30 Jan - FB Status Updates...

Will be putting this up weekly...so as to remind myself of the things I wrote on FB in Chinese. Kind of Like my own memory bank of the words and phrases used.

30 January

我發現我在FB蠻喜歡打字因為我越在FB打字越認識字也會越快打字.我也覺得打字蠻好玩得.OH!我今天學的是"女媧"....哈哈哈

29 January

我剛剛讀了一個故事說有一位"無日無夜地在酒池肉林裡面"我覺得太恐怖但是我記得我以前很嘻歡吃肉喝酒但是我現在不吃肉喝了不多酒可以變聰明寫中文字 - 哈哈哈

28 January

我今天早上發現我沒辦法吃苦但是我覺的人沒有吃苦不知道怎麼享受人生

27 January

我剛剛學了"狂犬病"是 "Rabies" 意思是 "crazy dog/canine disease" 可以容易記.

26 January

我今天學了 "自古以來" 因為我開始讀一本書.那本書叫 "中國古史故事" 我不太看得懂但是弟一句子是　"自古以來" 我了解所以我很開心.

30 Jan - 女媧 - Nüwa (Goddess)

Word of the Day: 女媧　- Nüwa / Goddess

Pronunciation: - ㄋㄩˇㄨㄚ || Nǚ wā

Breaking it Down:

The phrase 女媧 is comprised of the character for woman 女 and The character for Goddess 媧.　

Definition

The definition of 女媧 on Wikipedia is:  "Nüwa, also known as Nügua, is a goddess in ancient Chinese mythology best known for creating mankind and repairing the pillar of heaven."

However if I plug 女媧 into Google Translate directly it renders the generic term Goddess and the phrase does not appear in my "Far East Concise Chinese-English Dictionary."

The character 媧 is defined in my "Far East Concise Chinese-English Dictionary" as being the "mythical sister and successor of Fu Hsi 伏羲 (P: ㄈㄨˊㄒㄧ || Fúxī)".

According to Wikipedia: "Fu Xi (Chinese: 伏羲), also romanized as Fu-hsi, is a culture hero in Chinese legend and mythology, credited (along with his sister Nü Wa) with creating humanity and the invention of hunting, fishing and cooking as well as the Cangjie system of writing Chinese characters ca. 12,000 BCE."

Of course Google Translate renders 媧 as, well, Wa.

29 Jan - 吃苦 - Bear Hardship

Word of the Day: 吃苦　- Bear/Suffer Hardship

Pronunciation: - ㄘㄨㄤˊ ㄈㄥㄅㄠˋ ㄩˇ

Breaking it Down:

The phrase 吃苦 is comprised of the character for eat 吃 and bitter/painful 苦.

(1) 吃 - P: ㄔ || Chī - Eat

(2) 苦 - P: ㄎㄨˇ || Kǔ - bitter/painful, hard, miserable

Living Language:

I typed the phrase 吃苦 into Google news and I got the following two headlines.

The first one reads: 希臘不想再吃苦了 - roughly translated means - "Greece doesn't want to bear hardship/suffer again" - so I am guessing it is about the Euro Zone Crisis and the ongoing Greek Debt Crisis.

The second (highlighted part) one reads: 不能"吃苦", 又懂得"享受" - this one is a little weird. The first part 不能"吃苦" means "Cannot Suffer Hardship" and the second part 懂得"享受"" means "can know happiness". Together, I cannot figure it out.

28 Jan - 狂風暴雨 - Violent Storm

Word of the Day: 狂風暴雨　- Violent storm
Pronunciation: - ㄘㄨㄤˊ ㄈㄥㄅㄠˋ ㄩˇ

Breaking it Down:
The phrase 狂風暴雨 comprises of four characters as you can see.

(1) 狂 - P: ㄘㄨㄤˊ  || Kuáng - Crazy
(2) 風 - P:  ㄈㄥ || Fēng - Wind
(3) 暴 - P: ㄅㄠˋ || Bào - Violent
(4) 雨 - P: ㄩˇ || Yǔ - Rain

Expansion:
(1) 狂風 - Fierce Wind
(2) 暴風 - Strom
(3) 暴雨 - Strom

Note: The term for violence is 暴力 (P: ㄅㄠˋㄌㄧˋ || Bàolì)

27 Jan - 自古以來 - Since Ancient Times

Phrase: 自古以來 - From/Since Ancient Times
Pronunciation: ㄗˋㄍㄨˇ　ㄧˇㄌㄞˊ || Zìgǔ yǐlái

Background:

So today I watched a video on "How to learn any language in six months" which is basically what I am attempting with Chinese right now (especially on the reading side). The talk is by Chris Lonsdale and what I loved about it was his suggestion to NOT BE AFRAID OF AMBIGUITY. I am! 

