Mari learns Mandarin

[Mari learns Mandarin]

大家好！

我叫 Mariana。

我的中文名字是马睿。

我三十八岁。

我是巴西人。

I started learning Mandarin in June 2021. I studied on my own for a year, and now I’m taking weekly classes at the local Confucius Institute.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

If you are a complete beginner looking for resources, I recommend you start learning Chinese with the app HelloChinese and the podcast Coffee Break Chinese. I also recommend using the Pleco dictionary app.

The apps I’m currently using are SuperChinese (replaced HelloChinese as my main app after I finished all the lessons there; unfortunately it’s paid), Tofu (for character recognition and writing practice) and Dot (for reading). I also use Duolingo, I find it helpful for maintaining consistency and reinforcing things I’ve learned before, but it also makes me very sleepy! It’s also worth mentioning that a lot of people love the flashcard app Anki, though I personally didn’t find it helpful.

And this is how I learned the tones!

[Mari learns Mandarin]

Working in Ireland for the month, very busy so haven’t really been keeping up with tumblr, but here are some pictures from my layover in London:

[Mari learns Mandarin]

Anonymous asked:

Hi, I have a question that's kind of underwear related. I've read that women used menstrual cloths but hanfu trousers underwear doesn't look tight fitting enough to hold a cloth against the body? Do you have any information on how ancient han women managed their monthly business?

ziseviolet answered:

Hi, thanks for the question, and sorry for taking ages to reply! (x)

Yes, Han women in ancient and imperial China used menstrual cloths called “yuejing dai/月经带” (lit. “menstrual belt”) when they had their periods.

This so-called belt was composed of a rectangular strip of cloth, with materials for absorption in the middle, and two strings sewn at both ends. These two strings would be tied around the waist. Women could continue to move and work as usual when they wore this belt.

Below - a menstrual belt found in the Tomb of Huang Sheng (黄升墓) of the Southern Song dynasty (x):

The materials used in the belt depended on the wealth of the wearer. If the woman’s family was rich, the belt would be sewn from cotton and silk, and the middle layer would be filled with cotton or soft paper. If the woman was from an ordinary family, the menstrual belt would be sewn from linen or old clothes, and the middle layer would be filled with grass and plant/wood ash.

Plant ash was commonly used for the middle layer because of its strong absorbency and perceived sterilization and disinfection benefits. During the Tang and Song dynasties, paper-making improved, and ordinary women could use paper to replace plant ash.

Below - a menstrual belt from the 1970s, and several historical components such as grass/hay, plant/wood ash, and paper (x):

Over time, women started to decorate the menstrual belt, so that it had aesthetic value as well as functional and practical use.

Below - an embroidered menstrual belt from the Republican era (x):

Menstrual belts were commonly worn up until the 1980s in China, especially in rural areas, and can still be bought today.

Below - depiction of how to wear a traditional-style menstrual belt available on Taobao (x):

If anyone else has more information, please share!

Hope this helps!

Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

[Mari learns Mandarin]

[xiangqiankua]

The other day I saw someone make a well-meaning attempt at directly translating “¿Por qué no los dos?” into Chinese, and it got me wondering what the actual cultural equivalent is. I interrogated a friend. I was not looking simply for a 成語 about choosing between two things, but a good proper meme. He came up with「小孩子才做選擇 」 as something one can say when presented with two equally appealing choices, although it is naturally casual and not recommended for formal situations. The full phase appears as either 小孩子才做選擇，我全都要 or 小孩子才做選擇題，成年人當然是全都要 which has its origins in the Stephen Chow movie《九品芝麻官》. Here’s an article elaborating on the history of the meme. 

[Mari learns Mandarin]

[buried-in-stardust]

A challenge to write in one stroke

You can see here for a translation of the poem!

[eng by me]

[Mari learns Mandarin]

[biglittleluobo]

🧑‍🔬🧑‍🔬🧪🧪 Chemical elements (化学元素) 🥼🥼⚗️⚗️

I have learned something amazing which is that the Chinese word for sodium (Na) is … 钠 (nà)! If only they all matched like that!!

Ex: 低钠酱油 (dī nà jiàng yóu) - low sodium soy sauce

Sometimes you may see the word 卤 (鹵/滷，lǔ, halogen or salt) used to describe dishes or sauces, such as 卤肉饭 (lǔ ròu fàn, braised pork rice), 打卤面 (dǎ lǔ miàn, noodles with thick gravy), 卤虾油 (lǔ xiā yóu, shrimp sauce).

Here is the first three rows of the periodic table!

