Tag: in mandarin

Airport Vocabulary List

Mandarin Chinese vocabulary related to the airport. Audio clips aid in Mandarin pronunciation, and animated Chinese characters show the proper stroke order of each airport vocabulary item.
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Airline Representative

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Chinese phrase translation: 的哥 (dīgē) male taxi driver

的哥 (dīgē) male taxi driver Usage: “的哥”是对男性出租车司机的亲切俗称。起先,粤语将出租车叫做“的士”,后来,进入普通话里变成了“的”(注:“的”不单独使用)。所以,开出租车的男司机,就被人们亲切地称呼为“的哥”了。相应地,出租车女司机,叫做“的姐”。 "的哥(dīgē)" is a colloquial way to indicate mail taxi drivers. A taxi is called "的士(díshì)" in Cantonese. Later, it is shortened as "的(dī)" to represent taxi in mandarin (Remember "的dī" should not be used singly). People usually call the male taxi drivers "的哥(dīgē)" amicably. Correspondingly, the female taxi drivers would be "的姐(díjiě)".

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Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon卧虎藏龙

Today let's take a brief introduction of a famous Chinese movie named "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon".Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is a Chinese-language film in the wuxia martial arts style, released in 2000. A China-Hong Kong-Taiwan-United States co-production, the film was directed by Ang Lee and featured an international cast of ethnic Chinese actors, including Chow Yun-fat, Michelle Yeoh, Zhang Ziyi and Chang Chen. The movie was based on the fourth novel in a pentalogy, known in China as the Crane-Iron Pentalogy, by wuxia novelist Wang Dulu. The martial arts and action sequences were choreographed by Yuen Wo Ping, well known for his work in The Matrix and other films.

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The Language of an Ancient Instrument

If you thought learning Chinese was hard, then pop over to the musical instrument vocabulary list for a break. All you have to remember is the suffix 琴 (qín), and you’ll have the names of most instruments half memorized—violin is 小提琴 (xiǎotíqín), keyboard is 电子琴 (diànzǐqín) and the harmonica is 口琴 (kǒuqín). You can even use 琴 as a shortened way of saying these instruments (我在练琴, I’m practicing qin), which works out great until you realize that people have no idea whether you’re playing a piano, a guitar or an erhu.

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Lucky Number(2)

Five The number 5 (五wŭ) is associated with the five elements (Water, Fire, Earth, Wood, and Metal) in Chinese philosophy, and in turn was historically associated with the Emperor of China. For example, the Tiananmen gate, being the main thoroughfare to the Forbidden City, has five arches. It is also referred to as the pronoun "I", as the pronunciations of "I" (我wŏ or 吾wú) and 5 are similar in Mandarin. In Cantonese, this word has the same pronunciation as the character 唔and means "not", pronounces (m̀h). This word has the same meaning and use as the word 不an therefore is usually negative.

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Combinations with Chinese Number(1)

28, 38: As eight means prosperity, twenty eight equates to 'double prosperity', though most Chinese people will typically just read this as "easy to have luck", 38 being one of the luckiest, often referred to as 'triple prosperity' though most Chinese people might just read this as "you will grow to success."

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Five五

The number 5 (五wŭ) is associated with the five elements (Water, Fire, Earth, Wood, and Metal) in Chinese philosophy, and in turn was historically associated with the Emperor of China. For example, the Tiananmen gate, being the main thoroughfare to the Forbidden City, has five arches. It is also referred to as the pronoun "I"[citation needed], as the pronunciations of"I" (我wŏ, or 吾wú) and 5 are similar in Mandarin.

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