Public figures the world over are known to cite ancient Chinese wisdom when making their case – US Supreme Court Justice Kennedy recently cited Confucius in the ruling legalizing gay marriage there, while then-Secretary of State Hilary Clinton used a Chinese proverb from “The Art of War” during one visit to China. But Chinese humor, often derived from its vivid imagery, is usually left in the vernacular. The following are seven Chinese idioms which aren’t commonly used in English — yet — but should be, on topics ranging from infidelity to snobbery.

1. 脚踏两条船 (jiǎo tà liǎng tiáo chuán) “To stand with one’s feet on two different boats” – This is the Chinese phrase for someone who is in relationships with, or leading on, two different people at the same time. The closest idiomatic expression might be “two-timing,” but it lacks in imagery. It’s much easier to visualize some chump trying his hardest to balance with one foot in a canoe and another in a fishing boat before falling, some minutes later, into the icy lake of karma.
2. 睡得像死猪一样 (shuì de xiàng sǐ zhū yīyàng) “To sleep like dead pig” – A clear winner over its closest English equivalents, “to sleep like a log” and “to sleep like a rock.” The pig is dead. Don’t bother setting an alarm clock or calling it seven times to ask “Why are you late for the 10:00 am sales meeting??!?”
3. 有奶便是娘 (yǒu nǎi biàn shì niáng) “Whoever has milk is mom” – Opportunism, anyone? To my knowledge, there is no similar English idiom describing the attitude of shameless benefit-seeking in which the subject is willing to do anything for a Klondike bar, so to speak.
4. 一粒老鼠屎坏了一锅汤 (yī lì lǎo shǔ shǐ huài le yīguō tāng) “One piece of mouse shit spoiled a pot of soup” – This is the Chinese equivalent of “one bad apple can spoil the bunch.” Other variants of the saying have the mouse shit spoiling porridge instead – my guess is it doesn’t improve the flavor or nutritional value of either.
5. 挂羊头卖狗肉 (guà yang tóu mài gǒu ròu) “To hang up a sheep’s head but sell dog meat” – A slightly sneakier version of the “bait and switch.” You have to hand it to this culinary twist on “false advertising.”
6. 狗屎运 (gǒu shǐ yùn) Literally “dog-shit luck” – this phrase actually describes a great, not terrible, turn of events. This is a throwback to the days when, in rural China, people used excrement for fertilizer and there was not enough supply to meet demand. Dog shit could be sold for cold hard cash or used to grow crops, and either way, accidentally stepping in it was a source of joy, not sorrow.
7. 掉书袋 (diào shū dài) “Drop a sack of books” – To embellish one’s writing or speech with erudite references in order to seem smarter. The person engaged in this action probably thinks that his allusions to other authors are carefully contrived, but they’re more likely to be perceived as clunky and awkward – like an actual sack of books. This is also perhaps the best phrase to wrap up this listicle, lest readers be tempted to show off their knowledge of Chinese dog-shit idioms at the next cocktail party they attend.

The post Dog-shit Luck and 6 Other Chinese Idioms We Should Start Using in English appeared first on The Nanfang.

More wealthy immigrants from mainland China means overseas communities are adjusting to accommodate Putonghua. For proof, one doesn’t have to look any further than the establishment of Confucius Institutes scattered across the globe that promote Putonghua.

The superiority of Putonghua is even apparent in the media. While Chinese actors previously said lines in Cantonese before getting into a kung-fu fight, they now speak Putonghua as seen on Netflix’s Daredevil series. Even flashback scenes from Orange is the New Black show Chinese immigrants in 1980s New York City speaking Putonghua, even though it would have been in Cantonese at the time.

This is all too much for the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, which has had enough. For the first time this September, the Chinese language department is going to offer courses in Cantonese despite all arguments to the contrary.

UBC has turned down four proposals from the Confucius Institute to develop its curriculum, and it was able to do it by accepting a CAD$2 million ($1.5 million) grant from a pair of Hong Kong philanthropists. “When a university can reject money, it’s a subtle form of push back to an overbearing culture,” said Ross King, head of UBC’s Asian-studies program.

Some people think that Cantonese simply does not have a chance against the rise of Putonghua, which is widely understood by a vast majority of China’s 1.3 billion people. However, language is also a way to experience the world through the lens of a particular culture. It’s through Cantonese that we have been blessed with a number of cultural gems that can’t be counterfeited: Cantopop, TVB, Stephen Chow comedic patter, and heroic bloodshed movies among other things.

