How to Read Chinese Pinyin and Why I should Learn

How to Read Chinese Pinyin and Why I should Learn

Learning Chinese, with its 10,000+ characters may sound daunting. But add a whole different system of sounds and tones in that  may not be in our native language and you’ve got yourself a recipe for one difficult language.

Chinese pinyin helps both foreigners and native Chinese speakers learn and understand the language, and also aids with reading and writing skills. It is essential for everyday life for Chinese people, as much as it is for foreigners.

So, let’s talk pinyin.

What is Chinese Pinyin?

Chinese Pinyin is the romanization of Chinese characters. It is a tool used to write the Chinese characters in the Latin alphabet. This aids both with reading Chinese and the pronunciation of it.

Where did Chinese Pinyin come from?

Many attempts had been made over years and years to create a standard romanized version of Chinese characters, but none were standardized and approved until the 1950s, where Zhou Youguang, also known as the ‘Father of Pinyin’ came into play. He and his team spent 3 years developing the Chinese pinyin system used today.

Without this, many of the Chinese population would still be deemed illiterate, and many people trying to learn the Chinese language would be left entirely lost…!

How to read Chinese Pinyin?

Firstly, it is important to be aware that although the letters used will be familiar to an English reader, it doesn’t mean they sound  the same. Chinese Pinyin includes sounds in English that we may not exist in other languages, so the closest possible romanization has been made. This means that you need to learn how to correctly pronounce the sounds first in Chinese pinyin, then you can correctly pronounce them when reading characters.

Pronunciations

Vowels

Consonants

The consonants are much more simple to read since they are largely the same or similar in pronunciation.

zh/ch/sh/z/c/s/j/q/x and r.The sounds you should watch out for, however, are:

Source: chinesepod.com

The next thing you have to remember when reading Chinese pinyin is that it’s not just new sounds you have to learn. You also have to read which tone mark the character has.

Tones are a pain, but extremely important. Saying a word with the wrong tone can result in some serious miscommunications since many words have the same pinyin spelling, but use different tones and have different written Chinese characters.

So, when you’re learning a new word, it’s vital that you learn the correct tone with it too.

There are 4 tones in Chinese and one neutral tone. Some people say there are 5 tones.

1st tone: ˉ e.g. mā 妈 (mother)

High pitch, naturally prolonged level sound.

2nd tone: ˊ e.g. má 嘛 (hemp)

Pitch from low to high, like when asking a question at the end of a sentence.

3rd tone: ˇ e.g. mǎ 马 (horse)

Pitch falls, then goes back up again

4th tone: ˋ e.g. mà 骂 (scold)

Sharp and strong fall of the tone

5th tone: no marker, e.g. ma 吗 (q. marker)

Neutral and short

Learning the correct pronunciation of Chinese pinyin, including the tones, is the key to learning the language well and making sure you sound like a native.

Don’t move on before you’re ready!

If you liked this blog post be sure to check out “What Exactly is Pinyin” and “5 Apps to Help You Better Integrate in China”

What Exactly is Chinese Pinyin?

What Exactly is Chinese Pinyin?

For anyone studying the Chinese language, who has been to China or indeed has any interest in China or the Chinese language, pinyin is something that you will definitely come across. It is vital to language learning for anyone who is not a native Chinese speaker, and a life-saver for those travelling to China.

So what exactly is Chinese Pinyin? Where did it come from, and how do you go about alphabetizing an entire language that is based purely on symbols?

What is Chinese Pinyin?

Chinese Pinyin, or Hanyu Pinyin (汉语拼音), is the official romanization of Mandarin Chinese, which is usually written using characters only. It is used throughout the Chinese mainland and is often used also as a tool to teach Standard Mandarin Chinese. It describes the sounds of Chinese characters using the Latin Alphabet, and also includes a tone marker (one of four) making characters easy to read and learn. It is also used when inputting Chinese on a keyboard such as on a phone or laptop.

E.g. 你好 – “ nǐ hǎo” – “ 你= nǐ 好= hǎo” Now you know how to say and read “hello”!

Where did Chinese Pinyin come from?

After multiple tries by various people over many years of trying to create a standard romanized system for Mandarin Chinese, Chinese Pinyin was first developed in the 1950s and published by the Chinese government as the official standardization in 1958.

Zhou Youguang, Father of Chinese Pinyin

Surprisingly not widely known in China, Zhou Youguang, otherwise known as the Father of Pinyin, is the brains behind the creation of Chinese Pinyin and the standardization of Mandarin Chinese. A feat which otherwise had never before been truly completed.

Zhou Yougang was the son of a Chinese official. He comes from Changzhou which lies in the East of China but moved to Shanghai for university where he graduated with a major in Economics in 1927.

