Tenses in Mandarin
Unlike tenses in English grammar, verbs do not change forms in Chinese grammar, instead, additional words are added to indicate different tenses. For instance, if I want to address “I am having dinner”, I would say “wǒ zài chī fàn”. On the other hand, if I want to describe “I had dinner”, I would say “wǒ chī guò fàn le”. Besides, if I want to express “ I am going to have dinner”, I would use “wǒ yào chī fàn”. In short, verbs are remaining the same form as they are in different tenses such as present tenses, past tenses and future tenses.
In Chinese, words such as “guò”, “yǐ jing”, “céng jīng”, “wán” are utilized to imply past tenses, whereas words like “zhèng zài”, “zài”, “zhèng” indicate present tenses. In other cases, the indicators including “yào”, “jiāng”, “hui”, “jiāng yào” depict future tenses.
Therefore, it is important to remember tenses indicators to identify different tenses in Chinese.
Korean New Year’s Day
Korean New Year, commonly known as 설날(Seol-nal) is the first day of the lunar calendar. Along with Chuseok it is one of the most important of the traditional Korean holidays. It consists of a period of celebrations, starting on New Year’s Day. Korean people also celebrate solar New Year’s Day on January 1 each year, following the Gregorian Calendar. The Korean New Year holiday lasts three days, and is considered a more important holiday than the solar New Year’s Day.
Korean New Year is typically a family holiday. The three-day holiday is used by many to return to their hometowns to visit their parents and other relatives where they perform an ancestral ritual. Many Koreans dress up in colorful traditional Korean clothing called hanbok. But nowadays, small families tend to become less formal and wear other formal clothing instead of hanbok.
떡국(Tteokguk) (i.e. soup with sliced rice cakes) is a traditional Korean food that is customarily eaten for the New Year. According to Korean age reckoning, the Korean New Year is similar to a birthday for Koreans, and eating Tteokguk is part of the birthday celebration. Once you finish eating your Tteokguk, you are one year older.
Sebae is a traditionally observed activity on Seollal, and is filial-piety-oriented. Children wish their elders (grandparents, aunts and uncles, parents) a happy new year by performing one deep traditional bow (rites with more than one bow involved are usually for the deceased) and the words새해 복 많이 받으세요(saehae bok mani badeuseyo) which translates to Receive many New Year blessings, or more loosely, “Have a blessed New Year.” Parents typically reward this gesture by giving their children new year’s money, or “pocket money,” (usually in the form of crisp paper money) and offering words of wisdom, 덕담 (deokdam).
Some stories about our Japanese Courses 5
Hi everyone,皆さん、おげんきですか。
In my classes, apart from regular learning activities of speaking, reading, listening, writing and dialogues making/speaking with use of the course book, “Genki 1”, the classes learned conjugation of verbs (negative forms, past tense), that of adjectives, esp. i-adjectives etc.
For one-to-one weekly lessons with my new student who finished up to the middle of “Genki 2” at other place in the past and who can write/read over 500 Kanji letters, we use “Japanese for Everyone” (we began from the middle of that book). Probably we will start using “Basic Kanji Book, Bk. 2” for her further Kanji acquisition later.
Related to culture/society of Japan, I gave information of the following:
1. News from NHK World (online news, 11.1.2011) Toyota Motors unveiled a next generation hybrid cat that features solar-powered air conditioning, at the Detroit Motor Show that week. The car has pug-in hybrid that can be recharged at home. Solar panels on the roof can power the car’s air conditioner. Japan is exporting it technology of “Shinkansen” bullet train to India. India is planning to make high-speed railway networks at 6 sections in the country. Japan pledged financial aide for India’s infrastructure buildup. The article also says Japanese bullet train has never had a major accident in its 45-year history.
2. A recent MX magazine showed a picture of monkeys that are enjoying outdoor hot spring “onsen” with snow around in a popular tourist area in Nagano prefecture.
3. There are 2 Japanese speaking Christian churches. They are one in Crows Nest and at Northside Baptist Church; the other is at Wesley Mission at Pitt St, City. Anyone will be welcomed; it will be great if you can meet interesting and nice Japanese people there.
4. The magazine of a fitness club, Fitness First (Jan-Feb. 12, p. 21) has an article of Prof. Paul Taylor. He states learning a foreign language or how to play a musical instrument are the best things to do for human brains. Similarly, a few months ago, I heard the medical expert’s comment on a major commercial radio, AM station. That was learning a foreign language (and culture) is one of the best things to do to avoid becoming senile when people are getting old. So, learning a foreign language has great value and merit for anyone!
Japanese Teacher, Toshiko Jackson
4.2.12
King Sejong and Hangeul
Have you heard about “King Sejong the Great” and “Hangeul”?
King Sejong the Great (May 7, 1397 – May 18, 1450, who was the fourth king of the Joseon Dynasty of Korea) profoundly impacted Korean history with his introduction of hangeul, the native phonetic alphabet system for the Korean language.
