Chinese song-小(little) 草(grass)
I am so excited to introduce this Spring song 小(little) 草(grass) to you. Learning Chinese through songs is fun!
小(little) 草(grass) is the overture, interlude and ending theme of the musical "Heart of Grass", which was released in 1985. In 1984, the song won the first prize for opera music composition from the Ministry of Culture of the State Council of China.
It’s beautiful and meaningful. Check it out here.
006 Beginner Chinese characters:明 日 是 四 月 四 日
In lesson 6, we talked about the first two ways in which the Chinese created characters : 象(xiang) 形(xing)-pictograph and 會(hui) 意(yi)-compound ideograph. Then we read sentences in han zi (Chinese characters). Last, we talked about how to play memory cards game to practice han zi (Chinese characters). Here is the lesson 6 video. Here is the memory cards game tutorial.
005 Beginner Chinese characters-是(shì-correct, is,am, are, was, were), 不(bù-no,not)
In lesson five, we learned a poem from the Ming Dynasty of China-明(ming) 日(ri) 歌(ge). We also learned two new han zi (Chinese characters)是(shì-correct, is,am, are, was, were), 不(bù-no,not). Their evolutions were related with sun and gardening. Here is the video. Here is the worksheet.
How to use Quizlet to learn Chinese characters?
Here is a tutorial of how to use Quizlet to learn Chinese characters?
How to play the Chinese characters spin game？
Let the spin wheel help you learn Chinese characters in a fun way. Here is the link.
004 Beginner Chinese characters: 明, 明日, 三明治(sandwich)
In lesson four, we talked about two ways of how Chinese people created Chinese characters: 象(xiang) 形(xing)- pictograph and 會(hui) 意(yi)-compound ideograph. We also talked about the Quizlet.
Here is the study set on quizlet.com.
Here is the tutorial of how to use Quizlet to practice Chinese characters online.
003 Beginner Chinese Characters lesson 3: 四(four)
In lesson three, we first reviewed the Han zi (Chinese characters) we have learnt:
日(sun)
月(moon)
〇(0)
一(1)
二(2)
三(3)
一月(January)
二月(February)
三月(March)
一月一日(January 1st)
二月二日(February 2nd)
三月一日(March 1st), etc.
Then we talked about :
How the number four 四(sì) was created?
How to say April fool’s day in Mandarin?
Why 愚(yú-stupid, fool) was related to monkey and heart?
At last, we we reviewed all the Chinese characters and vocabulary we had learned by playing a wheel-spinning game.
Here is also a tutorial video of How to play the Chinese character spin game
002 Beginner Chinese characters lesson 2:三(sān-three)
In lesson two, we first reviewed the Han zi (Chinese characters) from lesson one. Then we talked about how the number three 三(sān) was created. Why 三(sān-three) was related to Yin and Yang. What the connection between Chinese numbers and months? How to say January, February and March in Chinese? Here is the lesson two worksheet.
001 Beginner Chinese characters lesson 1: 日(sun), 月(moon), 〇(zero), 一 (one), 二 (two)
Gradually, other Chinese people also applied such pictures when they wanted to express the sun. Later, people felt that it was a waste of time to draw so many sun beams, so they simplified it into a circle with a glow dot in the middle, like this.
Next, the Chinese continued to improve the way of drawing the sun. The pictorial nature gradually weakened and the symbolic nature gradually increased. Finally, it became the modern Chinese character, whose pronunciation is ri.
Long, long ago, there was a Chinese family who saw the moon in the sky rising and setting every day, and changing every month.
They thought it was very magical. So, they drew the moon.
Gradually, other Chinese people also used such pictures when they wanted to express the moon. Later, in order to distinguish the moon from other objects, people added a luminous body-like stroke in the middle of the moon.
Over time, the angle of the moon began to rotate for the convenience of writing. The moon in the sky slowly turned into today’s Chinese character month.
In this way, the Chinese drew whatever they saw, constantly improving the way they drew and wrote each object. Over time, the pictorial nature of the object slowly weakened, the symbolic nature gradually increased, and finally it became the appearance of modern Chinese characters.
Chinese call these lines or strokes that can express the appearance of objects pictographic characters. There are approximately 266 pictographic characters in Chinese characters. We will start from the most basic pictographic characters. Then, we will learn the combinations and transformations of these basic pictographic characters.
How did Chinese create numbers?
Chinese numbers are inseparable from the origin of the universe. The Chinese believe in the origin of the universe as chaos. Chaos refers to the misty state in which Qi, shape and quality are integrated and not separated before the formation of the universe. In chaos there is no sky, no earth, no matter that we are familiar with, only a specious and vague thing.
In ancient Greek mythology, the universe was originally chaotic. Chaos gave birth to the earth mother goddess Gaia, who gave birth to everything in the world and so on.
The same is true in Nordic mythology, but from a big crack in the chaos, Ymir, the ancestor of the Nordic giants, and so on were born.
In short, in world mythology, people are accustomed to calling the state before the birth of the world chaos.
How did the world origin chaos 〇 (ling-zero) produce 一 (yi-one)? 一 (yi-one) produce two? Please watch the video: How basic Chinese characters evolved and lesson one: 日(rì-sun), 月(yuè-moon), 〇(líng-zero), 一 (yī-one), 二 (èr-two)
In lesson one, we first talked about how basic Chinese characters evolved and how the Chinese numbers were created. Then there was an instruction for how to use each lesson’s worksheet to practice your writing. Here is the lesson one worksheet.