Every language on Earth contains idiomatic expressions. Some idioms are specific expressions that pertain to customs of the culture correlated with the specific language, other idioms are universal and relate to the general development of moral fiber. Idioms (成语） are the most commonly used speech forms in Chinese. They are commonly used to describe situations, tell stories and are most essential in teaching young children proper manners and developing their understanding of the goings on of the world.
Starting now, to conclude each blog post I will leave you with a random idiomatic expression. Today I will start will a simple one...
千里之行始于足下 (qiān lǐ zhī xíng shǐ yú zú xià)
(The journey of 1000 li(0.5km) is started by taking the first step)
The meaning in essence is that every long journey has a simple but very necessary beginning... AN INITIAL ACTION. Regardless of planning, your plans are just plans until you initiate an action. If you have a long way to go, standing still won't get you there, you have to take the first step. Every road has a beginning.
Like many idioms, one can derive multiple meanings, regardless of how simple the translation can be. Just something to think about.
Until next time, my friends.
-Mike Redus
睿达思
Monday, March 30, 2009
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Learning Chinese: Resources - Wenlin 文林
Wenlin is Chinese learning software developed by Wenlin Institute, Inc. for the purpose of providing both Chinese learners and natives with dictionary and learning resources to expand their knowledge of language and culture. The feature that I find most useful is the dictionary. The dictionary result for each character contains its standard Pinyin, stroke order, and what is most interesting is that it contains the romanization for Cantonese pronunciation as well. Below is a list of all of Wenlin's other features taken from their official website.
Dictionary Interface
* High speed customizable and expandable Chinese dictionary
* Over ten thousand characters, over 200,000 words and phrases
* Instant "point to" vocabulary look-up
* Click access to essential vocabulary info
* Extensive character descriptions and cross-referencing
* Pictures of ancient and modern forms of Chinese characters
* Desktop access to important Chinese scholarship and literature
* Click access to all words that contain a character, including definitions, ordered by frequency of usage
* Character look-up by component, including groups that share components
* Fast automatic search access to huge selection of literature, for finding examples in context
* Character lists arranged by stroke-count and pronunciation
* Automatically updated listing
Text Editor
* Reads, writes, edits, and prints Chinese documents
* Supports Unicode format, the most widely recognized world standard, as well as GB, Big5, UTF-8 and HZ
* Built-in selection of Chinese literature, current new media included
* Word-wrap, undo, cut, copy, paste, search, and replace
* Unlimited document size
* Characters and words entered using phonetic conversion or handwriting recognition
* Instant dictionary integrated with text editor
* Combines simple and full form Chinese characters, pinyin, and English in one document
* Compatible with other Chinese language applications, pen/tablet tools
"Flashcards" System
* Automated drill and review
* Interactive testing, multiple-choice and composed-answer
* Scoring and tracking
* Dictionary access while memorizing vocabulary
* Simultaneous display of documents, definitions, lists, and flashcards
Learning
* Animated Stroke-By-Stroke Display
* Instant Handwriting Recognition
* Audio-CD quality studio recordings of all Mandarin syllables
If you are serious about studying Chinese, this is one of the most useful resources you can have. Try it out, it's definitely think its worth it.
