Asian Tattoos — Seen in Mexico
The first is either a 失 or the 知 of 知道 without the 口. It was spotted in Cancun, Mexico, on the back of a French tourist:
The second is harder to identify. It is something, maybe a 恭, followed by a 喜:
I am going to send these over to Tian at Hanzi Smatter for his expert opinion, and let you know what he says.
China: Boy v.s. Girl
People seem to be searching equally for boy/girl these days in China, at least according to Google Trends:
Does this mean the China gender gap will decrease soon?
Chinese 101-102: Learning Chinese Characters
For Chinese 101-102 at Cornell University, we have to learn about 250 Traditional Chinese characters (hanzi 汉字). We’re using P.C. T’ung & D.E. Pollard’s Character Text, which can be bought off Amazon relatively cheaply. It gives stroke order, vocabulary, simplifications, and little dialogues and sketches translated from its companion book, Colloquial Chinese. Here I want to present a simple lesson in basic Chinese words, but more for my own practice in the language than for you to learn how to read or write or speak Chinese. Standard pinyin and characters will be used, though without tone markings. I will also attempt to classify words into useful categories roughly by part of speech.
Nouns:
- 天气 - Tianqi - Weather
- 同志 - Tongzhi - Comrade
- 人 - Ren - Person
- 名字 - Mingzi - Name
- 地方 - Difang - Place
- 咖啡 - Kafei - Coffee
- 茶 - Cha - Tea
- 电视 - Dianshi - TV
- 文 - Wen - Writing
- 书 - Shu - Book
- 外国人 - Waiguoren - Foreigner
- 菜 - Cai - Dish [of food]
- 反 - Fan - Cooked rice
- 朋友 - Pengyou - Friend
- 晚上 - Wanshang - Evening
- 水 - Shui - Water
- 酒 - Jiu - Wine
- 普通话 - Putong Hua - Common Tongue
- 老师 - Laoshi - Teacher
- 字典 - Zidian - Dictionary
- 汉字 - Hanzi - Chinese characters
- 女人 - Nuren - Women
- 男人 - Nanren - Men
- 孩子 - Haizi - Child
- 孙子 - Sunzi - Grandchild
- 家 - Jia - Home / Family
- 客人 - Keren - Guest(s)
- 鸡 - Ji - Chicken
- 鱼 - Yu - Fish
- 青菜 - Qingcai - Green Vegetables
- 钱 - Qiang - Money
- 份报 - Fenbao - A newspaper
Place Names:
- 中国 - Zhongguo - China
- 北京 - Beijing - Peking
- 上海 - Shanghai - Shanghai
- 英国 - Yingguo - England
- 美国 - Meiguo - America
- 德国 - Deguo - Germany
- 法国 - Faguo - France
Forms of Address:
- 小姐 - Xiaojie - Miss
- 先生 - Xiansheng - Mr
- 太太 - Taitai - Mrs
- 夫人 - Furen - Madam
- 父母 - Fumu - Parents
- 妈 - Ma - Mother
Time Words:
- 今天 - Jintian - Today
- 昨天 - Zuotian - Yesterday
- 年 - Nian - Year
Measure Words:
- 位 - Wei - For persons
- 两 - Liang - For two of a thing
- 本 - Ben - A volume of a book
- 岁 - Sui - For years of age
- 个 - Ge - Generic classifier
- 杯 - Bei - For a cup of a drink
- 口 - Kou - For wells, family members
- 只 - Zhi - For birds and animals, pairs
- 条 - Tiao - For fish and other long narrow things
- 瓶 - Ping - A bottle of
Pronouns:
- 我 - Wo - I
- 你 - Ni - You
- 您 - Nin - You (Polite)
- 他 - Ta - Him
- 她 - Ta - Her
- 我们 - Women - Us
- 你们 - Nimen - You
- 他们 - Tamen - They
- 这 - Zhe / Zhei - This