With this in mind I decided to buy a Chinese Book (not a language learning text book) and try to read it with all the characters I know (right now about 600 which is clearly not enough). But I chose a book and started to read it.

The book I chose is: 中國古史故事

Broken down the title can be separated into three words: 
(1) 中國 - P: ㄓㄨㄥ　ㄍㄨㄛˊ || Zhōngguó - China
(2) 古史 - P: ㄍㄨˇ　ㄕˇ || gǔ shǐ - Ancient History
(3) 故事 - P: ㄍㄨˋ　ㄕˋ || gùshì - Stories

Therefore the book title 中國古史故事 literally means "Chinese Ancient Stories" or a better translation would probably be rendered "Ancient Stories from China."

Anyway, the phrase...

自古以來

...is the very first phrase in the book. I could read the phrase as I knew all the characters but needed some help on the translation and now I love the phrase....since ancient times.

Here is getting lost in the ambiguity of a book I can barely understand. Something good of it will come I am sure.

26 Jan - 然 - P: ㄖㄢˊ - However

Word: 然 - However
Pronounced: ㄖㄢˊ || Rán

Building Blocks:
There are three characters used in 然.

(1) 月 - P: ㄩㄝˋ || Yuè - Moon/Month - this character is on the left. It is a little distorted.
(2) 犬 - P: ㄑㄩㄢˇ || Quǎn - Canine, dog
(3) 灬 - P: ㄅㄧㄠ || Biāo - This is the radical for fire 火

Constructing the Character:
This is a hard one to build a story for but something like: However is a distorted month 月 next to a canine 犬 on fire 灬. Not sure if that helps or not.

Character Importance:
This character is important and pops up in many different ways. I will try to list a few below without the pronunciation prompts.

(1) 然後 - Then, afterwards
(2) 然而 - However
(3) 當然 - Of course, naturally
(4) 竟然 - Somewhat to one's surprise
(5) 雖然 - Although
(6) 自然 - Natural
(7) 超自然 - Supernatural
(8) 必然 - Inevitable

As you can see, combining with other characters 然 can be used to for critical words that are necessary building blocks for any language.

25 Jan - Random Words

Random Words..... 

I went to watch a movie today (American Sniper) and I saw in the subtitles that the phrase 超想 came up quite often. I was wondering what that phrase meant but couldn't find it in my dictionary. Google translate suggests it means "super want." 

Anyway I was playing around in my dictionary and found the following words that I thought were fun (maybe important) to learn. 

超過 - Exceed

超越 - Surpass

超自然 - Supernatural

超現實 - Surreal

超現實主義 - Surrealism

主義 - Doctrine

恐怖 - Terror

恐怖主義 - Terrorism

恐怖分子 - Terrorist

OK to be honest - not to sure how useful those words will be in day to day conversation - but hey - it was fun learning them. Will need to use them a few times to make sure I don't forget them - but it is great to be learning words. It all helps with fluency.

24 Jan - 蘋果 - P: ㄆㄧㄥˊㄍㄨㄛˇ - Apple

Word: 蘋果 - Apple

Pronounced: ㄆㄧㄥˊㄍㄨㄛˇ || Píngguǒ

Building Blocks;

The word for apple 蘋果 is built from two characters: The character for apple 蘋 and the character for fruit 果.

Apple is built from two characters and an additional radical to it. The first two characters used are:

(1)  步 (P: ㄅㄨˋ || Bù) - Step/walk

(2) 頁 (P: ㄧㄝˋ || Yè) - Page

If you combine those two words together you get 頻 (ㄆㄧㄣˊ || Pín) which means frequency (or often). To get from frequency you need to add the radical for grass 艹 to the top of 頻  and you can create the character for apple: 蘋.

Fruit is built from two characters too.

(1) 田 (P: ㄊㄧㄢ ˊ || Tián) - Farmland/field

(2) 木 (P: ㄇㄨˋ || Mù) - Wood

So if you put the farmland character 田 above the character for wood 木 you will get the character for fruit 果.

