Topics about learning Chinese & Culture Exchange

No.2 – Deng Yaping 邓亚萍 （dèng yà píng）

Deng Yaping is a Chinese table tennis player(乒乓球选手, pīng pāng qiú xuǎn shǒu), who won six world championships and four Olympic championships between 1989 and 1997. She is regarded as one of the greatest players in the history of the sport.

Deng Yaping started to play table tennis（乒乓球, pīng pāng qiú） at an early age; Deng is by far the best table tennis player in history and dominated almost all women's events during her career. Despite her success, she was initially denied a spot on the national team because she was so short (she stood only 1.5 metres [4 feet 11 inches] tall). Her talent, however, could not be denied, and she was finally included on the national team in 1988.

In 1989, she teamed with Qiao Hong to claim the women's double title in the World Championships. The following year, Deng and her teammates won the women's team title in the first World Cup（世界杯, shì jiè bēi） of Table Tennis in May and was voted the best player of the event. Five months later, she got two gold medals in the Asian Games held in Beijing.

In the 1991 World Championships, she got the women's single and double title. In the 1992 Olympic Games, she won the gold medals for women's single and double. Three years later, she was champion of women's single, double and team in the World Championships. In 1996, she was gold medallist in women's single and double. The following year, she won the first place in women's single, double and team in the world championships. After this event, Deng gradually quit her table tennis career and went to a British university to study English.

When she retired at the age of 24, she had won more titles than any other player in the sport, including four Olympic gold medals, and had been 18 times world champion in table tennis. From 1990 to 1997, she retained the title of world No. 1 ranked female table tennis player for 8 years. She was voted Chinese female athlete of the century, and joined the International Table Tennis Federation Hall of Fame in 2003.

In 2000, Deng was voted into the IOC's Athletic Committee and made great contributions for Beijing's successful bidding of the 2008 Olympic Games.

No.1 - Lang Ping 郎平 （láng píng）

Lang Ping is a household name in China. She is a great Chinese athlete forever in history.

"Jenny" Lang Ping, is one of the best volleyball player(排球运动员，pái qiú yùn dòng yuán) in China. Her overpowering level of play was clean, well-placed, powerful attacks, always at crucial moments of the match（比赛，bǐ sài）, and these earned her the name “The Iron Hammer”(铁榔头，tiě láng tóu). She is seen as an icon in Beijing, China. She has been the head coach（主教练，zhǔ jiào liàn） of the U.S. women's national volleyball team（女子国家排球队， nǚ zǐ guó jiā pái qiú duì） since February 7, 2005. She will be the U.S. Women's National volleyball team head coach for the 2008 Summer Olympics （夏季奥运会， xià jì ào yùn huì）.

She began to practice volleyball in Beijing when she was 13 years old and entered the Beijing municipal team three years later. In 1978, she became a member of the national team（国家队， guó jiā duì）. In that year, she and her teammate won the silver medal（银牌， yín pái） in the 8th Asian Games. One year later, she was champion（冠军， guàn jūn） of the 2nd Asian Women's Volleyball Championships. In 1981, she led the Chinese to the title in the International Invitational held in Germany before the Chinese team won the 3rd World Cup. The following year, she and her teammates claimed the title in the 9th Asian Games and the 9th World Volleyball Championships. In 1984, she inspired her teammates to win the 23rd Summer Olympics in Los Angeles and 4th World Cup. One year later, she collected the titles in several invitations and the 4th World Cup.

In 1995, Lang became the head coach of the Chinese national team and eventually guided the squad to the silver medal at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia and second place at the 1998 World Championships in Japan. Lang Ping resigned the coach position in 1998 due to health reasons. In the following year, she took the coach position in an Italian volley club, where she won the Best Woman Volleyball Coach in Italy of the year multiple times. In 2002, she became an inductee of the Volleyball Hall of Fame in Holyoke, Massachusetts.

Being a Chinese teacher for many years and have met lots of foreign students who learn Mandarin in their spare time, they are not satisfied with only mastering common spoken Chinese to deal with daily life in China, they want to finally be able to read and write in Chinese as well.

But the characters (汉字 “han4 zi4” in Chinese) make lots of Chinese learners shrink back at the sight of them because they look so “complicated” and so different from spelling letters. As we all know, language learning is very time-consuming and energy-consuming, many foreigners may think of learning Chinese especially hard since it requires three times the learning time of another language using a latin alphabet which is related to sounds (phonetics) because the writing of Chinese is “separate” from pronunciation. In some ways it is true but we all know that all languages are interrelated because all current people have the same ancestors on earth who invented human languages for communicating. So no matter how difficult and complex Chinese characters are, first of all, you should have confidence to master it!

