Lesson Thirty-Four: What Is Your Name? (Part Two)

Welcome back to Zhongwen Study, today we are going to finish out the What Is Your Name? series.
So let us begin by looking at the sentence and what we know already.

Bob: 你叫什麼名字?

Jenny: 我叫 Jenny，你呢?

Bob: 我叫 Bob。

We have already figured out most of the words on here except for the 名字 ( Ming2 Zi5 ) ( it means Name )
and with that we have just finished the entire conversation between Bob and Jenny, I do hope you enjoyed learning this vocabulary.

See you all next time on Zhongwen Study 中文學習。

Lesson Thirty-Three: What Is Your Name? (Part One)

Well today we have a new lesson for you like always. So let us just jump into this new and exciting lesson.

Bob: 你叫什麼名字?

Jenny: 我叫 Jenny，你呢?

Bob: 我叫 Bob。

This is a nice introduction to use in real life Chinese speaking situations.

叫 ( Jiao4 ) ( it means Call/Called )

什麼 ( Shen2 Me5 ) ( it means What )

This lesson is filled with some very good grammatical points in Chinese to watch out for, however we will get into that subject on the next lesson.

See you all next on Zhongwen Study 中文學習。

Lesson Thirty-Two: Who Is Coming Over Today? (Part Two)

Welcome back to the second part in the Who Is Coming Over Today? series.
Let us find out what the last word in this series means today.
I know this will be a short lesson today, but hang with it and things will improve.

今天我的老師將會來這裡。Jin1 Tian1 Wo3 De5 Lao3 Shi1 Jiang1 Hue4 Lai3 Zhe4 Li3。

這裡 ( Zhe4 Li3 ) ( it means Here )

So with that I will see you all next time on Zhongwen Study 中文學習。

Lesson Thirty-One: Who Is Coming Over Today? (Part One)

Welcome back for another whirlwind learning experience coming at you directly from Zhongwen Study 中文學習。

Today we have a new lesson talking about the teacher and student let us go take a look.

今天我的老師將會來這裡。Jin1 Tian1 Wo3 De5 Lao3 Shi1 Jiang1 Hue4 Lai3 Zhe4 Li3。

Wow what an exciting piece we have right here I bet you all can't wait to get translating.
I am not the type of person that steps in the way of learning so let us begin our translation for this sentence.
老師 ( Lao3 Shi1 ) ( it means Teacher )
將會 ( Jiang1 Hue4 ) ( it means Will )

So with that I will see you all next time on Zhongwen Study 中文學習。

Lesson Thirty: That Book! (Part Four)

Welcome back to Zhongwen Study and our 30Th lesson and part four in the That Book! series.



Jenny: 我在讀那一本書。　　Wo3  Zai4  Du2  Na4  Yi1  Ben3  Shu1
Bob: 對不起，　我不知道你在讀這一本書。      Dui4  Bu4  Qi3,        Wo3  Bu4  Zhi1  Doa4  Ni3  Zai4  Du2  Zhe4 Yi1  Ben3  Shu1


Today we will be studying 不( Bu4 ) ( it means No/Not ) this is a very important character to remember as with almost all conversations you have to be able to refuse an invitation. If you don't know, you will be running all over Taiwan or China wherever you plan to spread your fancy new Chinese language abilities.

The next word to learn today is 知道 ( Zhi1 Doa4 ) ( it means Know ) so with this tiny translation today you have just figured out that Bob said he did not know.
I would call that an amazing stride in your intellectual language learning.

So with that I will see you all next time on Zhongwen Study 中文學習。

Lesson Twenty-Nine: That Book! (Part Three)

Moving on to Part Three of our That Book! series, we have just finished all of Jenny's sentence and are going to find out what Bob has said.


Jenny: 我在讀那一本書。　　Wo3  Zai4  Du2  Na4  Yi1  Ben3  Shu1
Bob: 對不起，　我不知道你在讀這一本書。      Dui4  Bu4  Qi3,        Wo3  Bu4  Zhi1  Doa4  Ni3  Zai4  Du2  Zhe4 Yi1  Ben3  Shu1

對不起 ( Dui4 Bu4 Qi3 )  ( it means Sorry )

I know today is not a big lesson for those of you just studying speaking in Chinese, however I want to give a chance for the ones learning the characters to also keep up.