23 Jan - 車庫 - P:ㄔㄎㄨˋ - Parking Garage

Word: 車庫 - Parking Garage
Pronounced: ㄔㄎㄨˋ || Chēkù

Building Blocks;
Today's word is built from the word for car/carriage 車 (P:ㄔ || Chē) and the word for storehouse/warehouse 庫 (P: ㄎㄨˋ || kù).

Notice how the word for storehouse/warehouse 庫 is built from the radical for "A dotted cliff" 广 (P: ㄍㄨㄤˇ || guǎng) and car/chariote 車.

So what about Pants 褲
A quick note that the word for pants 褲 (P: ㄎㄨˋ || kù) has the same pronunciation as 庫. On the character however we add the word the radical for clothes 衤(P: ㄧ || Yī) in front of the character for storehouse/warehouse 庫 and we get the character for pants 褲 with the same pronunciation.

22 Jan - How do you dress your eyes?

No word today but a phrase I read in a book:

每天起床之前, 先想想 ---- 你今天為眼睛裝, “黑白” 還是 “彩色” 的底片

He was talking about old cameras, the ones with negatives in them and how we could choose to use black and white negatives or color negatives. Then he says: 

"Every day before we get out of bed, first think how you will dress your eyes: with black and white negatives or color negatives." 

Well that is my thought for the day!!!

21 Jan - 嘲諷 - P: ㄔㄠˊ ㄈㄥˋ - Taunt

Word: 嘲諷 - To sneer at/to taunt
Pronounced: ㄔㄠˊㄈㄥˋ || Cháofèng

Building Blocks;
Today's words is built from two words that are similar in meaning:

Word 1: 嘲 (P: ㄔㄠˊ || Cháo) - To ridicule, to sneer, to mock, to deride.

Pretty powerful word but made out of two characters: mouth 口 and dynasty 朝. I love the logic of this word. A mouth 口 ridicules/mocks the dynasty 朝.

Word 2: 諷 (P: ㄈㄥˋ || Fèng) - to satirize, to mock, to ridicule

This word is also made out of two characters: speech 言 and wind 風. More logic here which implies speech 言 with the wind 風 is to ridicule and mock someone.

20 Jan - 衣 - P:一 - Clothes

Word: 衣 - Clothes
Pronounced: ㄧ || Yī

Expansion
哀 - P: ㄞ || Āi - to grieve, to mourn, to lament

At the top of clothes you have the radical 亠. If you put the character for mouth (口) between the top radical 亠 and the bottom part you can build the word grieve/mourn: 哀
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袁 - P: ㄩㄢˊ || Yuán - the surname

Remove the radical 亠 from the top of to grieve 哀 and add the character for soil/earth 土 you can create the surname 袁 most famously used by Yuan Shikai.
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遠 - P: ㄩㄢˇ || Yuǎn

Add the radical for walk 辶 to　the suraname 袁 and you can build the character for far away 遠.
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19 Jan - 災 - P: ㄗㄞ - Disaster

Word: 災 - Disaster
Pronounced: ㄗㄞ || Zāi

Building Blocks:
川 - (P: ㄔㄨㄢ || Chuān) - Radical for river or stream
火 - (P: ㄏㄨㄛˇ || Huǒ) - Mouth

Constructing the Character 災:
The three arrows on the top (巛) is a variant of river (川). Therefore disaster (災) is the short form for river (巛) over fire (火)

Expansion
水災 - Flood disaster (Google translates as hurricane)
火災 - Fire disaster
天災 - Natural Disaster

18 Jan - Random Words

More random words. Some from the newspaper, some from my wife correcting me. Here goes:

海巡 - Coast Guard
保全業 - Security (building guards etc.) Industry
保全人員 - Security Guards
長工時 - Long working hours
調查 - Survey or investigate

Our first idiom:
天人交戰 - Internal struggle

17 Jan - 移民 (P: 一ˊㄇㄧㄣˊ) - Immigrant

Word: 移民 - Immigrant
Pronounced: 一ˊㄇㄧㄣˊ || Yímín

Building Blocks
移 - (P: 一ˊ || Yí) - move, shift, change
民 - (P: ㄇㄧㄣˊ || Mín) - people

Constructing the Word 移民
An immigrant (移民) is a moved (移) people (民).

A very useful word. Found it while browsing the net for something else.