He then moved to Chongqing in 1937 at the start of the second Sino-Japanese war. Eventually, he moved to New York where he worked as a banker.

Source: http://people.chinesecio.com

He decided to return to China to help rebuild the country after the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949 and moved to Shanghai to work as an economics professor in 1955. It was then that China’s Ministry of Education created a Committee for the Reform of the Chinese Written Language, and began the big project of standardization and the creation of Chinese pinyin.

From this, Zhou Enlai enlisted Zhou Youguang, somebody who had always shown great interest and ability in languages and linguistics, as the person who would take on this mammoth task.

Zhou Youguang originally protested, stating that he was nothing more than an amature in the field, but these protests were to no avail. He began to work on the creation of the new romanization system that would become the new standard Chinese Pinyin.

Apart from managing to standardize an entire alphabet – a surprisingly difficult task taking over 3 years to complete, despite it just being 26 letters to deal with, the creation of the Chinese Pinyin system was revolutionary for Chinese people throughout the Middle Kingdom. Before the Chinese Pinyin system existed, 85% of Chinese people could not read and were labelled as illiterate. Now, almost all Chinese people can read.

Source: reddit.com/

Zhou Youguang, the father of Pinyin, died in Beijing on Saturday January 14th 2017, a day after his birthday, at the age of 111.

How to Read Chinese Pinyin

Source: http://pinyin.info

Mandarin Chinese contains some sounds that many other languages don’t have, which is why Chinese Pinyin is so important. Need a hand getting those symbols right? Want to make sure your pronunciation is on point? Look no further! ChinesePod is here to help you speak like a native.

If you like this blog post please check out “ Why Pinyin Just Isn’t Enough” and “Phrases Which Will Impress Your Chinese Friend”

Popular Chinese Cuisines

Popular Chinese Cuisines

Chinese food has proven to be one of the most adaptable and widespread cuisines on earth. As Chinese people immigrated and travelled abroad they often opened restaurants.  Over time, these restaurants had a tendency to tailor the cooking techniques and flavors of home to suit the new cultures and society that they served.

Americans for example are very fond of ‘egg rolls’ which are not found in China. Australians on the other hand serve ‘chiko rolls’ which also bear little resemblance to the spring rolls which inspired them. These localized interpretations of Chinese cuisine hardly do justice to the many different regional flavors of the foods which inspired them.

There are actually 8 very different types of Chinese foods, and they are as different from each other as Cajun cooking is from Californian nouvelle cuisine.

Americans are probably most familiar with Cantonese and Hunan style dishes—in very Americanized forms.

Let’s look at these different Great Cuisines.  First up: Canton.

  1. Guangdong/Cantonese Cuisine

Chinese: 粤菜 Yuècài

Cantonese food tends to be sweeter, and the braising and stewing, accentuated by mild and often subtle sauces.

Cantonese food is the most popular style internationally.

Guangdong Province and Hong Kong are noted for fine seafood dishes and rice dishes.

They eat a very wide variety of foods. The dishes they serve don’t have strong flavors since it is lightly seasoned, and they often tend to be a little sweet.

The wide variety of things that are found in Cantonese dishes led directly to the saying “They eat everything with four legs except tables and everything that flies except airplanes”.

Dishes might feature snakes, cats, dogs and all kinds of seafood that are simply not familiar to most foreigners.

Source: https://www.thespruceeats.com

Keep that in mind when you are ordering something off the menu with strange Cantonese names so be sure to ask first, or you might be very surprised (and dismayed) by what shows up at the table.

In Cantonese cooking, the goal is to preserve the food’s original flavor. This makes it very different from other Chinese regional cuisines—notably Sichuan which features food prepared with a lot of strongly flavored spices and  savory oils, In Cantonese food the aim is to highlight the simple flavor of the food itself. Very little spice or sugar is used generally.

This produces food dishes that are mostly for developed palates. The flavors can be so subtle that they can seem bland to foreigners used to foreign adapted version of Chinese food. It takes some time to appreciate the mild and distinct flavors of the meat, vegetables and fruit.

Also, very unlike overseas versions and some regional styles, Cantonese tends to be much lower calorie. Much of that is because of the sparseness of oil or grease in food prep.  Cantonese chefs also do not use dairy products.

This makes it much healthier than the concocted “crab rangoon” fried cheese wontons or oil laden sweet and sour pork fried rice meal deal at a Chinese fast food restaurant. There are not a lot of calories in the dishes. It makes for fine well balanced meals.

Other notes on Cantonese Cuisine

Spices used: Chives, coriander leaves, anise, touches of black pepper, and slivers of ginger are the most common.