Of course, you can translate these things into whichever language you’d like. But as Cantonese speakers present and future will know, you’re missing out on a unique way of experiencing the world that other languages can’t replicate, no matter how popular they are.

The post Canadian University Battles Mandarin Domination with Course in Cantonese appeared first on The Nanfang.

First an article on Hacking Chinese came to my mind: You might be too lazy to learn Chinese, but you’re not too old. Olle reminds as that even though it’s easier for children to master the pronunciation of a new language , we adults are much smarter and thus are much better at learning. What we should learn from kids though is that they don’t give up and they aren’t afraid to make mistakes.

We adults often expect results way too quickly and get frustrated when we don’t learn a new skill right away. Remember that learning anything new takes time and effort, so does Chinese, and don’t be afraid to make lots of mistakes along the way.

Speaking of confidence, a blog post from Sinoplice, Confidence and Tones, reminds us how important it is to be confident in your studies. The perfect balance is with having the correct information (knowing the correct pronunciation) and being confident enough to open your mouth and say those words out loud. Children aren’t afraid to speak up so we should definitely learn from them!

I didn’t learn the Chinese pronunciation well when I started. Our teacher just made us listen and repeat after a CD recoding for hours and hours, without explaining why we were learning this way. She didn’t explain where and how all these new sounds should be pronounced in our mouths. She didn’t correct our tones enough and let us get away with bad pronunciation.

When I came to China I noticed that it could take me 5 minutes to try to order yì bēi shŭi one glass of water just because my pronunciation was so terrible. During the years I’ve noticed plenty of foreigners complaining how the Chinese don’t understand their Chinese, I felt the same way at first. But then I realized that it’s my fault, my pronunciation just wasn’t good enough to allow the listener to easily understand me.

Learning Chinese pronunciation is tricky, it takes lots of time and effort, but the good news are, that after you master it (or become good enough), learning Chinese becomes much easier. At first it may seem like that you never learn those difficult initials like j, q, x or zh, ch, sh, but that’s not true. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes, study hard and you will notice how native speakers start to understand you.

It may take a while to get that first feeling of accomplishment, but trust me, it feels great! One day you realize the taxi drive understood where you were going, the waitress got your order right and you just said your very first spontaneous Chinese sentence without translating it first in your head.

John from Sinoplice describes learning Chinese in 5 stages, starting from “Ching-chong-ching”. At this first stage Chinese seems something completely alien to you. How could these sounds be learned? And how is it even possible to recognize the different tones, do they even matter? After learning Chinese for a while, with a good teacher, a learner will gradually realize that Chinese is a language just like any other language (Stage 2). You start to understand that for the Chinese the difference between mā with a first tone and mà with a fourth tone is as big as the difference between A and B letters is for us.

I wish that my students don’t make the same mistakes as I did and think the tones or correct pronunciation doesn’t matter. Yes, Chinese will understand your Xièxie (thank you) and fāpiào (invoice) no matter how poorly you utter them, just because these are the two words they are used to hearing from a foreigner’s mouth. But try something else and you find yourself having communication trouble.

We also have difficulties with non-native speakers of our own languages if their pronunciation is way off, and it’s the same with Chinese. English and Chinese just happen to be quite different languages so it takes a bit more effort to nail the pronunciation. So let’s make it easier for us and for the listener and learn those new sounds. Just like a kid, don’t be afraid to make mistakes!

Now after learning Chinese for more than six years I finally understand how valuable it is to listen to the advice or advanced learners like Olle from Hacking Chinese and John from Sinoplice. They have gone through the journey, made the mistakes and are sharing their wisdom on how to avoid those mistakes ourselves.

As a final word for this not so coherent blog post, I would like to say that don’t give up. No matter how hard it might seem in the beginning, you can learn to speak Chinese. No matter if it’s your first or fifth foreign language, you are never too old to learn new things. Advance on your own speed, but take an advantage of the tips of other learners.

Good luck! Study hard!

The post You’re Never Too Old to Learn Chinese, But It’s Going to Take Some Work appeared first on The Nanfang.

As a Chinese learner for more than six years and a Chinese teacher for a year, I’m extremely eagerly awaiting this new dictionary, backed with years of research, that will explain Chinese characters.

