What is the sword style in 大巧不工剑讲究的就是一个不工，意念要厚重，剑式要雄强圆厚...?

大巧不工 is from 《重剑无锋，大巧不工》

重 heavy
剑 sword
无 no
锋 sharp edge
大 big
巧 delicate
不 no
工 work

《重剑无锋，大巧不工》
Epee with no sharp edge, delicate work

The true power is not from the weapon, is from the one who uses it.

What is the sword style here called?

Sword style means the the moves of the swordsman

Whats the translation of this passage???

大巧不工剑 is the name of the sword moves i assume.

讲究的就是一个不工 is all about natural (不工 not artificial)

意念要厚重 thoughts must be strong

剑式要雄强圆厚 moves must be strong and round and thick (round and thick here means the moves must be flexible and comprehensive)

气势要庄严雄浑 momentum must be 庄严 Solemn and serious 雄浑(雄壮浩瀚: expansive)

你看看你使出的剑式，太过松散 look at your move, too loose

转折太过刚硬 moves transition too solid (not flexible)

致使出剑无力 causing your attack powerless

剑式笼罩的范围太小 area covered by your moves is too small


How to express words variants in Chinese?

Words variants in Chinese are 异形词.

For example, there is a document published by the govenment of PRC, 《第一批异形词整理表》(The First Series of Standardized Forms of Words with Non-standardized Variant Forms).

However, I think 歺厅/餐厅 is not a typical example of “异形词”.

In fact, 歺 is one of the second round of simplified Chinese characters (第二批简化字, 二简字), which is obsolete and non-standard now. The different between 歺厅 and 餐厅 is on the character, not the word. So in this example we may say:

  歺厅的“歺”字是“餐”的二简字。

Better examples of “异形词” can be:

树阴 vs 树荫
唯一 vs 惟一


What is a Singapore Sling drink known as in the Chinese dialects of Singapore?

Like many words characteristic of Singapore, it is most likely to be said in English/Singlish.

Local Singaporean Chinese, whether Mandarin, Cantonese, Hokkien, Teochew, Hainanese, Hakka, Fuzhounese or Fuqingnese, does have a very large range of loan words related to the circumstances of British rule on the Malayan Peninsula. One of the most salient examples when in Singapore is the use of the English form of address uncle and auntie, which is cross-topolectal and trans-lingual, and by extension, racially neutral. A common example from Malay is mata for the police, which is strongly preferred over most loans/calques of 警察 by Singaporeans of the pioneer generation.

However, sling is even more likely to be an English loanword, as it was originally a "gin sling", a form of specifically Western alcohol served primarily to Western patrons in the colonial era. One reference from 1903 reported in the SCMP makes a comment about "pink slings for pale people".

Though Boon was (likely) a native Hainanese speaker, his position as bartender at the Raffles would have meant he was in an Anglophone environment for work. The sling was already  an established drink in the 1910s in Singapore. Hence it was likely referred to and discussed in English, even in predominantly Chinese topolect conversations.


Meaning of 则是 in 而段剑则是神情严肃地站在聂离的身边

You have to look at the whole sentence to understand:
聂离观察了一下各处之后，走回了大厅的上首，坐在了叶修和叶朔的旁边，而段剑则是神情严肃地站在聂离的身边。

则是 contrasts the actions of 聂离 (he sat down next to the two Ye's), and 段剑 (he stood next to 聂离).  English might use a conjunction such as "while", or "on the other hand".

则是 is not really a conjunction, though.  It is more like what is sometimes called a "pseudo-cleft" sentence: "As for Duan Jian, what he did was to stand next to Nie Qin with a stern expression."

I don't think 而 is absolutely necessary here. If you don't use it though, I would probably put a period, rather than a comma.

This is a good example of how English and Chinese have different ways of linking compound sentences to form a narrative structure.


Is there a Chinese equivalent of the Japanese Kanji Kentei?

There is a similar test in mainland of China. But only targeting on people who looking for the specific job position.

It's called "汉字应用水平测试".
http://www.sppc.edu.cn/2e/8a/c66a11914/page.htm

And this is an official test. It's managed by ministry of education of the PRC.
http://www.moe.gov.cn/s78/A18/yys_left/moe_803/


Yes, there is:

  废话

Example:

A: You know what, a banana without the skin is more tasteful!
B: 废话。

废话 is not a good word for kids to imitate, though. And it is rarely used between strangers or to your parents, as it may be impolite/offensive.


Beginner learning Cantonese: Start with reading/writing or with speaking?

(As a born Cantonese and not a professional linguist)

Cantonese is mostly spoken while the formal written form of Chinese is always 白話文/語體文 ("Written vernacular Chinese", what I managed to find on Wikipedia).

The written form of Cantonese is informal, and mostly used on Internet forum, text messages, modern subtitle, etc. In Hong Kong, the newspaper "Apple Daily" first used Cantonese in quotes in their articles, they were heavily criticized back then, but Cantonese in formal text is ever so slowly getting to appear in formal occasions.

You might notice there are many 口 radicals in Cantonese, they are mostly invented or borrowed characters as those didn't existed in the past and aren't used in other dialects. https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/粵語字. Moreover, many of those aren't standardized because they weren't used in writing that much, like those on the Wikipedia page: 而家, 依家, 宜家, 伊家 means the same in Cantonese.

In Cantonese spoken regions, "Written vernacular Chinese" is always recognized and written Cantonese is not encouraged for formal texts. One can also read Cantonese from Written vernacular Chinese. So unless you know how to speak Cantonese, learning how to read it might not be your first priority. Therefore, for the best effects and usefulness, I suggest first learning how to speak it.

Written vernacular Chinese:

今天晚上我們要去哪兒吃飯呢？

Written Cantonese:

今晚我哋要去邊到食飯？


New idiom related to surveillance: People do things, the sky watches

It might be:

人在做天在看
the people do, the Sky (God?) watches

or a more fluent translation

the Sky watches what the people do

The usage I'm aware of, in colloquial speech, is to describe some sort of karma, or payback from destiny if you do bad things and hope to get away with it.
For example:

You steal your friend's money
They suspect of you but can't prove it
They confront you about that
You deny everything
They say 人在做天在看

It's like, "what goes around comes around" in English.


What is the difference between 时候 and 时间?

Tuttle Learners

时间

  a period of time

  时间不够, 我没做完那道练习。

  Shíjiān bú gòu, wǒ méi zuòwán nà dào liànxí. As there

  wasn't enough time, I did not finish that exercise.

  我没有时间写信。

  Wǒ méiyǒu shíjiān xiě xìn.

  I don't have time to write letters.

时候

  [compound: 时 time + 候 a certain point in time]
  NOUN a certain point in time, (the time) when

  飞机什么时候开？

  Fēijī shénme shíhou kāi? When will the plane depart?

  他来的时候, 我正在打电话。

  Tā lái de shíhou, wǒ zhèngzài dǎ diànhuà.

  I was on the phone when he came.

时候 = time in general (what time does something happen, times up, duration of time).

什么时候 can even be translated directly as when in English.

时间 ＝ THE time (like; what's THE time, THE time in Beijing is..., I didn't have THE time).

什么时间, on the other hand, is seldom used.

The sentence you gave up top, ni3 chi1 shen2me shi2jian1, is like writing "You eat what the time?"

What you want to say is something like: 你什么时候吃饭


This is probably not the answer you're looking for, but both「秘」and「泌」underwent the same kinds of shifts (b > m) in certain topolects, so I would just treat it as a simple phonological shift within the labial consonant group (rather than something more "exciting"). I do not believe that the comments on it being a "Mandarin thing" are correct.

Although "time" seems like a cop-out, I would point to similar shifts over "time" like


Guangzhou city, Guangzhou International Center, Already exported for direct delivery while sealed (meaning they won't open it again for inspections)


我是一个语言的从教者，也是一个语言学习的爱好者。

This sentence reminds us of the fact that I'm also a language hobbyist(assuming I'm well known as a 语言的从教者).

  我既是一个语言的从教者，也是一个语言学习的爱好者。

With 既, it parallels the two roles (语言的从教者 and 语言学习的爱好者), which share the same level of importance.


How come 将 is a "future marker" and a "passive marker"?

将 before a verb is functioning as a [modal verb]: 'will / will soon'

Example:
(将)回家 = (will) go home
(将)死 = (will) die/ will die (soon)

将/把 before a noun is functioning as a [depositive marker] that marks the noun to be deposited by the verb

Example:
打死他 (beat him to death)
将他打死 (take him, and beat to death) - 将 marks 他 as the object that's being deposited by the verb 打死

将 https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E5%B0%87
Phono-semantic compound (形聲, OC *ʔsaŋ, *ʔsaŋs): phonetic 爿 (OC *braːn, *zaŋ, “bed; small table”) + semantic ⺼ (“meat”) + semantic 寸 (“hand”) – >to offer meat as tribute by putting it on the table.

"to offer meat" is to "deposit the meat' that's how 将 acquired the function of [depositive marker] that marks object to be deposited of
Just read the article at WiKi
Stumpy Joe Pete wrote:

how did the "to want, to wish, to approach" meaning come to be attached to that character? Did it come about later, or have both meanings been attached to the same character/pronunciation as far back as we can go?

from Sino-Tibetan root:
⺼ (“meat”) +  寸 (“hand”) is the semantic component of 將 . It describes the action of handling a piece of meat; 爿 (table) is a semantic + phonetic component of 將.
The original meaning of the character 將 meant "to offer meat as a tribute to gods by putting it on the table"
The action of 將 described (put meat on the table) acquired the function of [depositive marker] later
From Austroasiatic root:
"Khmer ចង់ "  (to want, to wish, to approach) was imported to Chinese language in ancient time, and the existing character 將 was loaned to express this word for phonetic  reason. Since  "to want, to wish" is related to future event. meaning of the modal verb "will" was added to 將 later


Differentiating between adjective and adverb?

我的心似小木船。
My heart is like a small wooden boat.

a little bit like would be 有点儿像

我的心有点儿像一艘小木船。


Is 实验动物中心 (experimental animal center) ambiguous in that it could mean either "experimenting on animals" or "experimentally creating animals"?

实验动物中心 sounds more like a place where they raise and offer animals for experiments, the keyword here is 动物.

If this is where animal experiments take place, then 动物实验中心 would be a better name, I think, because the keyword is 实验.

As for the meaning "experimentally creating animals" you mentioned, no, I will never think that way, nothing in this name suggests "creating".


Is there a Mandarin equivalent of the Cantonese term "手尾"?

To express “finish remaining work on hand” can use 收尾 in mandarin. And I think this is the word sounds closest to 手尾。So for 我執埋手尾就會走㗎啦, you can say 我做完收尾工作就走啦

唔好咁冇手尾 can be expressed as （做事）不要有头无尾

唔好要人跟(你)手尾 can be expressed as （做事）不要让别人帮你善后（or “擦屁股” ）

整傷脊椎骨就手尾長啦 probably has no similar expression.


Differentiate 不错 and 没错 in these situations

You already got the idea. To answer the situational questions:
(a) praise somebody's work?
Use 不错. If you use 没错, it means the content of the work is right.

他文章写得不错。He writes good articles.
他文章写的没错。What is written in his article is right.

(b) indicate nothing wrong with the food/article/etc?
Neither. You can use 不错 to praise the taste or the quality of the food. 没错 doesn't make sense because 'the food' is unable to make mistakes. It can be 'mistaken' in a sense of improperly cooked, gone bad or poisoned. In that case you want to say the food 有问题 (has problems) or 没问题 (no problem).

这家饭馆的食物有问题。Something's wrong with the food from this restaurant.
这家饭馆的食物没问题。There's nothing wrong with the food from this restaurant.
这家饭馆的食物不错。This restaurant makes good food.
这家饭馆的食物没错。(Doesn't make sense) The food from this restaurant didn't act wrong.

(c) approval or agreement with somebody's statement/idea?
Both can be used.
没错 expresses concurrence/agreement (not praise) to ideas and yes/no factual questions.

(Idea) “我们应该先看说明书。”“没错。” 'We should read user's manual first.' 'Right.'
(Fact) “电影是不是9点开始？”“没错。” 'Is the movie starting at 9?' 'Yes.'

