Educational studies have shown that children at a young age possess a natural ability to learn multiple languages because they’re highly receptive to linguistic concepts. Mobile devices, with their flexibility and variety, can be a handy tool in the palm for kids to learn, both at home and elsewhere.

Below are three entertaining but useful apps for learning Chinese on an iPhone or iPad, with several base languages to choose from. Tap to start a creative learning journey for your kids!

LinguPinguin (suitable for preschoolers)
LinguPinguin teaches words grouped in different themes, including animals, food, and nature. Each of the words is illustrated with an entertaining short animation. Simple and easy to use, LinguPinguin makes learning a second language full of fun and creativity for the little ones. Language options: English, German, Spanish, French, and Japanese.

Free. Available for IOS 3.0 or later.

Feed Me Chinese (suitable for pre-K students)
This app not only teaches words but also explains concepts to help little ones get ready for kindergarten. Feeding the cute little monster with “knowledge food” covering over 34 subjects makes learning fun and challenging at the same time. Language options: Mexican Spanish, French, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Russian.

RMB 18. Requires iOS 9.0 or later.

Chinese Writer by trainchinese (Suitable for all ages)
This app is specialized for writing practice by flash cards. You can select the Traditional Chinese or Simplified Chinese version on the app. You have up to 60 seconds before a character hits the bottom, and you get marks according to the time you spend finishing the writing and your writing skills. Language options: English, Russian, Spanish.

Free with in-app purchase option. Requires iOS 9.3 or later.

Photos: Apple App Store; Pexels

I’ve always wondered where the phrase “dog days of summer” came from, and apparently it’s linked to astronomy and timekeeping. In ancient times, the appearance of Sirius, the brightest star (after the Sun) in the night sky signaled the peak of summer, and was a precursor to flooding (because of monsoonal rains) in Egypt or drought and sickness (because of extreme heat) in the northern Mediterranean.

Sirius is also known as the Dog Star because it is a prominent part of the constellation Canis Major (or “Great Dog”). In Chinese astronomy, Sirius is known as 天狼星 (Tiānlángxīng, lit. “Heavenly Wolf Star”) — and as we know it, the wolf is a member of the canine genus.

Sirius is 8.6 light-years away, that is to say very very far from Earth, so its heat doesn’t really affect our sweltering summer

Speaking of Chinese, the term “dog days” exists in the vernacular as 三伏天 (Sān fútiān, lit. “Three Fu Days”). Though the term doesn’t have any literal relation to dogs or any kind of canines whatsoever, it is strongly associated with the way ancient Chinese recorded time through astronomical measurements. A fútiān is essentially a period of hot days, and according to Purple Bamboo Language School, the first period called 初伏 (chūfú, lit. “the beginning of fu“) happens for 10 days in mid-July; the second 中伏 (zhōngfú, lit. “middle fu“) between 10 and 20 days in late July to early August; and the last 末伏 (mòfú, lit. “the end of fu”) with 10 days in mid-August.

The way the ancient Chinese calculated the beginning of the sān fútiān is very complicated, and most people nowadays wouldn’t care much about this antiquated timekeeping method. (If you want to know more about the sān fútiān, we explained its intricacies in a 2016 article).

However, during the sān fútiān, just like the other periods and terms in the Chinese lunisolar calendar, there are recommended dishes to help the body recuperate from the illnesses that happen when the temperature changes. And aside from eating cooling fruits like watermelon and lychee, the food that we should munch on during the sān fútiān are hot (wheat or flour-based) noodle dishes, because apparently, they can help the body detoxify and recover vitamin B and other essential minerals that are lost when we sweat too much. Don’t know what kind of noodle dish to eat? Check out tons of flavor (味道 wèidào) to choose from in this post.

Anyway, as with our usual Mandarin Monday articles, here are some phrases and words that you can use during the dog days of summer!