Co-founder Ash Henson explains that the roots of the project go back to 1993, when he started learning the language. In 2005 he moved to Taiwan to pursue his passion and enroll in a PhD program for teaching Chinese as a second language, and later continued his research in the Chinese department.

Ash met Christian Schmidt and John Renfroe, both equally crazy about the world of hanzi. After years of research they decided to re-package their academic knowledge into a dictionary that would be easy enough for beginners to use as well.

So how does Outlier Dictionary of Chinese Characters help learners to master characters?

It helps us to understand the characters as a system, how they actually work. The main framework for understanding characters are the four types of functional components that are introduced in the dictionary. These are the building blocks of characters and Outlier dictionary shows us the building blocks that a particular character is composed of.

For example, have you ever wondered why the character for beautiful 美 includes a sheep 羊 on top? Did the ancient Chinese regard sheep as beautiful animals? The Outlier dictionary explains that 羊 here is actually an empty component; it used to be a headdress made of feathers. So the real story behind 美 is that it depicts a person wearing a headdress, thus making it beautiful.

What is even better is that the new dictionary will be published on Pleco, which is already the most widely used Chinese dictionary app for learners. Pleco includes both free and paid dictionaries that you can download according to your own needs, and next year Outlier Dictionary of Chinese Characters will be one of them!

To make the dream come true, the Outlier team started a Kickstarter campaign that has already reached 63 percent of their goal. If the goal of $75,000 is reached by June 12th, the dictionary will be published in the first quarter of 2016.

Me and many other Chinese learners and teachers are super excited of this project and can’t wait to get our hands on it!

For more information check out https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/johnrenfroe/outlier-dictionary-of-chinese-characters

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The founder and CEO of Facebook spoke exclusively in Putonghua at a sit-down interview in front of Tsinghua students. For 29 minutes, Zuckerberg spoke fluent Chinese and smoothly answered questions despite having a hard English accent and with difficultly getting his tones correct.

Zuckerberg received a round of applause by beginning the talk with “大家好” (hello, everybody), and continued to astound the awestruck crowd by continuing in Chinese. The only English spoken during the talk was by the host when he introduced Zuckerberg.

Zuckerberg announced some of his plans, such as the hiring of about 20 Chinese nationals to work abroad, something that has happened annually for awhile. But Zuckerberg usually fielded much simpler questions, all pertaining to China.

When answering “Why did you learn Chinese?”, Zuckerberg said that his wife Priscilla Chan is Chinese, a statement that drew a large round of applause from the audience. He explained that her grandmother only speaks Chinese, and he wanted a way to converse with her.

Besides saying he wanted to learn more about Chinese culture, Zuckerberg said that Chinese is a difficult language to learn, and that he wanted a challenge. To this, the host said, “Today, let’s all challenge Mark.”

Zuckerberg had earlier met Chen Jining, the principal of Tsinghua, had and held talks about cultivating talent and opportunities to work together. Zuckerberg has agreed to serve as an advisor at Tsinghua.

Zuckerberg has been learning Putonghua since at least 2010.

Here is video so you can hear Zuckerberg’s Putonghua for yourself:

Photos: screencaps from QQ

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The number of Chinese heading for America is on the rise, as we told you previously. One survey found there were 2.6 million Chinese there in 2009, increasing to three million today. But there must be more at play than mere immigration. Confucius Institutes, which teach Chinese, are proliferating and there is increasing interest in the language among Americans.

“Chinese” also isn’t broken down into dialects in the survey, but it’s well-known that Cantonese remains widely-used. But that is changing, according to Haipei Shue, the president of the National Council of Chinese Americans (NCCA):

“It’s an inexorable demographic change that Mandarin has become the ruling language among Chinese Americans. Now you can order food in Mandarin in any Chinese restaurant here.”

Dong Kun, a senior researcher with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences’ institute of linguistics, said the popularity of Mandarin is good for the promotion of  Chinese culture worldwide.

Widespread immigration means the USA is increasingly becoming a society that doesn’t speak English. Sixty-two million people in the USA have a mother tongue that isn’t English, representing 21 percent of the total population.