Dictionary Interface
* High speed customizable and expandable Chinese dictionary
* Over ten thousand characters, over 200,000 words and phrases
* Instant "point to" vocabulary look-up
* Click access to essential vocabulary info
* Extensive character descriptions and cross-referencing
* Pictures of ancient and modern forms of Chinese characters
* Desktop access to important Chinese scholarship and literature
* Click access to all words that contain a character, including definitions, ordered by frequency of usage
* Character look-up by component, including groups that share components
* Fast automatic search access to huge selection of literature, for finding examples in context
* Character lists arranged by stroke-count and pronunciation
* Automatically updated listing
Text Editor
* Reads, writes, edits, and prints Chinese documents
* Supports Unicode format, the most widely recognized world standard, as well as GB, Big5, UTF-8 and HZ
* Built-in selection of Chinese literature, current new media included
* Word-wrap, undo, cut, copy, paste, search, and replace
* Unlimited document size
* Characters and words entered using phonetic conversion or handwriting recognition
* Instant dictionary integrated with text editor
* Combines simple and full form Chinese characters, pinyin, and English in one document
* Compatible with other Chinese language applications, pen/tablet tools
"Flashcards" System
* Automated drill and review
* Interactive testing, multiple-choice and composed-answer
* Scoring and tracking
* Dictionary access while memorizing vocabulary
* Simultaneous display of documents, definitions, lists, and flashcards
Learning
* Animated Stroke-By-Stroke Display
* Instant Handwriting Recognition
* Audio-CD quality studio recordings of all Mandarin syllables
If you are serious about studying Chinese, this is one of the most useful resources you can have. Try it out, it's definitely think its worth it.
Type Chinese Part 2: Typing in Chinese with Windows IME
Windows provides keyboard input methods for various languages including multiple types for Chinese. The main method is labeled "'CH' Chinese (PRC)". Just like with NJStar, this method uses standard Pinyin for entry with a QWERTY keyboard. This method of entry can be used with all standard Windows applications and text fields both on and offline.
To activate this feature access your toolbar (either through your control panel or taskbar) and enable the language bar. Once you've enabled the language bar, open the language bar settings and click "Add" to open a list of available languages for input in your OS. Find "Chinese (PRC)" add it, and you are good to go.
First and foremost, there is no dictionary (the software is only for input purposes), so you have to be completely sure that you are entering the correct characters. When you are entering characters you will see a broken underline beneath the words, that underline means that the current string that you are typing may be altered either at your discretion or as the program itself sees fit. To change characters that you have entered, hit the back arrow on your keyboard, that will bring up a list of possible entries for a word or phrase. To remove it and continue typing, hit the forward arrow. To begin a new string after entering a phrase that you have already entered as you desired, hit the spacebar twice. The broken underline will disappear and you can continue with a new phrase from there.
This input method is solid but takes some getting used to. Try it out, become familiar with it and master it. It's the most common and possibly the most useful input method available (it's also FREE!).
To activate this feature access your toolbar (either through your control panel or taskbar) and enable the language bar. Once you've enabled the language bar, open the language bar settings and click "Add" to open a list of available languages for input in your OS. Find "Chinese (PRC)" add it, and you are good to go.
First and foremost, there is no dictionary (the software is only for input purposes), so you have to be completely sure that you are entering the correct characters. When you are entering characters you will see a broken underline beneath the words, that underline means that the current string that you are typing may be altered either at your discretion or as the program itself sees fit. To change characters that you have entered, hit the back arrow on your keyboard, that will bring up a list of possible entries for a word or phrase. To remove it and continue typing, hit the forward arrow. To begin a new string after entering a phrase that you have already entered as you desired, hit the spacebar twice. The broken underline will disappear and you can continue with a new phrase from there.
This input method is solid but takes some getting used to. Try it out, become familiar with it and master it. It's the most common and possibly the most useful input method available (it's also FREE!).
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Type Chinese: Typing in Chinese with NJStar
Learning to type in Chinese (contrary to what most think) is incredibly simple, but if you don't use the right software it can be extremely difficult. Today I'm going to talk about my favorite word processor, one I believe every beginner should use; NJSTAR.
南极星（nán jí xīng）, or NJStar, is a company that creates word processing software for Asian languages. I like NJStar because of its many, very helpful features. Aside from the fact that it provides a simple word processing using Pinyin for input, it also contains a pop up dictionary. Move your cursor over a word or phrase, and definitions for that particular word or phrase appear next to it. It also has a decent English to Chinese dictionary. If you type out a word in English and select "Dictionary" from the "Tools" drop-down menu, you will get a list of equivalent terms in order of likely relevance. NJStar has multiple input methods from Standard and Online Pinyin, to CantonPinyin and other types of romanized input methods. This program is great for typing and editing essays and other documents, as well as learning to read text that you find online that is new to you. Copy and paste any text that you encounter on your computer into an NJStar document, and using NJStar's conversion tool, you can have Pinyin appear above or below each individual character. Aside from these useful figures, this program also comes with a list of some of the most commonly used idiomatic expressions. NJStar really has it all. The only downside to it is that its input features are limited to its word processing interface. If you want to type Chinese into text fields online or enter characters into documents in another program, you will either have to copy and paste from NJStar, or use another Chinese character input method (NJStar is actually just a word processor, NOT an input method).
