I Read Entire Books As Part Of My Chinese Study Routine + This Often Provokes Shock Or Surprise From

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Learning languages through novels and why it's good, etc.

I read entire books as part of my Chinese study routine + this often provokes shock or surprise from other learners, so here I outline how I got to this point and why + how you can do it too but with less pain! Also down to field questions lol I love talking about language learning

More Posts from Lia-kotik-blog and Others

lia-kotik-blog

9 years ago

best video ever

I don’t know what this is all I know is that I can’t stop thinking about it

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lia-kotik-blog

3 years ago

Some chinese resources (found in this article: https://kaohongshu.blog/2019/12/03/should-i-read-chinese-texts-above-my-level/

Where do I find suitable online reading resources?

Free online resources:

My Chinese Reading (all levels) *I’ve used this it’s great, especially as graded reading material that gradually increases in difficulty in a manageable way

Mandarin Bean (all levels)

HSK reading (all levels) *Just looked, seems good for finding graded reading material specific to HSK level

Chinese Reading Practice (all levels) *I’ve used this, also great for graded reading material that manageably increases in difficulty

Just learn Chinese (all levels)

The Marco Polo Project (advanced)

Mandarin version of the New York Times (advanced)

BBC news in Mandarin Chinese (advanced)

Chinese news from Deutsche Welle (advanced)

Project Gutenberg in Chinese (highly advanced)

An Annotated Collection of Digitized Chinese Texts for Students of Chinese Language and Culture (highly advanced) *I’m looking at this right now and a ton of useful material

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lia-kotik-blog

3 years ago

Health is wealth!

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lia-kotik-blog

3 years ago

hey! what's the mandarin term for bisexual? does or have any cool etymology? are there any modern/youthful slang terms (such as P/T) for other lgbt people? just curious. thanks!

Bisexual is 双性恋, or just "双". 双 means two so it's basically the exact same meaning as "bisexual".

I guess since you asked, I'll just go through some basic/popular terminology real quick:

General terms:

同性恋 (tóng xìng liàn) = homosexual ; homosexuality

同志 (tóng zhì) = (lit.) comrade; (slang) gay/homosexual

You can add "男" (male) or "女" (female) in front of either of these two phrases to specify gay vs lesbian.

酷儿 (kù'er) = (loanword) queer

A lot of general modern LGBT terminology is borrowed from the west, i.e, "出柜" (chū guì ; to come out of the closet" or 弯 (wān; "bent"); 直 (zhí; straight).

Lesbian

女同性恋 (nǚ tóng xìng liàn)/女同(志) (nǚ tóng zhì)/ 拉拉 (lā lā) / 百合 (bǎi hé; "lily")

P = 婆 (pó; "wife)/femme

T = Tomboy/butch

H = "half", or 不分 ("doesn't separate") = a lesbian who doesn't differentiate these categories or doesn't identify with either P nor T

Gay

男同性恋 (nán tóng xìng liàn)/男同(志) (nán tóng zhì)

EDIT bc I forgot: 基友 (jī you3) meaning “gay partner” or “close samesex friend” (often for servicemen/firemen/police) is also a common term

零 (líng; 0); 受 (shòu ) = bottom

一 (yī ; 1); 攻 (gōng）= top

0.5, 10, 可攻可受 (kě gōng kě shòu), 兼备 (jiān bèi) = versatile

There's a lot of numbers involved. If you see stuff like 101 or 001 etc these are just referring to the "roles" in a threesome, etc. Numbers are sometimes also used for lesbians, where T = 1, P = 0, and H = 0.5, but I feel like this is less common. The thinking is a little binary in this regard but adherence to this ~structure~ is really case by case, just as it is in the west with tops vs bottoms in LGBT culture.

Within P/T/0/1/etc slang, there are also adjectives that may be added in front of these classifiers. Ex: 肌肉0 (muscular bottom); 公0 (manly bottom), 大母/母0或大母1 (effeminate bottom or effeminate top); 铁T (iron butch; basically super/manly butch)... It's all really arbitrary stuff, sort of like "twink" and "bear" and all that.

Bisexual: 双性恋, 双 (shuāng).

Pansexual: 泛性恋 (fàn xìng liàn) (泛 is a transliteration of "pan-" and has the same meaning of 'general' or 'extensive').

Nonbinary: 非二元 (fēi èr yuán) ("non" "binary" direct translation)

Genderqueer: 性别酷儿 (xìng bié kù'er) ("gender" "queer" direct translation)

[Anecdotally I would speculate that "pansexual", "nonbinary" and "genderqueer" are not popular self-designations as I have never seen them being used online outside of LGBT resource literature taken from the west]

Transgender: 跨性别 (kuà xìng bié) (跨 means "to step across" or "to straddle")

Asexual: 无性恋 (wú xìng liàn) (无 means "not to have" or "no"/"lacking")

Misc

第四爱 (dì sì ài; "the fourth love") sometimes gets brought up in discussion of LGBT terms (although by western standards, it's really completely unrelated). It sort of has a broad meaning but usually it just refers to pegging with a female top and male bottom. I think this might be more of a term from fiction because it's often brought up with other fictional concepts like Alpha and Omega.