• Hydrogen (H) - 氢 (qīng)
• Helium (He) - 氦 (hài)
• Lithium (Li) - 锂 (lǐ)
• Beryllium (Be) - 铍 (pí)
• Boron (B) - 硼 (péng)
• Carbon (C) - 碳 (tàn)
• Nitrogen (N) - 氮 (dàn)
• Oxygen (O) - 氧 (yǎng)
• Fluorine (F) - 氟 (fú)
• Neon (Ne) - 氖 (nǎi)
• Sodium (Na) - 钠 (nà)
• Magnesium (Mg) - 镁 (měi)
• Aluminum (Al) - 铝 (lǚ)
• Silicon (Si) - 硅 (guī)
• Phosphorus (P) - 磷 (lín)
• Sulfur (S) - 硫 (líu)
• Chlorine (Cl) - 氯 (lǜ)
• Argon (Ar) - 氩 (yà)

And a few more useful ones:

• Iron (Fe) - 铁 (tiě)
• Gold (Au) - 金 (jīn)
• Silver (Ag) - 银 (yín)

Examples:

地铁 (dì tiě) - subway; short for (地下铁道, “underground iron path”)

金银 (jīn yín) - gold and silver, can be used to refer to ancient currency

穿金戴银 (chuān jīn dài yín) - to be dressed in gold (clothes) and silver (ornamentation) (idiom)

Radical practice

Notice how all of the above (except gold) have a radical based on 金 (钅, metal, gold), 气 (air, gas), or 石 (stone). Makes sense based on each element right? ;)

[biglittleluobo]

Oops Beryllium (Be, 铍) and Boron (B, 硼) were missing from the original post but now have been added! Take every chance you can to enjoy Chinese periodically 😎

[Mari learns Mandarin]

[ksmaggie]

Health is wealth! Please be kind to animals!

Part 1
Part 2 (you are here)
Part 3 
Part 4

Keep reading

[Mari learns Mandarin]

[m-ushroomtale]

2023.06.16. Turpan, Xinjiang 🇨🇳

[Mari learns Mandarin]

[littlelangblogger]

♡ rating language learning apps♡

before i begin, this is all my own subjective opinion, and i encourage disagreement.

1. Duolingo

if duolingo has 1,000 haters, im there. if duolingo has 100 haters, im there. if duolingo has 1 hater, its me. if duolingo has no haters, im dead.

ive used duolingo plenty of times in the past, and have learned absolutely nothing. the stuff its teaches you in a week, you could honestly learn in a day. the grammar lessons are awful, and i hate hiw gamified (is that a word?) its become. it is so competitive, and i understand how that might help others, but it doesnt help me, it just stresses me out and makes it feel like a chore.

i cant speak for all the courses on there, but i have a pretty high level of irish and the irish course is absolute rubbish. the prononciations are awful. i knew someone who learnt some irish from duolingo and i genuinely could not understand a word coming from her mouth. also it keeps gloating "more people learn irish on duolingo than there are native speakers"

i understand many people like duolingo and im sure its helped many but this is my blog and i dont care.

2. Memrise

i love memrise ! im using it for chinese, and i love that it has native speaker videos, as well as phrases as opposed to single vocabulary. my only issue with it is that it is very slow on mobile which can be frustrating, but i use the desktop site and its perfectly fine. also i should mention that anyone can create a course, so you can find some less spoken languages on there if you look hard enough.

3. Drops

drops is... okay. it has so much potential, but in practise its not been very helpful. it has many less spoken languages which is amazing, and the vocabulary lists are really good and extensive. however, i find that i can never recall vocabulary outside of the app. the only way i can retain vocab is through context and phrases, which drops odviously doesnt do. however, this is completely based on my learning method and what works for me, so i think its definitely worth a try, especially if you like flashcards.

4. HelloChinese

hellochinese odviously is just for chinese, but im reviewing it anyway. i havent been using hellochinese for very long, so my opinion is subject to change, but so far im really enjoying it! again, native speak videos are super helpful, and i love that it suggests you take the course twice, once with pinyin, and once without. i do find the audio to be a bit slow, but thats not that big of a problem.

[Mari learns Mandarin]

[epellucid]

via

[Mari learns Mandarin]

[indigostudies]

i haven't seen anyone talk about it before, but there's a site called 21st Century Chinese Poetry that has a massive collection of contemporary chinese poetry, including english translations thereof, for anyone who, like me, is interested in poetry but may feel a bit intimidated by the more literary nature of classical poetry. currently, they have poetry from between 2000-2021, and i, personally, have rather enjoyed poking around the site.