Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Chinese GPS

Have you ever wondered how a chinese GPS might sound? Well it might not say these exact words, but here is a direction from 银行 (Yínháng) to 邮局 (Yóujú) in the map below:

出门往左走,走到河边,左转。沿着河走,你会看到一座桥。走过桥,在第二个路口左转。沿着这条路走过三条街,右转,直走,邮局在左边。
Chūmén wǎng zuǒ zǒu, zǒu dào hé biān, zuǒ zhuǎn. Yánzhe hé zǒu, nǐ huì kàn dào yī zuò qiáo, zǒu guò qiáo, zài dì èr gè lùkǒu zuǒ zhuǎn. Yánzhe zhè tiáo lù zǒu guò sān tiáo jiē, yòu zhuǎn, zhí zǒu, yóujú zài zuǒ biān.
Go out and go left. When you arrive the river, turn left. Walk along the river and you will see a bridge. Cross the bridge and turn left on the second intersection. Keep walking on this road and take the third right. Go straight and the post office is on your left.
Some vocabulary from the map:
银行 (yínháng): bank
邮局 (yóujú): post office
(qiáo): bridge
(hé): river

And few more useful vocabulary:
路口 (lùkǒu): intersection
路灯 (lùdēng): traffic light
超市 (chāoshì): supermarket
电影院 (diànyǐngyuàn): cinema
医院 (yīyuàn): hospital

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Jay Chou – Fearless

I know it’s been a while since we learned a song. Today I will share with you all a song which was pretty popular when I was in China. Fearless was sung by Jay Chou as a theme song to Jet Li’s 2006 movie ‘Fearless’.


霍元甲(Huò yuán jiǎ): Fearless

命有几回合擂台等着
mìng yǒu jǐ huíhé lèitái děngzhe
Life has few rounds and the ring is waiting

生死状嬴了什么冷笑着
shēngsǐ zhuàng yíngle shénme Lěngxiàozhe
The death contest wins nothing but hostile sneering

天下谁的第一又如何
tiānxià shuí de dì yī yòu rúhé
Does it matter who is the number one in the world?

止干戈我辈尚武德
zhǐ gāngē wǒ bèi shàngwǔ dé
My generation still respects martial arts as means to stop war

Monday, May 14, 2012

The Chinese Times

We just learned how to say year, month, week and days in Chinese language. One of the readers asked how to write dates in Chinese language. As promised here it is:
(year) (month) (date)
So today’s date would be
2012 5 14 (2012 nián 5 yuè 14 rì)
And December 31, 2012 would be
2012 12 31 (2012 nián 12 yuè 31 rì)

Next we will learn how to say time in Chinese language. Here’s some useful vocabulary first:
(diǎn): hour
(fēn): minute
(kè): quarter
(bàn): half

And some examples:
3:00 – 三点 (sān diǎn)
4:15 – 四点一刻 (sì diǎn yī kè)
5:30 – 五点半 (wǔ diǎn bàn)
6:45 – 六点三刻 (liù diǎn sān kè)
7:14 – 七点十四分 (qī diǎn shísì fēn)
8:41 – 八点四十一分 (bā diǎn sìshíyī fēn)