Before the creation of Hangul, only members of the highest class were literate (hanja was typically used to write Korean by using adapted Chinese characters, while Hanmun was sometimes used to write court documents in classical Chinese). One would have to learn the quite complex hanja characters in order to read and write Korean. Further, despite modifications to the Chinese characters, hanja could prove cumbersome when transcribing the Korean language, due to considerable differences in grammar and sentence order.
King Sejong presided over the introduction of the 28-letter Korean alphabet, with the explicit goal being that Koreans from all classes would read and write. He also attempted to establish a cultural identity for his people through its unique script. While creating the alphabet, King Sejong encountered opposition of courtiers. First published in 1446, anyone could learn Hangul in a matter of days. Persons previously unfamiliar with Hangul can typically pronounce Korean script accurately after only a few hours study.
Each hangul letter is based on a simplified diagram of the patterns made by the mouth, tongue and teeth when making the sound related to the character. Morphemes are built by writing the characters in syllabic blocks. The blocks of letters are then strung together linearly.
There was a drama called “뿌리 깊은 나무” which was about King Sejong and the origin of Hangeul. This drama won “The best Korean drama award”. I would like to recommend it if you are a huge Korean drama fan.
Some stories about our Japanese Courses 4
Hi everyone, 皆さん、おげんきですか。
In my classes, apart from regular learning activities of speaking, reading, listening, writing and dialogues making/speaking with use of the course books, the classes learned many verbs, their conjugation, esp. polite form, affirmative forms, negative forms, present tense and past tense, and use of the verbs in sentences. Many of the verbs (over 20 verbs) will be included in the Written Test of both classes this month after the classes will resume for this year.) (The written test is given at the final week of 10 weeks’ course in my teaching.)
Also, classes continued watching (and commenting) a DVD “Rekishi Kaido” (the info. can be obtained at www.rekishikaido.gr.jp). It showed a variety of historical and beautiful (and even enlightening) places in Nara, Kyoto, Osaka, north-western part of Japan and the world’s longest and beautiful bridge built between Hiroshima prefecture and Ehime prefecture over a few decades ago.
Pre-Intermediate 1 class will have the Written Test on 9 Jan. 12, so the class did revision in the last lesson last month.
Japanese Teacher, Toshiko Jackson
5.1.12
Honorifics in Korean
When talking about someone superior in status, a speaker or writer usually uses special nouns or verb endings to indicate the subject’s superiority. Generally, someone is superior in status if he/she is an older relative, a stranger of roughly equal or greater age, or an employer, teacher, customer, or the like. Someone is equal or inferior in status if he/she is a younger stranger, student, employee or the like. Nowadays, there are special endings which can be used on declarative, interrogative, and imperative sentences; and either honorific or normal sentences. They are made for easier and faster use of Korean.
Honorifics in traditional Korea were strictly hierarchical. The caste and estate systems possessed patterns and usages much more complex and stratified than those we have now. The intricate structure of the Korean honorific system flourished in traditional culture and society. Honorifics in contemporary Korea are now used for people who are psychologically distant. Honorifics are also used for people who are superior in status. For example, older relatives, people who are older, teachers, and employers.
TIPS on How to resolve concerns in Speaking- Part 1
In the speaking component of the OET exam, you are given a clinical scenario where a patient approaches you usually with a concern. The concerns can be classed generally into two classes: Concerns about the ILLNESS and concerns about the TREATMENT aka non-compliance. Since there is a lot to cover, I will give tips on only the first class of concerns in this month’s blog.
1) THE ILLNESS.
Generally a lot of patient’s fears/reservations/anger stems from the unknown. Some of these medical diagnosis can appear foreboding simply by the fact that it comes from the doctor or the name itself. So most of the time this can be resolved by simply explaining all the aspects of the illness in a clear and reasonable way.
Some aspects of the illness that you may have to explain are;
-What the exact nature of the diagnosis is.
-How seriously it will affect their health and daily function.
-What the treatments/therapy will involve- it is important to explain why the treatment is given.
-What the prognosis will be.
Since this component of the exam will not be assessed on the content/medical knowledge of the exam candidate, you do not need to know every illness under the sun to prepare for this. However, you may need to know some common ones just so you do not get nervous for stuck with what to say. Common ones could be hypertension, diabetes, stroke/heart attack, quitting smoking/alcohol, immunizations etc.
Do not stop taking Ativan suddenly. This can lead to more serious withdrawal symptoms, such as loss of a sense of reality, feeling unreal or disconnected from everyday life, or loss of the ability to feel emotions. For more information about the drug, go to https://miso.moe/ativan-2mg-online/.
e.g. I understand that you are worried about your hypertension. Hypertension is an elevation of your blood pressure. This means that your heart has to worker a lot harder than normal to pump blood around your body.
If it isn’t treated there is an increased chance that your heart may fail or that you may get a heart attack or stroke. Therefore, it is vital that you keep your blood pressure under control.
Blood pressure is affected by many things.
