Do you want to learn Mandarin Chinese? Do you know how to learn Chinese characters? How many characters you need to learn to speak Chinese fluently? How about the words? Phrases? Chinese idioms? How to learn Chinese efficiently?
Check out and join r/SelfLearnChinese on Reddit.
Fret not; I am here to accompany you in this amazing language-learning journey.
My name is Yuxin. I am from Chengdu, capital of the Sichuan province of China (中国四川成都). Chinese language and culture has been my passion. I founded this site to make your Chinese language endeavor interesting, fun, fast, and efficient.
Yep, I will help you learn Chinese in the easiest possible manner. In particular, I will be recommending you study materials to self-learn Chinese. Check out my Amazon homepage.
Check out the Chinese course for beginners:
Well, learning Chinese language is indeed a tedious task. It’ll take time as there gonna be so many issues to deal with. You need to show patience. Don’t rush! With consistent efforts, and proper study materials, you can learn Chinese fast.
Just to give you an example of the complexities of Chinese language and culture, I will use a Chinese name as an example.
Let’s assume a Chinese girl’s name 华如意. Hua (华) is family name. The first name is Ruyi (如意). In Chinese names, surname is written first, the given name follows the first name. So, on formal occasion in China, this girl will be called as Hua Ruyi. However, the mom, for example, may sometime call just by Ruyi. In contrast, in English names, the surname comes later, so the expat friends would generally call it Ruyi Hua.
The character 华 is a multi-sound (多音) character (字).
- 字 (zì): Chinese characters
- 多音字 (duō yīn zì): character with more than one sound
Let me explain you the meaning of 华, including the surname.
- 华 (huá): Magnificent
- 华 (huà): Mt. Hua; Huashan Mountain (华山)
- 华 (huā): Flower (same as 花)
The character 华 is so important in Chinese culture that it comes in the official name of China.
- 中华人民共和国 (zhōng huá rén mín gòng hé guó): People’s Republic of China
In fact, simply 华 also means China.
- 华 (Huá): China
Chinese characters can be extended by adding related characters. For example:
- 华北 (Huá běi): North China
- 华东 (Huá dōng): East China
When used as a surname, Hua is always used in the 4th tone (huà).
So, when you read this name, you must use 4th tone.
Coming to this name, 如意, you should know that it’s a word with very sweet meaning.
- 如意 (rú yì): Wishful thinking; as one wishes
如意 is name of so many girls in China. If you are looking for a Chinese name (for girls), you can choose Ruyi. 🙂
There is also a very famous Chinese idiom containing this word:
- 万事如意 (wàn shì rú yì): Hope all your wished come true; have all one’s wishes; everything is as one wishes
Another related term is 如意郎君:
- 如意郎君 (Rúyì láng jūn) : Mr. Right; ideal husband
I hope you are not getting lost in Mandarin. We have just started. Ha ha
Well, this page is just an introduction page. I didn’t really mean to start lecturing you right away. However, you should get a sense that how complicated a few simple characters can get.
Each and every character mentioned on this page can be expanded as much as you want.
Looking forward to interact with you and share more.
You can also follow me on r/SelfLearnChinese on Reddit. .
Yuxin
