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Different ways on how you can express 'BUT' or 'HOWEVER' in Chinese

2012-02-20T03:55:00.000-08:00

但是 vs 可是 vs 然而 vs 不过
Dànshì vs kěshì vs rán'ér vs bùguò

Other than the formality of the tone of your expression, the differences in these words are very small.
但是-Nevertheless, but
可是 -but
然而 -but (the most formal uage of 'but or however', it is also 'yet')
不过-but (the most informal usage of 'but or however' in Mandarin Chinese)

They are used interchangeably at varying degrees.

Weishan County, Yunnan: 巍山古城 1/3

2012-02-18T20:50:00.000-08:00

Western part of the Yunnan Province in China, Weishan belongs to Dali, the Bai nationality Autonomous Prefecture. It is on the northern part of the subtropical zone, so it has a moderate climate (averagely around 15ºC). It has big stretches of meadow.

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Xianyang 咸阳 Documentary

2012-02-17T00:33:00.001-08:00

帝都咸阳 - 阳光之城 Xiányáng

Xian yang
About 28 kilometers north west of Xi'an, is where you can reach the provincial capital of Shaanxi, Xianyang. Xianyang city is very near to the Entombed Terra-cotta warriors and horses which are so famously known worldwide. The historic Wei He River next to a fertile village and countryside was what it used to be the cradle of the early Chinese civilization at dated back to 11th century BC til 10th century AD. Much to also mentioned the First China's Emperor Qin Shi Huang and his Mausoleum which is partially here.

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836 Million Speakers of Mandarin Chinese

2012-02-16T23:54:00.003-08:00

source wikipedia

836 Million Speakers of Mandarin Chinese!

This statistics always amaze me. I love how this is mapped out, not because Mandarin Chinese took a strong foothold but as the whole wide world, there are actually 836 million speakers.

It is logical to understand that to survive China, it is better to learn some Mandarin. Some survival kits included the most essentials such as toilet roll. I think it is good to bring a small note pad to jot down hotel names and addresses of places you want to go. If the place happened to be written only in Chinese, seek someone at the hotel to help you write it and just show it to the taxi driver or when you need to ask another local. It always help and in particular handy and useful!

To feel more at east at restaurants and eating places, first learn how to use the chopsticks. Another important thing you need to know is the basic numbers or at least how you can gesture the numbers with your hands and fingers. Negotiating when you buy things (they called it haggle) is a must or else you gonna be buying something marked up at least 200%. The way to go is to cut the price offered to you into half for the start, then walk away. The drama is of course to wait for them to ask you to return. They might be making faces showing their displeasure but that means you are sure to get it at a good price. Try it! Seeing is believing.

Video: Shopping places in Beijing China

Useful Travel Vocabulary

Some useful tips on bargaining in China while shopping is shown on this funny video.

Hangzhou, 杭州 - 净慈寺 Jìng císì (Chinese Temple)

2012-02-16T23:31:00.000-08:00

Originally uploaded by Raymeone

This is 净慈寺 Jìng císì, a Buddhist temple rather a national key temple which you can find it at Nanping Hill. It is one of the jewels (the other is Lingyin Temple). It has a long history dating back to AD 954 when it was built by Qian Hongji (钱弘俶) of Wuyue Dynasty. The highlight of this temple is the Ten Scenes of West Lake and also note the Evening Bell Ringing at the Nanping Hill, in chinese, 南屏晚钟. This reminds me of a song famously sang in the 1960s called 南屏晚钟. Here is the youtube video for your preview:

我匆匆地走入森林中
森林它一丛丛
我找不到他的行踪
只看到那树摇风

我匆匆地走在森林中
森林它一丛丛
我看不到他的行踪
只听到那南屏钟

南屏晚钟随风飘送
它好像是敲呀敲在我心坎中

南屏晚钟随风飘送
它好像是吹呀吹醒我相思梦

它吹醒了我的相思梦
相思有什么用
我走出了丛丛森林
又看到了夕阳红

China Travel Essentials: Vocabulary
旅游词汇 http://nihaohello.blogspot.com/2012/02/china-travel-essentials-vocabulary.html