没错 is seldom used for deeds. It's only used in very specific circumstances as an indifferent or perfunctory chime. Again this usage is uncommon and may sound strange depending on the situation.

(Deed) “我把作业都写完了。”“没错。” 'I have finished my homework.' '(Indifferently) I know.'

不错 can be used to praise deeds as well as ideas.

“我把作业都写完了。”“不错！” 'I have finished my homework.' 'Great!'

不错 can also be used to express concurrence as an inherited usage from ancient Chinese. There's a subtle defensive and provocative tone in it though, as if the question or statement before this response is unexpected or offensive.

“你一口气吃了十个冰淇淋？”“没错。” 'You ate ten ice creams at once?' 'Yes.'
“你一口气吃了十个冰淇淋？”“不错。” 'You ate ten ice creams at once?' 'Yes. (You have a problem with that?)'


Three Chinese characters (?) on the entrance of the History Museum of Ho Chi Minh city (Characters identified: 寶藏院)

it's 寶藏院, roughly "the courtyard (院) of treasure (寶藏)"
the right one is 寶:
http://humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/Lexis/lexi-mf/search.php?word=%E5%AF%B6
middle one is 藏:
http://humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/Lexis/lexi-mf/search.php?word=%E8%97%8F
left one is 院:
http://humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/Lexis/lexi-mf/search.php?word=%E9%99%A2


Does anyone know what is the characters means (丁財貴寿)?

丁: Male child
財: Riches
貴: Honor
寿: Longevity

It's a good fortune sentence. The order (which appears normally on coins, the shape of which this reproduces), is North South East West.


Your usage is quite right. And you can also say:

  比起爱人，（把）她作为朋友更合适。


What is the "ba" that 周恩来 used when speaking to Kissinger?

I guess it was 霸 /ba4/ : tyrant; bully; overlord

Short for '霸主' (dominant leader among rulers)  or '霸權' (dominant power)

It was not a friendly word toward America, because it implied America was a bully, (try to dominate other countries of the world with it's strength)

In ancient time, the difference between 霸主 (leader among rulers) and 天下共主 (common leader of the lords) is a 霸主 didn't have the loyalty of the other rulers. They submitted to him out of fear.

Since Zhou said "America is the ba" I presume he meant "美國是全世界的霸主" (America is the world's most dominant power)

美國是全世界的霸主

If Zhou said "America is a ba", then would mean "美國是一個霸權" (America is a hegemony)

Side note:

春秋五霸 (Five Hegemons) were five rulers who earned the title of 霸主 during the Spring and Autumn Period.


Does "chà" requires "dào" when expressing time?

chà shí fen dào 4 diăn. (3:50)
差十分到四點 = "(still) ten minutes to four o'clock" = "ten to four" in English
It is English grammar directly applied to Chinese language. Chinese do not usually describe clock time this way. (Although it is based on English grammar, most Chinese would have no problem accepting it)

The normal way to describe 3:50 is "三點五十分".
It is fine to say  "還有十分鐘就四點" or "還差十分鐘就四點" (still ten more minutes, and it will be four o'clock) to emphasize how close it is to four o'clock
chà shí fen 4 diăn 差十分四點 (it shorten 還差十分鐘就四點 too much, sound very blunt)
4 diăn chà shí fen 四點差十分 (no one say it like this)

when using "chà", I need also to use ""dào"

Yes there's a [差(chà) XXX 就到(Jiù dào) YYY] structure in Chinese grammar
For example "差(十分鐘)就到(四點)"
Sometimes people do omit 就 (Jiù) and say "差十分鐘到四點"
Sometimes people also omit '鐘' in '十分鐘' and just say '十分' in this structure


What are these characters? (Characters identified: 牧者所愛)

The first three characters are indeed 「牧者所」, with 「牧」 written with a corrupted 「攵」 which appears as 「文」. The last character is a reshuffled 「」, which in the current script is written as 「愛」.

戰國・晉金壺集成9734戰國・楚簡六德・17郭店楚簡隸定
「愛」 (Baxter-Sagart OC: /*[q]ˤə[p]-s/, [benevolent] love) was originally written as 「㤅」, comprised of semantic 「心」 (heart) and phonetic 「旡」 (/*[k]ə[t]-s/).
秦簡54.51睡虎地秦簡篆夊部說文解字隸定
「夊」 was added later for no particular functionality. This was perhaps stylistic, and happened in several characters right below a component with the shape of a person. For reference, 「旡」 depicts a kneeling person with an open mouth.
西漢隸老子甲115馬王堆帛書東漢隸郙閣頌　西晉隸徐美人墓志　楷
「旡」 was later corrupted into 「⿱爫冖」, forming 「愛」. Sometimes, 「心」 and 「夊」 were also shuffled around; if 「心」 is moved to the bottom left, it is written as 「忄」.

The character in question,

retains the non-corrupted 「旡」

and shuffles 「心」 to the bottom left.

References:

小學堂

字形演變
異體字表

漢語多功能字庫
中國社會科學院考古研究所《殷周金文集成》


What exists (存在) in the sentence 孩子在家接受教育存在不足?

孩子在家接受教育存在不足。

It is a [topic] + [comment/ opinion sentence]

[孩子在家接受教育] (children receive education at home) is the topic

[存在不足] (insufficiency exist ) is the comment/ opinion

孩子在家接受教育存在不足 means "insufficiency exist in children home schooling "

To make it clear, let's expand the sentence

不足處 (insufficient areas)
存在於 (exist in)
孩子在家接受教育 (children receive education at home)
的系統 (the system of)
之中 within

不足處存在於孩子在家接受教育的系統之中 = insufficient areas exist in the system of children receive education at home (home schooling children)

Back to the original sentence

存在不足 = insufficiency exist/  have insufficiency

存在 (exist/ have) is a verb here

It is an odd way to use 存在 without a preposition in a Chinese sentence.

The typical way of using  存在 is with a preposition

Example:

[不足處 (subject)] [存在 (verb)][於 (preposition)] [孩子在家接受教育的系統 object][之中 (preposition)]
[雙方(subject)] [之間 (preposition)][存在著 (verb in continuous/ progressive tense)] [矛盾 (object)]


The meaning can be understood without either 想必 or 一定. But I think using 想必一定 conveys a slightly different nuance from that of either 想必 or 一定.

一定没人疼你: very certain presumption

想必没人疼你: still pretty certain but less so than 一定, and also implies that the speaker has evidence to back his/her view. (since 想必 is usually used with (因为)...想必...)

想必一定没人疼你: conveys both of the connotation above. Very certain and implies that the speaker has evidence.

Therefore, I don't think this is a wrong usage. Consider another case of using two presumption words: 大约的确是死了 (from 《孔乙己》). Neither 大约是死了 nor 的确是死了 can convey the subtle connotation of 大约的确是死了, although 大约 and 的确 seems to be contradicting.


In this case, miss equals to 想(念)，思念 while think of equals to 想到，想起. So 'I miss you' is the right choice. 'I think of you' means '我想起了你'. But sometimes 'I am thinking of you' is translated into ‘我想着你’.

When one say '我想你(+Adverbial)' or ‘我在想你(+Adverbial)’ as a sentence alone, it means that I miss you or I'm missing you. And when one say '我想你+...', it generally means 'I think you +...'. For example, 我想你很适合这项工作 means I think that you are fit to this work. Another example, 我想你在这个夜里 means I miss you in this night.


What is the function of 得 in words like 覺得、記得、顯得、值得、懂得、免得、認得…?

得 can be used as a complement that helps indicate completion or consequence of the action (preceding verb). Its use is traceable to classical Chinese (see 10th entry here):

十三學得琵琶成，名屬教坊第一部。《琵琶行》
By thirteen, an accomplished lute player I had become; In the imperial registry of the first section my name be found. (translation)

You master something if you learn it to completion. It is easy to appreciate this rule in most of the words you listed: e.g., when you first attempt to recognise (認) someone, and then you really did, you say 認得. In 免得, consequence is stressed. Others may be more elusive, because 得 is often too grammaticalised, and that modern Chinese has the proclivity of using bisyllabic words (雙音節詞).

得 in 得到 is itself a verb meaning 'to get'. 得 in 聽得見 is a potential complement. 得 in 跳得高 is a structural particle that is used to precede the adverb. They are different from 得 in point 1.

Why is it important to make the difference? That is because certain V+得s can have different meanings, depending on context. Take 記得 as an example:

得 as
Sentence
Translation

Structural particle
就這件事，我記得很清楚。
Regarding this matter, I remember very clearly.

Complement for completion/consequence
我記得這件事。
I recall this matter.

Notice how the first 記得 precedes an adverb, but how the second precedes a noun.
In modern Chinese, 我記這件事。 is unidiomatic (bisyllabic proclivity). When you begin to recall something and you did recall it, you say 記得 (indication of completion). Both justify the use of 記得 over 記.


伊人 is lover.

想問伊人何處 means: I want to ask where is my lover.


When is “得” pronounced “de” and when is it pronounced “dei”?

得
děi

Is a verb that means:

  need/must

Like:

  我们得走了
  We gotta go.

得
de

Is an auxiliary partial that modifies or qualifies a verb.

Like:

  说得好！
  Well said!


Which Chinese dialect group is the surname Kuok from?

郭 (Kwok, also spelled Kuok) is a Cantonese surname. It is cognate with the Mandarin surname 郭 (Guo, Kuo).


Is there an official translation for oleogustus, yet?

I think it's translated as:

脂肪味

Sources:

http://news.sciencenet.cn/htmlnews/2015/7/323886.shtm
http://politics.people.com.cn/n/2015/0729/c70731-27376218.html

Baike has an article on it too, but that seems to be related to an earlier US finding related to the gene CD36.
Interestingly, your suggestion of 脂味 appears to be the preferred Japanese translation.


How do you say, "What's your problem?" in Mandarin？

你很多問題勒神經病嗎““5”4””4
再來你有病嗎
是沒去看醫生嗎


How do native Chinese greet each other on daily basis?

This is a very interesting question. I am sure you can understand that even in English there are tons of ways to greet one single friend. It also differs from regions. Below I am listing some of the typical/common ways we greet people.

People you've just met:

你好！＝ hello.
很高兴认识你！ = very glad to meet you.

For acquaintances:

你好吗？= how are you doing?
忙吗？ = are you busy recently?
最近忙什么？= what have you been up to recently?
身体好吗？= Are you well/healthy?
吃过饭了吗？= have you eaten? — This is very typical and old-fashioned Chinese way to greet. It has been used by the older generation more frequently. Chinese won't be surprised if they are greeted this way when the timing is not applicable. Seldom will they misunderstand this as a lunch/dinner invitation. It is just a greeting....)

For close friends:

嗨/嘿！hi/hey.
怎么样/你怎么样？= how are you doing?

For relatives:

for close relatives, we don't even greet a lot. Just call "Mom/Dad". for relatives who we don't get to meet a lot, we use the similar greeting as acquaintances.


How to use 读作 in the sentence "67.5读作六十七点五"?

You can replace 读作 with 'read as'

The sentence can be translated as:
  67.5 reads as 六十七点五


我一个弟兄们 is grammatically incorrect: 一个 (=1) conflicts with 们 (>1).I watched the video in question. The interviewee actually said 我一个弟兄. It is the subtitle that added a 们 at the end.


Why is 月 used when speaking about anatomy?

The 月字旁 was originally '肉' & not '月' - 肉 has the meaning of 肉体 meaning 'flesh' or having to do with the 'human body' so it's often seen with body parts.
Wikipedia:
肉字旁：臺灣標準中，凡肉字旁的字，都寫作「提肉旁」即，使其不會與「月字旁」相混。《字形表》中，肉字旁只在字的左旁時才寫作「提肉旁」，在字的右旁時採用首筆豎的方式與「月字旁」區分（「月字旁」在右方時，首筆為撇）。但在下方時，則「肉」與「月」首筆都作豎，兩者會相混。


[一边 (verb A) 一边 (verb B)] indicates  (verb A) and (verb B) are carried out  concurrently. Please read Is the 边～边 the synonym for 一边～一边? for reference
[在 (verb A)] indicates (verb A) is in a progressive tense (in the middle of doing it / in a continuous state of doing it)
Neither structure indicate tense, because Chinese verbs do not inflect between present and past tense. Please read How do you specify past tense for 是? for reference

  我一边在吃饭，一边在做作业

It is not technically wrong, but the more efficient structure to express the same meaning is "我在边吃饭，边做作业"

[边] 吃饭 [边] 做作业 indicates "eat dinner" (verb A) and "do homework" (verb B) are carried out concurrently

[在] [边吃饭，边做作业] indicates both actions are in a progressive tense (in the middle of doing it / in a continuous state of doing it)


The most common way to express bon appétit in more formal situations is:

请慢用

请[qing3] = please

慢用[man4 yong4] = Enjoy your meal! / Bon appetit!