NJStar is without a doubt my favorite word processor as well as one of the tools that I feel is most essential to my learning process. If you are new to learning Chinese, or are just looking for a decent word processing tool for an Asian language, make sure you obtain this program.
In my next post, I will talk about Windows IME, which provides an actual input method for entering Chinese characters in programs run on Windows OS. I hope this was helpful to you all. Again, thanks for reading.
-Mike Redus
睿达思
南极星（nán jí xīng）, or NJStar, is a company that creates word processing software for Asian languages. I like NJStar because of its many, very helpful features. Aside from the fact that it provides a simple word processing using Pinyin for input, it also contains a pop up dictionary. Move your cursor over a word or phrase, and definitions for that particular word or phrase appear next to it. It also has a decent English to Chinese dictionary. If you type out a word in English and select "Dictionary" from the "Tools" drop-down menu, you will get a list of equivalent terms in order of likely relevance. NJStar has multiple input methods from Standard and Online Pinyin, to CantonPinyin and other types of romanized input methods. This program is great for typing and editing essays and other documents, as well as learning to read text that you find online that is new to you. Copy and paste any text that you encounter on your computer into an NJStar document, and using NJStar's conversion tool, you can have Pinyin appear above or below each individual character. Aside from these useful figures, this program also comes with a list of some of the most commonly used idiomatic expressions. NJStar really has it all. The only downside to it is that its input features are limited to its word processing interface. If you want to type Chinese into text fields online or enter characters into documents in another program, you will either have to copy and paste from NJStar, or use another Chinese character input method (NJStar is actually just a word processor, NOT an input method).
NJStar is without a doubt my favorite word processor as well as one of the tools that I feel is most essential to my learning process. If you are new to learning Chinese, or are just looking for a decent word processing tool for an Asian language, make sure you obtain this program.
In my next post, I will talk about Windows IME, which provides an actual input method for entering Chinese characters in programs run on Windows OS. I hope this was helpful to you all. Again, thanks for reading.
-Mike Redus
睿达思
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Learning Chinese: 5 Tips for Character Memorization
Learning Chinese is hard and there are no shortcuts. But there are several tools and resources available for those who want to learn. Character writing was something that I really struggled with when I first started learning, especially having to memorize all those words. Below are 5 strategies that have been extremely helpful to me and I hope that they work for you as well.
1. Learn the most common radicals.
If you have taken a Chinese language course before then you know that most characters are composed of smaller, basic characters called 'radicals'. Radicals very commonly appear in other characters and act as components giving either sound or meaning to a more complicated character. Memorizing the most common, basic radicals will make your life easier when trying to remember both the meaning of a character AND how to write it. Doing so is a really good start to improving your memory of Chinese characters.
2. Follow the proper stroke order and direction.
Something that you may not realize is that the order and direction of each stroke is meant to build a bridge from one stroke to the next, creating a deliberate flow. Another important fact is that learning to write isn't all about memorization of images, it's about muscle memory as well. If you write often and keep the order, your body will remember the characters, you will eventually reach the point when your hand begins to write is the words come into your mind, without hesitation.
3. DON'T RELY ON PINYIN!
Once you have learned Pinyin well, it becomes an excellent tool to help you produce fluent and proper Chinese syllables and words, but don't use it for more than that. If you make a habit of reading using only Pinyin, or read with Pinyin too close to the characters, you will automatically be attracted to it. With Pinyin around, you will always be distracted from reading the actual words and you will eventually forget them.
