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mooncorelangblr · 2 days
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LANGBLR INTRO!!!
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A little about me:
Call me Azara c:
Middle Eastern - Persian origins (not ir*nian please ;-;)
26 - isfp - sagittarius
lesbian - she/her
Got my BA in English Language and Literature with a minor in French
Preparing for an MA in Teaching English as a Foreign Language and self-studying and researching theoretical+applied+interdisciplinary linguistics
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Languages I speak:
Arabic (native - standard and a dialect of the gulf)
Farsi (native but I don't speak the standard)
English C1
French (standard) B1/B2
Korean B1/B2
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Languages Goals - short and long term:
IELTS BAND 9 
Arabic (build my vocabulary for translation)
Advancing in Korean C1
Advancing in French C1
Learning Standard Farsi
Consistently learn Japanese for 60 days
Consistently learn Chinese for 60 days
Could post about other languages that interest me at one point!
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How I learn languages
tv shows mostly as I rely a lot on pronunciation and sentence structures in speech
music - I mostly listen to English, Persian, Korean, Japanese and French songs but I am open to anything as long as it's good
used to take classes before covid and then I enrolled in online classes and hated them - they were bland.
textbooks that I spent a fortune on ;-;
Let's be friends !! ♡
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linghxr · 2 months
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Advice I would give my past self about studying Chinese
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Recently I've been reflecting on my Chinese learning journey and how far I've come. If I could go back in time, these are 10 things I would tell my past self. A few are specific to Chinese, but most can apply to any language
It will get so much easier to learn new characters. I remember feeling overwhelmed because learning new characters was a painful process. Now when I encounter a new character, I can remember it with relative ease—it’s just a new combination of familiar components.
Don't feel bad about having uneven development in different skills. My listening and reading are significantly stronger than my speaking and writing. It’s super common and nothing to be ashamed of.
The best way to get over being too embarrassed to speak is to experience some embarrassment and realize it’s not a big deal. I used to be so afraid of making mistakes that I would avoid speaking in class. It was only by being forced to speak that I got over it. I'm much better for it!
It’s impossible to learn everything, and time is limited. You have to prioritize. You probably don’t need to know how to say “pawnshop” in Chinese, and trying to jam your head full of 100 words you saw once won’t work. They won’t stick.
It will actually be harder to read pinyin than to read characters at some point. When I helped a friend with a script for her Chinese class, I really struggled because she had written it entirely in pinyin. I had to write out the characters to read without stumbling! I know characters are daunting for beginners, but trust me, you will get used to them.
If you haven’t practiced or learned something, of course you won’t be good at it. I remember feeling so frustrated trying to navigate Chinese websites for the first time. In retrospect, obviously, I was going to struggle with something completely new to me!
If something isn’t sticking, move on. Why waste time on a word that’s not clicking when you could be learning five new ones? It will only result in unnecessary frustration. So unless you need to know it for your class or a proficiency test, drop it and move on.
Don’t beat yourself up when you have trouble understanding music, literature, different accents, etc. These can be challenging even in your native language. Of course you’re going to struggle more in a new language.
It's worth it to pay attention to things like stroke order and tones from the start so you don't form bad habits. Don’t stress about get it perfect, but it’s easier to do it right the first time than to have to correct your bad habits in the future.
Instead of feeling overwhelmed by all that you don’t know, learn how to express yourself with what you do know. It’s truly its own skill that requires practice. After all, in life you can’t always stop and pull out a dictionary.
I started learning Chinese a really long time ago, but I became more serious about it in 2018, so 5 1/2 years ago. I'm very proud of how far I've come, but I still have a long way to go! I look forward to revisiting this post in another couple of years 😊
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indigostudies · 9 months
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i haven't seen anyone talk about it before, but there's a site called 21st Century Chinese Poetry that has a massive collection of contemporary chinese poetry, including english translations thereof, for anyone who, like me, is interested in poetry but may feel a bit intimidated by the more literary nature of classical poetry. currently, they have poetry from between 2000-2021, and i, personally, have rather enjoyed poking around the site.