If you find this too formal you may take off the 'please' (请) and just say: 慢用.

Mind you this is most likely going to be said by a waiter/waitress in a restaurant or someone who is not joining the meal.

慢慢吃

is an option, but also usually said by someone who has finished eating before the rest of the party.

慢

Although, 慢 does mean slow(ly) in general in phrases like 慢点 (take care/be careful) or 慢慢X (慢慢走(take care)、慢慢吃(enjoy!), etc.) it doesn't, literally, mean slow but to take your time.

好吃吧

好吃吧 is made up of two parts 好吃 + 吧 —or— tasty + (I) guess. So this phrase really means - (It's) good, I guess.


变现 is a word by itself, not abbreviation, but it literally means 变成现金 (convert (assets) into cash), usually for the purpose of liquidation or realization, so commonly translated into 'liquidate' or 'realize'. The translation for the sentence in your question is correct.


What is a "亲传弟子" and how would you say it in English?

How about "Direct Disciple", I remember that's how people used to describe my Wushu Master.


So technically, the correct usage of 得 for run very fast is 跑得很快 - why are there so many Baidu hits for 跑的很快 and 跑地很快?

The correct word to use in this context is indeed 得; however, because all three of these characters have the same pronunciation in Mandarin (de), they are very often confused by native speakers. This is similar to how some English speakers often confuse "there", "their", and "they're".

For more information on the grammatical differences among the three, refer to this previous question: 的-地-得, when do you use which?

[As an aside, while these three characters have the same pronunciation in Mandarin, they differ in other Chinese varieties such as Cantonese (的 dik、地 dei、得 dak), so this mistake does not occur as often with speakers of those topolects and replacing one with the other would end up sounding obviously wrong.]


Books for learning characters through progression diagrams and glyph origins?

I suggest you try to get a sample of the books first and then decide which serves better your purpose.
I think there are mainly two type of books:
Type I: Simple learning descriptions
They are focused mainly on Chinese learners, are less about etymologically accuracy and more about memorizing characters and stroke order with simple descriptions / stories. There are a large number of these books, but most of them appear to be similar. For example, I found:

Matthews, Alison. Matthews, Laurence - Tuttle Learning Chinese Characters (Hsk Levels 1 -3) Revolutionary New Way To Learn And Remember The 800 Most Basic Chinese Characters (2014, Tuttle Publishing):

Tan Huay Peng - Fun With Chinese Characters:

Type II: Etymological dictionaries
(Also see: Where to look for history and etymology of Chinese characters? For example 工)
They are more about the etymological origin of the words. I also posted some useful websites:

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ A free content dictionary website from the Wikipedia group.

HUMANUM by the Research Centre for Humanities Computing of the Research Institute for the Humanities (RIH), Faculty of Arts, The Chinese University of Hong Kong. In Mandarin.

https://www.yellowbridge.com/chinese/character-dictionary.php

Wu et al - The  way of Chinese characters: The  origins of 670 essential words. It seems complete but with few characters.

L. Wieger - Chinese Characters: Their Origin, Etymology, History, Classification, and Signification: A Thorough Study from Chinese Documents. The oldest reference (from 1965).

In addition: https://www.zdic.net/ probably has also some etymological description, but it is fully in Mandarin and I can not confirm it.

Note: I have not been able to access these other books:

Dileep Rajeev, Learning Chinese Characters : An Ideographic Approach.
The Origins of Chinese Characters.
The Origin of Chinese Characters: An Illustrated History and Word Guide.


What website will speak Cantonese to me?

This one from 香港中文大学
it's easy to search for cantonese resources from HK websites.


Is syaku an ancient Chinese unit of measurement (Suanfa tong zong)?

I believe this is the original text:

今有葭二莖生池中，並根杪齊，出水三尺，即葭一莖斜去至岸九尺，與水適平，問水深若干？

It also comes with the following, hard to read, illustration:

This is the measure word you're asking about:
尺
MDBG:

chǐ
a Chinese foot / one-third of a meter / a ruler / a tape-measure / one of the three acupoints for measuring pulse in Chinese medicine / CL: 支, 把

Wiktionary

1 chi; Chinese foot (a traditional Chinese unit of distance based on the human forearm and equal to 10 cun (寸) or 1/10 zhang (丈))
2 (Mainland China) mainland chi; Chinese foot, standardized in 1984 as 1/3 meter
3 (Taiwan) Taiwanese foot, standardized as 10/33 meter and identical to the Japanese shaku
4 (Hong Kong) chek; Hong Kong foot, standardized as 0.371475 meters
5 (informal) imperial foot
6 ruler (straightedge) (Classifier: 把)
7 tape measure

Japanese Shaku is also:

10/33 meter


喜欢= like to; love to

欢喜= happy

  保龄球我喜欢是喜欢，不过打得不好-- (As for bowling, It is true that I like it, but I am not very good at it.)

[Subject XX 是 XX]= [granted/ It is true that subject is XX]

Example:

"他贪心是贪心, 但他不会为了钱做违法的事情"= "他贪心是真的, 但他不会为了钱做违法的事情" (It is true that he is greedy, but he wouldn't do any illegal thing for money)

  能夠打保龄我是很欢喜，但我必须先完成作业-- (I am very happy for able to go bowling but I must finish my homework first.)


Tang inscription translation (Characters identified: 大唐年製)

大唐年製 (Made in the era of the Tang Dynasty)


Looking for a Chinese movie or anime with easy dialogues

I would highly recommend "小蝌蚪找妈妈". It's short with a meaningful story for kids. The conversation is simple and slow.


What is the meaning of 心理 in this context?

According to many comments here, 心理 is just a typo for 行李. If you replace it with 行李, the sentence makes sense.

  收费方面，近距离的行李在15千克以下收入2000日元（约合人民币118元），15-25千克收费2500日元（约合人民币147元）。


Something like "turning lemons into lemonade"

There are some phrases of close meanings:

化干戈为玉帛   turn hostility into peace;
转危为安 / 化险为夷       turn danger into safety;
化压力为动力   turn the pressure of life into power;
转悲为喜 turn sorrow into joy;
化悲痛为力量   turn sadness into power;
变废为宝    turn rubbish into useful things;
化失败为教训  turn failure into lessons


What readers are available at the 1,000 word level?

You can try 读者 which is like Reader's Digest. I don't know if one with 1000 words can understand every article in it, but I think you can find some interesting essays.


"小王" 和 "老王" how to determine which to use?

Just as @Flake said:

  In general, "小X" should be used to a person who is younger than you while "老X" to an older person.

And here is some additional usages:

Generally speaking, 老X is often used to address a male, and 小X can be used for both male & female.
老X can be used to a person who is an acquaintance to you(usually both of you have almost the same age), for example, a close friend at school. However, in some cases, close friends will use 老X as nickname without obvious distinction between ages(this rarely occurs, but exists).
You should not call a person who is much older than you 老X, it's impolite. You can call him/her X哥/X姐, and if they are older still X叔/X姨, etc.
In companies, superiors might call their subordinates 小X.
And in the family, elder ones might call the younger 小X.

Your uncle is older than both of you, so I think you'd better call him X哥(or just the given name, but should not use 小X as his parents used) when talking to others. :)


What's the term for bank microdeposit, small test deposits that one bank sends to another to verify the second account's information and ownership?

Interesting, the literal meaning of  'micro-deposit' (微額存款) doesn't explain the actual function of it in English or Chinese. I would say translate 'micro-deposit' literally as 微額存款 is acceptable. Since people who know what 'micro-deposit' is, would also understand what 微額存款 mean. And people who don't know what 'micro-deposit' is, would need an explanation for 微額存款 just like they would need an explanation for 'micro-deposit'
If the translator worry about Chinese speakers who never heard of 'micro-deposit' will not understand what 微存款 mean, he might as well describe it in the name and write "戶口認證用微額存款" (Micro-deposit for account verification)


她哭得那么多了

You have misused the complement. We say:

她哭得那么伤心。
她哭得很厉害。

If you want to express she has cried many times, then you should say 她哭过很多次了.
So, your issue is 多了 isn't a correct complement for 哭. When you say 那么多了, you don't need 得. For example, we say 说(了)那么多了，we don't say 说得那么多了. 得 is just redundant here.


Why can't 了 be used to indicate a completed action that has yet to come?

i think it is because of that we use 了 to express that the status is really exist,mostly it is the status of something has done or over/ended/finished.as you can not make sure a thing has not happened definitely happen in the future,so you can not say 明年，我学了中文.that sentence also indicate that you have finished the learning of chinese.


Why 这么 / 那么 are placed before the action verb?

[这么 +v ] = [v + like this/ this way]
[那么 + v] = [v + like that/ that way]
Example:
大家都[这么][说] = everyone [says it] [like that]
你不该[那么][做] = you shouldn't [do it] [like that]
~
[这么 + adj ] = [ this + adj]
[那么 + adj ] = [ that + adj]
Example:
[这么][坏] = [this][bad]
[那么][好] = [that][good]


What is the difference between 通常，经常，and 常常？

Generally, 经常 is used ahead of action, like 我经常加班

通常 is used to describe things happened frequently. like 事情通常是这样的

常常 can be used for both of the cases.

----- Edit -----

他通常说的都是对的.

我通常都是晚上开始工作.

both are okay to me too, you can see the differences.

常常 can always take place of 经常 (anyway, I cannot recall any examples now that cannot replace it).

通常来说， 常常 can also take place of 通常, but we just don't say 常常来说 :)


Yes, in many cases, the measure word 个 is omitted.

Examples:

  我校有五百人，其中三人是转校生。
  这起事故造成两人死亡，四人重伤，七人失踪。
  这个活动吸引了近万人参加。
  七十人投了票，二十人弃权。

However, the omission of 个 usually means formality. That means we omit it when we talk in a formal way, eg. report news. But when we talk casually with friends, we tend to add 个:

  我们学校有五百个人，三个是转来的。
  这个车祸，死了两个人，四个人受伤，还有七个人失踪了。
  差不多有一万个人参加了这个活动。
  七十个人投票了，还有二十个弃权了。


Is there a list of characters specifically used for western proper nouns?

No list. It would be easy to make a list because it would be all characters (point 3). In general I think these are the rules:

1) The standard (which is really based off the next point).
2) The frequency/stroke count of the character.
3) The desire to represent style.

The standard

I just mean x character has been used before, lets use it again because folks already know about it. Really just based off 2 and 3 below.

The frequency/stroke count of the character.

I feel like Starbucks is an interesting example, a phono-semantic one too.

星巴克
xīng ba kè
star 'phonetic placer' 'phonetic placer'

The last two characters are the most interesting because they have no meaning and are used because of their sound and frequency/stroke count.

巴 - 697 frequency (also the first ba in the list)
克 - 493 frequency (also the first ke in the list)

http://www.zein.se/patrick/3000char.html

The desire to represent one's style.

I've never heard about a law that saws parents cannot use x character to name their children. I think such censorship would cause a revolution before youku got shutdown. So following this point theoretically any character is up for grabs.


Which is correct when referring to stroke count: 畫 or 劃?

劃
[4] [n] stroke (of a Chinese character)

~

畫
[3] [n] stroke of a Chinese character

For the meaning of 'pen stoke', it can be either. However, I prefer 劃.
When 劃 is used as a noun, it can only mean 'stroke'. meanwhile when 畫 is used as a noun, it means 'drawing' primarily.


basically in this sentence both of them have the similar means is 'don't want' or 'don't need',but 不想要 may more emphasizes the subjective idea of 'want'.
As it is one sentence of the lyrics,maybe they just want to express strong emotions or just matching with melody.


