Use of Phrase in China and Taiwan

All cultures use phrases or colloquial language in everyday conversation. It is essential part of communication in countries through the world.

Sometimes, these nuances in language can play a significant part in understanding communication even within similar cultures. Since the relationship between China and Taiwan become more open over the last two decades, work, study, and travel occurs more freely between the two islands. In order to avoid the improper interpretation or understanding of common elements of the two societies, some people work hard to help people in China and Taiwan understanding the phrases and language used for describing common elements of their cultures.

For example: The cornstarch is called 生粉 (Shēng fěn) in China but 太白粉 (tài bái fěn)  in Taiwan. The clay that students play for their art class is called 橡皮泥 (Xiàng-pí ní) in China but 紙黏土 (zhǐ nián-tǔ) in Taiwan.

I have had a similar example from my interest of digital media and technology, I remember I would always try to note distinctions while saying computer, 電子計算機 (Diàn-zǐ jì-suàn-jī) in China but 電腦 (Diàn-nǎo) in Taiwan. There is certainly a different thinking using a literacy interpretation of the two description.

Recently, I’ve discovered these videos that are quite useful for understanding the differences and nuance cultures between China and Taiwan.

http://chinese-linguipedia.org/clk/media/chPage/1

甲骨文 (Oracle bone script)

Ancient Chinese characters found on 甲骨文 (Oracle bone script) were constructed from animal bones or turtle shells used as part of divination during the Bronze Age of China. The royal family used it to divine and chronicle their experiences.

The first record was dated by Anyang examples in 1200-1050 BCE.  

The oracle bone scripts of the late Shang dynasty constitute the earliest significant corpus of Chinese writing, which is essential for the study of Chinese etymology, as Shang writing is directly ancestral to the modern Chinese script.

Learning to identify Chinese characters

Simply, we can learn to identify the Chinese character based on their look and story. As a teacher, my favorite part is explaining how characters are created with syllables, tone, and varied combinations.

First, we need to use our imagination to understand the evolution of how the characters were created. This is a process called “Pictogram”. We can easily see the similarity of the character, 日, 月, 木, 水 , as they relate to the drawings depicting their meaning. Please view the image below.

Next, we can see the story each character created by combining together.

In English, we learn the language convention of Prefix and Suffixes. Similarly, Chinese has included a “radical” for each character. For example, there is usually the “radical” 手 for characters referring to people, 水 related to water, and 虫 used for insect references. Please view the image below as example.

In conclusion, there are 3 Basic concepts for identify Chinese characters.

1. Character: Pictures, stories, prefixes, suffixes, meaning, categories.
2. Syllable: Tones, sounds, initials.
3. Combination: root + story + sound

The meaning and relationship of ‘person’人(Rén), ‘big’ 大(dà), ‘sky’ 天(tiān), and ‘man/husband ‘夫(fu)

Chang-jei defined the elements associated with 人 is 大. Note there is no short line on the top of 人, indicating that human hold a greater place in human nature and can overcome the animal instincts. That was how Chang-jei created 人.

There is a short line on the top of 天 compared with 大, because sky covers everything.

人 does not  live like any animal, so 夫 has a long line across the 天. If 天 is not shown, it is imperfect and in error as a character.

Going further, there is a character 夭 (Yāo) that means 'death'. 人 holds the exceptional animal, man, to be 夫 in 天. If he is not, there is 夭. 人 is to live to fight with 天, 地 ‘ground’, and other 人.

Chang-jei held such logical thinking for each text and their relationship. We can also see Chang-jei carried human struggle and ambition, as philosophy, to dialect the enlightenment of human being.

Chinese character standard

When people commented on how difficult it is to learn to write the Chinese characters, I can’t deny it. Even the Children in Asia often make mistakes while learning to write characters. Then, as now, a teacher’s only advice is to tell students to practice more by re-writing each character 10 or 20 more times.

A significant difference between English and Chinese is that Chinese is not alphabetic, so the writing is not related to its phonetics. Chinese characters evolved into a text by the graphics, sound, and meaning from their varied combinations. The features of the Chinese characters are: mono, single body, and square structure.