Let me give you an example of analyzing an English word: “leer” means “a desirous, sly, or knowing look” when used as a noun. So it has something with one’s eyes. What if you imagine the “l” as a bridge of a nose and the “ee” in the middle of the word as someone’s eyes, and “r” as the direction of the expression in his eyes? So this word “leer” can be remembered not only by its meaning but also by its looking. It is a “picture character” in English. Now I give you a Chinese character as another example for comparison with this English word. The character 山 (first tone, means mountain or hill) is a pictograph (called 象形字“xiang4 xing2 zi4” in Chinese. Pictograph means a picture representing a word or idea), it looks just like a mountain with three peaks!

Another example, The character 水(shui2) is a pictograph, just like three creeks.

Spelling languages like English, people could guess or pronounce a word directly from its writing but most foreigners may have the mistaken impression about Chinese characters which are so different from spelling languages at this point. In fact, 80 percent of the characters are phonograms (called 形声字 "xing2 sheng1 zi4” in Chinese). A phonogram character has one part representing meaning (this part is the radical of the character, called 部首“bu4 shou3” in Chinese), the other part representing pronunciation. Now let’s see some character examples: 饭 and 饱, 饣is the eating radical and it is in both characters, so we can guess that both of them may have some meaning with food and eating. The right part of 饭 is 反(fǎn , in reverse) which represents the pronunciation of饭. Chinese characters containing 反representing the pronunciation include 返(fǎn , return), 贩(fàn , buy to sell , monger)，etc. The right part of 饱 is 包(bāo, package, bundle, wrap) which represents the pronunciation of 饱. Chinese characters containing 包 representing the pronunciation include 胞(afterbirth, born of the same parents)，抱(hold or carry in the arm, adopt)，鲍(ormer)，饱(be fill, full, plump)，刨(dig)，雹(hail)，苞(bud)，炮(big gun, cannon)etc. So at this point, Chinese characters are similar to spelling languages. Even if you are not sure what a character exactly means or how to pronounce correctly, you can guess the meaning from its radical and pronunciation from its “sound part” (声旁 "sheng1 pang2"). So by mastering radicals and some basic characters, you can overcome the difficulty of learning characters.

In fact, spelling languages like English, have their “radicals” to represent meanings too. For example: Many words which contain “frig” have the meaning of cold, such as frigid, refrigerator, refrigerant, etc. Many words which contain “integr” have the meaning of whole, such as integral, disintegrate, integer, integration, reintegration, etc. So it is reasonable that I say all languages are interrelated.

There is one common difficulty of any language learning including Chinese - it is how to correlate pronunciation, meaning and writing. As we all have our mother tongue, just try your best to use your imagination or “make stories” or any other kind of methods just for yourself to solve that problem. Everybody has his own way of remembering.

The last example of my article is an English word “baby” VS a Chinese word 卑鄙 "bei1 bi3”. The pronunciation of both words is almost the same but the Chinese word “bei1 bi3” means “base, mean, and contemptible”. Can you make a story or correlate this meaning with an innocent new born baby to remember this Chinese word?

Music is a powerful tool for language learning. It motivates language learners and develops language skills. As an experienced Mandarin teacher and an amateur Chinese singer, I often record my own mp3 songs in my spare time and share them with my friends. I translated the lyrics of my favorite Chinese songs and teach them to my students. They are very interested in singing these songs since it is not only helpful to their language learning but also helps them learn about Chinese culture and customs, the history and the people. Here are some sound reasons to hum a little Chinese tune when you are learning it:

Listening to Song Lyrics Improves Comprehension Skills
If you've ever tried to figure out the lyrics to a Chinese song whenever you hear it, you know that careful listening is required.

Singing Songs Develops Good Pronunciation
Music lends a natural rhythm to words and phrases, helping language learners use good pronunciation. Melodies and rhymes guide learners to speak in a native cadence. Any Chinese learner can follow a Chinese song to model correct pronunciation.

Singing Songs Increases Vocabulary and Speech Patterns
Songs automatically put language into a context. Chinese learners will begin to pick up vocabulary and complex expressions they might not otherwise come across. Some Chinese songs can be used to teach specific vocabulary.

Music Aids Memory
Some Chinese songs can help learners memorize grammar and vocabulary.

Music Brings Culture Alive
Traditional songs and rhymes offer a wealth of cultural heritage. Just think about the history of a Chinese song that goes back generations and generations. There are songs associated with holidays, places, and times gone by.

Music is Fun
Sing a beautiful Chinese song livens up learning. When you are having fun, you are more motivated to learn. Sing, sing, sing! Motivate yourself to study Chinese as a foreign language with music!

Here is the translation of a very touching Chinese song, do you want to learn to sing it in Chinese:
The moon represents my heart
You asked me how deeply I love you.
how much I love you.
My feeling is real
my love is real
The moon can represent my heart
You asked me how deeply I love you.
how much I love you.
My affection does not waver
my love does not change
The moon can represent my heart
So soft was the kiss
that already touched my heart.
So deep of our love
it makes me long for you now
You asked me how deeply I love you.
How much I love you.
go and think about it
go and look around
The moon represents my heart