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.