16 Jan - Random Words

Walking on the street today I learned some random words. Nice to pick them up. Since I know how to read them I will forgo the pronunciation part. If you are interested you can look it up.

貼心 - Intimate/Close
多元文化 - Multicultural
吉兆 - Lucky omen
兆頭  - Omen
全球 - Global

Always nice to pick up new words. However I cannot type 元 on my computer. I had to copy it.

15 Jan - 京 - (P: ㄐㄧㄥ) - Capital

Word: 京
Pronounced: ㄐㄧㄥ || Jīng

Building Blocks:
亠 - (P: ㄊㄡˊ || Tóu) - Radical for lid
口 - (P: ㄎㄡˇ || Kǒu) - Mouth
小 - (P: ㄒㄧㄠˇ || Xiǎo) - Small)

Constructing the Character 京:
The CAPITAL (京) put a LID (亠) on the SMALL (小) MOUTH (口)

Expansion:
北京 (ㄅㄟˇ ㄐㄧㄥ|| Běijīng) - Beijing
南京 (ㄋㄢˊ ㄐㄧㄥ|| Nánjīng) - Nanjing
東京 (ㄉㄨㄥ ㄐㄧㄥ|| Dōngjīng) - Tokyo

Other words that use 京
鯨 (ㄐㄧㄥ || Jīng) - Whale
景 (ㄐㄧㄥˇ || Jǐng) - View
涼 (ㄌㄧㄤˊ || Liáng) - Cool
就 (ㄐㄧㄡˋJiù) - At Once

14 Jan - 冒 - (P: ㄇㄠˋ) - Brave/Risk

Word: 冒 - Brave/Risk
Pronounced: ㄇㄠˋ || Mào

Expansion of 冒
冒火 - (P: ㄇㄠˋㄏㄨㄛˇ || Màohuǒ) - Burn with anger 
仿冒 - (P: ㄈㄤˇㄇㄠˋ || Fǎngmào) - Counterfeit (goods)

13 Jan - 鎮壓 - (P: ㄓㄣˋ ㄧㄚ) - Repression

Word: 鎮壓 - Repression
Pronounced: ㄓㄣˋㄧㄚ ||  Zhènyā

Building Blocks
鎮 - (P: ㄓㄣˋ ||  Zhèn) - Town/Village
壓 - (P: ㄧㄚ ||  yā) - Press; Approach; Repress

Constructing the Word 鎮壓
Repression (鎮壓) is a pressed (壓) town (鎮) .

Expansion - Crackdown - 鎮壓行動
鎮壓行動 - Crackdown where 行動 (ㄒㄧㄥˊㄉㄨㄥˋ || Xíngdòng) means action.

Crackdown (鎮壓行動) = Repression (鎮壓) + Action (行動)

12 Jan - 莫 - (P: ㄇㄛˋ) - Nobody

Word: 莫 - Nobody /There is no one who....
Pronounced: ㄇㄛˋ || Mò

Building Blocks:
花 - (P: ㄏㄨㄚ || Huā) - Flower (only top part used)
日 - (P: ㄖˋ || Rì) - Day
大 - (P: ㄉㄚˋ || Dà) - Big

Constructing the Character 莫:
Nobody (莫) sees the big (大) flowers (花) above the sun (日)

Expansion:
莫不 - (P: ㄇㄛˋㄅㄨˋ || Mòbù) - There is no one who doesn't or isn't...
莫非 - (P: ㄇㄛˋㄈㄟ || Mòfēi) - Is it possible that...?

Other words that use 莫
摸 - (P: ㄇㄛ || Mō) - Feel by touch
模 - (P: ㄇㄛˊ || Mó) - Mold / Imitate
膜 - (P: ㄇㄛˊ || Mó) - Membrane
漠 - (P: ㄇㄛˋ || Mò) - Desert

11 Jan - 金 - (P: ㄐㄧㄣ) - Gold

Word: 金 - Gold
Pronounced: ㄐㄧㄣ || Jīn

Other Characters that use Gold - 金
銅 - (P: ㄊㄨㄥˊ || Tóng) - Copper
銘 - (ㄇㄧㄥˊ || Míng) - Inscription
釣 - (ㄉㄧㄠˋ || Diào) - Go fishing
針 - (ㄓㄣ || Zhēn) - Needle
釘 - (ㄉㄧㄥˋ || Dīng) - Nail
鎮 - (ㄓㄣˋ || Zhèn) - Town / press down