悠 has the same meaning as 久 in this case.

It is a kind of word making method in Chinese, which combines two synonymic characters together. Perhaps the terminology tautology can be used here.

For example: 亲吻 拥抱 战斗 早晨 林木


Introduction. What's the difference between 介绍, 简介, 入门, 引导, 导语, 导论, 引子?

简介 is actually a short form of 简单介绍, a brief introduction, while 介绍 is introduction.  In this way they are interchangable just as they are in english

导语 - 'lead', i.e. the few words you will see at the beginning of a novel.
入门 - 'getting started', i.e. Macbook for dummies = Macbook 入门
you get the idea for the rest:
引导/引子 - 'guide'
导论 - a more detailed introduction


Generally speaking, it is quite difficult to determine the pronunciation of characters which are pictograms or ideograms without resorting to deduction, inference, or secondary evidence. 《說文新證》 does not go into detail what it means by

  古文字未見單獨出現的囗字

but we can refer to its entry of 「丁」

  甲骨文丁字，或謂象釘形、或謂象城邑、金鉼、人顛頂。以「正」字甲文多从「囗」、金文多从「丁」來看，丁、囗實爲一字，皆城圍之象。

to deduce that the text probably means that there is no independent usage of 「囗」 which refers to the word 「圍」; the independent usage of the original shape 「囗」 is now written as 「丁」, originally referring to a word now written as 「城」 (Baxter-Sagart OC: /*[d]eŋ/) with fourth heavenly stem (/*tˤeŋ/) as a phonetic loan.

I wouldn't think too much of the pronunciation 「圍」 (/*[ɢ]ʷə[j]/) for 「囗」, which does not appear to have any direct evidence in ancient inscriptions; rather, 「囗」 (walled city) as a component has been associated with both the word city walls 「城」 and the meaning to surround, to enclose (concretely realised as the word 「圍」) for a very long time, with the only clear difference being whether it has a direct sense of surround (e.g. 囿) or a direct sense of city (e.g. 邑). Once we have a dictionary like 《說文》

  囗，回 (/*[ɢ]ʷˤəj/) 也。象回帀之形。

also directly making a etymological connection between 「囗」 and 「回」, then we have a deduced assumption of what kind of word 「囗」 may have represented, if it ever existed independently and was not referring to 「丁」 or 「城」.

Characters' original forms that have no independent usage may not have the same explanation behind them, with conclusions being drawn from educated guesswork. Check out 《說文新證》's entries for 「夊」 and 「夅」.


What are the repeatedly used structures in 4-character expressions (e.g. chengyu) and what do they mean?

It seems that there are two types of 成语 represented by the same “structure”.

A而B之 could mean “action + action, done to something (third person pronoun)”.

取而代之 means “to take and replace 之 (something that was previously mentioned)”. Compare this to 取代, which simply means “replace”. You could consider 取而代之 a literary form of 取代; using it adds elegance to an otherwise common word. Other examples include 换而言之、敬而远之 and 分而治之.

A而B之 could also mean “adjective + adjective, used to describe something (third person pronoun)”.

堂而皇之 means that something (之) is “wide like a hall and grand like imperial edifices”. Similarly, this can be considered a literary form of 堂皇. I would say 久而久之 has similar characteristics, but note that the 久 is describing a long period of time, instead of the appearance or a quality of an object.


哦 (Ò), I see!

哦 (O), is that really so?

喔 (Ō), I see!

诶 (唉, Āi), good heavens!

啊 (Á), you are kidding me, right?

啊 (Ǎ), is that really so?

啊 (À), OK.


What's the meaning of the hat like character on top of 尔

Don't think it's a knife. Maybe a handle??

尔 variant of 爾｜尔

warping-wheel-er 尔爾 ěr (weaving not my strong point, not really sure what that is)

尔 seems to be the top part of 爾

Original meaning 本义: Meaning (orig) a rolled up spindle (now) meaning you.

你
Character decomposition 字形分解 [?]:
Compound 你 older 儞

from person-left-ren 亻人 rén and

related phonetic warping-wheel-er 尔爾 ěr.


栖 is the simplified character of 棲
棲 has two different pinyin

棲 /qi1/

(of birds) perch; roost

dwell; stay; reside; settle

~

棲 /xi1/

[adj] restless; fidgety

兩棲  /liang3 qi1 / amphibious; dual-talented; able to work in two different lines
The video use  /xi1/ instead of /qi1/, which doesn't match the dictionary. And base on the context, the dictionary is the correct one here


I would explain the usage of 将 like this:
将 + Object + AdverbialPart.
AdverbialPart = InfiniteVerb + ResultOfAction
The AdverbialPart is often in the form of sort of a perfect aspect of the verb.
For example: eaten = 吃掉, where 吃 is the basic form of the verb, and 掉 means the action has finished, i.e. perfect aspect. And most basic way to construct it is adding 了 behind the action. Which will give us 把/将XX吃掉/了.
However, some words themselves can be used to express perfect aspect or you can say their perfect forms are the same as their original forms. 结合 is one of those. So you can say Subject + 把/将 + Object1 + 和 + Object2 + [相] + 结合
Regarding your change to the sentence, I think it's alright, but there might be some subtle difference that I will try to illustrate with following translations in English

将产品创新同城市文化、都市人怀旧心态紧密结合
...combined product innovation tightly with urban culture and metropolis dwellers' nostalgic mentality.
产品创新紧密结合了城市文化和都市人的怀旧态度
Product innovation combined urban culture and metropolis dwellers' nostalgic mentality.

So you see, the subject and object have changed during the transform. Product innovation was one of the object, or I'd say the primary object of the combination action. And in the transformed sentence, it became the subject. It became "combinor", but not necessarily "combined".
And the arguments of 结合 is a list of objects which can be separated by "、" and other parallel conjunction such as 和、与、以及.
结合<Object1>、<Object2>、 ... 和<ObjectN>。

把<Object1>、<Object2>、...和<ObjectN>结合。

Also same as in English, 结合 could be either active or passive action.


How to use "considering [that]" as a conjunction?

考虑到，as has been pointed in another answer. If you want to sound a bit more bookish, perhaps 鉴于，eg.

  鉴于他已改正错误, 你就原谅他吧。  Considering he has already corrected his mistake,
  you really should forgive him.


there're 7 occurrences of "何如" in 呂氏春秋:

http://ctext.org/lv-shi-chun-qiu/zh?searchu=何如

translate "何如" as "how" is appropriate, in some of them.

１　季冬紀﹒不侵　http://ctext.org/lv-shi-chun-qiu/bu-qin/zh?searchu=何如&searchmode=showall#result

  孟嘗君之好士何如

何如 is how --> how is (何如) mr maang (孟嘗君) fond of (好) gentlemen? (士)

２　審應覽﹒應言　http://ctext.org/lv-shi-chun-qiu/ying-yan/zh?searchu=何如&searchmode=showall#result

  公之事何如

何如 is how --> how (何如) is your (公之) business (事)?

３　離俗覽﹒離俗　http://ctext.org/lv-shi-chun-qiu/li-su/zh?searchu=何如&searchmode=showall#result

  伊尹何如

何如 is how --> how (何如) about mr yi (伊尹)?

４　先識覽﹒悔過　http://ctext.org/lv-shi-chun-qiu/hui-guo/zh?searchu=何如&searchmode=showall#result

  寡人興師，未知何如

this 何如 can be shortcut to result, or outcome; from "what's the result", or, "how's the outcome"

i (寡人 is a specialised first person pronoun used by sovereign) send the troop, unknown (未知) the outcome (何如)

５　貴直論﹒過理　http://ctext.org/lv-shi-chun-qiu/guo-li/zh?searchu=何如&searchmode=showall#result

  我何如主也

this "何如" should be "what" --> what type (何如) of sovereign (主) am i (我)?

to be balance, treat "何如" as "how" is also possible:

how do (何如) you think about me (我), as a sovereign (主)?

６　審分覽﹒審分　http://ctext.org/lv-shi-chun-qiu/shen-fen/zh?searchu=何如&searchmode=showall#result

  其轡何如

this "何如" should be "what" --> what's (何如) his (其) means (轡)

轡 (u+8f61) means bridle, a gear for a rider to "control" his horse. it was used here as a metaphor of sovereign's means to employ his officials. (有道之主﹒其所以使群臣者亦有轡)

then, last one:

７　恃君覽﹒恃君　http://ctext.org/lv-shi-chun-qiu/shi-jun/zh?searchu=何如&searchmode=showall#result

  君道何如

"how should a ruler rules" is good, in english. however, as a translation, it's not.

"何如" --> "how should, it's ok; but the remaining, "君道" --> "a ruler rules", well, improper.

cause, "君道" as a noun here, is an entity, which is the same, in verses before this one:

  而君道不廢者

and (而), the principles of sovereign (君道) is not (不) discarded (廢)

  而立其行君道者

and (而), support (立) the one who (其) carry out (行) [according to] the principles of sovereign (君道)

briefly, "何如" can be translated to "how", in most occurrences in the book 呂氏春秋. sometime, it's better to translate it as "what".

about "君道", it's an entity. divide it into subject + verb; well, would be betrayal :)


First, it's not a verbal reading of 块.

Second, 一块块 could be used as adjective, adverb or a complement, meaning 'into pieces' or 'pieces of'.

Examples(as an adjective， modifying a noun): 一块块肉，一块块面包，...

Examples(as an adverb， modifying a verb): 一块块地找，一块块地切下来，...

Examples(as a complement): "哦,把他们砍成一块块?", "灰熊的领地被公路切分成一块块";


Origin of transliteration of ~j/sw to ~r in Mandarin

Yes.

瑞 is seoi6 (IPA: /sɵy̯²²/) in Cantonese, and sūi (IPA: /sui²²/) in Hokkien, so is a fairly close match to the French word Suisse and the English name for Sweden. The origin of a lot of translations for smaller Western countries came from the Chinese varieties of the southern ports of Guangzhou (Canton) and Xiamen (Amoy) amongst others.

惹 in some varieties of Hokkien (specifically Zhangzhou, which gave rise to Penang's variety) is pronounced jiá (IPA: /d͡ʑia⁵³/), which again is a closer match to the voiced affricate of -ja ज in Sanskrit-derived Indo-Aryan languages.

The 者 version is one option that Mandarin has (being an affricate, and in right area of the mouth), and also has the right semantic connotations (representing a person).

Although it is not a general phenomenon, topolectally-divergent transliteration is still a thing. Compare how Mainland Chinese, Malaysians and Singaporeans transliterate David Beckham's surname (貝克漢姆, simpl. 贝克汉姆) with how Hong Kongers/Macanese do so (碧咸), with how Taiwanese do so (貝克漢).


How to write date and number in Chinese?

"Z53120385"     is

Z五三一二零三八五

And there is a formal version in capital Chinese character:

Z伍叁壹贰零叁捌伍 (usually used as price in contract)

" 11/03/2010"   is

2010年03月11日

Chinese dates use numbers as a custom, there is no need to force translating. Or you can also use

2010/03/11 as Year/Month/day.

If you do need a full Chinese dates in a formal document, it should be

"二零一零年三月十一日".

I don't know what the number means, but in general, I presume there is no need to translate other than using dates in Year/Month/day. Because Chinese used to use letters and Arabic numbers in many situations like serial number, ticket number, dates and so on.


Sounds right. Something along the line 对外资开放, which means give access to foreign investments.


What is the purpose of 制 in this sentence 夏时制开始

From speaking to many mainland Chinese, 夏时 means daylight savings. If a Chinese speaker knows about daylight savings, 夏时 is quite clear. 夏时制 is more clear especially for Chinese who aren't familiar with daylight savings. The three words together express "system of daylight saving" loose translation.

Honestly, would a non-American English speaker be able to know what daylight savings is without previous knowledge of the concept? I don't think so. I can imagine less worldly Chinese not understanding either of the two above phrases unless the concept was carefully explained to them.


