literalchinese

[literalchinese]

Ivory - 象牙

I Chinese ivory is written as 象牙 (pinyin: xiàngyá)

This is a combination of 象, elephant, and 牙, tooth.

This word could also be interpreted as that you can take the tooth without killing the elephant.

[literalchinese]

Teacher - 老师

Teacher in Mandarin is 老师 (pinyin: lǎoshī)

These two characters mean:

老: old

师: expert or master

So literally, a teacher is an old expert or master.

[literalchinese]

Student - 学生

The Mandarin word for student is 学生.

This is made up out of two characters:

学: learn, study or imitate

生: raw or green

So literally, student means someone that’s studies and is still raw or green.

Beginners mind?

[literalchinese]

Hong Kong - 香港

In Chinese the city of Hong Kong is written like this: 香港 (pinyin: Xiānggǎng)

These two characters mean:

香: spice

港: port

So literally Hong Kong in Chinese means spice port.

[literalchinese]

Chinese language - 汉语

One of the ways to write Chinese (language) is the following:

汉语

Which is made up out of 2 characters:

汉 which means Han dynasty

语 which means language

So the Chinese language is literally the language of the Han dynasty.