Clothing and sun gear

– Sandals 凉鞋 liángxié
– Flip-flops 人字拖鞋 rén zì tuōxie
– Sunglasses 黑镜 hēi jìng
– Parasol 太阳伞 tàiyáng sǎn
– Bikini 比基尼 bǐjīní
– Swimming trunks 游泳裤 yóuyǒngkù

Words

– Scorching weather 高温天气 gāowēn tiānqì 
– Sizzling/severe heat 酷热 kùrè
– Stiflingly hot 闷热 mēnrè
– Sauna days 桑拿天 sāngná tiān
– Be bathed/soaked with sweat 汗流浃背 hànliújiābèi
– Heat stroke/sunstroke 中暑 zhòngshǔ
– To escape the heat 避暑 bìshǔ

Phrases

Hello. I’d like to get:
– sunscreen 防晒霜  fángshài shuāng
– (with SPF 防晒系数 fángshài xìshù)
– a mosquito repellent 防蚊液 fáng wén yè
– A portable fan 可携式风扇 kě xī shì fēngshàn
– Cool bag 冰袋 bīngdài

I want…
– A bottle of cold water 冰水 bīng shuǐ
– Ice cubes 冰块 bīng kuài
– Ice cream 冰激凌 bīngjílíng
– Popsicle 冰棍 bīnggùn
– (Vanilla flavor 香草味 xīang cáo wèi)
– (Chocolate flavor 巧克力味 qiǎokèlì wèi)  

Can you turn the air-conditioning on?
请问可以开空调吗? Qǐng wèn kěyǐ kāi kōngtiáo ma?
空调 kōngtiáo

Where’s the nearest swimming pool?
请问最近的游泳池在哪里? Qǐng wèn zuì jìn de yóuyǒngchí zài nǎlǐ?
游泳池 yóuyǒngchí

Let’s go out and have a picnic in Chaoyang Park
我们去朝阳公园野餐吧! Wǒmen qù cháoyáng gōngyuán yěcān ba!
野餐 yěcān

The sun’s too bright! Wear sunglasses!
太晒了，戴上墨镜吧！Tài shài le, dài shàng mò jìng ba!

Translations by Huang Chenkuang and Purple Bamboo Language School (WeChat: Purple-Bamboo-School)
Photos: Ruel Madelo and Jack Geoghegan via Pexels; Mellostorm via Wikimedia Commons (Sirius photo)

We can imagine what you must be going through upon finding out that you are pregnant for the first time as an expat in a foreign land like Beijing. So we’ve compiled a list of necessary terms that will hopefully make things a tad easier in days leading up to and on the big day itself.

Birth – 出生 chūshēng
— birth canal – 产道 chǎndào
— birth plan – 分娩计划 fēnmiǎn jìhuà
Breastfeed – 喂奶 wèinǎi
Breast milk – 母乳 mǔrǔ
Breast pump – 吸奶器 xīnǎiqì
Cesarean/C-section – 剖腹产 pōufùchǎn / 剖腹产术 pōufùchǎn shù
Circumcision – 割礼 gēlǐ / 包皮环切 bāopí huánqiē
Crowning – 儿头初露 értóu chūlù
Deliver (baby) vaginally – 顺产 shùnchǎn / 自己生 zìjǐ shēng (common language)
Doctor – 医生 yīshēng / 大夫 dàifu
Due date – 预产期 yùchǎnqī
Emergency – 急诊 jízhěn
Epidural – 硬膜外麻醉 yìng mó wài má zuì
Exam/check-up – 检查 jiǎnchá
Fetus (8 weeks – 40+ weeks) – 胎儿 tāi’ér
Formula (milk supplement) – 配方奶粉 pèifāngnǎifěn
Give birth (to a child) – 生孩子 shēng háizi
Hospital – 医院 yīyuàn
Morning sickness – 晨吐 chéntǔ
Movement (of baby) – 胎动 tāidòng
Natural delivery; no complications – 顺产 shùnchǎn
Normal (test result, etc…) – 正常 zhèngcháng
Nurse – 护士 hùshi
Obstetrical ward/maternity ward – 产科病房 chǎnkē bìngfáng
Pregnancy test (noun) – 试孕纸 shìyùnzhǐ
Pregnancy test (verb) – 怀孕试验 huáiyùn shìyàn
Pregnant – 怀孕 huáiyùn
Premature labor – 早产 zǎochǎn
Ultrasound – B超 B-chāo (common) / 超声波 chāoshēngbō (formal)
Water broke; amniotic fluid/water (to naturally break) – 羊水破了 yángshuǐ pòle