Words for "thing"? Different usages? 办法说“事情“或者”东西“？用的时候是一样的吗？

「事情」refers to an event or situation. I wouldn't translate it as thing; the only situation where thing is an acceptable translation is something like

他辦事情去了
He went to take care of something

But something could have easily been substituted with a situation.

I disagree with the other answers here; there are several things that are abstract but  which can be referred to as a「東西」.

感情是個很奇怪的東西
Emotions are a very strange thing

You cannot replace this with「感情是個奇怪的事情」, which doesn't make sense.


Roots of the difference between 谈,论,说,讲,议, 叙,言,报,告,述

言 (yan2) is the root of all words meaning talk. It says so in the 說文解字 (a dictionary from the Han dynasty):

  凡言之屬皆从言

The origin of the character 言 is a picture of a person with a big mouth. In ancient Chinese, it’s the general word for any form of speech or talking. In modern Chinese, it has become literary and is normally only used in compound words like 語言 (yu2yan2) "language".

Most other characters you mention are just 言 with a second component to indicate the sound of the word (this type of character is called 形聲字 (xing2sheng1zi4):

談

(tan2)’s phonetic part is 炎 (yan2), which means hot or inflamed. In ancient Chinese, this word has connotations of talking happily about something. It’s often used in the combination 談笑 (tan2xiao4), meaning "to talk and laugh". In modern Chinese, this is a general word for light conversation, similar to English "chat" or Russian "razgovor".

論

(lun4)’s phonetic part is 侖 (lun2), meaning logical order. In this case, this part also points to the meaning: Both in ancient and modern Chinese, 論 means to explain or to discuss. It can also mean to ponder something without actually talking out loud. Example from the 呂氏春秋:

闻言必熟论 the words heard must be carefully examined

說

(shuo1)’s phonetic part is 兌 (dui4), which can mean a number of things such as "exchange" or "melt". In ancient Chinese, 說 has two meanings. Pronounced "shui4", it means "to persuade". Pronounced "shuo1", it means "to explain", or, as a noun, "teachings". For example, 老子說 means "the teachings of Laozi". The meaning "explain" still exists in modern Chinese, but 說 has also become a general word for "speak", like English "say" or Russian "skazat".

講

(jiang3)'s traditional character had the phonetic 冓 (gou1), which can mean a number of things, including "to meet" and "to combine". Accordingly, 講 in the 說文解字 means "to reconcile". The simplified character uses 井 (jing3), meaning water well (Russian "kolodets"). In modern Chinese, 講 has a number of meanings, but the most common ones are:

講故事 tell a story
講價 negotiate the price

In some dialects, 講 replaces 說 as the main verb for "speak".

議

(yi4) has 義 (yi4), which means "meaning" or "righteousness". Both words reflect the meaning of 議, which means "opinion" or "comment" and is normally used in compound words.

告 (edited)

There are different explanations of this character. I originally followed the "cow that makes a noise" explanation found here, but that seems to be wrong.

告 (gao4) consists of the parts 牛 (niu2) "cow" and 口 (kou3) "mouth".
Various explanations for this character exist. The 說文解字 explanation does not make sense to me. This article (PDF in Chinese) claims that the character originally described a method of catching or keeping cows. Later it acquired the sense of "to sacrifice" (also written as 祰). From there, its meaning as "report" developed. In ancient Chinese, 告 meant "to report something to a superior". Nowadays it means "to tell somebody about something".

報

(bao4) is interesting. The left side is a criminal (辠 zui4). The right part is a hand and a kneeling person, a shorter version of the character 服 (fu4) "punish". 報 originally meant "court documents", but the meaning has expanded to cover the English words "report", "answer", "repay" and, from those meanings, "newspaper".


Yes, it is indeed outdated.

Moreover, you may not want to name your child after a super famous character when that person's name is not quite common, for example （武）则天、（毛）泽东、（周）恩来、（朱）元璋 and so on. Especially when you two share the same surname!

However, some more common names, especially one-character names, though may have been used by famous people, could still be used after, for example, （杨）勇、（李）密、（刘）秀、（王）勃 and so on.

Also, it is not a common practice to have children and their elder relatives using same characters in first names. We do not memorize our loved ones that way.

As for the popularity of a certain name, you may not be able to easily access that data as it not the kind of information that a government would like people to get their hands on to.

But there is a way to roughly determine whether a name is popular or not. That is, once a "type" of name is used by more and more people, it gets unpopularized! Because people want their names to stand out.

For example, around 1950s or 1960s, people tended to name their children as 解放、卫星（when the first satellite was launched by China）and then 永强、永平 in the following years. In recent years, life is becoming peace and nice, people started to name their children as 紫萱、梓萱、子轩、梓轩 and so on. But they are soon considered outdated as well! Curious on what people would come up with.


How to answer "wait" in a conversation in simple Mandarin?

等一下 is fine, but if you want shorter answers, there are other options:

等等：pretty much the same as 等一下
馬上：means immediately, will be there in a moment

These are the two word answers I can think of right now.


Why do characters for "opposites" often have very different frequencies on frequency tables?

It's an interesting statistics.
I think the reason is that those words also have multiple other meanings.
For example, 高(134) vs 矮(2027),
高 could mean:

　1. 由下到上距离大的，与“低”相对：～峰。～空。～踞。～原。～耸。～山流水（喻知己、知音或乐曲高妙）。～屋建瓴（形容居高临下的形势）。～瞻远瞩。
　2. 高度：他身～一米八。
　3. 等级在上的：～级。～考。
　4. 在一般标准或平均程度之上：～质量。～消费。～价。～档。～手。～能物理。
　5. 声音响亮：引吭～歌。
　6. 敬辞，称别人的事物：～见。～就。～论。～寿。～堂。～徒。
　7. 热烈、盛大：～昂。兴～采烈。
　8. 显贵，道德水平高：崇～。清～。～风亮节。～尚。～雅。～洁。
　9. 宗族中最在上之称：～祖。
　10. 酸根或化合物中比标准酸根多含一个氧原子的：～锰酸钾。
　11. 姓。

矮 could mean:

　1. 人的身材短：～人。～矬。～个儿。～墩墩。
　2. 高度小：～林。～墙。～屋。
　3. 等级地位低：工资他比我～一级。

As you can see, 高 has much more meanings than 矮, 11 vs 3. So, it's no surprise to see 高 holds the position of 134, while 矮 just 2027.


What's the original Chinese to “To one who has seen too little of the world, everything is strange.”?

中国古典文学 has the preface.
Here's the first paragraph:

初刻拍案惊奇
凌濛初
序
语有之：“少所见，多所怪。”今之人，但知耳目之外，牛鬼蛇神之为奇，而不知耳目之内，日用起居，其为谲诡幻怪非可以常理测者固多也。昔华人至异域，异域咤以牛粪金；随诘华之异者，则曰：“有虫蠕蠕，而吐为彩缯锦绮，衣被天下。”彼舌挢而不信，乃华人未之或奇也。则所谓必向耳目之外索谲诡幻怪以为奇，赘矣。

The translation of “To one who has seen too little of the world, everything is strange.” is:

少所见，多所怪

There is also an entry for this in ABC Proverbs which says:

Lit [Things (which are)] seldom seen [are felt to be] strange.
Note Cf. the preface to Chū Kè Pāi'àn Jīngqì; now more commonly said shǎo jiàn, duō guài; see also the preceding entry.

Like the definition mentions the more, modern, common variant of this phrase is 少见多怪 which ABC defines as:

The less one has seen, the more one marvels.

ABC Proverbs also contains the old phrase with an added sentence:

少所见多见怪，睹橐驼谓马肿背。
Lit [One who has] seen little regards many things as strange; [(s)he] sees a camel [and] calls [it a] horse with a hunchback.


If 莫過於 doesn't start sentence, how it means "nothing can surpass ..."?

The thing is, Chinese and English are so different that you would rarely see a sentence that can be translated word-by-word and in the original order, without sounding unnatural.
For example, Wiktionary defines 什么 as "what". But can we translate 你在做什么? (what are you doing?) without rearranging elements in the sentence? No, usually we can't. Does that change the fact that 什么 means what in this sentence?
I'd argue that the English translation actually has the ellipsis right. Think about it this way, ellipsis means something needs to go in there. And in English, you start the sentence with nothing is more, so there is no need for an ellipsis to appear before the phrase, because there is nothing before it in the final sentence.


What is the difference between 晚上 and 夜里?

As a native speaker, these two word actually mean very different things to me:
晚上 refers to in the evening, the period of time between sunset and going to bed.
夜里 refers to in the night, anytime after people have gone to bed.
There should be very few cases where these are interchangeable, just like you can’t always swap “evening” for “night”

晚上一起吃饭吧？
Wanna eat out tonight(aka this evening)?

夜里一起吃饭吧？【误】
Wanna eat out tonight(aka at night)? [wrong]

Note how in English we are actually accustomed to use tonight for both meanings and I think that’s where the confusion kicked in.


Actually, "在我们村里有一所中学" is the equivalent Chinese expression of "There is a middle school in our village."

And the equivalent English expression of "我们村里有一所中学" should be "Our village have a middle school."

"在我们村里有一所中学" often used in written language, if you mean spoken language, "我们村里有一所中学" is more often used than "在我们村里有一所中学".


Good question. In Traditional Chinese, boss is called "老闆" instead of "老板". "闆" is simplified into "板" but they have different meaning, that is, they are two totally different words. Therefore, "闆" doesn't mean "board". "闆", reads pàn here, means spy through the door. See http://www.zdic.net/z/27/js/95C6.htm.

According to MOE Dictionary of Taiwan, the word "老板" is also used nowadays. See http://dict.revised.moe.edu.tw/cgi-bin/cbdic/gsweb.cgi?o=dcbdic&searchid=Z00000060086.

As for this question, it seems that there are different opinions and you shouldn't trust them blindly.


How does someone train using 了 correctly?

It is a tough question I would give it a try...

了
(1) [aspect marker] indicating completed action
(2) [final particle] indicating change of situation

Let's use a shorter sentence.

I go to see the flower (我去看花)

If you want to state the verb 去 (go) is complete, the sentence would be (我去了看花)

If you want to state the verb 看 (see) is complete, the sentence would be "我看了花" (I've seen the flower)

if you want to indicate the verb phrase 去看花 (go to see flower) are completed action the sentence would be "我去看花了" (I've gone to see the flower).

if you want to indicate the situation has changed, the sentence would also be "我去看花了". You would say that if the context is Q: "去看花沒? A: "我去看花了" (situation changed from 'haven't gone to see the flower' to 'have gone to see flower')

if you want to emphasize the action "去看花" then sentence would again, be  "我去看花了". You would say that if the context is : "老闆，工作做完(現在)我去看花了" (Hey, boss, the job is done, I am going to see the flower now)

我去看花了 can has three different meanings in different context, deciding where to put 了 in a sentence without other context is not easy indeed.
Conclusion:
To use 了 correctly, you have to:

Identify which action is completed and which situation has changed, just think about what your sentence would be like in English, and you will find some clues.

Consider what you want to express by filling in context in your mind, like in my "我去看花" example.


What's the most usual way to say "hand sanitizer" in Chinese?

If you want to say hand soap (not necessarily for sanitation), you can use 洗手液. To specifically ask for hand sanitizer (for disinfection/sterilization), you may want to use 消毒洗手液. Below is an analysis for the options you've listed.

  洗手液 xǐshǒu yè

(Liquid) hand soap. Here soap is in general sense, could be sanitizer, scented soap, skin smoother, etc.

  洗手 xǐshǒu

(Verb phrase) to wash hand

  免洗洗手液 miǎn xǐ xǐshǒu yè

Waterless hand soap. Though not explicitly stated in the name, the waterless hand soap products are mostly sanitizers.

  消毒洗手液 xiāodú xǐshǒu yè

Hand sanitizer. (消毒 means to sterilize.)

  ___的洗手液 de xǐshǒu yè

(Incomplete phrase) hand soap of _


沾便宜 is a variant of 佔便宜, in this case, »take unfair advantage of someone«.
In that sense, 沾光 means »to bask in the light of someone«.
I'd read 白 as »free« or »for nothing« here.
So the part of the sentence reads:

  而我却不能给集体带来利益，这就等于是我白沾集体的光，丝毫没对集体予以回报。
  So, if I can't give any advantage to the community, it means that I take its advantages for free, without giving anything back.