4 and 5 go hand in hand: READ... and... WRITE... EVERYDAY, or as close to it as possible. "If you don't use it, you'll lose it" This saying holds true for every language, probably even more so for Chinese. Again, there are no shortcuts. READ READ READ WRITE WRITE WRITE until the new characters become a part of your being.
These ideas and practices have helped me greatly, now I seldom forget a character that I have encountered in detail. I hope these practices will help you as much as they helped me.
Again, thanks to all for reading.
祝
学业进步
-Mike Redus
睿达思
1. Learn the most common radicals.
If you have taken a Chinese language course before then you know that most characters are composed of smaller, basic characters called 'radicals'. Radicals very commonly appear in other characters and act as components giving either sound or meaning to a more complicated character. Memorizing the most common, basic radicals will make your life easier when trying to remember both the meaning of a character AND how to write it. Doing so is a really good start to improving your memory of Chinese characters.
2. Follow the proper stroke order and direction.
Something that you may not realize is that the order and direction of each stroke is meant to build a bridge from one stroke to the next, creating a deliberate flow. Another important fact is that learning to write isn't all about memorization of images, it's about muscle memory as well. If you write often and keep the order, your body will remember the characters, you will eventually reach the point when your hand begins to write is the words come into your mind, without hesitation.
3. DON'T RELY ON PINYIN!
Once you have learned Pinyin well, it becomes an excellent tool to help you produce fluent and proper Chinese syllables and words, but don't use it for more than that. If you make a habit of reading using only Pinyin, or read with Pinyin too close to the characters, you will automatically be attracted to it. With Pinyin around, you will always be distracted from reading the actual words and you will eventually forget them.
4 and 5 go hand in hand: READ... and... WRITE... EVERYDAY, or as close to it as possible. "If you don't use it, you'll lose it" This saying holds true for every language, probably even more so for Chinese. Again, there are no shortcuts. READ READ READ WRITE WRITE WRITE until the new characters become a part of your being.
These ideas and practices have helped me greatly, now I seldom forget a character that I have encountered in detail. I hope these practices will help you as much as they helped me.
Again, thanks to all for reading.
祝
学业进步
-Mike Redus
睿达思
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Announcements and Thanks.
Hello again, everyone. I offer my sincere apologies to subscribers and those who have been coming back to check up on my site in the last week. I have been busy with mid-terms and honors assignments for my Chinese class, so I haven't had time to blog or work on my site this week. But since I'm here now, I have some brief announcements to make:
1. I have received a lot of feedback from friends and other visitors of the site on material to blog about. From posting a "grammar tip of of the day" to posting romanization and translations for Chinese music, the ideas were numerous and I am considering them all. But before making too many decisions I want to thank all of those who gave their input. It is HIGHLY appreciated, in fact I must request that you all keep your ideas coming. This site isn't just for me, so I want to know what interests you all!
2. Within the next week, I will be creating what you could think of as a "Sister Site" geared towards Chinese music. Once a week I will choose one of my favorite songs from one of my favorite singers and post it along with my best translation, and the romanized lyrics as well (for you karaoke fans who want to learn songs but may not read Chinese). Later on, if time permits, I will set up another site where my visitors can make requests for lyrics romanizations for their favorite songs and I will also set up an archive where other videos can retrieve these lyrics. I am a big fan of Chinese music and I know I'm not the only one!
3. Back onto the topic of learning Chinese: I have decided what to write about in my next blog entry; "5 Tips to Help You Memorize Characters". There are 5 things that are essential to my memory of characters that I think will help all of you who study Chinese as well, find out what those things are tomorrow.
Thanks again for visiting, everyone! Until next time.
-Mike Redus
睿达思
1. I have received a lot of feedback from friends and other visitors of the site on material to blog about. From posting a "grammar tip of of the day" to posting romanization and translations for Chinese music, the ideas were numerous and I am considering them all. But before making too many decisions I want to thank all of those who gave their input. It is HIGHLY appreciated, in fact I must request that you all keep your ideas coming. This site isn't just for me, so I want to know what interests you all!