China Travel Essentials - Vocabulary

2012-02-16T23:26:00.000-08:00

Useful Travel Vocabulary:

签证 Qiānzhèng = Visa

护照 Hùzhào = Passport

登记牌 Dēngjì pái = Boarding pass

First Names in Chinese

2012-02-16T22:35:00.000-08:00

Originally uploaded by zsoolt

The event was a Family Day for Amplifon, an Italian MNC with its HQ in Milan, Italy. This company, has a hungarian branch in Budapest and they are a world leader of hearing systems (hearing aids) and their fitting and personalization to the needs of clients with hearing impairment.

It was a cosy family day event, and I was there to teach their employees to write their first names in Chinese characters. Some of them even requested to write their entire family members names and they had a lot of fun and at the same time marveled at each strokes that made up their chinese name - therapeutic was how it was for them. The most rewarding were their smiles upon completion of their own names. They had this sense of satisfaction.

''I want to show this to my wife'' exclaimed Gilbert Ferraroli, MD for Continental Europe. Ms Daniela Pighini, Global Business Dev. Manager was lending her support while watching Gilbert wrote. Daniela said she will put her Chinese name in her office. She said she likes how it appear in Chinese characters and she even learned on the spot how to pronounce her own name in Mandarin.

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Basic Skills - Using Chopsticks

2012-02-05T06:42:00.000-08:00

The pair of sticks is maneuvered in one hand – between the thumb and fingers – and used to pick up pieces of food. The Mandarin Chinese word for chopsticks is kuàizi 筷子. 筷 is a semantic-phonetic (xíngshēng) compound with a phonetic part of "快", which means quick, and a semantic part, 竹, meaning bamboo. Many rules of etiquette govern the proper conduct of the use of chopsticks. Held between the thumb and fingers of one hand, chopsticks are used tong-like to pick up portions of food, which are prepared and brought to the table in small and convenient pieces.

Chinese etiquette
In Chinese culture, it is normal to hold the rice bowl up to one's mouth and use chopsticks to push rice directly into the mouth. If rice is served on a plate, as is more common in the West, it is acceptable and more practical to eat it with a spoon or fork.
*It is acceptable to transfer food to closely related people (e.g. grandparents, parents, spouse, children, or significant others) if they are having difficulty picking up the food. Also it is a sign of respect to pass food to the elderly first before the dinner starts. It is impolite to spear food with a chopstick and/or play with the chopsticks.
*It is rude to use the chopstick to dig for food in the common dish.
Chopsticks should not be left sticking (pointing up) on the rice because it symbolizes "feeding" the dead and death in general.
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两只老虎 Two Tigers

2012-01-27T16:47:00.000-08:00

儿歌两只老虎



liǎng
两zhī
只lǎo hǔ
老虎 
，liǎng
两zhī
只lǎo hǔ
老虎
pǎo
跑de
得kuài
快 
，pǎo
跑de
得kuài
快
yī
一zhī
只méi yǒu
没有ěr duo
耳朵
yī
一zhī
只méi yǒu
没有wěi ba
尾巴
zhēn
真qí guài
奇怪 
，zhēn
真qí guài
奇怪

Two tigers 
Two tigers, two tigers
running so fast, running so fast 
one has no ears,one has no tail 
How strange!How strange!

Sing to the tune of Are you sleeping, Brother John

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Year of the Dragon 龙年行大运

2012-01-22T08:10:00.000-08:00

Year of the Dragon 龙年行大运

Qinghai Lake 青海湖 Qīnghǎi Hú

2012-01-14T07:09:00.001-08:00

China's largest lake is the Qinghai Lake 青海湖 Qīnghǎi Hú.
This can be an upper-intermediate level listening task, click on the video and find out more about the Qinghai Lake.
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Tianjin 天津

2012-01-11T23:20:00.001-08:00

Originally uploaded by BK HAN

Traveling in Tianjin 天津 Tiānjīn includes seeing the China House and 80 year old Jingyuan Garden with both European and Chinese architectural styles. If you like heritage sites and historical sights, Tianjin has much to offer including the Porcelain House built with four thousand pieces of ancient porcelain. This building has 400 pieces of jade carvings and twenty tonnes of crystals. Also, there are millions of pieces of ancient Chinese ceramics that made up this former residence of Zhang Xuelian, a Chinese patriotic hero.