Is there a tone sandhi rule that "4 3" changes to "4 0"?

Simply put, there are no tone sandhi rules for when words change from their citation tone to the neutral tone. The appearance of the neutral tone is morphologically motivated, not phonologically motivated — in other words, the tone change is not governed by the sounds of the surrounding words. Because the definition of sandhi is phonologically-motivated sound changes, the appearance of the neutral tone is not tone sandhi.

Certain words simply have the neutral tone because that is how their speakers have become used to saying them; for instance, many words that are pronounced with the neutral tone in Mandarin as spoken on the Mainland are not pronounced with the neutral tone in Mandarin as spoken in Taiwan. One example is 东西, which is typically pronounced as dōngxī in Taiwain rather than dōngxi. The phenomenon and its unpredictability is similar to the appearance of erhua (儿化) in Mandarin.


Actually, "好包了" does not mean "I'm full".

You may see "...打好包了..." in the Google hits. It refers to "have made something into a package.

If your friend say "这顿饭我包了". That means your friend will get the bill, and you don't pay the bill.

You will see "7天包退" on some goods's package, that means "7 days to cancel purchase for non-faulty goods".

And "他们的村庄被敌人包围了" refers to "Their village was surround by the enemy."


Can the 的 particle ever function without "nominalizing"?

You can find the answer in 百度百科 using the key word 语气词 in Baidu search.  Here is the quote relevant to your question:

普通话里最基本的语气词实际上只有六个：的、了、呢、吧、吗、啊。其他一些，有的用得较少，有的是因为语气词连用而产生连读合音的结果，例如“啦”是“了啊”的合音。这六个语气词根据在句子里出现的先后次序可以分为三组，

It has a table listed all the usages of those 语气词.  I can't copy the table from my mobile device. But it has this example 我不会忘记你们的。to illustrate the usage of the 语气词 的.
It's written in Chinese though.  You can try to understand it using a translation tool.


Is `方法是通过xxx` a correct sentence? i.e. 中文中,介宾结构能作为名词(宾语)使用吗

'through' implies 'going through' and  通过 is the correct translation for it. There's nothing wrong with the first sentence
When you 'going through' something to get somewhere, that something must have a length for you to go through (you have to spend a period of time)

通过反复练习  (through repetition) sounds right because 'repetition' requests a considerable length of time

通过自由、有意识的决定 (through free and conscious decision) doesn't sound right because 决定 (decision) happens in an instant.

The more reasonable sentence would be:

The third way is through free and conscious consideration
第三种方法就是通过自由、有意识的考虑
通过考虑 (through consideration)

or

The third way is to trust free and conscious decisions
第三种方法就是信赖自由、有意识的决定
信赖一个决定 (trust a decision)


What's the difference between 也 (yě) & 和 （hé)?

也 means "also" whereas 和 means "and."  Adverb vs. conjunction.

So for example, to say "I am also a student" you could write

我也是学生。

But you cannot write

我和是学生。

Additionally, 也 cannot function as 和。To say "My friend and I are watching a movie" you could write

我和我的朋友在看电影。

But you cannot write

我也我的朋友在看电影。

Here are some links you might want to check out (both on ChineseGrammarWiki):

The "also" adverb "ye"
Expressing "and" with "he"


What does 如 in 如通常在论坛比较普遍的部分网络用语 mean?

Here, 如 can be roughly translated into "like".
However, even as a Chinese, I fail to analyze the sentence grammatically...

The sentence can be roughly (or not-so-roughly) translated into:

"Internet Slang" is the slang language that is popular on the Internet and may often gains popularity over the whole society. They're mostly derived from homophones, misspelled words, pictograms, and popular quotes on Internet forums. Below are some common Internet slangs on forums:
(omitted)

Well...I don't use "like" in my translation in order to convey more precise meaning.


怎么用汉语说 ”early/mid/late 20's" 或 “low/mid/high" 20's"?

For early/low 20s
I'm not very sure about the EXACT ranges (if any) that "early 20s" and "low 20s" refer to in English.
But in Chinese, you may at least have three options to choose from, according to "how early/low" the range that you intend to express is:
early 20s
20多岁 or 20来岁 or 20岁出头
low 20s
20多度 or 20来度 or 20度出头
e.g. A weather forecast broadcast by CCTV in which "5度出头" was used at 1:01, another one in which "20多度" was used at 0:45
There must be some disagreement among native speakers as to what the exact ranges the expressions above refer to (they are not rigidly defined), but I believe generally one will feel that the range gradually turns narrower from left to right. (e.g. 20多岁 → 21 to 25; 20来岁 → 20 to 23；20岁出头 → 20 to 22 or even lower）
Besides, the patterns mentioned above are fairly productive in Chinese:

multiples of ten + 多/来 + unit
e.g. 30多天, 20来吨 (We don't say 32多天 or 25来吨)
number (it doesn't have to be multiples of ten, but the nuance is a bit tricky, see exmaples below) + unit + 出头
e.g.
25米出头(a little bit longer than 25m, must be shorter than 26m, since the scale is 25m - 26m),
20米出头(a little bit longer than 20m, can be even longer than 21m, since the scale is 20m - 30m).

For late/high 20s
I agree with Marc that 将近30度/岁 or simply 近30度/岁 (in literal: near 30) can be used.
For mid 20s
I agree with Marc that there may not be a handy phrase for that. However, I think you can alternatively say 25度/岁左右 or 25度/岁上下 (in literal: around 25).


This is more of an aesthetic / rhythmic issue than a grammatical one. Technically you can keep adding 的 to make a chain as long as you like, but it won't be "nice". It's like saying "that" repeatedly in English, e.g. "the man that ate a dog that ate a fly that watched a cat that liked to browse stack exchange." Grammatically valid but not natural.

The general rule with multiple 的s is to only keep the last one, but sometimes you do have to use multiple 的s. It's usually worth looking at rephrasing the sentence if possible to avoid this (in writing), but in speech I would say just don't worry about it. Even native speakers say things that don't sound perfect, especially if they pause for thought in the middle of an utterance, e.g. "妈妈的那个白色的狗" isn't nice Chinese but people could easily end up saying it.

Also, there is a slight difference between 白狗 and 白色的狗. 白狗 sounds like a particular established category of thing, 'white dog', whereas 白色的狗 is modifying an existing category of thing, 'dog that is white' (although you would translate it into 'white dog'). This may seem obvious but there is a subtle but important difference.


系 means  college major and is exclusively used by the education system. 专业 is a synonym in this context.

For a student of the English major, he would say

  我读英语系。

or

  我读英语专业。

An institution, a faculty or a big department that hosts multiple majors is usually translated into 学院. In a college, there can be only one language department which teaches multiple languages as different majors.

So when you say

  我在英语系工作。

It means you work for the English department (if there is), or you work on stuffs related to English major for the language department. While

  我在语言学院工作。

Means you work for the department/school of language.

部门, or 部 for short, is usually connected with the roles from an (commercial) enterprise, such as HR Department (人力资源部门), Operations Department (运营部门), Sales Department (销售部门), IT Department (信息技术部门), etc.

Sometimes you can connect 部门 with the 'business subject'. It's not the best word choice but is acceptable, such as 洗衣机部门, 冰箱部门, if you are a manufacturer and have dedicated sector for each product.

Back to the education system, you should stick with 系, 专业 or 学院 mentioned above. '英语部门' sounds very weird to me. However you can say '语言学院的IT部门' meaning the 'IT office for the language department'.

As a recap, 系 and 部门 means different things and are not interchangeable in this context.

Update:

When I wrote this answer, I didn't realize there is a difference between Chinese college organizational model and the U.S. one.

To clarify, the education system in China used to follow the Russian model, that is, there are different offices for different majors in one department, and there are supporting staffs like administrators and operation personnel within the department, each of whom may be assigned to serve a specific major or all majors in the department.

Now they are gradually switching to the Western model, that is, each major is a department, and supporting services are run by the college.


Spoken unsubtitled Min in a (now deleted) Youtube video: characters?

The full lyrics can be found on the Web.
(But, there are a few minor errors.)
A video with all subtitles can be found on the YouTube site.
(There are a few minor errors too.)
The lyrics are the words that a mother, who is a singer, tells her daughter whose name is 麗蘭, Lì-lán in Mandarin or Le-lán in Taiwanese Hokkien.
The following lyrics have been modified to Mandarin so that more people can understand the meanings easily.

媽媽歌星
含 口白 (narration; spoken parts)
note: (can be added) [can be omitted]
人若問 妳和我二人到底甚(麼)關係 (我都)介紹妳是我小妹 (而)不敢講坦白(話)
雖然(我)是一直(在)掩蓋 (其實)心內感覺真(得很)難過 因為我待在歌壇 最需要(的)是歌迷
人若知(道)我有女兒 歲數又這(麼)多 恐怕可比秋天的落花 名聲飄飄墜落地

【口白】
麗蘭，媽媽對人說，妳是我的小妹，妳一定感覺奇怪吧？
事實講，像媽媽這種軟弱的女性，一世人只能依靠著唱歌的女人，除了這以外，又還有什麼工作好做呢？
妳也[所]知道，媽媽只愛的是妳爸爸一個人。
既然沒你爸爸，我只好靠自己，靠唱歌。
唱歌總是要靠歌迷，為著不願給歌迷失望，
麗蘭，媽媽這樣瞞騙人，妳想對不對？對不對呢？

一切是環境來造成(這)無聊的命運 滿面的胭脂水粉 打扮(成正)當青春(的樣子)
上舞台表演歌唱 引人迷魂笑紋紋 因為我待在歌壇 靠藝術賺錢[銀]
母子[來]相依為命 勞苦無(可)議論 哪能怨嘆無情的郎君 (令人)每日心[肝]亂紛紛

【口白】
麗蘭，媽媽用粉用胭脂掩蓋[著]面上的皺紋，打扮著妖嬌的模樣，
不管別人怎麼想，媽媽只希望妳相信我，了解我。
妳是媽媽的性命，妳可知道，媽媽每晚都做夢；
在[眠]夢中，妳是ㄧ個很美很美的新娘，妳的身邊也有一個很瀟灑的新郎。
啊！不知何時，這種的場面會到？
若真正來到，……
不是，ㄧ定會到。
若到，媽媽不知有多歡喜咧，妳知道嗎？

(因)興趣[著]唱歌(以)來 一唱已經十多年 親手來[襁]養女兒 不願靠別人
薄情郎離開[了]後 將[著]愛情都全放(下) 因為我待在歌壇 有能力再活動
期待著美麗前程 相信有好夢 用心栽培女兒花清香 是我一生的願望


Why 批 means "criticize" and "a batch" at the same time?

批 [pī] is originally  (扌+), and 批 is a vulgar form since ancient times.

㧙 is another variant form, meaning wring, twist, strike at.

說文解字 informs:

() 反手擊也。左傳曰。宋萬遇仇牧于門。而殺之。玉篇所引如是。今左傳作批。俗字也。从手。聲。匹齊切。十五部。俗作批。

 thus means to strike with the hand, to slap, and also to kill.

康熙字典 adds:

《唐韻》匹迷切《集韻》《韻會》篇迷切，音鈚。《說文》手擊也。《左傳·莊十二年》宋萬遇仇牧于門，批而殺之。
又《廣韻》推也，轉也。
又示也。《唐書·李藩傳》遷給事中，制敕有不便者，黃紙後批之。
又《韻會》與(卑刂)通。削也。《杜甫·房兵曹馬詩》竹批雙耳峻。
又《集韻》騈迷切，音鼙。擊也。
又助也。
又頻脂切。與琵通。琵琶，馬上所鼓。或从手。《風俗通》批把，近世樂家所作，以手批把，因以爲名。
又《韻會》《正韻》普弭切，音庀。亦手擊也。
又《集韻》《韻會》蒲結切，音蹩。讀若敝入聲。義同。《史記·荆軻傳》奈何以見陵之怨，欲批其逆鱗哉。《註》批謂觸擊之。
又《孫臏傳》批亢擣虛。《註》批音白結反。相排批也。《莊子·養生主》批大郤，導大窾。
又《正韻》避列切，音別。義同。《韻會》通作㧙。《集韻》本作。

Here additional meanings are push, turn, peel, cut, help, and we also see that 琵琶 has been written 批把, a reminder that people always have had problems knowing characters.

http://www.zdic.net/z/1a/js/6279.htm informs of the modern meanings:

用手掌打：～颊（打嘴巴）。
刮：～凿。
口头或用文字判定是非、优劣、可否：～准。～示。～复。～语。～阅。～判。眉～（写在书页天头上的批语）。
大量：～购。～销。
量词，用于大宗的货物或数量众多的事物：一～货物。
棉麻等未捻成线、绳时的细缕：线～儿。

The principal meaning is still to hit with the hand, and to cut is also preserved as a basic connotation.

