - 镁 (měi)

Aluminum (Al) - 铝 (lǚ)

Silicon (Si) - 硅 (guī)

Phosphorus (P) - 磷 (lín)

Sulfur (S) - 硫 (líu)

Chlorine (Cl) - 氯 (lǜ)

Argon (Ar) - 氩 (yà)

And a few more useful ones:

Iron (Fe) - 铁 (tiě)

Gold (Au) - 金 (jīn)

Silver (Ag) - 银 (yín)

Examples:

地铁 (dì tiě) - subway; short for (地下铁道, “underground iron path”)

金银 (jīn yín) - gold and silver, can be used to refer to ancient currency

穿金戴银 (chuān jīn dài yín) - to be dressed in gold (clothes) and silver (ornamentation) (idiom)

Radical practice

Notice how all of the above (except gold) have a radical based on 金 (钅, metal, gold), 气 (air, gas), or 石 (stone). Makes sense based on each element right? ;)

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How To Romanticise Language Learning

TL = Target Language

Buy a new folder, highlighters and journal all in a specific colour for your TL

Find a drama/series to fall in love with

Create music playlists for different moods (e.g. aggressive rap/upbeat pop/sad songs/old classics)

Cook a traditional meal from the country of your TL

Make a summary sheet of some big historical event that shaped the country of your TL

Learn about the traditional dress (and colour significance) from your TL country

Compose a song in your TL

Research into famous art from your TL country (e.g. Japanese Irezumi) and try to recreate it in a sketchbook

Find a classic tale written in your TL (e.g. War and Peace in Russian)

Make an aesthetic Pinterest board that summarises your TL

Research into classic architecture built in your TL country

Designate a special area to study your TL (and make that area minimalist/pretty)

Make an aesthetic Pinterest board about travelling to your TL country

Write a poem in your TL

Write a short story in your TL

Keep a diary in your TL

Find a favourite YouTube channel in your TL

Write up a list of reasons why you're learning this TL and pin it up on the wall (read whenever you need motivation!)

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In 1949, General Chiang Kai-shek moved his Nationalist Party, the Kuomintang (KMT), to the island and established the Republic of China there. Ever since, the People’s Republic of China has seen Taiwan as its ideological enemy, an irritating reminder that not all Chinese wish to be united under the leadership of the Communist Party.

Sometimes Chinese pressure on Taiwan has been military, involving the issuing of threats or the launching of missiles. But in recent years, China has combined those threats and missiles with other forms of pressure, escalating what the Taiwanese call “cognitive warfare”: not just propaganda but an attempt to create a mindset of surrender. This combined military, economic, political, and information attack should by now be familiar, because we have just watched it play out in Eastern Europe. Before 2014, Russia had hoped to conquer Ukraine without firing a shot, simply by convincing Ukrainians that their state was too corrupt and incompetent to survive. Now it is Beijing that seeks conquest without a full-scale military operation, in this case by convincing the Taiwanese that their democracy is fatally flawed, that their allies will desert them, that there is no such thing as a “Taiwanese” identity.

Taiwanese government officials and civic leaders are well aware that Ukraine is a precedent in a variety of ways. During a recent trip to Taiwan’s capital, Taipei, I was told again and again that the Russian invasion of Ukraine was a harbinger, a warning. Although Taiwan and Ukraine have no geographic, cultural, or historical links, the two countries are now connected by the power of analogy. Taiwanese Foreign Minister Joseph Wu told me that the Russian invasion of Ukraine makes people in Taiwan and around the world think, “Wow, an authoritarian is initiating a war against a peace-loving country; could there be another one? And when they look around, they see Taiwan.”