2. Within the next week, I will be creating what you could think of as a "Sister Site" geared towards Chinese music. Once a week I will choose one of my favorite songs from one of my favorite singers and post it along with my best translation, and the romanized lyrics as well (for you karaoke fans who want to learn songs but may not read Chinese). Later on, if time permits, I will set up another site where my visitors can make requests for lyrics romanizations for their favorite songs and I will also set up an archive where other videos can retrieve these lyrics. I am a big fan of Chinese music and I know I'm not the only one!
3. Back onto the topic of learning Chinese: I have decided what to write about in my next blog entry; "5 Tips to Help You Memorize Characters". There are 5 things that are essential to my memory of characters that I think will help all of you who study Chinese as well, find out what those things are tomorrow.
Thanks again for visiting, everyone! Until next time.
-Mike Redus
睿达思
Saturday, March 7, 2009
Learning Chinese: My Background
In a previous post I mentioned that I have been studying Chinese for eight years. That isn't quite accurate. I did have my first experience learning Chinese in a classroom setting about eight years ago, but I have not studied for eight full years, and I certainly do not have the proficiency level of someone who has.
I first studied Chinese during my sophomore year of high school, in a high school class. Why did I choose to study Chinese? The reason for that is rather simple; I was bored and needed a challenge. I had already gained (and lost) fluency in Spanish, I certainly didn't see a point in relearning a language that I knew I wouldn't use often enough to retain. At least with Chinese, I knew that even if I never used the language outside of class that it would be a new, interesting and challenging experience.
I studied Chinese during my sophomore and junior year, but stopped studying in my senior year because I needed to open my schedule to take some classes that were required for graduation. It wasn't until another year after graduation that I decided to go to college and begin studying Chinese again.
I during that period of time between my junior year of high school and first year of college, I did not learn or use any Chinese. Even the Chinese friends that I had at the time spoke Cantonese, not Mandarin, so when it came time to register for classes, I decided to enter a beginning Chinese class. At the time, I struggled with it, which showed me that I made the right decision. I studied City College of San Francisco's (CCSF) first year of Mandarin and was starting to feel good about it. However, some financial set-backs and family hardship kept me from continuing my education. I dropped out of school and it wasn't until spring of 2008 that I returned to school with the determination to study Chinese and complete my schooling with that as my major.
Again, during the period of time I did not use any Mandarin, but in the year and a half leading to my return to college, I began to pick up Cantonese from my friends. My level of vocabulary, knowledge of grammar and ability to identify and use proper intonation in Mandarin, far exceed those same skills in Cantonese. I am, however, far more comfortable speaking Cantonese as I often practice with friends, and my ability to speak with decent fluidity is greater when I speak Cantonese. Yes, I know it sounds strange, but that is truthfully my situation.
In summer 2008, I entered a competition called Hanyu Qiao (汉语桥), in which I competed in a proficiency competition against other Chinese language students around the world. As you can imagine, with my lack of experience, never having traveled to China to study abroad, or even exceeded 2 years of study in the US, I did NOT fair well. It was the most humbling experience of my life, but the most eye-opening and meaningful experience as well. I returned to the US with new acquaintances, new abilities and most importantly new goals.
My current goal is to improve my proficiency in the language, get accepted to a university in China and obtain the funding (through scholarship or grant) necessary to cover tuition.
On the way to achieving such goals, I reach out to others who share the same interest. I have started this blog to share my experiences and knowledge of learning Chinese at the basic level, in hopes that others who are just beginning to learn the language, or may be interested in learning the language, will come to my site and share their experiences as well. Within the next month, this blog will move to a new domain, onto a fully functional web page. For now, feel free to leave comments, suggestions or questions about anything as a direct comment to each post. I will respond as often as possible with a new post topic, or through email if you prefer.
That's a lot to read at one time about lil' ol' me, If you've made it this far, I appreciate and thank you for your interest. Hope to see you again.
Until next time...