While discussing the history of the Chinese characters, I like to use “creation” while some people refer to their history in terms of “origin”. I prefer to think it term of the characters having been “created” to show respect for ancient sages of innovative thinking. The Chinese characters are representative of the significant accomplishments and contributions of ancient Chinese philosophers. The characters are not the product of random activity, but are representative of disciplined intellectual thought and design.

The development of the Chinese character evolved over three periods: First, by “Chang-jei” in Huang-di period, 2698-2598 BC; Second, with the first emperor of Qin dynasty who unified the text, 221-206 BC, and lastly, the contemporary writing system currently used by and taught to Chinese people.

It is generally accepted that Chang-jei created text, which is a founding point of the Chinese character, and, the origin of the Chinese characters in the history. Chang-jei advanced the interpretation and definition of the “text”, which is the standard of the Chinese characters. The character that do not follow the CJ standard cannot be called a Chinese character.

The Chinese character is a complex system, but formulated and unified by logical thought. For example, learning the character for ‘person’人(Rén), ‘big’ 大(dà), ‘sky’ 天(tiān), and ‘man/husband ‘夫(fu), we can further understand their meaning based on shape, combination, and relationship.

Chang-jei created text is the origin of Chinese language coordination. Again, the character that does not followed the CJ standard is not to be recognized as Chinese character. Because the CJ standard is more than just a symbol, it represents the development, evolution, and the unique history of China. When the emperor of Qin dynasty, Qin-Shi-Huang, unified the Chinese characters, he distinguished the event, time, space, and relationship of each character to reveal the CJ standard. This was a more significant event in Chinese history.

Practice - First + Third tone

Cell Phone,             手機      shǒu-jī

Book,                        書本      shū běn

Accumulation,      累積      Lěi-jī

New York,                紐約      niǔ-yuē

Pencil,                       鉛筆      qiān-bǐ

Blackboard,             黑板      hēi-bǎn

Export,                  出口      Chū-kǒu

Palm,                    掌心      Zhǎng-xīn

Girl,                      女生      Nǚ-shēng

Practice - Third tone

Possible,          可能      Kě-néng

Travel,                旅遊      Lǚ-yóu

Idea; belief,      理念      Llǐ-niàn

Unluckly,          倒楣      Dǎo-méi

Compromise,    妥協      Tuǒ-xié

Teacher,           老師      Lǎo-shī

Courtesy,          禮貌      Lǐ-mào

Careful,             仔細      Zǐ-xì

Test tube,          試管      Shì-guǎn

Understand,       瞭解      Liǎo-jiě

Chair,                  椅子      Yǐ-zi

Practice - First + Second tone

Tea cup,            茶杯      Chá-bēi,

Often,          經常      Jīng-cháng

Desk lamp,     檯燈      Tái-dēng

Clock,           時鐘      Shíz-hōng

Practice - First tone

Coffee,            咖啡     Kā-fēi

Winter,            冬天      Dōng-tiān

Cat,            貓咪      Māo-mī

Sky,                   天空      Tiān-kōng

Switch,              開關      Kāi-guān

Move,                搬家      Bān-jiā

Drink soup,       喝湯      Hē tāng

Backpack,          背包      Bēi-bāo

Practice - Forth + Second tone

Prince,         王子      Wáng-zǐ

Magazine,    雜誌      Zá-zhì

Stamp,         郵票      Yóu-piào

Picture,        圖畫      Tú-huà

Blanket,       棉被      Mián bèi

Game,          遊戲      Yóu-xì

Naughty,       淘氣      Táo-qì

Reality,         現實      Xiàn-shí

Thunder,       雷電      Léi-diàn

Orange,         橘色      Jú sè

Full name,      姓名      Xìng-míng

Sun,                太陽      Tài-yáng

Practice - Second tone

tone,                       石頭       Shí-tou

Boy,                        男孩       Nán-Hái

Transmigration,       輪迴       Lún-huí

Often,                     時常       Shí-cháng

Suspect,                  懷疑       Huái-yí

Wall,                       圍牆       Wéi-qiáng

Why did…,               何嘗       Hé-cháng

Fish,                         魚兒       Yú er

Inaction,                   無為      Wú-wéi

Basketball,               籃球       Lán-qiú

Practice - Forth tone

Here are some exercises for your practice:

Photo,           像片      Xiàng piàn

Father,          爸爸       Bà-ba

   

Coat,             外套       Wài-tào

Arithmetic,    算術       Suàn-shù

Coins,             硬幣       Yìng-bì

Limit,              限制       Xiàn-zhì

Trees,              樹木       Shù-mù

Gaelic,             大蒜       Dà-suàn

Television,      電視       Diàn-shì

Introduction

Let’s address the first issue. It is important to be mindful and practice through the lesson.

Chinese is a tonal language. This doesn’t only mean that words are made of various tones, it also means that the meaning of the worlds relies on specific tones and inflections.

In English, which many people consider it non-tonal language, tones do exist. However, they are not of primary concern, because the meanings of the words do not depend on their various tones, but their vowel sounds. In theory, the same tones can be used to visually represent syllables that make up the words in non-tonal languages.

Your first challenge in learning to speak Mandarin Chinese will be learning the tonal variations, The chat below illustrates 4 tones (plus a “neutral” one) of a Chinese syllable.

Many second language instructions tell you to listen carefully, which is a logical approach. However, learning to speak proficient Mandarin Chinese requires learning both the pronunciation and the tonal inflection. Let’s practice the following sentences with and without tonal inflections:

Wo zai xue zhong wen --> Wǒ zài xué zhōng-wén

Wo yao xue hao zhong wen --> Wǒ yào xué hǎo zhōng-wén

Imagine the effort in trying to read an entire sentence by pronouncing each individual letter. Even if your are great at pronunciation and people can understand you, it still sounds like a “robotic voice” to native speakers. In order to speak understandable Mandarin Chinese, we need to put more emphasis on the tones and reinforce them with “tone pair drills”. Within the “tone pair drills”, the sentence of the phrase would vary depending on the choice of tone in the words.

• The first tone (ā): The voice is more flat with high ripple sound.
• The second tone (á): With a rising mark. The voice starts high and then rises. 
• The third tone (ǎ): With a curve mark. The voice falls first and then rises.
• The forth tone (à): The voice starts high and falls.

For example:

Mā       媽        mother

Má       麻        hemp

Mǎ       馬        horse

Mà       罵        scold

Tone pair drills basically involve practicing tones in combination rather than individually to show the relationship between subjects and objects. Here are some reason why tone pair drills are important:

(1)  They force you to notice the distinctions between tones, so you do not mix them up and cause confusion.

(2)  Tone pair drills are a natural intermediate step to learn complete understandable Chinese.

(3)  The challenge for Chinese tones is that they are not static. They are dynamic and change based on the sequence of tones.

For example:

睡覺      shuì jiào     means "sleep"

水餃      shuǐ jiǎo     means "dumplings"

一些      yì xiē          means "a few"

一直      yì zhí          means "continue; straight ahead"

一點      yì diǎn        means "a little"

一定      yí dìng        means "certain"

不好      bù hǎo        means "not good"

不謝      bú xiè         means "don’t mention it"

Tips on learning Mandarin Chinese tones:

As we know the simple approach for learning a second language is to simply start a word, phase, or simple sentence and then move forward towards its complete components. Based on my experience, here are some suggestions alongside the lesson.

(1)  To reinforce the 5 tones in speaking Mandarin Chinese, we need to stress them greatly even with the head or hand gestures. It also exactly how teachers guide students to learn in China and Taiwan.

(2)  Take special care in differentiating retroflex consonants (such as zh, ch, shi) from normal ones (z, j, s) and aspirated (p, t) from non-aspirated ones (b, d).

(3)  Once you having a general understanding of Chinese phonetics, start considering simple sentences and listening to them with your eyes closed.

(4)  With completed sentences, pay attention on the tone pair drills and understand the position for emphasis.