Related:

• Confucius Institutes Fall on Hard Times Amid Foreign Backlash
• Parents Protest Opening of New Confucius Institute in Toronto
• Chinese Signs in Canada Criticized for “Undermining National Identity”

Photo: arts cultural

The post Chinese Becomes Second Most Spoken Foreign Language in the USA appeared first on The Nanfang.

David Beckham doesn’t speak Chinese, but it’s written on him.

Putonghua, or Mandarin, has been pushed by authorities in Beijing as a national language to resolve communication problems stemming from a multitude of regional dialects. The idea is no matter what your native tongue, you’ll be able to do business in Putonghua. But while it may seem like everybody now speaks it, that couldn’t be further from the truth.

Approximately 400 million Chinese citizens, or about 30 percent of the population, do not have the ability to converse in Putonghua, reports Xinhua News Network. The claim was made by Li Weihong, Deputy director of the National Education Department and head of the National Language Writing Work Committee, at an activity to promote Putonghua.

Li clarified that 70 percent of China’s population has acceptable Putonghua ability, and that 95 percent of the population can read Chinese characters. However, Li warned that only 10 percent of Chinese are actually fluent in Putonghua, and that modern spoken vernacular is taking over literary Chinese.

The government justifies its expansion of Putonghua to “(eliminate) the estrangement between dialects for the sake of social communication”, but some regions and cultures naturally view a top-down, Beijing-pushed national language as a threat to local culture.

That is particularly acute here in Guangdong, where Cantonese seems to be continually under threat. A rumor that local news programming would drop Cantonese anchors in favor of Putonghua speakers has caused outrage in the province. But this isn’t the only pocket of resistance. A Shanghai subway driver was reported to be making announcements in Shanghainese, in defiance of an order to use Putonghua. And it’s not as though these fears are unfounded: the Manchu minority that once ruled all of China is now down to its last two native speakers.

Nevertheless, despite its position as the official language, Putonghua still faces challenges of its own. A generation of computer and mobile phone use has resulted in writing skills being atrophied, with many born-and-raised Chinese people forgetting how to write certain characters. This may be the inspiration behind a currently televised competition simply about writing in Chinese.

Putonghua remains such a problem for many of its users that there are regular Weibo posts that teach Chinese the proper usage of commonly mispronounced characters.

But the biggest threat to Putonghua may be lurking from within. For a generation, Chinese students have been valiantly trying to learn to read and speak English. The efforts so far have produced a basic enough understanding to create the memes “ungelibable” and “no zuo no die“, an improper use of Chinglish for comedic effect. Yet, one day, enough Chinese may learn English well enough to give the official language a run for its money.

[h/t Sinocism]

Photo: ahradio

The post 400 Million People in China Can’t Speak The National Language appeared first on The Nanfang.

Brad Saltzberg, a spokeperson for the advocacy group Putting Canada First, wants the signs taken down. Last April, the group was successful in taking down Chinese-only ads belonging to the social service agency SUCCESS. Saltzberg states that if Chinese signs continue to proliferate, “our whole city will appear to be Asian.”

West Vancouver Mayor Michael Smith does not see anything wrong with the signs, which usual market real estate and financial services, and are also written in English. Smith said, “I believe in personal freedom. If you pay your money you should be able to advertise your sign in any language you want. I’m not a racist. I don’t see why anybody would be offended by an advertisement in a different language.”

West Vancouver’s sign bylaw does not cover language issues.

Saltzberg said “I’m proud to say I’ve never believed in multiculturalism for even one minute of my life.” Multiculturalism, a policy that promotes and encourages the proliferation of diverse world cultures, was nationalized in Canada during the 1970s.

A 2011 census of Vancouver revealed that there are 163,230 ethnically Chinese residents. In total, Chinese residents constitute 27.7 percent of the total population of Vancouver. The white community is expected to become the minority in Vancouver by 2031.

The largest and oldest component of the Vancouver Chinese community are Cantonese, who write using Traditional Chinese characters. The Chinese written on the contested signs are written in Simplified Chinese, the language used by mainland Chinese, commonly alluded to as the newest immigrants to the Vancouver diaspora.

However, mainland Chinese have come under fire for causing Vancouver’s real estate prices to skyrocket. Their antics have lead to the inspiration of a reality TV show called Ultra Rich Asian Women that only stars Putonghua-speaking Chinese women.

Photo: Vancouver Sun

The post Chinese Signs in Canada Criticized for “Undermining National Identity” appeared first on The Nanfang.