Monday, February 20, 2012

Linsanity !!!

Everyone has been talking about him and I couldn’t resist either. So here is my official blog post on Jeremy Lin. By now you must have already heard about how lincredible Jeremy Lin is, but did you know that he is lintellectual as well? Yes, and that is exactly the reason why he has been playing so well. Here is a video that I found through a friend of mine:



Jeremy Lin is the first American player of Taiwanese descent to play in the NBA. Just in case you are wondering this is how you say Taiwan in Chinese language:

台湾 (Táiwān): Taiwan


And here are two other names you might be interested in:

香港 (Xiānggǎng): Hong Kong
澳门 (Àomén): Macau

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Use of 每 (měi) in Chinese language

We just learned that measure words are reduplicated in Chinese language to emphasize commonality among different members of a group. And you must be thinking, isn’t that what每 (měi) is used for? Yes, just like reduplicated measure words, 每 (měi) can be used to stress commonality. See example below:

每个学生都学习中文
měi gè xuéshēng dōu xuéxí zhōngwén
All the students study Chinese language

However, unlike reduplicated measure words, 每 (měi) can also be used to emphasize individuality among different group members:

我们十个学生,每个人学习的语言不同
wǒmen shí gè xuéshēng, měi gèrén xuéxí de yǔyán bùtóng
Each one of us ten students study different languages

We also learned that reduplicated measure words and nouns cannot be used as objects. But每 (měi) can be:

你要把书给每一个学生
nǐ yào bǎ shū gěi měi yī gè xuéshēng
You should give a book to every student