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Dragon Whiskers 龙须糖

2012-01-11T02:58:00.000-08:00

龙须糖 is a candy that children or adults must try! :)

The candy is made by boiling partially solidified sugar or a plain saturated and maltose solution until it just reaches the stage and then leaving it to chill. The resulting solid, which is elastic, is formed into a torus and then repeatedly pulling and folded over, tripling the number of strands after each repetition. While the candy is being folded it is kept covered in toasted glutinous flour, in order to keep the strands from sticking together.

The finished beard is cut up into small pieces and usually then wrapped around crushed peanuts.
The candy is better and fresher to be eaten immediately.

Four Beauties of ancient China 四大美人：西施

2012-01-09T11:08:00.000-08:00

杨贵妃，王昭君，貂蝉，西施

Yáng guìfēi, wáng zhāojūn, diāochán, xīshī.

A tongue twister relating to 西施 XiShi:
西施死時四十四，
四十四時西施死。

XīShī sǐ shí sì shí sì,
sì shí sì shí XīShī sǐ.

It means Xishi died at (the age of) forty-four, at (age) forty-four Xishi died.
Xi Shi (西施, Pinyin: Xī Shī, c. 506 BC ) was one of the renowned Four Beauties of ancient China. She was said to have lived during the end of Spring and Autumn Period in Zhuji, the capital of the ancient State of Yue.

西施 Xi Shi's beauty was said to be so extreme that while leaning over a balcony to look at the fish in the pond, the fish would be so dazzled that they forgot to swim and gradually sunk away from the surface, birds would forget to fly and fall from the sky, the moon would fade, and flowers would close their petals in shame in comparison to her. This description serves as an idiom

沉鱼落雁，闭月羞花
(pinyin; chényú luòyàn, bìyuè xiūhuā)

which is used to compliment someone's beauty.

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NihaoHello 柬埔寨 - Cambodia

2012-01-09T05:16:00.000-08:00

NihaoHello Travel Feature: 柬埔寨 - Cambodia

柬埔寨 Cambodia
Jiǎnpǔzhài

金边 Phnom Penh
Jīnbiān

暹粒市 Siem Reap Province
Xiān lì shì

吴哥 Angkor
Wú gē

Writing Chinese 'Want' 要 yào

2011-12-21T07:31:00.000-08:00

9 Strokes

Practice writing it.

This is one of the commonly used characters, good if you can recognise and pronounce it.

Write in Chinese: 'Want' 要 yào

For Intermediate level, try to construct some sentences or even questions related to this chinese character,

Email it to nihaojodee@gmail.com

and NihaoHello will help you to check it :)

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春 - Paper Cutting 剪纸, jiǎn zhǐ SPRING FESTIVAL

2011-12-10T10:48:00.000-08:00

There are a number of distinct uses for the paper cut outs in Chinese culture, almost all of which are for health, prosperity or decorative purposes. Where it is different compared to other cultural style is the extensive use of red. Also it has a heavy emphasis on single or a few Chinese characters often symbolizing the festivity. This paper cutting symbol is SPRING, in chinese 春 and when it is inverted, it means春倒 which has the similar sounding as 'arrived' pronounced in pinyin 'chūn dào'

If you want to learnt more about the Chinese New Year or Spring Festival, click here for more.

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万圣夜=Halloween

2011-10-31T07:41:00.000-07:00

在每年的10月31日，是西方世界的传统节日，主要流行于北美、不列颠群岛、澳大利亚和新西兰。当晚小孩会穿上化妆服，戴上面具，挨家挨户收集榶果。

榶果＝ candy

tángguǒ

面具 = mask

miàn jù

化妆服 = costumes

huà zhuāng fú

万圣夜 = halloween

wàn shèng yè

Halloween is an annual holiday celebrated on October 31. It has roots in the Celtic festival of Samhain and the Christian holy day of All Saints. The day is often associated with the colors black and orange, and is strongly associated with symbols like the jack-o'-lantern. Halloween activities include trick-or-treating, wearing costumes and attending costume parties, ghost tours, bonfires, visiting haunted attractions, pranks, telling scary stories, and watching horror films.

