DLadySophia's Tips, Diary and Issues

China, a safe country Maybe you are studying Chinese because you are planning to work or study in China. Do you know anything about  health ,  crime  or  economy  situation  in   China ? Our friends of  NextStepChina  send us an infographic that represents with numbers the situation of China in these topics and more. Basically, it is a  comparison  with the statistics of the  United States of America . And of course,  China is a safe country . We know the largest cities like Shanghai and Beijing and we can confirm that China is safer than USA and even than Europe. If you have plans in China, don't worry about safety of China.  

People's Republic of China regions The  People's Republic of China  is divided into  34 regions : 22 provinces, 5 autonomous regions, 2 special administrative regions and the claimed province of Taiwan. Municipalities 直辖市 (zhíxiáshì) The municipalities are the  higher level of city  which is directly under Chinese goverment, with a status similar to provinces.  Beijing 北京市 ,  Tianjin 天津市 and  Shanghai 上海市  cities are municipalities. Provinces 省 (shěng) The most common division on China and the highest level of division after Municipalities. The PRC has 22 provinces. Autonomous regions 自治区 (zìzhìqū) A minority ethnic group that has a high population has his own government and a special autonomous province. There are five autonomous regions, for example Inner Mongolia   內蒙  or  Tibet  西藏 . Special Administrative Regions 特别行政区 (tèbié xíngzhèngqū) These regions are highly autonomous and self-governed, but not totally ...

Chinese has a very simple way to say  hello and  goodbye : 你好 nǐhǎo Hello   再见 zàijiàn Goodbye Besides, there are different  alternatives with some meaning differences: 早上好 zǎoshanghǎo Good morning 明天见 míngtiānjiàn See you tomorrow   一会儿 yīhuìr See you later Finally, if you want to express  good evening/night  and  good weekend : 晚安 wǎn'ān Good night 周末好 zhōumòhǎo good weekend    

One of the first grammar rules to learn is the  structure of the Chinese sentence . The common structure for a simple declarative sentences is: subject + verb + object 我喝咖啡 Wǒ hē kāfēi I drink coffee Because Chinese  verbs are not conjugated , is extremely important to understand the use of  adverbs  and other  particles . With them Chinese language expresses the differences that we do in English with the verb conjugation. subject + adverbs +  verb + object 她明天去学校 Tā míngtiān qù xuéxiào She will go to school tomorrow subject + adverbs + verb + object 他昨天买的 Tā zuótiān mǎi de He bought it yesterday Let's see a more complex sentence, be aware about the time adverb, because you are free to place it bef...

Hanyu pinyin  is literally the phonetic spelling of the Chinese language. This system of phonetic transcription uses the Latin alphabet to write Chinese characters phonetically. The main use of this system is to get a Chinese language study much more easier for those unfamiliar with its writing, and the ability to write Chinese characters using QWERTY keyboards. Pinyin has  6 simple vowels :  a ,  o ,  e ,  i ,  u ,  ü All these vowels can be combined (at the end of a word) with consonants consonant to form  word endings . Double vowels: - ai , - ei , - ao , - ou Vowels and nasal consonants: - an , - en , - ang , - eng , - ong  Combinations vowel i: - ia , - ie , - iao , - iou , - ian , - iang , - in , - ing , - iong  Combinations vowel u: - ua , - uo , - uai , - uei , - uan , - uen , - uang , - ueng  Combinations vowel ü: - üe , - üan , - ün Below is a list of all consonants that c...

Chinese  is the official language of China and Taiwan, and it is also spoken in Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Vietnam and other countries. It is the  most widely-spoken language in the world . Mandarin Chinese is considered the standard Chinese language, it is based on the pronunciation of Beijing. Chinese uses a  character system  based on pictographs with more than two thousand years of history. It is a very complex writng system, problably the more difficult part of the Chinese learning. There are thousand of characters (40-50,000) and the only way to write Chinese is to memorize them. Normally it is needed around 5,000 characters to dominate the language. Each character is composed by a  group of strokes , writen in a established stroke order. There are very simple and other much more complex characters. The number of strokes required to draw a Chinese character can be as high as 36. Character 一 人 我 Meaning onepersonI/m...

Chinese  is the official language of China and Taiwan, and it is also spoken in Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Vietnam and other countries. It is the  most widely-spoken language in the world . Mandarin Chinese is considered the standard Chinese language, it is based on the pronunciation of Beijing. Chinese uses a  character system  based on pictographs with more than two thousand years of history. It is a very complex writng system, problably the more difficult part of the Chinese learning. There are thousand of characters (40-50,000) and the only way to write Chinese is to memorize them. Normally it is needed around 5,000 characters to dominate the language. Each character is composed by a  group of strokes , writen in a established stroke order. There are very simple and other much more complex characters. The number of strokes required to draw a Chinese character can be as high as 36. Character 一 人 我 Meaning onepersonI/m...