批 as a measure word or as a batch is rather recent, and might be the result of analogy or slang, for instance when bundling goods in the harbor.

Drunken Master points out that 批评 may be seen as an analogy to dissecting things in critique, but another possibility is that it just adds a slapping notion to the evaluation, since 批评 originally meant criticizing negative traits and shortcomings. Afterwards, it has yet again shifted to take on the connotation of critique in general, including praise and other positive meanings.


Describing a person that can speak Mandarin

I just want to expand on what is being said in the comments about context. One of the problems of speaking a language other than your first language is getting across the point of what you are trying to say, not just saying your main point but making yourself fully understood.

Think about this in the context of English. If you were going to say "Yesterday I met someone who could speak English". If you were saying the sentence in English to someone else who understood English, in most cases it would have the listener wondering what your point was. Especially in this case as you are the foreigner, in terms of speaking Chinese, you are the special case.

So maybe you want to say "I met another foreigner who can speak Chinese" or "I met a Chinese person and I was able to practice my Chinese speaking with them".

I understand this doesn't answer directly what you are asking, but getting your real point across is an important step in going from learner to expert.

When I just started out learning my wife used to say to me, stop for a second, tell me in English what you really want to say and then start your sentence again.


When should "度" be used? When should "量" be used?

度 is measurement for length, height or level  (difference between levels is measured in distance )

量 is measurement for volume (something to do with space available or occupied)

As nouns, they are not interchangeable

量度 (v ) to measure ( length or volume)

量 (v) to measure ( length or volume)

度 (v) to measure ( length)


Can 吃的人 mean both a person who eats something and a person who someone eats?

In the right context, '吃的人‘ can mean 'the person who we are eating'.

Reminds me of that old joke:

2 cannibals are eating a clown, one says to the other, "Does this clown taste funny to you?"

两个食人族正在吃一个小丑，其中一个问另一个：“我们吃的这个小丑，味道有趣吗？”

Very funny in English, not so sure in Chinese， humour does not translate well!


Is there a better word than 生存 for uses such as "I survived the typhoon"?

I think it's better to say:"幸存"。That means someone go through some bad things such as disaster or serious illness, and still be alive.


First: 充分
I feel like the definition ample is slightly misleading, although it could be translated this way in specific contexts.
A Chinese-English Dictionary:

2 to the full; as fully as possible
充分利用
fully utilize; make full use of

Oxford actually translates, what most translate as ample, as abundant.

Second: 一些
Oxford

3 略微 [placed after an adjective, indicating a slight change in degree]
请走慢一些
Please walk more slowly

So, we can think of an 一些 suffix as "a little more....blah blah blah", it is adding to whatever is already there.
一些 = and some

Now we have 充分 + 一些 = a little more abundant (-or- a little more ample, if you really want to use ample) -or- with 准备 in mind: to prepare a little more fully

Now 尽量
KEY:

to the best of one's ability; as far as possible

尽量准备充分一些 = you should prepare a whole lot (more), as much as you possibly can


How to express: a narrator is narrating an event in the past, and wants to describe an event 2 years before that

In my opinion,

  在［那事］之前的兩年……
  在［那事］的前兩年……

both mean during the two years before［那事］. Compare

  在［那事］之後的兩年……
  在［那事］的後兩年……

  During the two years (immediately) after［那事］

I suggest

  在［發生Ｘ］的兩年前， 。。。。。。

  Two years before X happened, ...

Another technique, which is perhaps not strictly the answer you're looking for, is to make the context very clear in a printed book. Specifically, an occasional first-person narrative should be actually using a different font, akin to English novels sometimes using italics.

  Excerpt from a digital edition of 紅樓夢 from 國立臺灣大學中文系 (source). The main body of the text is in Song/Ming Typeface, while direct quotes are given in a regular script typeface.

I believe this is why it is difficult for native speakers to answer your query. Printed books may employ the following font styles for different parts of the text:

Song/Ming typeface for the main body;
Regular script typeface for quotes, or a short segment indicating first-person narratives;
Imitation Song typeface for annotations.

In your case, all that's needed for clarification is to print the narration in regular script, and simply write “兩年之前，。。。。。。”.


What is the usage of 蔑 as a negation word in classical chinese?

Here's a good English definition and explanation with an example sentence to get you started:
A Students Dictionary of Classical and Medieval Chinese

2 negative particle of the perfective: had not, have not, will have not; similar to 末 mò and often accompanied by perfective-final 矣 yǐ; mostly found in Zuozhuan 左傳 and Guoyu 國語, later mainly for archaic effect; e.g. 寧事齊楚, 有亡而已, 蔑從晉矣 níngshì Qí Chǔ, yǒu wáng éryǐ, miècóng Jìn yǐ, Better to serve Qi and Qi, lest we simply perish, and [better] not to have followed Jin.
3 not to have, lack; there are no…

Next you can have a look at these dictionary samples to get a better grip of how it works (some of the definitions are the same, but they use different sources):
MoE

◆ <副> 無、沒有。
如：「蔑以復加」、「蔑不有成」。

Liang'An

2 〈書〉無；沒有。
例：～以復加∣～不有成。

Hanyu Da Cidian

4 无；没有。
《诗·大雅·板》
喪亂蔑資, 曾莫惠我師。
毛 传
蔑, 無。資, 財也。
《史记·孔子世家》
夫子循循然善誘人, 雖欲從之, 蔑由也已。
《新唐书·突厥传赞》
自《詩》《書》以來, 伐暴取亂, 蔑如帝神且速也。
明 胡应麟 《少室山房笔丛·华阳博议上》
即小學一端, 門逕十數, 古今博洽, 蔑能相兼。

Longmans

❷ 沒有﹐無：蔑以復加（沒有甚麼能再增加的了）。

Gu Hanyu Cidian

④无。《左传•僖公十年》:“蔑不济矣。”


How did 黃 (yellow) come to mean "pornographic"?

According to this article, there are four possible explanations as to why yellow colour is associated with pornography. Below is a slightly modified translation of the article based on further references from the internet:

Orpiment (雌黃). Orpiment is a toxic orange-yellow mineral that is used as a
pigment by ancient people. Due to poor bleaching technology, paper
produced in the olden days was slightly yellow. When words on a
paper need to be corrected, orpiment can be used to smear onto the
written words, creating a layer of slightly opaque yellow close to
the paper's colour, enabling a rewrite. Soon, people describe
uttering nonsense as "信口雌黃". Subsequently, the yellow colour of
orpiment and its toxicity is later extended to mean poisoning of the
mind.
The Yellow Union. In 1887, in a city in France, a factory owner tried to prevent his
workers from going on strike by bribing the Yellow Union. The
workers discovered the betrayal and angrily smashed the windows of
the union clubhouse. The union then used yellow paper backings as a
replacement for the windows. Since then, the workers labelled these
union people as "见不得人的黃色工会”, meaning a union that cannot face the
public, similar to pornography.
The Yellow Book. In 1894, a British magazine
named "The Yellow Book", gathered in a group of conservative collection of authors
to produce quarterly literary periodicals that are thought to be scurrilous in content. Later, a
prestigious Irish playwright, Oscar Wilde, was arrested on
homosexuality charges. At the time of his arrest, Oscar was
seen holding a yellow book (which turns out to be a French novel). People misidentified the material to be The Yellow Book and associated it with his personality. The next day people demonstrated in front of the publisher, and a furry of media reports soon cemented an association between yellow paperbacks and homosexual content.
The Yellow Kid. The end of the 19th century New
York, New York World and New York Journal competed for readers
intensely, posting vulgar comics content to which "The Yellow Kid"
is one of them and is the origin for the term "yellow journalism".
Since then, the colour yellow is associated with erotic and vulgar
things.


Is there any difference between 办 and 申请？

"申请护照" means "to apply for a passport" It describes the action of file an application for obtaining passport

"办护照" means "make arrangement to obtain a passport" It describes the whole procedure of obtaining passport


What does the following phrase mean “士不可不弘毅, 任重而道遠”?

It comes from 《论语·泰伯章》:

Chapter 7
　　曾子曰：“士不可以不弘毅，任重而道遠。仁以爲己任，不亦重乎？死而後已，不亦遠乎？”
The necessity to the officer of compass and vigor of mind

The philosopher Tsang said, "The officer may not be without breadth of mind and vigorous endurance. His burden is heavy and his course is
long.

"Perfect virtue is the burden which he considers it is his to sustain;-- is it not heavy? Only with death does his course stop;-- is
it not long?

Another version from baidu:

An educated gentleman cannot but be resolute and broad-minded, for he has taken up a heavy responsibility and a long course. Is it not a heavy responsibility, which is to practice benevolence? Is it not a long course, which will end only with his death?


It's one of those fixed expressions whose otherwise regular meaning is significantly and conspicuously altered by the modal 了, that introduces change semantics.
The phrase 「你怎么（样）～」 in itself means "How do you...?". If you add a modal 了 signifying change, it becomes：

"How do you... now" (as opposed to before)

...which in an idiomatic translation becomes: "What happened to you?". The English version precisely conveys change semantics, as it implies that you had no issue earlier, but you might have some now.
A similar result happens with this other expression:

我知道 I know
我知道了 I know now = I got it

And also this one, though I must admit this is my own interpretation, and I have no scientific evidence to support it:

算 to count, to consider as
算了 counted (as in, not counted before, but counted now) = forget about it


Question about complement of frequency? (Using 过 and 次)

No, you can't.

The first sentence: 游 is a verb. 泳 is a noun.

The second sentence: 看 is a verb. 見 is an adverb. It is not the same structure as the first one.

You should just say 我看過你三次 or 我見過你三次.


依香光莊嚴解釋：
在漢語的構詞上，問訊是由「問」與「訊」二個同義詞所組成的詞彙。
「問」是動詞，意思是「恤問」。
「訊」是動詞，意思是「詢問」。

如果「訊」作名詞，在非佛教場合也還是可以用的。如：打聽消息。

現在的"問訊"也還是有用講的，但通常只在人少的時候。當很多人同時向佛或法師表達恭敬時，沒辦法大家都講，所以就只有身體的動作。

問訊 is composed of two synonyms, 問 and 訊.
Both are verbs, meaning "comfort and ask".

If 訊 is a noun, it can still be used in non-Buddhist cases.
Such as: to inquire about something.

Nowadays, 問訊 can still be used orally, but usually only in the cases of 2 or 3 people. When many people express respectful to the Buddha or the masters at the same time, they cannot speak all together. So they only show the body movements.


Interpretation of Embedded Questions as Relative Clauses

Actually, the sentence itself is stilted and ambiguous in meaning.

你看了大卫给谁的书。

The way to express your first idea(You read the book that David gave someone):

你看了David给别人的书。

And the second one (You read the book that David gave someone, and who did he give it to?):

你看的那本书David给谁了？or 你看过的那本书David给谁了？

Both implies that you have read the book; you are questioning who David have given that book to.


Can one radical contain another radical?

To ask an analogous question about the shapes of the letters in the Latin alphabet:

  Does the letter "E" contain the the letter "F"?

  It seems that "E" is just "F" with an extra horizontal line on the bottom.

In terms of shapes in the modern script, it is trivially obvious that "E" contains the strokes of "F". What "E" does not contain is any functionality of "F"; the sound of "F" does not contribute anything to the sound of "E".

"E" containing the strokes of "F" does not explain any functional relation between "E" and "F", if there is any at all. Similarly,「犬」containing the strokes of「大」provides no explanation of the functional relationship between those two, and this is what you're missing.

