Word Origin Today -- 爱 [ài]

1. 爱 [ài]


In English: love

Word origin: In the middle of this character is 心, the "heart". Love of course comes from the heart. The word functions as a noun and a verb, but mostly is used as a verb. This character is formed by four different parts. From top is 爫, a claw; 冖, tightly; 心, the heart; and finally the 攵, to tap gently. So the character愛(original form) seems to already give a very vivid definition of "love": to grab the heart tightly but to tap gently.

2. 爱心 [ài xin]

In English: a loving heart, kindness, generosity

Word origin: 心 is the character for heart. When爱and 心form a term, it refers to all the good deeds and thoughts generated from love. The term functions as a noun.

3. 爱情 [ài chin]

In English: love, love affair, the feeling of love

Word origin: 情is the character for feelings, emotion, and affair. This phrase to refer to the emotion and feelings relating to love. The term is used as a noun.

4. 爱人 [ài rén]

In English: to love others/people/a person, lover

Word origin: 人is person/people. This word is a pictographic form of a person standing with both hands on the side and legs wide apart. This position is a strong standing posture and thus is perceived as a form for 'person'. 爱and人 together become a term for "lover" when the term refers to the loved one. The term also is used as a verb to stand for "to love".

All the pics in the article are from following website:
http://devanndesousa.deviantart.com/art/heart-48371395
http://little-pretty.deviantart.com/art/Oh-It-Is-Love-55313318
http://lans-bejbe.deviantart.com/art/goodbye-my-lover-117385111


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Word Origin Today-- 地 [dì]

1.     地 [dì]

In English: ground, floor, earth

Word origin: 地 Dì is made of 土 (soil, dirt) and 也 (also), to refer to the earth.  The character also refers to any solid ground on which to stand.

2.     地板 [dì băn]

In English: (boarded) floor, (wooden) floor, floorboard

Word origin: 板is composed of 木 (wood) and 反 ( serves as the phonetic indication).  It means "a board", especially "wooden board".  The floor of an ancient house was normally paved with wooden boards and thus 地板 is used as such.  It now refers to floor in general, regardless of the material.

3.     地上 [dì shàn]

In English: (on the) floor, (on the) ground, (on) earth

Word origin: 上uses an vertical line with one additional stroke on top of a horizontal line to indicate the meaning of "on top of". 地上 thus means "on top of the floor/ground".

4.     地位 [d wèi]

In English: position (in terms of social ranking)

Word origin: 位 is presented by a 人 (a person, a human being) 立 (standing) to refer to where the person is standing.  Combining with地, 地位 means where on the ground a person is standing, implying the position of the social ranking.

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Word Origin Today-- 吃 [chī] EAT

1. 吃 [chī]
In English: eat
Word origin: 吃 is a verb, usage is the same as "eat", as the 口 (mouth) in the character implies.

2. 吃饭 [chī fàn]
In English: (to) eat, (to) dine, (to) eat rice
Word origin: 饭 originally means cooked rice. The term吃饭means more than just "eating cooked rice",it refers to "eating a meal" or to "dine" - mostly associates with the daily meals.

3. 吃东西 [chī dōng xi]
In English: (to) eat
Word origin: 东originally means "east" and 西"west".  These two directions are normally represented by open arms to indicate the vast coverage between the out-stretched left (representing 东 "east") and right (representing 西 "west").  The term东西 thus bears the meaning of "that from east and west" to refer to things in general, object and food alike.  吃东西 means eating something, it could be formal meal or just snacks.

4. 吃苦 [chī kŭ]
In English: (to) suffer, (to) endure, (to) take on a difficult task/job/work/responsibility
Word origin: 苦a word composed of a grass head 艹 and the character for old 古, roughly means
old grass, which tends to carry a bitter taste when chewed on. 吃苦 means "to eat/eating that is bitter", and the meaning is extended to represent "to wallow down the bitterness", and is further stretched to cover the meaning of "to suffer" and "to endure" the difficult situations.

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Word Origin Today-- 本 [bĕn]

Seems that many audience like this series...:D

1.    本 [bĕn]

In English: origin, according to, the unit for books and/or book like objects.

Word origin: the original form of 本 is 木 , a pictographic form of a tree. By adding one horizontal line near the bottom of the vertical stroke, this character refers to the root of a tree. Therefore the word normally indicates the origin of a matter or things to be followed accordingly. 本 is also closely associated with books, since books are made of woods. When the word functions as a noun, it is normally used with books, as the unit of books, or as the origin of things and/or matters. When using as a verb, this word indicates that which is followed accordingly.

2.    本事 [bĕn shì]

In English: ability, what one can do, *synopsis of a film (in older days)

Word origin: 事 Shì refers to "matter", combining with 本, the term本事 (as a noun) indicates "of which the matter is originated", and the meaning is extended in referring to the ability of a person possess, or what a person can do.

3.    本來 [bĕn laí]

In English: originally, what is/was to be

Word origin: 來 Laí means "come", "come here". 本來is used as an adverb term to refer to what a matter should be.  