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weishenyu · 3 months
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chinese art compliments/replies
as a follow up to my post on online drawing vocab, here is a collection of comments you can use to compliment others' art :-)
the basics
喜欢 [xǐhuān] - i like it
好好看 [hǎohǎo kàn] - looks good
厉害 [lìhài] - amazing
好漂亮/帥/美 [piàoliang/shuài/měi] - so pretty/handsome/beautiful
太有才了 [tài yǒu cáile] - so talented (similarily, 画画天才 => drawing genius)
好神 [hǎo shén] - godly
神迹 [shén jī] - miraculous
仙品 [xiān pǐn] - high-quality product
好鮮活 [xiān huó] - vivid/lifelike
it’s cute
可爱晕了 [kě'ài yūnle] - so cute i fainted
可爱死了 [kě'ài sǐle] - so cute I died
可爱鼠了 [kě'ài shǔle] - so cute I died (in a cutesy/meme way)
卡瓦 [kǎ wǎ] - kawaii
好米 [hǎo mǐ] - so cute/beautiful
太萌了 [tài méngle] - so adorable (originating from japanese word moe - 萌え, lots of different meanings, but mostly refers to happiness you feel when you see something really cute), can be used like 萌到我了/被萌晕/心被萌化了
basically any XX死了/XX暈了/XX炸了 comment works
expletives
我去 [wǒ qù] - damn
卧槽/我草/wc [wò cāo] - censored vers of 我操 => oh fuck
牛逼 [niú bī] - (fucking) awesome, usually just use 牛
exclamatives
哇/哇塞 [wasāi] - wow
啊啊啊啊 - aaaaaa
哇啊啊啊 - wahhhh
responding to compliments
被老師跨了,能力暴增 [kuà...bào zēng] - (if responding to commenter who's also an artist) compliments from teacher make my ability surge
爱您主人 - love u op (主人 refers to original commenter), can also just use 愛你
嘿嘿谢谢喜欢 - hehe ty for liking
比心 [bǐ xīn]- finger heart
送愛 [sòng ài] - sending love
亲亲 [qīn qīn] - kiss kiss
questions
可以当头像吗 [tóuxiàng] - can I make it my pfp
可以自印吗 [zì yìn] - can I print it out
可以收集吗 [shōují] - can I save it
求原图 [qiú yuán tú] - original image pls
这么时候接稿 [jiē gǎo]- when will you open commissions
misc.
抱走/拿走 [bào/ná zǒu] - carrying/taking it away
蹲蹲 [dūn dūn] - if someone has posted a WIP, waiting (for the finished piece/shop listing), direct trans. = squatting
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The directional "下/上/出/去/来" puzzle guide
I for one still confuse the usage of 出来 and 出去 and other similar structures so here's a guide to slightly depuzzle this puzzle.
上去 (Shàngqù): To go up and away from the speaker
下去 (Xiàqù): To go down and away from the speaker
出去 (Chūqù): To go out and away from the speaker
出来 (Chūlái): To go out and towards the speaker
上来 (Shànglái): To go up and towards the speaker
下来 (Xiàlái): To go down and towards the speaker
过来 (Guòlái): To ask someone to come over to the speaker
过去 (Guòqù): This one is tricky as it can have a few meanings so here are some random examples.
Movement away from the speaker e.g. 我来这家公司工作已经过去五年了= I have been working in this company for the past five years
Movement in time during the past e.g. 过去的年份里,公园里有很多树和花= In the past years, there were many trees and flowers in the park
Here's an illustration I made (it's been a while lol) to make it less (?) confusing:
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zhuzhudushu · 6 days
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Learning Chinese from Spam Texts
I got a very amusing spam text in Chinese this morning, so naturally I have to turn it into a vocabulary lesson.
生活洋溢甜蜜温馨,周末愉快,今天有什么安排呢? 看你没有回信息,你是在忙还是没有收到我的信息呢?
新词 Vocab:
洋溢 / yáng yì / brimming with
甜蜜 / tián mì / sweet
温馨 / wēn xīn / soft, fragrant and warm
愉快 / yú kuài / happy, pleasant, cheery
安排 / ān pái / plan or arrangements; to plan or arrange
信息 / xìn xī / text message; information
收到 / shòu dào / to receive
翻译 Translation:
Life is brimming with sweetness and warmth, happy weekend, what plans do you have today? I see you haven't replied to my message, are you busy or have you not received my message?
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xitongsblog · 10 months
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liu-anhuaming · 12 days
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all my mandarin dictionaries (and dictionary-adjacent books)
Through chatting with @don-dake and @cherrymintvampyyri, I've come to realize that I might own a less than normal number of Mandarin dictionaries. So, here's a post about all of them.
I do have two basic bilingual dictionaries (Mandarin/English): the Langenscheidt pocket dictionary and the DK visual dictionary. These are quite easy to buy and not that interesting imo, so I'm not gonna talk further about them.