I will see you all next time on Zhongwen Study 中文學習。

Lesson Twenty-Eight: That Book! (Part Two)

Welcome back to the second part of That Book! series of lessons.
Last time we left Jenny in the middle of her sentence so today let's go and find out what she said.



Jenny: 我在讀那一本書。　　Wo3  Zai4  Du2  Na4  Yi1  Ben3  Shu1
Bob: 對不起，　我不知道你在讀這一本書。      Dui4  Bu4  Qi3,        Wo3  Bu4  Zhi1  Doa4  Ni3  Zai4  Du2  Zhe4 Yi1  Ben3  Shu1


一本( Yi1 Ben3 ) ( it means 一 is a number meaning one while 本 is a unit character for book, so the real meaning in One Book )
Now 書 ( Shu1 ) ( it mean Book ) this allows the sentence to point towards the book that is the topic of this conversation.

Tomorrow we will analyze this sentence more keep studying hard until then okay see you all next on

Zhongwen Study 中文學習。

Lesson Twenty-Seven: That Book! (Part One)

Ｗelcome back to another exciting lesson on Zhongwen Study, today we have a brand new and exciting lesson for you to study.
I really think everyone will learn a lot from this lesson so get ready to start cramming all of this Chinese learning into your brain.
This conversation between Jenny and Bob starts after Bob leaves his book on the table in the library to go to the washroom only to come back and find out someone else is reading it.


Jenny: 我在讀那一本書。　　Wo3  Zai4  Du2  Na4  Yi1  Ben3  Shu1
Bob: 對不起，　我不知道你在讀這一本書。      Dui4  Bu4  Qi3,        Wo3  Bu4  Zhi1  Doa4  Ni3  Zai4  Du2  Zhe4 Yi1  Ben3  Shu1


Well let us get on with the translations.
If you see the word 在 ( Zai4 ) ( it means Action Currently In Progress ) now 在 has no individual meaning by itself as it just indicates that you or someone else are currently doing something. So when translation sentences in Chinese always look for the verb that will show what 在 is pointing to.

讀 ( Du2 ) ( it means To Read ) This is a important word to know however, there are other words that can be used in its place. But do not worry as this is one of the commonly used words.

那 ( Na4 ) ( it means That ) This word is used almost in the same way it is in English so don't worry about this one.

Next lesson we will study some more of these sentences.
See you all next time on Zhongwen Study 中文學習。

Lesson Twenty-Six: What Did You Want To Do? (Part Two)

Welcome back to the second part in our  What Did You Want To Do? series of lessons.
Today will be finishing out the translation on this sentence.
I hope everyone got a chance to the last lesson before moving on.


明天我想要學習寫國字   Ming2  Tian1  Wo3  Xiang3   Yao4   Xue2  Xi2  Xie3  Guo2  Zi4


So today we have the characters
寫 ( Xie3 ) ( it means To Write )
國字 ( Guo2  Zi4 ) ( it means Chinese Characters )

As you can see it is not so bad but there are plenty of new characters for you to learn and study this lesson.
Remember to pay attention to the grammar points as learning a little of grammar now will really help you in the future when you are attempting to form new sentences.

See you all next on Zhongwen Study 中文學習。

Lesson Twenty-Five: What Did You Want To Do? (Part One)

Welcome back to another exciting lesson on Zhongwen Study.
Did you finish learning all of the days of the week from the last three lessons? If you are still having trouble that is okay, you can slow down your studies to finish the last lessons. Remember this is not a race and you should not move on until you have thoroughly memorized the last lessons.

