Archive for January 1st, 2009

Chinese Characters: car:汽车

Thursday, January 1st, 2009

car:

Chinese Pinyin: qi4 che1

(Source: about.com)

Cri – Lesson 190

Thursday, January 1st, 2009

R: Hey, we’re out of coffee again! Dajia Hao, wo shi Raymond.
Y: And wo shi Yajie. Oh no, I can’t live without coffee! The machine is broken!
R: I guess we’re just going to do this edition of Chinese studio without coffee.
Y: Well lets wait here for it to get fixed. Meanwhile we’ll talk about Advanced Office Chinese.
R: Here are some key words of the day.

Key Words of the Day
Coffee machine, 咖啡机The coffee machine is broken 咖啡机坏了。I have a meeting right now。我马上要开个会。 Please give me back my stapler 请把订书机还给我。All on today’s Chinese studio

Y: Hey, something’s wrong here.
R: It looks like something is broken.
Y: Nothing is coming out of this black machine.
R: Well it could be the coffee machine.
Y: Oh no! We better learn how to say, the coffee machines is broken! This is how you can say it: ka1 fei1 ji1 huai4 le.
R: ka1 fei1 ji1 huai4 le.
Y: ka1 fei1 is coffee in Chinese,
R: ka1 fei1,
Y: ji1 is machine,
R: ji1,
Y: huai4 le means something is broken, something doesn’t work.
R: huai4 le,
Y: ka1 fei1 ji1 huai4 le.
R: ka1 fei1 ji1 huai4 le.  The coffee machine is broken.

Conversation 1
A: 你今天怎么没喝咖啡?
B: 咖啡机坏了。

R: Quick quick, I need my TPS reports. Where are they?
Y: What are you talking about?
R: I have a meeting right now. I gotta show them my TPS reports or they’ll fire me.
Y: Ok here they are, but first I’m going to teach you how to say “I have a meeting right now”. Wo2 ma3 shang4 yao4 kai1 ge4 hui4.
R: Wo2 ma3 shang4 yao4 kai1 ge4 hui4.
Y: wo3 means I,
R:  wo3,
Y: ma3 shang4, right now,
R: ma3 shang4,
Y: yao4 is going to do something,
R: yao4,
Y: kai1, literally means to open, in this case it means to have a meeting,
R: kai1,
Y: ge4 is short for yi2 ge4, which means one,
R: ge4,
Y: hui4 is meeting,
R: hui4,
Y: Wo2 ma3 shang4 yao4 kai1 ge4 hui4.
R: Wo2 ma3 shang4 yao4 kai1 ge4 hui4.  I have a meeting right now.

Conversation 2
A: 对不起,我马上要开个会。
B: 那我晚点再来找你。

R: Hey that guy Lumberg took my stapler!
Y: Uh oh, was it your favorite stapler? He better not push you to the edge.
R: I’m going to ask him to give me back my red stapler. How do you say “give me back my stapler”
Y: here it is: qing2 ba3 ding4 shu1 ji1 huan2 gei2 wo3.
R: qing2 ba3 ding4 shu1 ji1 huan2 gei2 wo3.
Y: don’t forget to use please, it’s qing3 in Chinese,
R: qing3,
Y: ba3 is put before the object,
R: ba3,
Y: ding4 shu1 ji1, stapler.
R: ding4 shu1 ji1,
Y: as ding4 is to bind, shu1 literally means book and ji1 is the device,
R:  ding4 shu1 ji1,
Y: huan2 is to return, to give it back,
R:  huan2,
Y: gei2 wo3, to me,
R: gei2 wo3,
Y: qing2 ba3 ding4 shu1 ji1 huan2 gei2 wo3.
R: qing2 ba3 ding4 shu1 ji1 huan2 gei2 wo3. Please give me back my stapler.

Conversation 3
A: 你找我有事吗?
B: 请把订书机还给我。

R: Well a stapler is all we need now to be one happy family.
Y: The circle is complete. Well I’m glad that we learned about all of this.
R: Time for the quiz of the day. How do you say “give me back my stapler” in chinese?
Y: Once you know how, send us an Email at Chinese@crifm.com
R: Take care, Mingtian Jian
Y: Mingtian Jian

(Source:english.cri.cn)

China Travel – Site of the Heavenly-King Palace of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom

Thursday, January 1st, 2009

The site of the Heavenly-King Palace of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom is located at No. 292, Changjiang Road, Nanjing City, Jiangsu Province.
The Palace was once a prince’s residence in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) and later was transformed to a government office of the Jiangxi-Jiangsu (Liangjiang) governor in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). On March 19, 1853, Taiping army seized Nanjing as its capital. The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom renamed Nanjing as Tianjing, began to build palaces on the basis of the office of the Jiangxi-Jiangsu governor and changed it into the palace of Heavenly King Hong Xiuquan. In 1951, a monument with words saying Monument For the Uprising of the Heavenly Kingdom was put up in front of the screen wall of the Heavenly King’s Palace to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the uprising of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. Guo Moruo wrote the epigraph, providing a chance for tourists to remember the peasants’ kingdom in Chinese history.
The Heavenly King’s Palace is a most magnificent and large-scaled architecture of the kingdom, covering an area of more than 10 Li. It has two walls around the city and each of them is about seven meters high. The city is divided into two parts: the inner city and the outer city, which are named Sun City and Golden Dragon City respectively. The front door of the Sun City is Tianchao Gate, in front of which is the imperial groove (Yu Gou). The imperial groove is 6.6 meters long and wide as well, with a bridge over it. A tablet engraved with Chinese characters Tianchao stands in front of the bridge. The front door of the Golden Dragon Gate is Shengtian Gate, and two three-storeyed buildings for royal court stand on either side of Shengtian Gate. Golden Dragon Palace is in the center of the Golden Dragon City, behind which are the Second Palace, the Third Palace and imperial gardens. The Golden Dragon Palace is very grand with double-eaves on the roof and colorful images of dragons, tigers and lions on the walls. On both sides of the Golden Dragon Palace are East and West Gardens. In July 1864, Zeng Guoquan and his army captured Tianjing, plundered heavily in the city and even burnt the Heavenly King’s Palace. So only West Garden, Main Hall, Warm Pavilion and corridors remain extant today.
The West Garden within the Heavenly King’s Palace underwent repair many times after the Qing Dynasty. Some of the views such as Hexagon Pavilion, Fangsheng Pavilion, Wangting Pavilion and the stone pai-lou in the pool, remain unchanged. Some of the Heavenly Kingdom’s cultural relics such as the horizontal inscribed board and pedestal of Hong Xiuquan’s Lunyin Tablet and stone drums were once discovered in the pool and on the rockeries of the West Garden.

(Source: chinaculture.org)