- 那 - Na / Nei - That
Question Words:
- 谁 - Shei - Who
- 什么 - Shenme - What
- 哪 - Na / Nei - Which
- 几 - Ji - How many
- 多少 - Duoshao - How many
- 怎么 - Zenme - How
- 怎么样 - Zenme Yang - In what manner
Stative Verbs:
- 好 - Hao - Good
- 冷 - Leng - Cold
- 热 - Re - Hot
- 忙 - Mang - Busy
- 早 - Zao - Early
- 老 - Lao - Old
- 小 - Xiao - Young
- 累 - Lei - Tired
- 大 - Da - Big
Adjectives:
- 华侨 - Huaqiao - Overseas chinese
- 半 - Ban - Half of a thing
Adverbs:
- 很 - Hen - Very
- 不 - Bu - Not
- 真 - Zhen - Really
- 也 - Ye - Also
- 都 - Dou - All
- 再 - Zai - Again
- 只 - Zhi - Only
- 常常 - Changchang - often
- 应该 - Yinggai - Ought to
- 一点儿 - Yidianr - A little
- 就 - Jiu - Just now
- 因为 - Yinwei - Because
- 所以 - Suoyi - Therefore
- 总 - Zong - Always
- 多 - Duo - Many
- 一定 - Yiding - Certainly
- 一共 - Yigong - Altogether
- 还 - Hai - Still
Particles:
- 吗 - Ma - Questions
- 呢 - Ne - Followups
- 啊 - A - Intensifier
- 吧 - Ba - Suggestion
- 跟 - Gen - Along with
- 的 - De - Possession
- 对 - Dui - Towards
Verbs:
- 请 - Qing - Please
- 坐 - Zuo - To sit down
- 见 - Jian - To see
- 爱 - Ai - To love
- 姓 - Xing - To be surnamed
- 是 - Shi - To be
- 叫 - Jiao - To be called
- 进 - Jin - To come in
- 问 - Wen - To be excused
- 喝 - He - To drink
- 看 - Kan - To look [at]
- 喜欢 - Xihuan - To like
- 吃 - Chi - To eat
- 学 - Xue - To study
- 会 - Hui - To be able to
- 说话 - Shuohua - To talk [speech]
- 想 - Xiang - To think/plan/want to
- 谢谢 - Xiexie - Thanks
- 做 - Zuo - To do / make
- 有 - You - To have / There is / To exist
- 没有 - Meiyou - To not have
- 能 - Neng - To be able to
- 要 - Yao - To want
- 可以 - Keyi - To be permitted
- 知道 - Zhidao - To know [something]
- 买 - Mai - To buy
- 够 - Gou - To be enough
- 行 - Xing - To pass muster, to be OK
- 准 - Zhun - To be allowed / To allow [something]
- 抽烟 - Chou - To smoke
- 对不起 - Duibuqi - To be sorry
- 用 - Yong - To use
Surnames:
- 张 - Zhang
- 王 - Wang
- 李 - Li
- 汤 - Tang
Numbers:
- 一 - Yi - 1
- 二 - Er - 2
- 三 - San - 3
- 四 - Si - 4
- 五 - Wu - 5
- 六 - Liu - 6
- 七 - Qi - 7
- 八 - Ba - 8
- 九 - Jiu - 9
- 十 - Shi - 10
Of course, the characters we’re using are all in traditional, so forgive any incorrect simplified characters. This list represents the first five chapters of basic characters I am studying for my test. There seven or eight more that I also need to know, which are more complicated than I have time to put up here. If you want to correct some bad translation, just leave me a comment!
Zhang Ziyi Videos on Youtube
There are a lot Zhang Ziyi commercials floating around Youtube, so I’ll paste them all in here:
Coke Commercial with Zhang Ziyi: “Hold on to this feeling” is China’s Coke slogan?
Legend Computers includes choice phrases like “If you cat walks across the keyboard and messes it up, just reboot” and “it has USB ports” and “I really love my computer!”
In this Chinese Pantene Pro-V commercial you can watch Zhang Ziyi play with her “sexy” hair:
There are lots more to be found just by trying a search!