All posts tagged culture
How do you feel about learning Chinese one bite at a time?
Ok, you’ll be mostly learning about Chinese food, but this popular CCTV documentary, aptly named “A bite of China” is a great excuse to practice your Chinese while feasting your eyes on mouth-watering specialties. Does that sound good? More (and the video!) after the jump.
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If you follow this blog, you may have seen that we are working at an awesome place: the Plaine Images. What makes this place so awesome? Mainly its video game atmosphere! We love being here because at Ninchanese, we’ll be using game mechanics to help you (and even us) learn Chinese. The Plaine Images is even currently hosting an extraordinary exhibit about video games, which covers the history of video gaming, from its beginning in the 70s to what video games are like today. It also has a big ass game boy (that’s me trying to play it)!
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Have you ever looked up at Hong Kong skyscrapers long enough that you’re no longer sure which way is up and which way is down? Some get such a kick out of doing that that they turn it into a series of pictures! Like here in these disorienting pictures. Check them out below, and trust us, these pictures of Hong Kong will make you dizzy.
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So you’re marrying into a Chinese family. Congrats! Do you know what’s likely to show up on your bed on your Chinese wedding day? Fruit. Lots of it. Sound strange? It isn’t, really, once you understand why some fruits are associated with good luck and babies. So how did four fruits come to be seen as the ultimate Chinese wedding good luck charm?
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Spring officially started last week, but it has yet to prove it’s not exactly the same season as winter in our parts of the world. So to keep spirits high until warmer days show up, we wanted to introduce one of the best water activities we’ve encountered in our travels in China : 竹筏漂流 (Zhú fá piāoliú), bamboo rafting.
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Describing your family tree in Chinese ain’t no easy feat: what you call your relatives depend on whether they’re on your dad’s side or on your mom’s side, and on the order in which each relative was born! So to make explaining your family tree to your Chinese friends a lot easier, we created this awesome-looking infographic.
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Liu Hui was the first Chinese mathematician to provide a rigorous algorithm for calculation of π to any accuracy. Liu Hui’s own calculation with a 96-gon provided an accuracy of five digits: π ≈ 3.1416.
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Failing to succeed does not mean failing to progress.
This is a quote from the indie video game Antichamber. And it’s so true!
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The Year of the Tiger is just around the corner. Starting today, with 除夕, which is the Chinese New Year’s eve, 春节( chūnjié) celebrations mark the time to say goodbye to our Ox pal and welcome in the mighty Water Tiger. Here’s to hoping we’ll have a good year! What better way to start off the New Year celebrations than with a making/eating Dumpling party?
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Still too many people outside of China are wondering whether or not to join Weibo, China’s number one micro-blogging site. Why? Probably because they’ve heard – and I had too – a lot of (false) things about Weibo. Accusing it of being just a Twitter-copy for instance… Wrong. Weibo is a lot more than that, than just a wall. One of my favorite feature is being able to chat with my followers and getting to know each other. What a great way to build a community.
Besides, Weibo is a fascinating source of information from the people living and shaping, China. This also makes it a great way to learn Chinese, straight from the source. Read on to get onboard and learn our favorite ways to effectively learn Chinese on Weibo!
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