I'm also going to include a couple books that aren't technically dictionaries, but are rather about etymology of characters, and that's close enough to count for me.
Okay, let's get on to the interesting stuff!
1. What Character is That? An Easy-Access Dictionary of 5,000 Chinese Characters by Ping-gam Go (second edition, 1995)
bilingual
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This strange little dictionary was gifted to me by a nun who went to high school with my grandma and later lived in China as a missionary. It's organized alphabetically based on the English translation of each radical?
I have not used this dictionary for actual reference ever, because I flipped through it once and realized that it was absolutely whack. But it's cool to have I guess.
2. 新华字典 第11版
monolingual
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This little guy was gifted to me by a Chinese classmate back when I was in college. It's a 字典, so it's just focused on defining individual characters and providing some words featuring that character. Despite being a mainland dictionary, it also has 注音 next to each character for some reason.
It's got some neat stuff towards the back, like the periodic table and a chart of all the 節氣 solar terms.
3. 小学生全笔顺 同义词 近义词 反义词 组词 造句 成语 多音多义字 词典
monolingual
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Whew, that's a mouthful. This is an actual 词典, so it defines full words. It also provides example sentences, synonyms, antonyms, and close equivalents. Then there's a section for idioms, and another section for 多音多义字.
There's also this nifty little insert with examples of words/phrases that follow common patterns of repetition.
4. 新现代汉语词典
monolingual
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I picked up this chunky guy from a used bookstore down the street from me (the owner of the store passed last year, and the store is no longer there unfortunately). This is a fairly normal dictionary, it's just bigger than my others and has more words listed in it.
One thing I also noticed is that this chart towards the end of the dictionary apparently had a strip of paper pasted on the bottom. It doesn't seem like something I can peel up without damaging the paper under it, and when I shine a flashlight through the page I can't make out any major differences between what's on the sticker and what might be on the page under it. So my best guess is there might have been some damage to the text on the page?
5. 商务馆学汉语近义词词典 The Commercial Press Guide to Chinese Synonyms
monolingual
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This book is easily the one I reference the most. As the name suggests, the book is all about synonyms. It takes sets of 2+ similar words and thoroughly explains the similarities and differences between them all. There's plenty example sentences, with notes about whether the synonyms can be used interchangeably in certain contexts.
It's a great resource, but I had a bit of trouble getting my hands on a copy. It's possible that in the years since I bought it there have been more copies made available for sale though.
these next two are books I haven't explored too much since they are old and the binding is incredibly fragile and starting to fall apart. just opening them is stressful.
6. 漢字分解 Chinese Characters Explained by F.X. Keelan (aka 康愛玲修女) (1967?)
bilingual
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This book was also gifted to me by the nun who went to school with my grandma, and appears to also have been written by a nun! Based on what I've found from Google, this book was published in 1967.
Rather than a dictionary, this book is "a compilation intended as an aid in grouping and remembering [Chinese characters] with a view in acquiring a reading knowledge of Chinese"(p. iii). It aims to break down characters into radicals and giving similar/related characters. It's apparently the final installment in a 4 part Mandarin Course.
This book uses traditional characters. According to Google Books, the publisher is 光啓出版社, which is a Taiwanese organization. The book includes a very long table that has Mandarin, Cantonese, Taiwanese, Hakka, Japanese, and Korean pronunciations for (what seems to be) every character mentioned in the book. The intro mentions that this is so the course is more "accessible" for speakers of other East Asian languages.
Also, look at that printing error in the third photo! The text got cut off at the bottom of the page.
7. The Structure of Chinese Characters by John Chalmers (second edition, 1911)
bilingual
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This final book is the oldest of the bunch, and was gifted to me by my boss's boss for some reason? She found it in a used bookstore apparently.
This book also uses traditional characters, because simplified characters just weren't a thing yet in 1911. This book is falling apart, and opening it stresses me out. It creaks whenever I open it.
Going by the title page, the full title of this book is An Account of the Structure of Chinese Characters Under 300 Primary Forms; After the Shwo-Wan, 100 A.D., and the Phonetic Shwoh-Wan, 1833. It was published by Kelly & Walsh, which was a Shanghai-based publisher.
Someone very kindly penciled in the years the author was alive: 1825-1899. John Chalmers was apparently a Scottish missionary (bc of course he was) who apparently popularized the term "Cantonese". This book that I own in particular was originally published in 1882.
It is, as the very long title suggests, an analysis and etymology of 300 common components
It also has a nifty fold-out of all 300 "primary forms" in seal script.
