The flag of China.
Written Chinese uses many symbols. That was how our alphabet evolved. Think of the word Taurus, for bull, and the letter T comes from the initial. In Chinese some symbols still stand for the object drawn in a simplified form. For example, 'one' is just a horizontal line. Two is two parallel horizontal lines. A river is a couple of vertical parallel lines, one being a bit wavy.
In Chinese the word for a country is guo. I bought a set of flashcards in the form of a book for toddlers.
Flag of America
The flag name I learned first was the sign for America, mei guo, which means beautiful country. The symbol for beautiful is sheep, with several horizontal lines like a woolly coat sticking out. A beautiful sheep or coat, beautiful. America is a beautiful country. I want to go to there, to that country Guo is a country. May I go to America? Mei Guo.
Guo is the country or land you go to. Here is another easy to remember flag name in Chinese. For Thailand.
Thailand is Tai guo.
country
The symbol for land or country is a square, like the borders. Inside the square is the sign for the king. He has a throne and a crown and welcoming arms. Three horizontal lines and an upright linking them. By his foot is a little diagonal sign, his bag of money, or a jade decoration on his shoe. (A rich king with jade.) A land or kingdom.
China ( Chinese : 中国; pinyin : Zhōngguó ),
The sign is easier to remember than the sound. The sign is a slightly flattened square or horizontal oblong, meaning central, with a vertical line through it, big country north to south, in fact a continent. In Hong Kong you will see lots of signposts with the sign for China. The first sign you see repeatedly and recognize is the simple bisected square.
England, France, Germany, and China also end with the symbol for land or kingdom.
Flag of France
England is ying Guo. Think of ENG land go. You go. Ying Guo.
The name France is abbreviated to Fa. France is fa guo.
Flag of Germany
The name for Germany, which the Germans call Deutchland, is abbreviated to De Guo.
The name for China is Zhong Guo.
Pronunciation
Wiki gives this handy table
The four main tones of Standard Mandarin, pronounced with the syllable
ma.
Examples of Standard Mandarin tones| Characters | Pinyin | Pitch contour | Meaning |
|---|
| 妈/媽 | mā | high level | 'mother' |
| 麻 | má | high rising | 'hemp' |
| 马/馬 | mǎ | low falling-rising | 'horse' |
| 骂/罵 | mà | high falling | 'scold' |
| 吗/嗎 | ma | neutral | question particle |
Standard Cantonese, in contrast, has six tones. Historically, finals that end in a stop consonant were considered to be "checked tones" and thus counted separately for a total of nine tones. However, they are considered to be duplicates in modern linguistics and are no longer counted as such:
Examples of Standard Cantonese tones| Characters | Jyutping | Yale | Pitch contour | Meaning |
|---|
| poem / poem | si1 | this | high level, high falling | 'poem' |
| history | si2 | Yes | high rising | 'history' |
| kill | si3 | and | mid level | 'to assassinate' |
| hour / hour | si4 | sìh | low falling | 'time' |
| city | si5 | síh | low rising | 'market' |
| Yes | si6 | sih | low level | 'yes'
|
Useful Websites
duolingo.com
https://www.duolingo.com/enroll/zh/en/Learn-Chinese
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_language
Chinese flags board book
ISBN 978-7-80704-787-2
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