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lia-kotik-blog

3 years ago

Linguistics Terms in Chinese

*Common terms found in textbooks, on tests, etc. that no one has ever taught me explicitly; will update periodically through reblogs－please share if you know other ones!! We can use these words to talk about our study, ask for help, or better understand test questions and practice sets.

语法－grammar

生词－ vocabulary

口语－speaking

写字－writing

阅读－reading

跨文化交际－ cross-cultural communication

汉字－ characters

拼音－ pinyin

偏胖－ character radicals (e.g. 口袋的口）

名词－noun

动词－verb

副词－ adverb

状语－adverb phrase

量词－measure word

连词－conjunction

句子－sentence

主语－ subject of a sentence

分句－ sentence clause

注释－explanatory notes

不同点－differences

对话－ dialogue

专有名词－Proper nouns

词义－meaning of a word, definition

形合－a linguistics term that literally means “shape focused;” it refers to the way that languages like English focus more heavily on structures like grammar to be intelligible; in contrast to the below term, 意合

意合－a linguistics term that literally means “meaning focused;” it refers to languages like Chinese that focus more heavily on meaning, so they can rely on repetition of certain words or phrases within a sentence or utterance without sounding redundant; in contrast to the above term, 形合

练习－ practice

复习－review

预习－ preview

考试－test

做作业－ do homework

例如－ example

判断对错。－ judge true or false.

题－ question (usually 第 + # + 题）

请选出真确回答。－ choose the correct answer.

选词填空。－fill in the blanks.

排列顺序。－ arrange / put in order of sequence.

部分－part (usually 第 + # + 部分）

完成句子－ finish the sentences.

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lia-kotik-blog

3 years ago

So... how do you say "rice" in Chinese?

Several green rice stalks next to a bag with raw rice spilling out of it.

Seems like an easy question, right? In some languages it certainly would be, but since rice has been a staple crop of parts of what is now China for at least 10,000 years, Mandarin Chinese has developed a lot of ways to talk about rice. In this post, I'm going to walk you through not two but three characters that mean rice and how they are used.

#1: 飯 (S: 饭) fàn

This is probably the first rice word that most learners learn. It means cooked rice, and because of how central rice is to many people's diets it also means meal and can be used metaphorically to refer to one's livelihood.

飯 is used in the names of dishes like 炒飯 (炒饭) chǎofàn "fried rice" and 滷肉飯 (卤肉饭) lǔròufàn "Taiwanese braised pork rice". In the sense of "meal", it is used in the words 吃飯 (吃饭) chīfàn "to eat a meal", 做飯 (做饭) zuòfàn "to cook" and 飯館 (饭馆) fànguǎn "restaurant".

#2: 米 mǐ

A bowl of raw rice with some spilled out next to it.

This is usually the second rice character that learners encounter. It means uncooked rice.

米 is used in words that refer to rice as an ingredient, such as 米粒 mǐlì "grain of rice" and 糯米 nuòmǐ "sticky rice". It is also used in the names of ingredients and dishes in which rice is processed in some way instead of being served boiled/steamed, such as 米粉 mǐfěn "rice flour, rice noodles" or 米豆腐 mǐdòufu "rice tofu". Finally, the character 米 also appears in the names of certain non-rice grains, such as 玉米 yùmǐ "corn" and 小米 xiǎomǐ "millet".

#3: 稻 dào

A close-up on several rice plants with ripe rice ears.

This is the character that most learners can go a long time without encountering. It means rice plant or paddy. It's mainly seen in words somehow relating to the cultivation of rice.

There are multiple words that can mean "rice paddy", such as 稻穀 (稻谷) dàogǔ or 稻田 dàotián. 稻 also appears in words that refer to parts of the rice plant, like 稻草 dàocǎo "rice straw" or 稻穗 dàosuì "rice ear". Finally, 稻 is used in words referring to various crops of rice, such as 早稻 zǎodào "early-season rice" or 晚稻 wǎndào "late-season rice".

Putting It All Together

Just because these words have distinct meanings doesn't mean they can't overlap! In fact, they can be combined to make new ways to say rice. 米飯 (米饭) mǐfàn means "cooked rice", and 稻米 dàomǐ means "rice (crop)". But can you combine 飯 and 稻? You can't-- they are just too far apart in meaning.

So there you have it-- three characters for rice. This is just a small snapshot of all rice-related vocab in Chinese, but I guarantee almost all of it contains one of these three characters. Do you have a favorite rice-related word? Or do you speak a language with many different ways to talk about a staple food?

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lia-kotik-blog

3 years ago

A compilation of people from a few of the 56 official ethnic groups in China wishing everyone a happy Duanwu (Dragon Boat Festivial) from 2021.

song: 半生雪 - 是七叔呢

English added by me :)

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lia-kotik-blog

3 years ago

Chinese websites 🇨🇳[MASTERPOST]

Last time when I posted the list with my fav websites where you can practice reading in Chinese, so many of you liked it and shared it! I appreciate it so much… and decided to make something extra, add more websites I found useful during Chinese learning process.

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