 

4.    书本[shū bĕn]

In English: (a) book

       Word origin: 书by itself means "book". By adding 本，the noun 书本 also refers to book. Note that many Chinese terms tend to combine the object and its unit in one to indicate what unit should be used in calculating the object. 书本 is a good example of such a sophisticated implication. One book is expressed as 一本书 [yì bĕn shū]. 

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Word Origin Today-- 爱/ 愛

Word Origin Today-- new blog series well be updated irregularl.

In fact, if you want to understand the words' origin you'd better learn the original (traditional) form. So in the series I will type both modern and traditional Chinese for you to have a better undersdtanding.

1.           爱/ 愛 [4i]

In English: love

Word origin: In the middle of this character is 心, the "heart". Love of course comes from the heart. The word functions as a noun and a verb, but mostly is used as a verb. This character is formed by four different parts.  From top is 爫, a claw; 冖, tightly; 心, the heart; and finally the 攵, to tap gently. So the character愛(original form) seems to already give a very vivid definition of "love": to grab the heart tightly but to tap gently.

2.           爱心/愛心 [4i xin]

In English: a loving heart, kindness, generosity

Word origin: 心 is the character for heart. When爱and 心form a term, it refers to all the good deeds and thoughts generated from love. The term functions as a noun.

3.           爱情/ 愛情 [4i chin]

In English: love, love affair, the feeling of love

Word origin: 情is the character for feelings, emotion, and affair. This phrase to refer to the emotion and feelings relating to love.  The term is used as a noun.

4.           爱人/ 愛人 [4i rén]

In English: to love others/people/a person, lover

        Word origin: 人is person/people. This word is a pictographic form of a person standing with both hands on the     
           side and legs wide apart. This position is a strong standing posture and thus is perceived as a form for 'person'.  
     爱and人 together become a term for "lover" when the term refers to the loved one. The term also is used as a verb 
           to stand for "to love".

Empower Your Career With Knowledge of Chinese

China has one of the world's oldest and continuous civilizations, consisting of states and cultures dating back more than six millennia. Ancient China was one of the earliest centers of human civilization. Chinese civilization was also one of the few to invent writing independently.
Historically, China's cultural sphere has extended across East Asia as a whole, with Chinese religion, customs, and cultural systems being assimilated to varying degrees by neighbors such as Japan, Korea and Vietnam.

The first recorded use of the word "China" is dated in 1555. It is derived from Cin, a Persian name for China popularized in Europe by Marco Polo. In early usage, "china" as a term for porcelain was spelled differently than the name of the country, the two words being derived from separate Persian words. Both these words are derived from the Sanskrit word for China, Cīnā.

The first evidence of human presence in the region was found at the Zhoukoudian (周口店) cave and is one of the first known specimens of Homo erectus, now commonly known as the Beijing Man, estimated to have lived approximately from 300,000 to 550,000 years ago.

Most languages in China belong to the Sino-Tibetan language family, spoken by 29 ethnicities. There are also several major linguistic groups within the Chinese language itself. The most spoken varieties are Mandarin, which is spoken by over 70% of the 1.3 billion Chinese people.
In China, vernacular Chinese or baihua (白話) is the written standard based on the Mandarin dialect first popularized in Ming dynasty novels, and was adopted with significant modifications during the early 20th century as the national vernacular.

Most of the Chinese people speak only one common language, their mother tongue. They are not necessarily conversant in English, not to mention the other languages used in Europe. In order to succeed in doing business in China, learning some Mandarin becomes almost a must for serious entrepreneurs thinking of extending their trading horizon.

As one of the Asian modern powers in the world, China maintained a double digit economy growth for several years prior to the recent financial downturn. Its forward looking development in high technology still sustains one of the most prosperous markets in the north hemisphere for foreign investors.
To businessmen born and raised in the occidental culture, there are less people who are exposed to Chinese language and culture in your surrounding world. Thus, there are more opportunities and less competition on the commercial market.

If you would like to familiarize yourself with the Chinese language and extend your working circle towards the China market, we suggest that you should at least acquire some knowledge of the spoken and written Chinese before motions are taken for you to move your business realm towards the Asian Pacific.

How can you learn with an online Chinese tutor?

Chinese is generally considered a difficult language for westerns to learn in that it is a tonal and ideographic language. New Chinese learners tend to struggle with the four/five tones of Chinese and have a hard time trying to distinguish between the tones, not to mention to pronounce the different tones. As a Chinese language teacher, I strongly believe the positive learning effects of wisely using learning aids, and exposing yourself to the Chinese language.

I recommend you to choose your own preferred learning aids according to your individual needs. Flashcards, tapes, CDs, and online learning websites are all good resources. Some people are better audio learners while other people learn better visually. It is important for you to identify your best learning method in order to achieve your best learning results.