Photo: sherwood via Pixabay
This article appeared on p36-37 of the beijingkids July 2018 Home & Relocation Guide issue

First of all, our team at beijingkids wishes you a wonderful Christmas!

You might be celebrating now, but our task of learning Chinese doesn’t stop just yet. In our recent feature article, we listed some words to know this holiday. If you’ve missed them, here’s the vocab list:

– 圣诞节 (Shèngdànjié), “Christmas”
– 圣诞快乐 (Shèngdàn kuàile), “Happy Christmas”
– 圣诞老人 (Shèngdàn laoren), “Old Christmas Man” or, you know him, Santa Claus
– 圣诞树 (Shèngdàn shù), “Christmas tree”
– 叮叮当 (ding ding dāng), “Jingle Bells.”

Though Christmas in China is viewed as a commercialized western holiday rather than a Christian festival, there are still local traditions that link the celebration to its religious roots. You might have seen people handing out apples on Christmas Eve and wondered why. This tradition comes from homophones of the character 平 (píng). Christmas Eve is called 平安夜 (ping’an ye, “quiet/peaceful evening”), and this phrase is translated from the popular carol, “Silent Night.” The same pronunciation of píng occurs in the Chinese words for “peace,” 和平 (hépíng) and “apple” 苹果 (píngguǒ).

The price of apples gets expensive especially during the week before Christmas.

Besides the clever word game, the link between the apple and Christmas might not be a fully Chinese tradition in the first place. There have been mentions of this in religious literature and western customs.

In the 18th century, a poem called “Jesus Christ the Apple Tree” was written by an unknown author. The poem has been adapted into a hymn, then later on into a carol (see this YouTube video, if you’re not familiar with this carol — VPN needed). The “apple” in the poem is seen to be a metaphor that represents Jesus Christ as the tree of life.

There’s also a tradition in Germany in which a polished red apple is hidden among the Christmas tree branches. This apple is called Paradiesapfel (Paradise Apple), and is said to bring anyone who sees it nearer to paradise. Christians believe that Jesus Christ will lead everyone to paradise.

Let’s go back to the Chinese phrase for Christmas, – 圣诞节 Shèngdànjié. While this Chinese phrase doesn’t specifically mention Christianity, the characters 圣诞 relate to the idea behind the religious celebration: 圣 shèng means “holy,” “sacred,” or “saint;” 诞 dàn means “birth;” and 节 jié is “festival.” From them, we get “Sacred Birth Festival” or “Saint’s Birth Festival” literally.

Photos: GB Times, China Whisper

The summer heat is just getting unbearable, isn’t it? One great way to cool down is to sip a cold, thirst-quenching beverage. Of course, water is fine, but these sweltering days call for a refreshing taste, courtesy of your local café or milk tea stall.

But when you’re at a store really thirsty and ready to gulp down a drink, you can find yourself stuck at the càidān. You tell the fúwùyuán “I want this,” but he can’t understand you, unless you perform a sort of ritual (aka sign language). Okay – so he got your order but 10 minutes later, he arrives with something entirely different: flavor, size, sweetness, and everything!