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Guilin 桂林 Guìlín, China

2011-10-03T07:06:00.000-07:00

Guilin

Guilin 桂林 Guìlín is in the northeast of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region of far southern China, sitting on the west bank of the Li River.
The meaning of its name is "forest of Sweet Osmanthus", due to the large number of fragrant Sweet Osmanthus trees located in the city. The city has long been renowned for its unique scenery.

As for Yangshuo County 阳朔县 Yángshuò Xiàn is a popular place for backpacking. It is a county in Guilin, Guangxi Province, China.
Surrounded by karst peaks and bordered on one side by the Li River (漓江) it is easily accessible by bus or by boat from nearby Guilin.

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China Climate: 5 Temperate Zones

2011-09-30T04:45:00.001-07:00

Originally uploaded by zsoolt

China being such a big country has temperature that varies greatly. Monsoon activities as well as its latitude influence the way its winter acts on its environment. Easily Mohe in Heilongjiang can be averagely in minus 30 deg Celsius! Sanya on the other hand is comfortably above 20ºC. Some parts are too hot such as Xinjiang which is 32ºC on the average.

Cold-Temperate Zone: north part of Heilongjiang Province and Inner Mongolia (Representative city: Harbin)
Mid-Temperate Zone: Jilin, northern Xinjiang, and most of Heilongjiang, Liaoning, and Inner Mongolia (Representative cities: Beijing, Shenyang, Dalian, Urumqi, Hohhot, Dunhuang, Lanzhou)
Warm-Temperate Zone: area of the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River, Shandong, Shanxi, Shaanxi, and Hebei Province (Representative cities: Xian, Taiyuan, Luoyang, Jinan, Qingdao, Zhengzhou)
Subtropical Zone: South of isotherm of Qinling Mountain-Huaihe River, east of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (Representative cities: Shanghai, Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Macau, Guilin, Hangzhou, Suzhou, Kunming, Dali, Lijiang, Chengdu)
Tropical Zone: Hainan province, southern Taiwan, Guangdong, and Yunnan Province (Representative cities: Haikou, Sanya)

Plateau Climate Zone: Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (Representative city: Lhasa)

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Nine and the Double Ninth Festival 重阳节 Chóngyáng jié

2011-09-29T14:33:00.000-07:00

Significant to numerologists because the number 9 is associated with noble qualities such as forgiveness, compassion and success and ignoble qualities such as arrogance and self-righteousness. The Chinese kind of like the number nine too.
Nine and the Double Ninth Festival 重阳节 Chóngyáng jié is a chinese traditional festival celebrated on the 5th of October 2011 (Gregorian calendar). It is known as the 'double ninth' because the Chinese follows the Chinese lunar calendar's ninth day of the ninth month.

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About Us

2011-09-28T12:32:00.000-07:00

About NihaoHello

NihaoHello is Budapest-based with aims to cater to Europeans' growing interest to learn Mandarin Chinese. We specialize in tutoring English speakers to speak essential but confident Mandarin Chinese which learners can put to use as soon as he/she arrives to a Mandarin speaking region.

Raising Cultural Consciousness
We aim to raise cultural consciousness, meaningful exchange, contextualized input, intrinsic motivation, communicative competence, and integration of language skills. We have a unique view about
enhancing an interactive learning process with an increase in cultural consciousness. We believe that a language is more than just words and sentences, but is embedded within culture. Culture should not be
shared simply as an appendage to language, but language should be shared through culture.

Increased Competency in Cross-Cultural Communication
Our goal is to make your journey of language attainment meaningful.

We strongly feel that Mandarin Chinese acquiring should have long lasting effects and be relevant to YOUR lives.