In addition, with the convenience of internet, you can easily find useful learning materials on the web. Having Chinese pen pals is a good way to practice writing or typing the Chinese characters, and get to learn the Chinese culture. You can also easily find a Chinese-speaking person on a chat room to practice listening and speaking skills. However, if you are a serious language learner and seeking for high-quality professionals to better assist you, then you should consider hiring an on-line Chinese tutor. TutorChinese has spent three years researching the digital learning market, developing its learning materials and software, and recruiting outstanding Chinese teachers who can outline a learning path for you according to your specific learning needs. You are welcome to visit our website and request for a trial lesson.

As for learning to write the Chinese characters, I recommend you to decipher the characters and study the origins of each character (please refer to our previous posts). It is also important to learn to write in the correct stroke order because when you write in the standard sequence over and over again, you will remember the characters more easily after numerous repetitions, and writing will not be a difficult task but a way to appreciate the beauty of the characters as a unique art form.

With the right learning aids and the Chinese-speaking environment, you also need a strong motivation to learn in order to succeed. As China’s economy growing so rapidly, learning the Chinese language indeed offers people of other languages a lot of competitive edge in the job market. Now it is the right time for you to invest yourself!

Familiarize yourself with the Trends in Chinese Language Learning

No one can deny the fact that is trendy to learn Chinese in the 21st century. But how to learn it is the exactly trendy approach depends on your viewpoint.

In the good old days, people believe that to learn a language you have to expose yourself in a linguistic environment. Many students travel miles to be immersed in the Chinese culture. It might have been working. But not everyone is capable of doing it.

Since the cyberspace becomes available to modern people, online language institute provides an alternative to the physical presence. If you have a computer in your study, you can just surf the web and study Chinese with a tutor of your own choice.

"Computer technique enables today’s students of Chinese language to take advantage of a never better opportunity,” said Jack Zhang, CEO of the Tutor Chinese Company, “One can acquire the Chinese language one-on-one at his or her own pace.”

Jack Zhang spent the last three years developing a system that proved very efficient in Chinese language instruction. Thousands of students have benefited from learning online and achieved noteworthy advancement in learning Chinese from their own study.

“We have former students all over the world that started from scratch and yet ended up speaking, even writing Chinese with little difficulties,” confirmed Jack Zhang who excels in the field of online Chinese instruction.

Computer-based tests become a trendy operation in China

The growth of computer-based testing in the developed economies over the past 20 years has now started being replicated on mainland China.

Although pencil and paper remain the tools of choice for people sitting in examinations, China saw computer-based tests as a more reliable way of preventing test information leakages.
ATA, a Nasdaq-listed computer-based testing and education services provider, is the primary player in China, which claims that it has 95 percent of the market. Its growth depends on new market opportunities coming with the change of pencil and paper-based tests to computer-aided ones. And the transformation is now faster than ever.

The government’s increased awareness of the merits of computer-based testing and demand of test-takers for a more accurate and fairer evaluation prompt the rapid market growth. Now ATA hosts many more trial computer-based tests than in the past years.
It is estimated that at least 5 percent of mainland tests are conducted on computers. In comparison with the much larger figure in the overseas markets, China posts a moderate estimate of potential market at 100 billion Yuan (US$14.63 billion).

Avoid plaguing of swine flu by attending online classes at home

While swine flu devastates world health environment and people flee public areas to prevent contaminating agents, the traditional classroom education is now facing challenges.

Body contact between schoolmates proves a feasible instrument which can serve as a channel for swine flu viruses. That is why Mexico closed its convention schools and sent students home to eschew being exposed to epidemic.

Online school, in such case, is an alternative to learners who intend to sustain their studies. According to Jack Zhang, who runs a cyber educational system that teaches Chinese, business people who rely on the web to distribute knowledge may benefit from the spread of swine flu than sacrifice their profit margins.

People tend to be more interested in classes provided via high technology directly to your residence because flu virus can be easily screened while no class gathering takes place. Learning from tutors on cyberspace can be a solution which helps you stay away from being vulnerable to swine flu.

If you are interested in oline one-to-one tutoring, you can visit my compamy's website http://www.tutorchinese.com/ .

A few things to keep in mind before you learn Chinese

To the westerners, Chinese is a language as different as words from the Mars. In order to learn it, you have to be informed of the major differences between Chinese and your mother tongue.

Unlike most occidental languages, Chinese is constituted by single-syllable characters. And each character carries up to five different tones. So for each character you pronounce, there is meaning to it
.
One does not have to know how to write Chinese first in order to learn how to speak the language. If you have good ear, you can just pick up the sound and the tone directly and mimic the way Chinese is presented.

As learning any other language, vocabulary is a key factor towards commanding the language. The more Chinese characters you have in your head, the better Chinese you can speak.

You do not have to be afraid of making mistakes. Sometimes, you also slip in your native tongue. Be sure to finish what you have in mind because little error can be ignored when you try really hard to make yourself understood.

If you have any problems with Chinese lanugaue learning, you can visit my company's website http://www.tutorchinese.com/