Ten Easy to remember Chinese place names and words

Flag of China

Hi, I have some easy Chinese words for you. Hi means sea in Chinese (Mandarin). I think of the high sea.

Haiku, the poetry, is also the name of a city in China. 

Haikou

The hanzi characters comprising the city's name, 海口, mean ocean/sea and mouth/port, respectively. Therefore, the name "Haikou" is also a word for "seaport" - similar to 'Portsmouth', meaning port's mouth, in England. 

Shanghai

The two Chinese characters in the city's name are 上 (shàng/zan, "upon") and 海 (hǎi/hae, "sea"), together meaning "Upon the Sea".

Beijing

The name Beijing, means "Northern Capital" (from the Chi>nglishnese characters 北 for north and 京 for capital).

English - Chinese

capital - jing

east -东 Dōng

good - how

mountain - shan

mouth or port - kou

north - 北 Běi

sea - hai

south - 南 Nán

upon - shang/zan

You  - ni

Chinese 

bei - north

dong - east

hai - sea

how - good

jing - capital

kou - mouth or port

Nán - south

ni - you

shan - mountain

Shang/zan - upon

Useful Websites (alphabetically)

chineasy

Here are the signs for roof, moon, king, person, fire, mountain (Shan - a popular first name for girls in China and Singapore), horse (ma), sun, mouth, door. chineasy uses pictures. I bought their book and flashcards. 

person

https://translate.google.com/

wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_characters

About the Author Of This Post, Angela

Angela Lansbury, travel researcher/writer and photographer, author and speaker. 

Author of Wedding Speeches & Posts, Etiquette for Every Occasion, Quick Quotations, Who Said What When?

You can contact Angela through Facebook, LinkedIn, and Braddell Heights Advanced Toastmasters on Facebook or Toastmasters Interntional.com find a club . Angela is a member of four Toastmasters Clubs and BHA IPP, Immediate Past President, and VP PR (Vice President Public Relations) for 20202-2021

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Learning About Korean and Learning Korean on Memrise - my memory aids for hello, goodbye, Korean and maybe

Problem
I am learning Korean on memrise. Most of the syllables aren't easy.

Answer
The language was created in the 15th century by ruler Sejong the Great.
The alphabet has:
19 consonants - whose shape imitates the shape of your mouth saying them.
21 vowels.
That's funny. Another site says 14 consonants and 10 vowels. I supposed it depends on whether you count the doubles and the end of word letters.

The word HAN means great. Geul means script or writing.
Han also means Korea.

I have made up a few memory aids.

Korean on the world map from Wikipedia article on Korea.

For example:

The M sound is square and reminds me of the same square shape in Chinese and Japanese means mouth.

The K sound is a bit like a kite shape or an arrow.

Memrise allows you to write in a word or add a picture as a memory aid.

The yo sound looks like two verticals and I think of it as two yo-yos, or the letter Y formed into a square.

The yae sound looks like an elongated H or ladder and I remember: Yay! I'm climbing a ladder.

Korean flag from Wikipedia.

Hangeul is the Korean word for Korean language and Korea. It looks like the letter o followed by a hanging symbol. So I remember 0h - hang - o!

The word for maybe/probably looks like o then a square then an opened square, o - maybe not - maybe.

The sign for Hi or goodbye has a circle in the air above another sign followed by a low circle below another sign. Think of it like the letter o in hello then the two letters o in goodbye.


Wikipedia and even simple wikipedia give you umpteen varations and are impossible for me to follow.

https://yeskorean.com/learn-korean/lesson-1-the-korean-alphabet-is-24-letters/

memrise.com

Author
Angela Lansbury

Update on learning to swim the crawl on holiday

Problem
I can already swim breast stroke and I am learning the crawl. (I aim to learn one new stroke a year.) Regarding the crawl, I have progressed from doggy paddle to something which looks like extended arm movements. So far so good.

The next stage is to get somebody to watch me. If you don't have an instructor, you could ask somebody to video you on a smartphone. Send the video to somebody who can do the crawl.

I have somebody to watch me. Bad news. He says I have my head out of the water, like breast stroke, and I should have my head under water, turning and coming up to breathe. Yikes!

My eyes should be under water. I had grasped the instruction to have ears under water and dealt with the dicomfort. I have a waterrpoof swimhat, most importantly pulled down over my ears.

But eyes under water? How about goggles?

Nose under water?

This requires some more co-ordination.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.

How do I remember Abertawe is Welsh for Swansea?

Problem
I must have seen and learned this a dozen times and I still keep forgetting. I can recognize it when I see the two words together on signs. But not when I see either of the words alone and have to recall the other.

Answer
I recall that Aber means mouth of the river, where it sees the sea.

I must look at the two words again and find a link.

ABERTAWE - SWANSEA

AbErtAWE - sWAnSEA

I can see the W in both words.

AW in Abertawe. WA in sWAnsea.

E on the end of Abertawe, and the sound e and e is last letter but one in Swansea.

Imagine a swan in the mouth of the river.
I can now remember SWAN-SEA ABER -.... TAWE - To A Wide Estuary

Welsh - English
Abertawe - Swansea
Abertawe - Swansea
Abertawe - Swansea

English - Welsh
Swansea - Abertawe
Swansea - Abertawe
Swansea - Abertawe

Author
Angela Lansbury, author and speaker. Teacher of English and foreign languages.
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