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hsinnii · 3 months
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GUYS THIS HAS BEEN THE BEST WEEK OF MY LIFE I SWEAR. I THOUGHT THEY WOULDNT LET ME KNOW FOR A WHIIILE OMGOMG IM GOING TO TAIWAN
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biglittleluobo · 1 year
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🌿🌕✨
外国的月亮比较圆 - “the moon is rounder in other countries”
A funny phrase I learned today, the equivalent of “the grass is always greener on the other side”!
Do you feel that way sometimes too? 🌝
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ichverdurstehier · 4 months
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in like svsss fanfictions when characters refer to themselves as 'this one' what exactly are they saying? Like the hanzi, the pinyin, etc.
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chineseffect · 11 months
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Speak DECENT CHINESE in 4 months - 8 easy tips
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1. Have someone to guide you to get good pronunciation habits. It is almost impossible to re-learn bad habits later so make sure you get your pronunciation right from the beginning. I mean the pronunciation of the sounds, not the tones. Tones take more time to get used to and you can't rush it - but try the best you can. Some tutors don't bother too much about the pronunciation so make sure you find someone who is strict about that, you will be grateful later. Also get confident in pinyin, you will need it.
2. Understand the composition of the sentences. The word order is super easy and it stays the same all the time (the question and informative sentences have the same word order). I have a formula for the word order but I won't reveal it here, it is one of the secrets I keep for my students and people who use my materials.
3. Understand that there are no tenses in the sense we think about them in English and other languages. Learn to express future, potential future, finished action, change of state, experience in the past and circumstances of the event. See the difference between action verbs and verbs of state.
4. Learn to use modal verbs and conjuctions.
5. Build usable vocabulary based on the fact that everything in Chinese is interconnected.
6. Understand 就, 才,的 and 得
7. Don't learn grammar rules and words separately. Learn functional practical sentences that will serve you as examples of the grammar structures (then you just need to change the words in these sentences).
8. Develop your listening skills - that is very important. For that there are Youtube channels and podcasts on Spotify (and in my materials the audio part also plays an important role). You can listen to Chinese radio stations just to get the feeling of the language.
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After 3-4 months you should feel pretty confident in normal conversations if you study regularly under competent guidance.
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R-evolutionary learning materials and resources: https://linktr.ee/chineseffect
MAGIC PLAYBOOK for beginners
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linghxr · 28 days
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All the shishi words I know
Last year I learned the word 时事, and it struck me how many shishi words there are. For fun, I listed out all the ones I'm familiar with. You can see more at MDBG (but a Chinese-Chinese dictionary would probably have many more).
世世 shìshì - from age to age
世事 shìshì - affairs of life / things of the world
事事 shìshì - everything
事实 | 事實 shìshí - fact
失事 shīshì - (of a plane, ship etc) to have an accident (plane crash, shipwreck, vehicle collision etc) / to mess things up
实事 | 實事 shíshì - fact / actual thing / practical matter
实施 | 實施 shíshī - to implement / to carry out
实时 | 實時 shíshí - (in) real time / instantaneous
时事 | 時事 shíshì - current trends / the present situation / how things are going
时时 | 時時 shíshí - often / constantly
试试 | 試試 shìshi - to have a try
逝世 shìshì - to pass away / to die
I ran some stats based on my Anki deck, and there also a lot of qishi words: 其实、气势、骑士、启示、歧视、启事. But not as many as shishi. Maybe we need a poem of shishis to go alongside the 施氏食狮史 poem?
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indigostudies · 7 months
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it’s interesting to me when people on tumblr who are learning chinese say you don’t need to learn radicals, because………i just don’t think that’s true? as someone who grew up speaking and learning it natively i may be biased, but there’s just…….so many situations when knowing at least basic radicals and meanings is very useful.
if you’re in an area that uses traditional or simplified and you’re used to the opposite set, then knowing radicals can be key to understanding the written language on signs in the area, menus, letters, etc. if you’re reading something and you know the meaning of the characters around a new character, but you don’t know what that character is because it’s unfamiliar to you, knowing radicals allows you to make a guess at the meaning of the character and possibly connect it to the spoken version of the character that you already know based on that context, as for example a radical often lends pronunciation clues to a character.
also, knowing radicals makes it much easier to remember how to write characters—it’s much easier to remember, say, 想 as wood-and-eye-over-heart (木目心) or 绿 as silk-record (silk radical 纟plus the word 录 as in 录音, audio recording) because those are patterns you already have than to remember the individual strokes necessary to write a character. and on the topic of writing—knowing radicals also tells you the order in which to write a character, which is absolutely key to writing legible, orderly characters in a minimal amount of time!
