Clips tagged chinese

Topic-Prominance -Learn Chinese

aarenjames — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 12:14:08 -0000

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Learn Chinese Reviews

sachinrocks — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 06:38:07 -0000

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Cute Chinese Girls

erthderw — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 06:28:52 -0000

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Acupuncture Therapy

shanmac5 — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 06:04:22 -0000

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Authentic Chinese Recipes

maddy812 — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 09:23:32 -0000

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China Tourist Arrivals in Bali Decreased

commerzplusnet — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 04:00:46 -0000

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2008 Summer Olympics, officially - Games of the XXIX Olympiad (Part1)

danglingwrangler — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 20:01:57 -0000

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AimDating.info - Where Single People Can Meet And Love Each Other

alex9piro — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 05:13:00 -0000

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AimDating.info - Where Single People Can Meet And Love Each Other

alex2piro — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 23:03:32 -0000

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Old Coins

dreamzlane — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 03:10:11 -0000

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Learn Chinese - First steps to dating

truetree — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 09:42:21 -0000

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Learn Chinese - Speak Chinese - Study Mandarin - Learn how to say "First steps to dating" - Learn, Speak, Study, Mandarin Chinese the AskBenny way! Register now www.AskBenny.Cn - The household name in Mandarin Learning! Learn Chinese! Learn Chinese! Learn Chinese!

Language.pronouncing Chinese characters

Bevsiem — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 22:00:06 -0000

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Chinese characters with multiple pronunciations

"No, no, no. It's spelled 'Raymond Luxury Yacht,' but it's pronounced 'Throatwobbler Mangrove.'" -- Monty Python's Flying Circus

The difficulty of learning Chinese characters is compounded by the fact that many of them are pronounced in more than one way, depending on the context. Among the 2,400 most common Chinese characters (which account for some 99 percent of the Chinese characters in most texts), one in five (20 percent) has more than one pronunciation. As bad as that is for those who need to learn to read Mandarin in Chinese characters, the situation is even worse, because the 500 most common Chinese characters, which comprise 80 percent of those used in most texts, are even more likely to have multiple readings.

Percentage of the 2,400 most common Chinese characters that have multiple pronunciations

Most of the time, the pronunciation differences involve a change in tone.

Breakdown of Chinese characters with multiple pronunciations

change to tone only: 50%

example: 要 (yào, yāo)
change to initial only: 5%

example: 校 (xiào, jiào)
change to final only: 6%

example: 大 (dà, dài)
change to tone & initial: 11%

example: 長 (cháng, zhǎng)
change to tone & final: 12%

example: 沒 (méi, mò)
change to initial & final: 8%

example: 給 (gěi, jǐ )
change to tone, initial, and final: 8%

example: 行 (xíng, háng, hàng, héng)

Data set: among the 2,400 most common Chinese characters, the 480 Chinese characters with different pronunciations

Half of the Chinese characters with multiple pronunciations change in just their tone. For example, 要 is usually pronounced yào; but other times it is pronounced yāo, as in yāoqiú (要求)

Remember that there's no specific indication in any of these characters as to which category of transformation they belong to -- or even that they have multiple pronunciations at all. These things must simply be memorized on a character-by-character basis, adding to the burden of students.

Those who would point to the difficult spelling system of English should keep in mind that this doesn't have anything to do with English. Mandarin written in Hanyu Pinyin has none of the spelling problems of English -- and none of the pronunciation ambiguities and uncertainties of Chinese characters.

Chinese immigrants increase philanthropy in their new homeland - Los Angeles Times

Mtttran08 — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 01:21:16 -0000

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Pasadena resident Ming Hsieh made a fortune from fingerprint identification software that helps U.S. authorities catch welfare cheats, guard the border and assist police in cracking cases.

Rocket Chinese

tomrocks — Sat, 31 May 2008 11:54:48 -0000

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Rocket Chinese comes as a complete package of interactive sessions consisting grammar lessons, vocabulary building word-games, MP3 audio cd’s, text material for reading and writing practice and so on. Besides this content there are images and examples which enhance your learning and help you understand the words as well as the concept faster.

Pumpkin Xi Ban

sweetdollcakes — Thu, 22 May 2008 02:39:16 -0000

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Pumpkin Xi Ban

I was intrigued with the article (Pumpkin Xi Ban) that QQredapple posted in KC, thus I did a search and started to delve into this item called Xi Ban(喜粄) which a traditional yet important snack in the Hakka cuisine.

What is Xi Ban (喜粄）？

Ban is the Hakka version of rice snack as in the equivalent of "kuih" in Hokkien. Ban is a snack that is made mainly of glutinous rice flour or rice flour. Ban is the highlight of all special occasions in the Hakka cuisine be it in wedding celebrations, funeral mournings, temple rituals/praying or any other celebrations.

Some of the Bans that we are familiar with are:

Hong Ban(紅粄) - this is similar to our Ang Gu Kuih (紅龜粿). They usually make this ban red in color for any happy celebrations such as wedding or baby's full moon.

Fa Ban(發粄) - this is similar to our Huat Kuih ( 發粿 ). The Hakkas make these for funerals, Ching Ming festival and temple rituals. These Fa Bans must crack wide open with big smiles to be considered auspicious.

Why is the Ban(粄) an important item in the Hakka celebrations?

Ages ago, the Hakkas were very poor and the main ingredients for Ban is glutinous rice which is a stomach filling item. These Bans were served before any main dishes for any celebrations, so the guests will be full by the time the mains were served and hence the host saved on monies spent on the mains - thrifty nature of a Hakka!

If you have not tasted a Xi Ban before, let me tell you what it is like. The texture of this Xi Ban is soft and bouncy, moist and fluffy and slightly chewy when you bite into it. Wow! All the sensation in one little Ban.

The pretty yellow color is the color of the pumpkin that I used.

Ingredients:

(A)

200g plain flour

2 tsp yeast

170ml warm water

(B)

200g glutinous rice flour

100g plain flour

2 tbsp oil

250g-280g mashed pumpkin

110g sugar

Method:

1. Mix all the ingredients in (A) well in a big mixing bowl. Cover the bowl with a wet towel and let it prove for 3 hours.

2. Steam pumpkin for 15 minutes. Remove from steamer, add sugar to the hot pumpkin and mashed it with a fork.

3. Mix mashed pumpkin into the rest of ingredients in (B). (Do not add all pumpkin at once, I first add 200g and then 20g every other time till you get a pliable dough.

4. Knead (1) and (3) together till you get a smooth dough. Dough is a little sticky but you should be able to mould it into small round balls, otherwise add in 10g of flour till you get the dough that you can handle.

5. Divide dough into 50g pieces, mould them into smooth round balls and flatten them. Place them on greased baking sheet or banana leaf. Prove for 90 minutes then steam on medium heat for 16 minutes.

6. Stamp them with red coloring, however, this is optional. Glace them with cooked cooking oil and leave to cool before serving.