This has happened to me a lot of times, and I end up either drinking that beverage or just canceling everything and walking away. So I thought of compiling a list of phrases (with characters and pinyin) which we can use when ordering a beverage to make things easier…

Do you have an English menu?
Nǐ yǒu yīngwén càidān ma? 你有英文菜单吗？
Listen for this: Méiyǒu 没有 (We don’t have [an English menu])

I want a…
Wǒ yào 我要…
– frappuccino – xīng bīng lè 星冰乐
– iced coffee – bīng kāfēi 冰咖啡
– milk tea – nǎichá 奶茶
– fruit tea – shuǐguǒ chá 水果茶
– smoothie – bīng shā 冰沙

Listen for this: Nǐ xiǎng yào shénme chǐcùn? 你想要什么尺寸？(What size do you want?)
– Tall (regular size) – zhōng bēi 中杯
– Grande (medium size) – dà bēi 大杯
– Venti (large) – chāodà bēi 超大杯

Flavors – Wèidào 味道
– Taro – yùtou 芋头
– Chocolate – qiǎokèlì 巧克力
– Mocha – mókǎ 摩卡
– Coffee – kāfēi 咖啡
– Yogurt – suānnǎi 酸奶
– Green tea – lǜchá 绿茶
– Black tea – hóngchá 红茶
– Passion fruit – bǎixiāng guǒ 百香果
– Lychee – lìzhī 荔枝
– Strawberry – cǎoméi 草莓
– Mango – mángguǒ 芒果
– Coconut – yēzi 椰子

Add-ons
Please add… Qǐng jiā 请加
– (little/more) ice – (shǎo/duō) bīng (少/多) 冰
– whipped cream – biāndǎ nǎiyóu 鞭打奶油
– coffee jelly – kāfēi guǒdòng 咖啡果冻
– black pearl – hēi zhēnzhū 黑珍珠
– coconut jelly – yēzi guǒdòng 椰子果冻
– pudding – bùdīng 布丁
– red bean – hóngdòu 红豆

Sugar level – Tián dù 甜度
– 100 percent sweetness – quán táng 全糖
– 70 percent (or any number except 100 and 50) – qi fēn táng 7分糖
– 50 percent – bàn táng 半糖
– I don’t want sugar – wú táng 无糖

Photos: StockSnap, MorningbirdPhoto, PublicDomainPictures, via Pixabay

More stories by this author here.
Email: andypenafuerte@beijing-kids.com
Instagram: @coolkidandy

In today’s Subway Sunday, we travel to Xuānwǔmén (宣武门), one of Beijing’s ancient imperial gates southwest of the Forbidden City. Today, Xuanwumen is a transfer station for both Line 2 (the Second Ring Road loop) and Line 4 (Daxing Line).

Its namesake, Xuānwǔmén or literally the “Gate of Military Proclamation” was informally referred to as the “Death Gate,” because carts carrying prisoners for execution were taken through this gate to an execution ground located in Caishikou, (菜市口 Càishìkǒu, literally food market entrance), which today is also a station on Line 4, just south of Xuanwumen. Also, funeral carts carrying the bodies of commoners would often leave the city through Xuanwumen. The bodies were buried in cemeteries in and around the southwestern suburbs.

Let’s go back to Xuanwumen…
After the fall of the Qing Dynasty, many of the imperial city’s fortifications, including Xuanwumen, were slowly dismantled. The gate was completely demolished in 1965 to give way to the construction of the subway station. The station on Line 2 opened in January 1971, and in 2009 (or 38 years after), Xuanwumen was extended to service passengers on Line 4.

Today, when you take exits A or B of the station, you will see a European-style Catholic church called Xuānwǔmén Tiānzhǔtáng (宣武门天主堂) or the Xuanwumen Church.

Actually, “Xuānwǔmén Church” is a colloquial name used mostly by expats who go there to hear Mass. The church is formally known as the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, and also known as Nántáng (南堂 or “the South Church”). Its original foundation was built in the 1600’s, making it the oldest Catholic church in Beijing.

With more than 400 years of history and still counting, Xuānwǔmén Church has been witness to the many changes Beijing has gone through. It has survived the Ming and Qing Dynasties, fires, conflicts, and wars.