obviously the measure of how many radicals you “really” “have to” know is going to vary by the person you talk to, but i think it’s important to have at least a passable basis in radicals if you’re going to learn chinese, a language written with radicals as important components of words.
and, lest i be remiss—here’s some resources i managed to find with a quick search.
hackingchinese page on radicals with a number of links to .anki, .txt, and .pdf files of the 100 most common radicals
hskacademy list of 214 radicals
a fluentu page that includes 214 radicals and expounds upon the meaning of phonetic and semantic components and their difference from radicals
ltl-beijing page that includes links to a list of radicals, some history behind them, a quiz, printable pdf, and more
and finally, not a link, but a recommendation for an app: download TOFU learn and use the hsk level decks! this is a very easy way to get into the habit of writing and repeating characters daily, which is absolutely vital if you want to get anywhere with reading and writing. dot languages also has a written component to practices, but the app is multi-functional and not confined to writing, nor does it give information about component and radical meanings like TOFU learn does. additionally, i would recommend downloading pleco, which is a very thorough dictionary that has the option to view the radical/component breakdown of a given character (under the “chars” tab—for example it breaks down 音 as 立 and 日) i’ve also seen skritter recommended a lot, but i cannot vouch for that.
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weishenyu · 3 months
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chinese drawing vocab (绘圈常用名词)
for those interested in navigating the online art world in chinese, here's a list of common terms and abbreviations that you might see (translated from zhihu) 🎨
terms
風格 [fēnggé] - art style
人设 [rén shè] - persona
兽设 [shòu shè] - fursona
摸鱼 [mō yú] - doodles, derived from idiom 【浑水摸鱼】 - although the original meaning is "fishing in troubled waters" it's currently used to describe people being lazy/not working hard
劳斯 [láo sī] - homophonic way to say 老师 (teacher) , in addition to 太太,大大,大触, 卡密 -- can be honorific, but 老師 is also just a common way to refer to artists
日绘 [rì huì] - daily drawing
Q版/SD [q bǎn] - chibi (Q = cute, SD = super deformed)
击鼓传画 [jī gǔ chuán huà] - art telephone
绘圈小警察 [huì quān xiǎo jǐngchá] - referring to people who accuse artists of plagiarism/tracing without evidence (direct trans: little art policemen)
抄袭狗 [chāoxí gǒu] - copycat (or dog)/art thief
abbreviations
ACG - animation, comics, and games
CN - cosplayer name
zll (再练练) [zài liàn liàn] - keep practicing
compliments
awsl (阿我死了) [Ā wǒ sǐle] - ah, i'm dead! -- will also see “阿伟死了” (a-wei's dead, a typo), which, after many b站barrages, becomes "阿伟乱葬岗" (a-wei's mass grave)
tql (太强了/太巧了) [tài qiángle/tài qiǎole] - "too strong" (more common usage) or "what a coincidence"
可可 [kěkě] - cute (derived from 可愛)
comments
腿一个 [tuǐ yīgè] - showing your current drawing's progress, directly trans. as "one leg," i.e. showing just the leg -- it's a play on words for 推 (push), i.e. pushing/posting progress
commissions
约稿 [yuē gǎo] - commission/request
接单 [jiē dān] - direct trans. = to accept orders, a less formal way of saying commissions
参考素材/材料 [cānkǎo sùcái/cáiliào] - references
买断 [mǎi duàn] - autobuy for an auction
白菜 [báicài] - high quality, low price art (direct trans: cabbage)
可小刀 [kě xiǎodāo] - haggling prices; 小刀/大刀/自刀 = small/big/self-haggle
出模 [chū mó] - bases/templates
构图 [gòutú] - composition
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Chinese Verbs Cheat sheet: B's
My quick guide to the most common B- verbs in Chinese!
Bake - 烘烤 - hōng kǎo
Be - 是 - shì
Belong to - 属于 - shǔyú
Begin - 开始 - kāishǐ
Believe - 相信 - xiāngxìn
Become/ turn into - 成为 - chéngwéi
Boil - 煮熟 - zhǔ shú
Blame - 责备 - zé​bèi
Break - 打破 - dǎ​pò
Bring - 带来 - dài​lái
Build - 建造 - jiàn​zào
Burn - 烧 - shāo
Buy - 买 - mǎi
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