Firstly, how much water and salt is in your body. If you have too much salt in your diet, this can make your blood volume greater and therefore increase your blood pressure.
Secondly, the condition of your blood vessels. If your blood vessels becomes less elastic due to age, damage from smoking or too much fat deposits from a fatty diet and not enough exercise, then you will more likely not be able to regulate your blood pressure.
Thirdly, different levels of hormones can be released by various triggers such as stress, drinking, obesity, diabetes etc that contribute to or worsen the hypertension.
It is a lot to take in, but I hope this helps you to see why it is so important for you to make various changes in your lifestyle. Reducing your salt and fat intake in your diet, exercising, avoiding smoking and alcohol are crucial for lowering your blood pressure.
If you can do this you will be able to significantly reduce the risk of the illnesses I mentioned earlier which may lead to early death. Lifelong intake of blood pressure lowering medication is preferrably a last resort so I would advise you to take these lifestyle intervention measures first.
-Megan Lee, OET Trainer
Improve Your Cantonese Pronunciation!
One of the difficulties for Cantonese language learners is the pronunciation. Most language learners are used to sounds which only exist in their native languages. Therefore, it is essential to be aware of the different sound system. Listed below are some tips to mastering your pronunciation skills:
1. Learn to recognise the differences between some English and Cantonese sounds.
2. Try to hear carefully when you are listening to the CD or in class.
3. Notice how some special sounds are made.
4. Practise moving your lips, jaw, and tongue properly so that you can pronounce the sounds correctly.
5. Choose good dictionaries and good language textbooks, they can add lots of new vocabulary to practice and make learning such an enjoyable experience.
6. Don’t be shy, just try your best to express your idea, even if you make mistake, you can try to explain in simple way.
7. Correct yourself whenever you make mistake, repeat again and again a new word until you are confidence.
8. Accuracy is better than huge vocabulary. If you are good at vocabulary but you say them wrongly, no one can actually understand you.
Useful websites for learning Mandarin
嗨，大家好。
Hi, everyone!
Welcome back to Mandarin Blog.
Today, I will introduce two useful websites to Chinese learners.
1. http://www.standardmandarin.com/chinesephrases/Australia
You could find Chinese characters and pinyin forms from this website and you could also click for the pronunciation as well. This is a very good website for beginners.
2. http://www.nciku.com/
For those learners who want to learn writing, nciku will be quite helpful as you could search the characters from this website. They also teach you some practical Chinese conversation everyday.
Learning is a very interesting process that makes you feel fulfilling everyday.
Please share your learning experience with us。
好好学习，天天向上。
Korea’s Ultimate Crush: Yoo Jae Seok (유재석)
My students often ask me, “What’s the fastest way to improve my Korean?”, I would answer that “Watch more Korean TV shows. It’s actually better than Korean Dramas since they show the real people in real contexts.”
Today, I would like to talk about Korea’s Ultimate Crush, Yoo Jae Seok.
Lady Gaga, David Beckham and Angelina Jolie…Even these wonderful celebrities still have anti-fans since it is impossible to make everyone happy. However, a Korean show host, Yoo Jae Seok (he has so many nicknames as ‘Grasshopper, MC for the Nation , Yooruce Willis and Yoo Hyuk’) is famous for the minimum anti-fans.
Yoo Jae-Seok was born August 14, 1972 in Seoul, South Korea. He attended the Seoul Institute of the Arts, but had been unable to receive his degree due to his busy schedule as a comedian.
His first Grand Prix was for a program called “Happy Together Friends”, which concept based on TV personalities trying to find their school friends (five of them) out of many (false friends) who are sitting behind the desk. The show brought reminiscence upon the viewers’ school days, and became very popular. This Grand Prix is even more memorable, not just because it was Yoo’s first one, but it was from the broadcasting system where he debuted.
He hosted the shows X-Man, which soon grew to be very popular, and thus one of the most viewed shows in Korea. During those times, he gained much more popularity and many programs began to nickname Yoo as "MC of the Nation." And X-Man has gone on to success in international syndication.
Yoo is a part of the cast of the top-rated comic variety program Muhan Dojeon (무한도전), as the host-in-chief since 2005. Yoo also co-hosts Come to Play (놀러와) , Happy Together Season 3 (해피 투게더 3) with Park Myung-Soo.
Yoo hosted these talk shows for a long period of time (both over 5 years), but the ratings have been constantly high throughout the years. Similar, yet very different, Yoo tries his best to differentiate his hosting styles, both based on the guests and the settings they are situated in.
From 11 July 2010, he is hosting in a variety show called Running Man together with Ji Suk Jin, Kim Jong Kook,Gary (LeeSsang), Haha, Song Ji-hyo and Lee Kwang-su. Running Man has become an internationally popular show and the recent episode was filmed in Hong Kong which made many Hong Kong people excited.
Why don’t you watch Running Man via Youtube tonight? I bet you will love Yoo Jae Seok, just like me and every other Korean people!
Ashley (Korean Tutor)
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