明天我想要學習寫國字   Ming2  Tian1  Wo3  Xiang3   Yao4   Xue2  Xi2  Xie3  Guo2  Zi4

Well let us jump right into the translations.
You already know 明天我 so let us examine the characters 想要 ( Xiang3  Yao4 ) ( it means Want to ).
I know we already studied the character 要 before and know that the meaning is Want To. But you should know that like demonstrated above if you say 想要 it will also mean Want To, as there are many ways to say the same thing in Chinese just as in English it is important to know them all so you will not be confused.

The next word we have is 學習 ( Xui2  Xi2 ) ( it means To Study/Learn )
Now practice these words good and we will be back next lesson to examine the remaining words in this sentence.

See you all next on Zhongwen Study 中文學習。

Lesson Twenty-Four: Today, Tomorrow, And Everyday Of The Week! (Part Three)

Welcome back, is everyone ready to finish up this series of lessons today?
Of course you are what a silly question otherwise you would not be reading this, so let us get started.

星期   Xing1  Qi2
今天   Jin1  Tian1
昨天   Zuo2  Tian1
明天   Ming2  Tian1
星期一  Xing1  Qi2   Yi1
星期二  Xing1  Qi2   Er4
星期三  Xing1  Qi2   San1
星期四  Xing1  Qi2   Si4
星期五  Xing1  Qi2   Wu3
星期六  Xing1  Qi2   Liu4
星期天  Xing1  Qi2   Tian1
星期日  Xing1  Qi2   Ri4


Picking up where we left off last lesson.
星期五 ( Xing1 Qi2 Wu3 ) ( it means Friday )
星期六 ( Xing1 Qi2 Liu4 ) ( it means Saturday )
星期天 ( Xing1 Qi2 Tian1 ) ( it means Sunday )
星期日 ( Xing1 Qi2 Ri4 ) ( it means Sunday )

You will notice that both 星期天 and 星期日 both mean Sunday. I find from personal experience that it is split about 50/50 with which one people will use the most, so it is important to remember both words.

See you all next time on Zhongwen Study 中文學習。

Lesson Twenty-Three: Today, Tomorrow, And Everyday Of The Week! (Part Two)

Welcome back to another exciting lesson at Zhongwen Study, today we will studying part two of the Today, Tomorrow, And Everyday Of The Week series of lessons.


星期   Xing1  Qi2
今天   Jin1  Tian1
昨天   Zuo2  Tian1
明天   Ming2  Tian1
星期一  Xing1  Qi2   Yi1
星期二  Xing1  Qi2   Er4
星期三  Xing1  Qi2   San1
星期四  Xing1  Qi2   Si4
星期五  Xing1  Qi2   Wu3
星期六  Xing1  Qi2   Liu4
星期天  Xing1  Qi2   Tian1
星期日  Xing1  Qi2   Ri4

Last time we left you with the translation  for the characters 星期   今天    昨天。
So this lesson we will be focusing on the next three in the list let's get started.

So today we have
明天 ( Ming2  Tian1 ) ( It means Tomorrow )
星期一  ( Xing1  Qi2  Yi1 ) ( it means Monday )
星期二  ( Xing1  Qi2  Er4 ) ( it means Tuesday )
星期三  ( Xing1  Qi2  San1 ) ( it means Wednesday )
星期四  ( Xing1  Qi2  Si4 ) ( it means Thursday )

Tomorrow we will wrap this lesson up, with the last four words on our list okay. So everyone study hard and remember you are not only learning a language you are expanding your horizon of knowledge and possibilities to what you are going to be able to achieve out of life.

See you all next time on Zhongwen Study 中文學習。

Lesson Twenty-Two: Today, Tomorrow, And Everyday Of The Week! (Part One)

Today we will be learning the different days of the week.
This is extremely important especially when traveling to know how to say Monday or Tuesday.