-Mike Redus
睿达思
I first studied Chinese during my sophomore year of high school, in a high school class. Why did I choose to study Chinese? The reason for that is rather simple; I was bored and needed a challenge. I had already gained (and lost) fluency in Spanish, I certainly didn't see a point in relearning a language that I knew I wouldn't use often enough to retain. At least with Chinese, I knew that even if I never used the language outside of class that it would be a new, interesting and challenging experience.
I studied Chinese during my sophomore and junior year, but stopped studying in my senior year because I needed to open my schedule to take some classes that were required for graduation. It wasn't until another year after graduation that I decided to go to college and begin studying Chinese again.
I during that period of time between my junior year of high school and first year of college, I did not learn or use any Chinese. Even the Chinese friends that I had at the time spoke Cantonese, not Mandarin, so when it came time to register for classes, I decided to enter a beginning Chinese class. At the time, I struggled with it, which showed me that I made the right decision. I studied City College of San Francisco's (CCSF) first year of Mandarin and was starting to feel good about it. However, some financial set-backs and family hardship kept me from continuing my education. I dropped out of school and it wasn't until spring of 2008 that I returned to school with the determination to study Chinese and complete my schooling with that as my major.
Again, during the period of time I did not use any Mandarin, but in the year and a half leading to my return to college, I began to pick up Cantonese from my friends. My level of vocabulary, knowledge of grammar and ability to identify and use proper intonation in Mandarin, far exceed those same skills in Cantonese. I am, however, far more comfortable speaking Cantonese as I often practice with friends, and my ability to speak with decent fluidity is greater when I speak Cantonese. Yes, I know it sounds strange, but that is truthfully my situation.
In summer 2008, I entered a competition called Hanyu Qiao (汉语桥), in which I competed in a proficiency competition against other Chinese language students around the world. As you can imagine, with my lack of experience, never having traveled to China to study abroad, or even exceeded 2 years of study in the US, I did NOT fair well. It was the most humbling experience of my life, but the most eye-opening and meaningful experience as well. I returned to the US with new acquaintances, new abilities and most importantly new goals.
My current goal is to improve my proficiency in the language, get accepted to a university in China and obtain the funding (through scholarship or grant) necessary to cover tuition.
On the way to achieving such goals, I reach out to others who share the same interest. I have started this blog to share my experiences and knowledge of learning Chinese at the basic level, in hopes that others who are just beginning to learn the language, or may be interested in learning the language, will come to my site and share their experiences as well. Within the next month, this blog will move to a new domain, onto a fully functional web page. For now, feel free to leave comments, suggestions or questions about anything as a direct comment to each post. I will respond as often as possible with a new post topic, or through email if you prefer.
That's a lot to read at one time about lil' ol' me, If you've made it this far, I appreciate and thank you for your interest. Hope to see you again.
Until next time...
-Mike Redus
睿达思
Learning Chinese, Day by Day.
Hello all, and welcome to my blog! My name is Mike Redus. My Chinese name (a phonetic translation of my surname) is 睿达思 (ruì dá sī). I have been learning Mandarin Chinese off and on for about 8 years. Unfortunately the off periods far exceed the on. Over the last several months however, my Chinese has greatly and very quickly improved, and I learn something new every day. I decided to start a blog about my experiences and what I go through when learning and using this language in hopes that other people who are trying to learn Chinese will come by the site and bless me with their feedback, personal opinions and ideas. Learning Chinese is hard and doing it alone is virtually impossible. I want this site to be a friendly environment for those who are learning, or want to learn Chinese and have questions. Those who are too embarrassed to raise their hand to ask a questions in class, or those who don't have too many resources to find information or discuss related topics elsewhere. Those are the people I'm dedicating this site to, as I was once one of those people. I can't promise that I will update this blog everyday, as I am busy with my own studies, but I will do my best. Feel free to leave comments, questions, or email me directly. My knowledge of Chinese language, and the tools that help me continue to learn, can be just as much your possession as they are currently mine.
祝
学业进步
睿达思
二００九年三月七日
祝
学业进步
睿达思
二００九年三月七日
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