So there you have it! If you know or want to share any story about subway stations or subway travel in general, let us know by emailing webeditor@beijing-kids.com or by leaving your comments below.

Next on Subway Sunday: Going to the airport by subway? You need to go through this station of the “three gods.”

Photos: ebeijing.gov, Andy Penafuerte

More stories by this author here.
Email: andypenafuerte@beijing-kids.com
Instagram: @coolkidandy

It’s true that living in a country where English is not the primary language is difficult. But that shouldn’t scare away newcomers in Beijing as staying here can be a learning experience. New expats, and even those who’ve been here for quite a time, mostly find it hard to find common household items in stores because of the language barrier. So here’s a list of some items and their Chinese names to help you (clue: you can copy-paste these words and then shop in any Chinese online stores and you’ll be amazed by the wealth of choices!)

Photo: Pexels, tiniiiii, jarmoluk, 5288973 via Pixabay

More stories by this author here.
Email: andypenafuerte@beijing-kids.com
Instagram: @coolkidandy

I am always amazed by how extensive Beijing’s subway network is. As of this moment, we have 19 lines, 345 stations (70 are above ground) and 574km of track in operation, and in the coming years we will see more lines opening.

Despite being notoriously crowded (and sometimes smelly), we can’t deny that Beijing’s subway is the most convenient form of transportation in the city. Not only do I use it almost every day to travel but also to learn Chinese and part of the city’s culture.

Let me go back to my inspiration for this article: Tian’anmen (天安门). It surely is my anchor point in learning Chinese because I relate one of its characters, 安 ān, to my Chinese name. I also get amused by the rich history behind the popular attraction in the city center.

They say the key to understanding a culture is through knowing local stories. And though taking the subway seems to be a daily activity for many, I thought station names would offer a bit of trivia that has the possibility of extending our knowledge of Beijing. So I started my quest to unravel the meaning of some subway station names after reading a BBC blog on London Underground station names (Piccadilly Circus… or Cockfosters, anyone?). Well, our sister site The Beijinger has already begun explaining what could be the one of the interesting zhan in Beijing: Jīntáixìzhào (金台夕照) on Line 10, near CCTV Headquarters on Guanghua Road, which means “the Golden Terrace in the Glow of the Setting Sun…

And to start this series, we go to the station where horses used to bathe… sort of: Liangmaqiao (亮马桥).

Liangmaqiao is on the eastern side of the Third Ring Road and the 15th anti-clockwise station from terminal Bagou (巴沟). The eastern area of Liangmaqiao houses several diplomatic compounds, and on its west and south is the sprawling central business district.

The station’s literal meaning is Liangma Bridge because it’s just close to Liangma River (河 hé, river). Of course, that river name might not be interesting in itself but according to the Qianlong website, the river used to be a bathing place for horses during the Ming dynasty. The river, situated outside Dongzhimen or one of the gates on the eastern side of Beijing’s old imperial city, was named after the wet horses that would bath there (马 mǎ; for 亮 liàng or bright/shine, one can assume that the horses become bright or shiny after getting a bath).

In the Qing dynasty, a white stone bridge (called Liangmaqiao) was erected over the river, and a village northwest of it was named after the river as well. Qianlong said it had become customary for merchants to have their horses bathe in the river as an auspicious sign.

So there you have it! If you know or want to share any story about subway stations or subway travel in general, let us know by emailing webeditor@beijing-kids.com or by leaving your comments below.

Next on Subway Sunday: Why is a “death gate” near a church?

Photos: Qianlong.com

More stories by this author here.
Email: andypenafuerte@beijing-kids.com
Instagram: @coolkidandy

Ask a Chinese guy on the street, “你知道多少汉字?” Nǐ zhīdào duōshǎo hànzì?  (How many Chinese characters do you know?) Chances are that person might say around 4,000 characters. That’s a lot!

When you’re accustomed to a language that uses the alphabet (in any forms) as a writing system, memorizing and pronouncing words can be simple. Chinese is a logographic language (in which a character means a word or a phrase), and it is helpful to have a pictographic or visual memory to remember words.