We consistently meet our clients’ objectives through our ability to customize and fine-tune the lesson plans with flexibility. Furthermore, our flexibility gives our clients the best opportunity to acquire Mandarin Chinese in the shortest time possible.

We provide tuition either at your home or office and we can work around your time constraints, providing a plan that meets with your timeline.

We provide Mandarin Chinese tuition for both absolute beginners and also for those who may already have a basic or advanced understanding of the language. Whichever is the level, we do our best to respond quickly to all your requests by providing a tutoring service that is both effective and fun.

CONTACT US

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Living in Shanghai: The Chinese Language

2011-09-28T12:06:00.000-07:00

Living in China, Learn the Chinese Language Basics (Recommended)

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Mid-Autumn Festival 中秋节

2011-09-12T05:45:00.000-07:00

中秋节 falls on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month of the Chinese calendar (usually around mid- or late-September in the Gregorian calendar). This year, it is celebrated on the 12th September 2011. It is a date that parallels the Autumn and Spring Equinoxes of the solar calendar. The traditional food of this festival is the mooncake.

Farmers celebrate the end of the summer harvesting season on this date. Traditionally, on this day, Chinese family members and friends will gather to admire the bright mid-autumn harvest moon, and eat moon cakes and pomeloes together. Accompanying the celebration, there are additional cultural or regional customs, such as: Eating moon cakes outside under the moon, carrying brightly lit lanterns, lighting lanterns on towers, floating sky lanterns.

Other activities also include planting Mid-Autumn trees, collecting dandelion leaves and distributing them evenly among family members and watching fire Dragon Dances.

Mooncakes are chinese pastry traditionally eaten during the Mid-Autumn Festival.
Typical mooncakes are round or rectangular pastries, measuring about 10 cm in diameter and 4-5 cm thick. A thick filling usually made from lotus seed paste is surrounded by a relatively thin (2-3 mm) crust and may contain yolks from salted duck eggs. Mooncakes are rich, heavy, and dense compared with most Western cakes and pastries. They are usually eaten in small wedges accompanied by Chinese tea.

Here's a video to share with you of the process of how mooncakes are made, enjoy watching with a cup of Chinese tea :)

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斋月= Ramadan Zhāi yuè

2011-08-06T16:53:00.001-07:00

Originally uploaded by Souvik_Prometure

斋月= Ramadan
Zhāi yuè

又译拉玛丹月，是伊斯兰历第九个月，该月名字意为“禁月”，本月是穆斯林斋月，是十二个月中最神圣者，这个月是真主安拉Allah将古兰经Quran下降给穆罕默德圣人的月份，并且古兰经里明言规定此月符合条件之穆斯林必须守斋戒，从日出到日落都停止一切饮食、性事等活动，日落后即可进食恢复正常作息，直到晨礼(日出)前都能吃喝，晨礼唤拜一起便又进入斋戒状态。

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nihaohello

Different ways on how you can express 'BUT' or 'HOWEVER' in Chinese

Weishan County, Yunnan: 巍山古城 1/3

Xianyang 咸阳 Documentary

836 Million Speakers of Mandarin Chinese

Hangzhou, 杭州 - 净慈寺 Jìng císì (Chinese Temple)

China Travel Essentials - Vocabulary

First Names in Chinese

Basic Skills - Using Chopsticks

两只老虎 Two Tigers

儿歌 两只老虎

Year of the Dragon 龙年行大运

Qinghai Lake 青海湖 Qīnghǎi Hú

Tianjin 天津

Dragon Whiskers 龙须糖

Four Beauties of ancient China 四大美人：西施

NihaoHello 柬埔寨 - Cambodia

Writing Chinese 'Want' 要 yào

春 - Paper Cutting 剪纸, jiǎn zhǐ SPRING FESTIVAL

万圣夜=Halloween

Guilin 桂林 Guìlín, China

China Climate: 5 Temperate Zones

Nine and the Double Ninth Festival 重阳节 Chóngyáng jié

About Us

Living in Shanghai: The Chinese Language

Mid-Autumn Festival 中秋节

斋月= Ramadan Zhāi yuè

儿歌两只老虎