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Chinese New YearYou are in: Southern Counties > Features > General Interest > Chinese New Year > Wō huì shuō Zhōngwén!  Wō huì shuō Zhōngwén!And if you don't know that this means "I can speak Chinese" maybe you should think about enrolling at Brighton College, in East Sussex! Three years ago, it became the first college in Britain to make Mandarin Chinese a compulsory subject. Mandarin Chinese joined French, Spanish and Latin as a core language for 13 to 18-year-old pupils, in a move said to reflect China's position as the fastest-growing economy in the world.  Beijing The school has built an international reputation as a centre of excellence in the teaching of Chinese language and culture. In October 2008 the school organised the first visit by pupils to Tsinghua University School in Beijing, with which Brighton College is twinned. This year, the College will be celebrating the Chinese New Year with a major fireworks display on the Home Ground before a Chinese banquet in the Dining Hall for the boarding community and invited guests. ________________________________________________________ THE LANGUAGEMandarin or (Puotōnghuà as it is called in Chinese) is the standard form of Chinese, although there are other dialects, eg. Cantonese.  Old man doing water calligraphy in Beijing The earliest writings in Chinese, which can be traced back 3500 years, were pictures carved on oracle bones. They are known as pictographs. Over the years they developed into characters which are formed of brush or pen strokes. Altogether, there are about 50,000 characters. In 1950s and 60s, China went through the language reform movement and 2000 characters were simplified. You need around 2000 characters to be able to read and write. However, Pinyin is the name for Chinese characters written in the Roman alphabet (see below). In spoken Mandarin Chinese, there are four tones. Each syllable in isolation (e.g. ma) has its tone, and the same syllables with different tones can mean different things. ________________________________________________________ JUST FOR FUN: LEARN TO SPEAK CHINESE!*Nï Hao ________________________________________________________ Nï jiào shénme? Wo jiào ... Zhang ________________________________________________________ Wo cóng .... lái Wo huì shuō Zhōngwén Zàijiàn ________________________________________________________
last updated: 13/01/2009 at 14:05 SEE ALSOYou are in: Southern Counties > Features > General Interest > Chinese New Year > Wō huì shuō Zhōngwén!  A to Z - All of our pictures and yours! |
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