Character Constructions
(1) Copper - 銅 = 金 + 同
(2) Inscription - 銘 = 金 + 名
(3) Go fishing - 釣 = 金 + 勺
(4) Needle - 針 = 金 + 真
(5) Nail - 釘 = 金 + 丁
(6) Town / press down - 鎮 = 金 + 真

10 Jan - 少 - (P: ㄕㄠˇ) - Not Many / Less

Word: 少 - Not many / less 
Pronounced: ㄕㄠˇ || Shǎo 

Expansion 
少見 - (P ㄕㄠˇㄐㄧㄢˋ|| Shǎojiàn) - Rare/seldom seen
少量 - (P ㄕㄠˇㄌㄧㄤˋ|| Shǎoliàng) - Small amount 
多少 - (P ㄉㄨㄛㄕㄠˇ|| Duōshǎo) - How Much

Other Characters That Use 少 
炒 - Fry (P: ㄔㄠˇ || Chǎo) = fire 火 (P: ㄏㄨㄛˇ || Huǒ) + 少
吵 - Noisy (P: ㄔㄠˇ || Chǎo) = mouth 口 (P: ㄎㄡˇ || Kǒu) + 少 
沙 - Sand (P: ㄕㄚ || Shā) = water 水 (P: ㄕㄨㄟˇ || Shuǐ) + 少
妙 - Wonderful (P: ㄇㄧㄠˋ || Miào) = woman 女 (P: ㄋㄩˇ || Nǚ) + 少

09 Jan - 時 - (P: ㄕˊ) - Time

Word: 時 - Time
Pronounced: ㄕˊ || Shí

Building Blocks:
日- (P: ㄖˋ || Rì) - Day
寺 - (P: ㄙˋ|| Sì) - Buddhist Temple

Constructing the Character 時
The DAY (日) passing over the Buddhist Temple (寺) measures TIME (時)

Expansion
時候 - (P: ㄕˊㄏㄛˋ || Shíhòu) - Time / when
時間 - (P: ㄕˊㄐㄧㄢ|| Shíjiān) - Time (do you have time)
時差 - (P: ㄕˊㄔㄚ|| Shíchā) - Jet lag
時從 - (P: ㄕˊㄘㄨㄥˊ || Shícóng) - From
時常 - (P: ㄕˊㄔㄤˊ|| Shícháng) - Often

08 Jan - 胡 - (P: ㄏㄨˊ) - Reckless

Word:胡 - Reckless, wanton
Pronounced: ㄏㄨˊ || huˊ

Building Blocks:
古 - pronounced as ㄍㄨˇ || Gǔ - ancient
月 - pronounced as ㄩㄝˋ || Yuè - month

Constructing the Character 胡
An ancient (古) month (月) is reckless (胡)

Expansion 
胡說 (ㄏㄨˊ ㄕㄨㄛ || Húshuō) - talk nonsense / nonsense

Additional Characters
The following characters are similar to 胡 and have the same pronunciation ㄏㄨˊ || huˊ

湖 - Lake
瑚 - Coral
糊 - Paste
蝴 - Butterfly

07 Jan - 賄 - (P: ㄏㄨㄟˋ) - Bribe

Word: 賄 - bribe
Pronounced:  ㄏㄨㄟˋ || Huì

Building Blocks:
貝 - pronounced as ㄅㄟˋ || Bèi - means shellfish
有 - pronounced as ㄧㄡˇ || Yǒu - means have or possess

Constructing the Character 賄
If you possess (有) shellfish (貝) you can bribe (賄).

Expansion:
行賄 (ㄒㄧㄥˊ ㄏㄨㄟˋ || Xínghuì) - bribe, offer a bribe, bribery

06 Jan - 頑 - (P: ㄨㄢˊ) - Stubborn

Word: 頑 - stubborn
Pronounced: ㄨㄢˊ or Wán

Building Blocks:
元 - pronounced as ㄩㄢˊ or Yuán and means beginning or dollar.
頁 - pronounced as ㄧㄝˋ or Yè and means page

Constructing the Character 頑
The beginning (元) page (頁) is stubborn (頑)

Expansion
頑 固   (ㄨㄢˊ ㄍㄨˋ / Wángù) - stubborn / obstinate
頑 皮   (ㄨㄢˊ ㄆㄧˊ / Wánpí) - naughty