But there is another similarity. So powerful were the Russian narratives about Ukraine that many in Europe and America believed them. Russia’s depiction of Ukraine as a divided nation of uncertain loyalties convinced many, prior to February, that Ukrainians would not fight back. Chinese propaganda narratives about Taiwan are also powerful, and Chinese influence on the island is both very real and very divisive. Most people on the island speak Mandarin, the dominant language in the People’s Republic, and many still have ties of family, business, and cultural nostalgia to the mainland, however much they reject the Communist Party. But just as Western observers failed to understand how seriously the Ukrainians were preparing—psychologically as well as militarily—to defend themselves, we haven’t been watching as Taiwan has begun to change too.

Although the Taiwanese are regularly said to be too complacent, too closely connected to the People’s Republic, not all Taiwanese even have any personal links to the mainland. Many descend from families that arrived on the island long before 1949, and speak languages other than Mandarin. More to the point, large numbers of Taiwanese, whatever their background, feel no more nostalgia for mainland China than Ukrainians feel for the Soviet Union. The KMT’s main political opponent, the Democratic Progressive Party, is now the usual political home for those who don’t identify as anything except Taiwanese. But whether they are KMT or DPP supporters (the Taiwanese say “blue” or “green”), whether they participate in angry online debates or energetic rallies, the overwhelming majority now oppose the old “one country, two systems” proposal for reunification. Especially since the repression of the Hong Kong democracy demonstrations, millions of the island’s inhabitants understand that the Chinese war on their society is not something that might happen in the future but is something that is already well under way.

Like the Ukrainians, the Taiwanese now find themselves on the front line of the conflict between democracy and autocracy. They, too, are being forced to invent strategies of resistance. What happens there will eventually happen elsewhere: China’s leaders are already seeking to expand their influence around the world, including inside democracies. The tactics that the Taiwanese are developing to fight Chinese cognitive warfare, economic pressure, and political manipulation will eventually be needed in other countries too.

  —  China’s War Against Taiwan Has Already Started

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Is he/she your type? 他/她是你的菜嗎? tā/tā shì nǐ de cài ma? 菜 cài = dish. used for both male/female. It's fine to say 這個人是我的菜 zhè ge rén shì wǒ de cài (lit. this person is my dish.)

Of course 菜 also means 蔬菜 shū cài = vegetables. On an unrelated note: 校花/班花 xiào huā/bān huā = the pretties girl in the school / a class. 校草/班草 xiào cǎo/bān cǎo= most good-looking boy in the school / a class. 班 bān here refers to a classroom (班級 bān jí), because students in Taiwan are assigned to one "room" and it's the teachers who come and go between classes. Hence, the "class" here does not refer to the grade (ie Class of 2022) but X年Y班 = (the Y 班 of the X grade).

there is also the concept of 班對 bān duì = two mutually pining idiots in the same 班. Because many schools forbid frown upon students being in romantic relationships. But if you hear xiào duì, chances are they are talking about 校隊 = the varsity team (lit. school team)--- not two mutually pining idiots in the same school.... On another truly unrelated note: Don't confuse 班 (class) with 斑 (spot)!

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different type of 素食 sùshí

If you see these words on products....

全素 quán sù -- vegan

奶素 nǎi sù -- this product is vegetarian but has milk/ dairy

蛋素 dàn sù -- this product is vegetarian but has egg

蛋奶素 (奶蛋素) dàn nǎi sù -- this product is vegetarian but has both milk and egg

五辛素 wǔ xīn sù -- *tricky one* this product is vegetarian but has one or more of the following veggies: onion/ chives/ green onion/ garlic/ shallot/ leek.

蔬食 shū shí -- uses production line that also processes non-vegetarian products.

say you encounter someone who is vegetarian,you can ask 你吃蛋嗎 (Nǐ chī dàn ma)? Please you don't ask 你吃蛋素嗎 (Nǐ chī dàn sù ma)? It is also okay to say 我吃全素 (wǒ chī quán sù) to indicate that you are vegan. It's not common to say 我是全素者wǒ shì quán sù zhě (lit. I'm vegan) or 我是素食者 wǒ shì sùshí zhě (I'm a vegetarian)

宗教素 zōngjiào sù On the surface, this means the person is vegetarian for religious reason, but it also means that he does not eat 五辛 = the five pungent vegetables mentioned above.