Rice vinegar and a pinch of salt  is often used to enhance vegetables. The extra flavor that really gives Cantonese food its distinction is a pinch of sugar and a tiny bit of sesame oil.

But again, restraint is the key principle when it comes to spicing. For example, fresh seafood is treated very delicately. The Cantonese steam it and will only add just a little soy sauce, ginger or perhaps bits of chives.

The sauces tend to be a little heartier in flavor in Guangdong cuisine. Stout sauces like hoisin, oyster, plum, sweet and sour, and of course soy sauce are offered at the table or upon request.

Common Cantonese Dishes

Steamed Eggs are made by beating eggs to a creamy consistency and then steaming.

Source: https://www.chinasichuanfood.com

Variations might include other mild ingredients like spring onion and soy sauce.

https://www.chinasichuanfood.com

Although deep fried dishes are not the main stream of Guangdong dishes, there are quite a number of them which are popular around the region.

A youtiao (油条 /yoh-tyaow/ ‘oil strip’) is a long, golden-brown deep-fried strip of dough. Youtiaos are usually eaten for breakfast with soy milk.

Zhaliang (/jaa-lyaang/ ‘fried two’) is made by tightly wrapping a rice sheet around a youtiao (deep-fried dough stick). Zhaliang is widely eaten in Guangdong and Hong Kong. It is usually eaten with soy milk.

Noodle Dishes

Shahe noodles (shahefen /shaa-her-fnn/) are a kind of rice noodles which probably originated from the town of Shahe that is now a part of Guangzhou. They are broad and white in color. Their texture is elastic and a little chewy. They do not freeze or dry well and are thus generally (where available) purchased fresh in strips or sheets that may be cut to the desired width. Shahefen is popular in Guangdong, Guangxi and Hainan in southern China.

Source: https://www.cookingchanneltv.com

Meat Dishes

White cut chicken is made by boiling salt-marinated chicken in water or chicken broth. When it is done, the chicken looks golden in color and tastes fresh and light, preserving the best of the original taste of chicken.

That about sums up Cantonese cuisine. To sum it up, Mild. Very mild, with sparing use of subtle spices. Lots of steamed food of a shocking variety that is prepared in such a way that other flavors do not overpower its natural flavors.

In our next article we will be considering the Chinese cuisine that many people would consider to be the polar opposite of Cantonese:

Sichuan  Cuisine

Chinese: 川菜 Chuāncài

Sichuan cuisine, is also known or spelled as Szechwan cuisine, or Szechuan cuisine (/ˈsɛʃwɒn/ or /ˈsɛtʃwɒn/) and it is a style of Chinese cuisine originating from Sichuan Province.

If you like this blog post please check out “5 Great Wall Hikes For Every Beijing Tourist”

and “Phrases Which Will Impress Your Chinese Friend”

 

5 Apps to Help You Better Integrate in China

5 Apps to Help You Better Integrate in China

Traveling or moving to China is bound to cause significant changes in the way you feel and behave as a foreigner. On entering the country for the first time, you feel excited and enthusiastic about exploring many beautiful places in China. But this euphoria is soon cut short when you realize that the local customs and language of the Chinese people are starkly different from those of your home country. If you are reading this write-up, it is most likely that you are facing this common problem of culture shock, which a lot of immigrants experience when relating with natives in the world’s most populous country.

The information presented herein will help you integrate better in China. This country is full of history, of rich culture with a lot of things you can learn about. To ease your integration into the Chinese society, we have recommended 5 apps and tips to make your acclimatization in the country a swift one. Learn the language: Learning Mandarin is simply the best way to get rid of the culture shock you may be facing in your new environment. If you explore easier ways of learning Chinese, communicating with the locals and understanding the Chinese culture will be a walk in the park over time.   

  • Don’t engage in public displays of affection (PDA): If PDA is the norm in your home country, you should note that such practice is frowned at in China. So if you just met a Chinese friend and tried hugging and kissing them; don’t be embarrassed to see that people in your surroundings would gape at your action and find it awkward. The Chinese typical reserve such show of affection to people close to them.     
  • Treat elders with respect: The importance of this piece of advice is great. Try and be courteous when relating with older people and avoid referring to them by their first name. Use their title instead.

Having said that, let’s proceed to discuss the nitty-gritty of this article: 5 apps to help you with better integration in China.

    Source: https://www.wsj.com/

  • WeChat (微信)

In China, Facebook and Twitter are banned, along with a host of other apps and domain names. Hence, you will find WeChat an indispensable communication tool in the country. With the software, you can connect with friends, chat with your gaffer (as emails are not allowed also), seal business deals, and do a lot more. But one major thorn in the flesh is that there is little privacy for WeChat messages with the use of metadata. Metadata reveals a lot about the users habits and this information can be shared with Chinese authorities.

