Archive for the ‘Vocabulary’ Category
Sunday, October 24th, 2010
I was at a wedding recently, and there were little cards at the center of each table that showed who was supposed to sit there. The Chinese friend I was sitting with found his name and then pointed to the characters "(伉俪)" written underneath. He somehow knew it was supposed ...
Posted in Stumping | 7 Comments »
Tuesday, July 6th, 2010
When my brother was about six years old, I watched him play battleship against my father (play free here--WARNING: turn down sound first). There was a break in the action when my dad had to answer the phone, during which I left the room as well. When I came back ...
Posted in Vocabulary | 17 Comments »
Saturday, June 19th, 2010
The other day I saw a few students taking a photo together and as they were arranging themselves the girl holding the camera shouted:
"Nán zuǒ nǚ yòu" 男左女右 [boy left girl right]
This seems to be a common/traditional way of arranging a boy and a girl for a picture or on ...
Posted in Idioms | 10 Comments »
Saturday, June 19th, 2010
This tiny article at Wikipedia gives the Chinese credit for the proverb:
"The enemy of my enemy is my friend."
as well as:
"It is good to strike the serpent's head with your enemy's hand."
But there are no references for either. I'd like to learn the Chinese for one or both of those.
So ...
Posted in Idioms | 5 Comments »
Thursday, May 6th, 2010
I'm not really sure why most of us laowai don't know about this little phrase. It's certainly not because it's too complicated. Maybe it's just so short we don't realize we've heard it. I've never seen any books or dictionaries that explain it, so I'll try:
Bù le 不了 = No ...
Posted in Word Hog | 20 Comments »
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