Peace

#he2#ping2 means "peace or peaceful". Obviously, peace is something that the world really needs right now. 和平 is quite an official word for peace, e.g., world peace. But in Chinese, to have a peaceful life, or to be peaceful, we usually use this word: 平安(píng ān, "safe and sound, or being well"). Anyway, I chose to talk about 和平 because I know that this word is very popular for tattoo symbols. Note that 和 means "and" such as Tom 和 Jack (= Tom and Jack). 平 has many meanings such as "flat, equal, normal, and peace" as listed below.

平	ping2	flat, to draw
平安	ping2 an1	safety, safely
平常	ping2 chang2	ordinary
平等	ping2 deng3	equality
平方	ping2 fang1	square as in square foot, square mile
平静	ping2 jing4	peaceful
平均	ping2 jun1	equality, average
平时	ping2 shi2	peacetime

Chinese tattoo

I just came across an interesting blog namely Hanzi Smatter dedicated to the incorrect interpretation of Chinese tattoos in western society. In my own experience, I have witnessed many people having their Chinese tattoos and sometimes the meaning of their tattoos is confusing or not suitable to be printed on anybody's skin.

Also, I just know that the word 纹身 means tattoo in English. Here (chinese-tattoos-designs.com) is another "commercial" website providing service of designing Chinese tattoos with accurate meaning run by real Chinese.

Flower

#hua1 or huā simply means "flower". This Chinese character has 2 component. The upper part is (cao3, "grass") appearing on top of many characters related to flowers and plants. The lower part (hua4, "to change; to transform") appearing here to make the sound of this word. Many times, the pronunciation of Chinese words can be derived from one of its components. To be exact, at least one part of its components will hint the meaning, while one of the other components will hint the pronunciation.
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Electricity

#dian4 or diàn means "electricity". This character is like a line of lightning coming from the sky to the ground or land (as in 田 tian2). You will probably see this word very often.

Love

Do you think what will happen if the world has no love. # ai4 or ài means "Love". Today word is one of the most popular Chinese characters of all time. You probably know this phrase : 我爱你 (I love you = wǒ ài nǐ = wo3 ai4 ni3). Don't say this to the strangers with opposite sex. For those who look for a simple but meaningful Chinese word for tattoo, 爱 is highly recommended.

How to write Chinese in computer

How to type Chinese on the computer must be one of the biggest challenge for any Chinese learner. There are many ways to do so. In this post, I will describe many ways to write Chinese in your computer.

1. If you have internet connection and know Pinyin, you can visit 2 websites:

• Cozychinese.com: This web is for English speakers.
• http://us.dict.cn/ime/ : This web is for Chinese.
  

I seems to me that these 2 webs are using the same web-based application. The picture below demonstrates how you can type "zhongwen or 中文" in their websites.


2. If you do not have internet connection, you may need to install some software like NJstar. I will explain in this post later or you can google it now.

Free Chinese test at ChineseHour.com

In less than 20 minutes, you can test your Chinese proficiency from Chinesehour.com (go to the main page and look for "Free Placement Test" at the middle of right column). I already did the test and my level is Upper-Intermediate (Vocab 70%, Characters 80%, Listening 80%, and Grammar 90%). I should have scored 100% in all parts. Ha ha ha. This website provides many online Chinese courses and many useful information for Chinese learners in its blog section.

Pinyin and how to pronounce

pīnyīn

Pinyin is a pronunciation system for Chinese Mandarin. Every new learner must know how to say each pinyin. This post will contain all related information about pinyin.

• Learn how to pronounce pinyin (no tone) with China-8.com
  
• Learn how to pronounce pinyin WITH TONE via Ocrat Mirror
  
• Comprehensive information about pinyin at Pinyin.info
• Automatic script to convert pinyin tone number to tone marks (pin1yin1 to pīnyīn)

Black Man in China

If you wonder how it feel like to live in China, this black man in China can surely tell you how it feel. Enjoy the lively video clips from his website visiting Shaolin temple, eating Chinese food, and chatting with Chinese people! His videos are hilarious. He seems to have lots of fan.

Tiger

Now, this Chinese word means "tiger (lao3 hu3)". It doesn't mean an "old" tiger even though lao3 = old and hu3 = tiger.

Note that this word is pronounced as lao2 hu3, not lao3 hu3 since there are two words with the 3rd tone. So the first word will be pronounced as the 2nd tone. That is, from lao3 to lao2. Other example, such as 你好 (meaning "hello", ni3 hao3) pronounced as ni2 hao3.

Thunder

#lei2 means thunder. This Chinese character is very straight forward and easy to remember. Since thunder usually appears when there is "rain (雨 yu3) over a land (田 tian2).

Please remember how this word is constructed, because there are a number of Chinese characters that are constructed in the same way (something on top of something).

Old people

No one want to be the "old people" (lao3 ren2). The 1st letter is lao3 (old), and the 2nd letter is ren2 (people, person). Chinese people believe in seniority. So we will respect the elderly people who definitely have more experiences and better understanding of life. This word is of hsk2 level.

Egg

That's right! This Chinese letter is "egg" #dan4 or dàn, exactly the same meaning. Though, this word is of HSK 2 level. I'm sure that most people love to have eggs (sunny, omlette, skramble, boiled). I hope you can remember this character by heart. Other useful words are as follows.

蛋【dàn】 egg; an egg-shaped thing.
鸡蛋【jīdàn】 (hen's) egg.
鸭蛋【yādàn】 duck's egg.
蛋黄【dànhuáng】 yolk.
蛋糕【dàngāo】 cake

Water

Today word is one of the most common Chinese characters. It is "water" or 水 #shuǐ or shui3. This Chinese letter is easy to remember. It is like 3 streams of water in the river. It is one of the most fundamental words that you should be able to remember!

水【shuǐ】 water
水果【shuǐguǒ】 fruit.
泉水【quánshuǐ】 spring water; spring.
洪水【hónghuǐ】 flood; floodwater.