Also, the App has a robust wallet feature, WeChat Pay, which is literally everywhere in China, leading to speculations that the country could become 100% cashless. It even allows you to pay a bus fare while taking a trip overseas. 

Our next picks are Baidu Waimai and Ele.me. Not only is food delivery tech-driven in China but also remarkably dynamic. This gives you a variety of choices when you need to order food. Also, the two apps provide supermarket delivery, making sure that you do not see the need to step outside your house.

  • Mobike

Source: https://www.efficientlearning.com

Moving about in big cities within China could be a tad difficult for a new immigrant. This is where Mobike comes in: It is an amazing app that makes transportation within the country stress-free for you. In every nook and cranny of Chinese cities, you will find these radiant orange bikes containing QR codes displayed on their handlebars, and Mobike is all you need to rent one of the bikes.  Available in English, it has an easy-to-use interface, making it straightforward even to use the Chinese version. Simply scan the QR code shown on your chosen bike, hop on, and then enjoy an exciting riding activity – at a fee of course.

Do note that some communities will not allow you to come with your Mobike into their parking lots or neighborhoods. Once your riding is completed, you can lock your bike at any curb that is closest to you so another rider can use it.

  • Pleco

Though the best way to facilitate your integration in China is learning the Chinese language, in the meantime before mastering the language, you will need to find a way to get by in the country, knowing only English. This is why you need a good alternative to Google Translate, another banned app in China. Pleco is a handy tool to help you translate Chinese words and terms into English.

Source: https://www.apkmonk.com/

It is among the best Chinese-English dictionary software available on the Chinese market. It has an outstanding set of translation tools such as Screen Reader, which helps you translate text in any program that is launched on your smartphone. It also offers paid add-ons that you can download and install into the software such as OCR (Optical Character Reader), used to point a camera at the characters you are viewing, after which Pleco will have them automatically translated for you.

  • Alipay (支付宝)

This list will not be complete without mentioning Alipay wallet. It has a wide array of features such as bill payments, international monetary transfer, hospital registration, among others. Apart from these, it provides integrated services such as Airbnb, Taobao, and Uber. This program has some similarities with WeChat, its major rival. But the latter is not a standalone app like the former. To make use of this software, simply download and install it, and then set up your wallet. The international money transfer option is restricted to Chinese citizens only or expats that hold a Chinese green card.

In conclusion, you can overcome culture shock, understand the Chinese culture better to ease your integration in the country by adopting the other measures mentioned above. You can also download the 5 apps highlighted in the heart of this article to make your stay in China a rewarding one.    

If you like this blog post please check out “7 Apps That Can Score You a Date in China” and “Back to School”

 

 

 

 

 

Customs When Visiting a Chinese Family

Customs When Visiting a Chinese Family

In order to get the most out of visiting a Chinese family, the first thing you want to do is bring a digital translator. Next, observe the local customs, and then prepare some good questions to ask. You should then have a valuable inter-cultural encounter, providing a deeper insight into Chinese culture and local life. 

When entering the house you should..

Offer your gifts, which will probably be taken away or placed on a table unopened, as it is the Chinese custom. Fruit is very popular, although confectionery or souvenir products from your country would also be welcomed. 

Source: www.thechineseculturecorner

Greet all members of the household (start with the seniors, if possible, then proceed down the social scale; children would normally be expected to greet you rather than the other way round), or as many as you can see from the door. A simple hello in English, or ‘’Ni hao’’ would suffice.

Take your shoes off and change them for a pair a pair of slippers that is waiting for you by the door.

Once inside the house…

Once you are inside the house you will usually be asked to sit down. If you have any belongings such as a bag or coat that you wish to take off they will usually be given a seat too. Placing bags on the floor is a huge no – no (the floor is considered unclean, though it seems fine from a Western perspective) and coat racks are uncommon in China.

Source: www.thoughco

You will then be offered something to eat and drink. Plain hot water is widely popular, especially in poorer households, where all water is boiled. The alternative is usually Chinese tea of some sort. The first food offered will most likely be fruit, with peanuts and candy if it’s a festive time of the year. Accept the food/drink, or put them down on a table in front of you if you don’t want to have them immediately.

Then the conversation begins… Your host will try to keep you entertained and ask you a few questions first. Then it is your chance to reciprocate.

Now that you have read this blog be sure to check out some of our other blog posts, such as ‘Learn Mandarin Chinese: 5 Reasons Why’ and ‘5 Great Wall Hikes For Every Beijing Tourist’

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