We know that writing Chinese characters is not as easy as it seems. Despite the fact that most phones and computers enable us to write Chinese characters by inputting pinyin, learning the correct character stroke order (笔顺 bǐshùn) is essential if you want to improve your fluency in Chinese. It is understandable, however, if your teacher spares you the added challenge of the stroke order when you first begin since there’s a lot of things to juggle when learning Chinese.

The rules when writing characters (with examples) are as follows:

1.    Write from top to bottom, and left to right (三)
2.    Horizontal before vertical (一 in 十)
3.    Character-spanning strokes last (丨in 聿)
4.    Diagonals right-to-left before diagonals left-to-right (丿in 文)
5.    Center before outside in vertically symmetrical characters (亅 in 水)
6.    Enclosures before contents (put people inside first, then close the door) (口 in 回)
7.    Left vertical stroke before enclosing stroke (丨in 口)
8.    Bottom enclosures last (辶 in 道)
9.    Dots and minor strokes last (丶 in 玉)

These rules aren’t as complicated as they seem and actually do make a lot of sense when put into practice. The majority of us are right-handed and writing from top to bottom and left to right would have made sense back in the olden days in order to avoid smudging the ink.

But we’re not using ink but WeChat and Pleco!
Yes, WeChat, computer software, translators, and apps like Pleco let us “write” Chinese characters in a swift. But imagine you’re stuck in the middle of nowhere in China and have no mobile connection — but you have Pleco where you can “draw” a character. It can help you read words and if you know stroke orders, you can write characters quickly and have Pleco precisely recognize and search their meaning.

Aside from Pleco, there’s another app to use when learning stroke order: Chinese Stroke Order (app icon on the left; free download on iOS).

Once you input Chinese words/pinyin (in this case, my name 安迪 Āndí ), the app will teach you the correct stroke order for each character.

And while you memorize the stroke order, the app also provides you the meaning of the character.

Ok so the character I wrote looked similar to the one above, right?

It also has a translate function where you can select a translate engine… and in this case, I’m using Google China.

Do I really need to learn correct stroke orders?
Yes, of course. Stroke orders are an integral part of the Chinese language. The number of strokes is used to classify Chinese characters in dictionaries. Standardizing the stroke order means an increase in accuracy and readability; even with messy handwriting, people can usually decipher the meaning. On the other hand, learning stroke order will allow you to emulate calligraphy masters and ensure the characters you write are well balanced and more beautiful – maybe.

On the flip side, learning stroke orders may seem like a waste of time when you have so many other things to worry about, or if the character is simple and has few strokes. If you are a Chinese language student, the thought of tediously going over and learning each stroke of each character seems time-consuming and meaningless when you might have to cram hundreds of characters a week for every dictation (听写 tīngxiě).

However, learning the stroke order helps you to understand the character intimately, and you’ll notice that you start to take notice of certain elements of the character that you may not have done otherwise, as well as appreciate the radicals, which often indicate a character’s vague meaning. The 214 radicals not only act as building blocks but also as signposts pointing towards the meaning and pronunciation of the character. More importantly, learning stroke order is like rote learning, it aids your memorization of the character as a whole.

You’ll also find that once you have perfected the stroke order, it is easier, neater, and faster to write characters in general. You’ll find that there’s an element of muscle memory involved – drilling the characters into your brain will help your hand find its way, often before your brain does. This comes in very handy if you hit a wall in exams.

And there you have it, all the reasons to learn stroke order and just one mediocre excuse not to: time. So, what are you waiting for? Time to start practicing!

Photos: Wikimedia, Cchar, Chinese Tools, Kids Britannica; screenshots by Andy Penafuerte.

This Mandarin Monday post is an expanded version of the article that first appeared on our sister site, the Beijinger, during its Mandarin Month.

See more stories by this author here.
Email: andypenafuerte@beijing-kids.com
Instagram: @coolkidandy