蔬食餐廳 shū shí cān tīng= a meat-free, plant-base restaurant (which includes 五辛)

齋 zhāi this also mean vegetarian, but it's not use in daily conversation and it carries a religious connotation. 吃齋 means they eat a vegetarian diet.

初一十五 chū yī shí wǔ = the 1st/15th day of a lunar month, when some people choose to eat vegetarian meals on that day.

早齋 zǎo zhāi this means vegetarian in the morning. (齋 does mean fast, but 早齋 doesn't mean to fast in the morning....)

opposite of 素 is 葷 hūn. People who aren't vegetarian will not go around identifying themselves as 葷食者. This word is used to indicate something isn't vegetarian. (ie. 這是葷的 zhè shì hūn de).

On the other hand, there are...

植物肉 zhí wù ròu (lit. plant meat) the likes of...beyond meat and such.

新豬肉 xīn zhū ròu (lit. new pork) a brand of plant meat, Omnipork.

G肉 this indicates the "chicken" is...vegetarian chicken, because 雞Jī sounds like G...

素肉 sù ròu (vegetarian meat) typically gluten or soy meat, the more traditional kind.

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on winter and longing

Sarah Kay, Natalie Diaz, Craig Keenan, Clarice Lispector, Mahmoud Darwish, Brittany Cossette, Franz Kafka, Edvard Munch, Richard Siken, Haruki Murakami, Holly Warburton, Mahmoud Darwish

buy me a coffee

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Haruki Murakami - Killing Commendatore (2017)

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the giant steps into 1q84

a commission i did for a lovely person on twt

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Yoyo中文 – 学校

From Yoyo Chinese Upper Intermediate Conversational Level 1 Unit 6, part 1.

So this is actually only part of one level in Yoyo but it's a lot of info so I'm making a separate lesson here just for the schooling system, since I may want to reference this specific vocab later.

小学 Elementary School

Grades 1-6: 一年级，二年级，六年级...

中学 Middle School

初中 Middle School // Grades 7-9: 初一，初二，初三 (or 七年级...)

高中 High School // Grades 10-12: 高一，高二，高三 (or 十年级...)

大学 College/University

Grades: 大一，大二，大三，大四

These can suffixes:

生 to make it a student of that grade (e.g. 小学生，初中生)

毕业 to indicate graduation (e.g. 高中毕业，大学毕业)

Pinyin & Traditional characters below:

小学（-學）/ xiao xué / elementary school

中学（-學）/ zhōng xué / middle school

初中 / chū zhōng / middle school

高中 / gāo zhōng / high school

大学（-學） / dà xué / college or university

毕业 (畢業) / bì yè / graduation

级 (級) / jí / level, grade, rank

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新系列！

大家好。今天我要开始新的词汇帖子系列。由于我有社交媒体副修，我觉得这个系列最好的注意。第一个社交媒体APP是 instagram. 我搜索instagram的汉语名字可是他们也用 ’instagram’。（有的人说 “ins” 还是“有关‘ins’ 可是我不知道。

forgive my grammar, it is the bane of my chinese learning existence. anyways, not everything is an exact translate right, for example “私人影集” is like, private collection, not exactly the word “archive” so just things to note! i plan to try to translate the majority of the app, if anyone wants to use instagram in chinese and would like to know what the words mean instead of muscle memory, or just adding extra vocab cause why not! if anyone has requests or recommendations let me know (that is my actual instagram btw you can message me on here or on there). 

also, im in the process of editing my videos from china last summer (i stayed in suzhou), is anyone interested in those? lmk hasta luego muchacha latas 

再见！

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I Left My Heart In...

You may be living in the present day, but you left your heart in a different time. Choose from 16 different ages in multiple t-shirt sizes and colors.

sulc.us/ileft

Design by David Orr