星期   Xing1  Qi2
今天   Jin1  Tian1
昨天   Zuo2  Tian1
明天   Ming2  Tian1
星期一  Xing1  Qi2   Yi1
星期二  Xing1  Qi2   Er4
星期三  Xing1  Qi2   San1
星期四  Xing1  Qi2   Si4
星期五  Xing1  Qi2   Wu3
星期六  Xing1  Qi2   Liu4
星期天  Xing1  Qi2   Tian1
星期日  Xing1  Qi2   Ri4

That is a big list this time but have no fear we will get through it one just as we did all of the others.
Let us begin at the top of the list.  星期 ( Xing1  Qi2 )  ( It means Week )   今天  ( Jin1  Tian1 ) ( It means Today )  昨天 ( Zuo2  Tian1 )  ( It means Yesterday )

This gives us a few new characters and sounds to learn so study hard everyone because tomorrow we will be coming back to take another look at this list.

See you all again on Zhongwen Study 中文學習。

Lesson Twenty-One: Are You Male Or Female?

Well the last lesson was certainly fun.
This lesson we will be focusing on the differences between the male and female words used when referring to people.

你 ( Ni3 )
妳 ( Ni3 )
他 ( Ta1 )
她 ( Ta1 )

Well looking at these words they have one important thing in common, and that is that both the types of 你 and 妳 have the same sound just as with both types of 他 and  她  share the same sound.
So if you are only learning how to speak in Chinese, and completely ignoring the writing part than the the differences in the writing will not matter.

Now you already know 你 which means ( You ), however what you did not know is that this 你 is used when referring to a man, while 妳 is used to refer to a woman, even though the sound is the same.

The same with 他 ( Ta1 ) ( it means He/Him ), while 她  ( Ta1 ) ( it means She/Her ). This is very important to remember when reading Chinese, as you want to be sure you are reading the material correctly. However, like I said earlier if speaking none of the differences in the characters matter as the same sound will refer to both man and woman.

See you all next time on Zhongwen Study 中文學習。

Lesson Twenty: Something Strange Here!

Well last few lesson where filled with important words to remember and use in daily life, so I think it would be fitting to move on to equally important word, but that is a little more fun to use.
So without further ado here is your sentence for today.

你是很奇怪的人。 Ni3 Shi4 Hen3 Qi2 Guai4 De5 Ren2

Well several new words in this tiny sentence so let's start breaking them down right now.
First we have 是 ( Shi4 ) ( it means Is/Are ) 奇怪 ( Qi2 Guai4 ) ( it means Weird )  人 ( Ren2 ) ( it means Person ).

So we have our translation, which makes the sentence meaning come out close to this

Literal: You are very weird person
With Grammar: You are a very weird person

This sentence will prove to be fun and very useful to you in your Chinese language adventure.
An important fact to remember is that 奇怪 can also be written as 怪奇 and keep it meaning. However, it is still more correct to write it as 奇怪。

See you all next time on Zhongwen Study 中文學習。

Lesson Nineteen: Who's Who In The Family? (Part Three)

Well here we are at the final lesson in the Who's Who In The Family? series. I do hope this gave everyone a chance to really study the previous lessons and remember the characters and  if you are indeed trying to learn the writing and not just the pronunciation.

妹妹 ( Mei4  Mei5 )

弟弟 ( Di4   Di5 )

姐姐 ( Jie3  Jie5 )

哥哥 ( Ge1   Ge5 )

媽媽 ( Ma1  Ma5 )

爸爸 ( Ba4  Ba5 )

媽媽 ( Ma1 Ma5 ) ( it means Mother. )  爸爸 ( Ba4 Ba5 ) ( it means Father. )
Well now we are done with this series and I hope you continue to study the Chinese language with the excitement at a chance to unlock another corner of the world to your linguistic brains.

See you all next on Zhongwen Study 中文學習。

Lesson Eighteen: Who's Who In The Family? (Part Two)

Welcome back to our Who's Who In The Family series of lessons. Today we are on the second lesson in the series out of three.

妹妹 ( Mei4  Mei5 )

弟弟 ( Di4   Di5 )

姐姐 ( Jie3  Jie5 )

哥哥 ( Ge1   Ge5 )

媽媽 ( Ma1  Ma5 )

爸爸 ( Ba4  Ba5 )

姐姐 ( Jie3  Jie5 ) ( it means Older Sister ) and 哥哥 ( Ge1  Ge5 ) ( it means Older Brother. )
Well now we have the translations you just need to put these to memory before for the third and final lesson in this mini series. These lessons while not as much are designed to be a little easier to take in since we have been pushing the lessons lately so it will give you a few days of not pushing your brain so hard.

Remember to study everyday, and I will see you all next on Zhongwen Study 中文學習

Lesson Seventeen: Who's Who In The Family? (Part One)

I hope you all had a chance to thoroughly study the last two lessons because now we are moving onto a new small series of study.

With this we will be going a little bit into close family and names to call them.

妹妹 ( Mei4  Mei5 )

弟弟 ( Di4   Di5 )

姐姐 ( Jie3  Jie5 )

哥哥 ( Ge1   Ge5 )

媽媽 ( Ma1  Ma5 )

爸爸 ( Ba4  Ba5 )

Well us start with the top of the list and work our way down.

妹妹 ( Mei4 Mei5 ) ( it means Younger Sister. )

Now for  弟弟 ( Di4  Di5 )  ( it means Younger Brother. )

Now I know you may not think of these important stepping stones in your road to literacy in Chinese. However, these are very important especially in Taiwan, because if your spouse has any sisters or brothers rather older or younger than you, you still need to call them according to your spouses relationship with them.

Example: Bob is 37 and married Jenny who is 29, but Jenny has a older sister who is 32. Now in this situation bob would still need to call Jenny's sister "Older Sister" according to Taiwanese tradition, even though he is clearly older than her.

Well that is all of the food for thought today see you all next on Zhongwen Study 中文學習。

Lesson Sixteen: College Anyone? (Part Two)

Well that was a longer lesson than usual last time, so to make up for it this lesson will be a little shorter allowing you extra time to go back and study the previous lesson again just to make sure you still have a good handle on it.

Bob: 我從大學畢業，你呢。 Wo3  Cong2  Da4   Xue2   Bi4   Ye4,  Ni3 Ne5.
Jenny: 我從醫學大學畢業。Wo3   Cong2    Yi1     Xue2    Da4    Xue4    Bi4    Ye4.

Well I know you are all waiting to find out what the last word on this conversation means and without further ado, 醫學 ( Yi1 Xue2 ) ( it means Medicine  or Medical. )

So, when we translate the sentence above we up with

Literal Translation: I from Medical University graduated.
With English Grammar: I graduated from Medical School.

So now we have the full translation of this conversation, and a big congratulations to everyone for sticking with it so far your Chinese language level is already improving rapidly.

see you all next on Zhongwen Study 中文學習.

Lesson Fifteen: College Anyone? (Part One)

If you are ever out and about, you will probably find yourself in a normal conversation with someone and trying to drum up stuff to talk about. Well fear no more, because here is a miracles sentence that will cure all of that...
Okay, so it's not such a miracles sentence and it probably won't kill too much of the dead air in your conversation. However, it is good to be able to say this sentence and know the words associated with it.

Bob: 我從大學畢業，你呢。 Wo3  Cong2  Da4   Xue2   Bi4   Ye4,  Ni3 Ne5.
Jenny: 我從醫學大學畢業。Wo3   Cong2    Yi1     Xue2    Da4    Xue4    Bi4    Ye4.

Well we have a couple familiar  words in here but mostly new, which is a good thing believe it or now.
The more new words you see the more you know you are going to be learning.

Starting with Bob,  大學 ( Da4 Xue2 ) ( it means College, or University. )
Also we have 畢業 ( Bi4 Ye4 ) ( it means Graduated. )

Well now we have our translations, and I know we exceeded the three per lesson rule.
However, I cannot always break down the lesson to keep it strictly to three, but I do attempt to keep very close to it. Don't worry though the next lesson will be only two characters to make up for this lesson having an extra which should compensate by giving you a little more time to study these if need be.

Well I almost forgot we did not examine what Bob had said above since we know have a translation for the whole sentence.

Literal Translation: I from College graduated, and you?
With Correct English Grammar: I graduated from College, and you?

And with that I will see you all next on Zhongwen Study 中文學習.