  For reference, "E" and "F" are unrelated. From Wikipedia:

  The Latin letter 'E' differs little from its source, the Greek letter epsilon, 'Ε'. This in turn comes from the Semitic letter hê, which has been suggested to have started as a praying or calling human figure (hillul 'jubilation'), and was probably based on a similar Egyptian hieroglyph that indicated a different pronunciation. In Semitic, the letter represented /h/(and /e/ in foreign words); in Greek, hê became the letter epsilon, used to represent /e/. The various forms of the Old Italic script and the Latin alphabet followed this usage.

  The origin of 'F' is the Semitic letter vâv (or waw) that represented a sound like /v/ or /w/. Graphically it originally probably depicted either a hook or a club. It may have been based on a comparable Egyptian hieroglyph such as that which represented the word mace (transliterated as ḥ(dj)):

  The Phoenician form of the letter was adopted into Greek as a vowel, upsilon (which resembled its descendant 'Y' but was also the ancestor of the Roman letters 'U', 'V', and 'W'); and, with another form, as a consonant, digamma, which indicated the pronunciation /w/, as in Phoenician. Latin 'F,' despite being pronounced differently, is ultimately descended from digamma and closely resembles it in form.

「犬」and「大」are similarly unrelated, but you wouldn't be able to immediately know this without exploring a bit of history. Their shapes converged because of the way writing was stylised and streamlined.

「犬」was originally a picture of a dog.

商甲乙3853合集3521西周金員方鼎集成2695楚簡包2・6　篆說文解字　現代楷

「大」was originally a frontal view of an adult person, indicating the meaning adult > big, large. Choosing samples from roughly the same location and period in time, the comparable development looks like

商甲甲387合集22421西周金大保方鼎集成2158楚簡包2・2　篆說文解字　現代楷

Of course, there are modern shapes containing the strokes of「大」which really did contain「大」historically, such as「因」.

商甲餘15.3合集5651西周金蟎鼎集成2765戰・晉金陳侯因敦集成4649篆說文解字　現代楷

There are also things that originally contained「大」, but which is not recognisable in the modern script anymore, such as「達」, where「大」is squashed into a shape identical to「土」.

商甲存2011合集27745篆說文解字　現代楷

  「大」would have otherwise been more obvious using the oracle bone form:

  篆說文或體　現代楷


Why does 在 turn up in 全班同学在老师公布考试时间之后都紧张了起来?

总经理在假期结束之后立刻开始了紧张的工作.

全班同学在老师公布考试时间之后都紧张了起来.

I don't think we should omit 在 in the first sentence either.  在... 之后 is a prepositional phrase indicating when something happens.
在 can be droppable when you put the prep phrase at the beginning of the sentence.  E. g.

(在)假期结束之后, 总经理立刻开始了紧张的工作.
(在)老师公布考试时间之后, 全班同学都紧张了起来.

There isn't any special structure involved here.  This is all about how/where you want to insert a prepositional phrase in a sentence.


蕊屁==repeat, you can think it's a kind of transliteration.


What I understand is that in the sentences 他的个子高高的 the verb 是 is omitted after 个子 in a 是的 construction or no?

他的个子高高的 compare to another similar example, say, 他的肚子肥大.
we say 他的个子高高的 instead of 他的个子高高,
we say 他的肚子肥大 instead of 他的肚子肥大的.
Omitting "是" to construct 是...的 phrase, generally, for some rhetoric reasons, is done only when using twin characters. Like 他的肚子胖胖的，这朵花香香的.
If not with twin words, "是" should not be omitted. We say 他的肚子是肥大的 but never 他的肚子肥大的.
他的肚子肥大 is also right, but 是 and 的 are omitted together.
-
For better understanding, imagine this in English:
I got lost in a terrible field. Trees were tall and dense, houses covered with lush mosses, like that everything around was haunted.
"houses covered with lush mosses", grammatically should be "houses were covered with lush mosses". But the "were" it omitted. It's for a rhetoric reason, too.

Could you say 他的个子高， without 的

Yes. 的 can be omitted that you can directly say 他个子高.
In Chinese, you can say 他个子高 他个子很高 他头发很少 他肚子胖, with 的 omitted. However, it's informal. Such is just said in casual circumstances, for simplification.

What is the difference between 高高的鼻子 and 鼻子高高的。

There's a difference even in translation:
她有高高的鼻子: He has a high nose
她的鼻子高高的: His nose is high
Just feel the difference in English: He has a high nose -----vs----- His nose is high.

Is it because the clause must have a 有 when using 高高的鼻子 and a 是 may be omitted in the first clause.
For example in the next sentece the 有 could be omitted in many of the clauses.
她有一头卷卷的黄头发，有一双乌黑的葡萄般的大眼睛，有一个高高的鼻子，还有一张樱桃小嘴。”

Yes. It can be omitted so that the sentence is like this: 她有一头卷卷的黄头发，一双乌黑的葡萄般的大眼睛，一个高高的鼻子，还有一张樱桃小嘴 for a rhetoric reason.
Like that you say, for example.
She has a pair of twin-tails, has a couple of big eyes and, has a big long nose.
She has a pair of twin-tails, a couple of big eyes, and a big long nose.
Obviously the second one seems more beautiful.

Another point for me to be clear is that I found this article in Chinese. From what I understand is better not to use 有 when describing people or even may not be right.

NOT not right. It's right. Just seems ugly.
-
Notice comparing with the language you've already mastered when learning a new language is important. It can tell you many things.


What’s the meaning of 会 in 你明天这个时候会是在做什么?

你明天这个时候会是在做什么? is not a very fluent sentence construction. I would have re-written it as 你明天这个时候会做什么? instead.

会 is not useless. It carries the meaning of "likely" in this context.

  What will you be (likely) doing at this time tomorrow?

The way sentences are expressed in Chinese is not the same as it is done in English. What appears to be redundant in English need not be redundant in Chinese.

In the above example, because you can't predict what another person will be doing tomorrow, 会 has to be included in the Chinese sentence.

In the English sentence, the phrase "will... be" already expresses the meaning of likelihood in the question.


Verbs like 见、买、吃、看、听 are all just express an action, when you want to express the result of the verb, you have to add “到”.  You will understand it better from the following  examples:

A blind man can do the action “ 看”, but he will never 看到 anything.
People can go to the train station 买 train tickets during Chinese new year, but it’s very hard to 买到 a ticket.
In this sentence “我很高兴见到你” , there is a result of the action 见， the result is 你, so you can’t omit 到.


Translation for these symbols (Google turned back nothing!)

This is Chinese calligraphy. As Toosky's answered, you have known the meaning of these pictures.

Like, in the first picture is "time" (when painted this painting) -- "Author" (who painted)

And if you search about "Chinese calligraphy", you may know more about the forms of calligraphy.


Is there a logical explanation why 非得不 and 非得 means must?

非得 itself is always negative. The sentence contains only 非得 could be positive when there is a 2nd negative (most likely 不可) being omitted. This omission is common in colloquial language but not as common in written language or formal speeches.

Reference #1 below is a semantic analysis for the pattern 非..不可. It mentions the fact that 不可 can be omitted.

Reference #2 contains a lot of literature/publication citations where the 2nd negative of a double negative sentence is omitted.

In reference #3 the writer thinks the omission is grammatically wrong and is due to people not treating the language seriously.

References:

1. “非……不可”句式在对外汉语教学中的研究

2. 无可无不可的“不可”

3. 肯定、否定、否定之否定


There's no difference in meaning. They are not actually all that distinct: both words came from 哪, a generic interrogative character used for indicating a question. Given an appropriate context (e.g. 在哪), the character expresses the meaning of "where". Both 哪儿 and 哪里 builds upon that.

The suffix 儿 is generally meaningless, and reflects the northern dialectical tendency for retroflex consonants. That is, when they say 在哪 it comes out sounding like 在哪儿, so you are essentially right about it just being a sound.

Southerners are less likely to curl their tongues like that, so 哪里 is a bit more common in the south. The second character 里 (裡) here means "a specific area of space". Combined the interrogative 哪, this readily becomes "where".


What sorts of essays do school-age children (and test-takers, generally) in China have to write?

Only Mainland.
Nowadays, children won't write in formation.Letter? That is not the case I know.

But in history, we do.

骈文
Sentences must be paired. Characters must be carefully chose.
After two big man of letters claimed that they shouln't write 骈文 anymore, cause it is only highfalutin, 骈文 was dead.

This is the most famous 骈文 quote from <<滕王阁序>>, almost all educated Chinese
can recite it.

  落霞與孤鶩齊飛，秋水共長天一色。

If we take close look at the sentence, these word are pairing.

落霞(sunset glow) vs 秋水(water in autumn)

與: (with, simplified is 与) vs 共(and)

孤鶩(single wild duck, simplified is 鹜) vs 長天(wide sky, simplified is 长)

齊飛(fly at the same time, simplified is 齐飞) vs 一色 (one color, same color)

I can imagine a picture, in autumn, a wild duck fly above a lake or river, its background is sunset glow, the sky has same color with water surface, that's beautiful.

八股文
八股文 is a strict article. It must consist of 8 parts,

破题: two sentences, interprets the topic.

承题: 4 or 5 sentences, talk about the key of 破题.

起讲: multiple sentences, descript the overall topic.

起股: 4,5 or 8, 9 sentences, start discussing.

中股: pairing sentences, the essential part of the whole article

后股: pairing sentence, mention what you have not talkled about

束股: 2 lines, 3,4 or 4,5 per line, pairing, restate your views, make conclusion

大结: multiple sentences, finale

The structure of 八股文 is very good at argumentative writing, later people found it limits your thinking, cause 八股文 also limits the topic which is from confucianism book. In hundreds years, all the topics you can find from <<论语>> and <<孟子>> had been used, they begin to mess things up, grab one sentence from 论语, grab one from 孟子, combinate to one, ask students to write about it.

八股文 is deprecated after the Qing dynasty.

That is the status of two main structured article in China.  Other structured texts: 格律诗, 对联.


Check out Ethnologue - http://www.ethnologue.com/country/CN/languages .

For specific information on each Chinese minority language click on "More information"

i.e. for Narua (6b (Threatened). Language of recognized nationality: Mongolian. Sichuan Province speakers assigned to the Mongolian nationality. Language of recognized nationality: Naxi. Yunnan Province speakers officially classified within Naxi nationality), it will lead you to:

http://www.ethnologue.com/language/nru

For learning, if you click on "Language Resources" you get:

http://www.language-archives.org/language/nru


It's topolect.

Here's page 27 of《长沙方言词典》:

As you can see 湖 is consistently pronounced: fu (rising tone).
It doesn't have anything to do with being a proper noun or anything else, this is the Xiang language.
If we look at this table, also from《长沙方言词典》

you can see that Changsha has absolutely zero hu pronunciations.

This has been commented on before on Chinese SE: here:

h merges with f (conditioned on following vowel):
Some Sichuan?, Hunan, Hubei, Chongqing


Parsing “你如此特别，如此与众不同，是那样的特别。” into words

"你(是)如此(的)特别，如此(的)与众不同。" = "You are so special (or 'special like this'), so extraordinary"
(的) is optional

The third part "是那样的特别" = "is so special (or 'is special like that' )" is redundant. It should be removed and be a separate sentence.


Zhong Shan Suit Inner Shirt Cantonese Name

CantoDict doesn't contain a word like「底」, and given that the character「」is located in the CJK Unified Ideographs Extension B block, it's not a common use character. An appropriate reading and meaning for「」appears in the Kangxi Dictionary:

However, that definition says「衣短袖」, which is almost the exact opposite to「長袖衫」. If whoever you heard it from is not mistaken, then that will be a Cantonese dialect word, and not Standard Cantonese.

The closest entry in CantoDict which matches the meaning is「底衫」(dai2 saam1, undershirt). I'm going to note here that「長袖衫」doesn't actually mean inner shirt, it means long-sleeved shirt, and if this tailor that you're seeing designs inner shirts with short sleeves instead then「底」(or maybe「底衫」) sounds entirely appropriate.


你要什么？

What do you want?

你要什么呢？

And, as for you, what do you want?  (might be used, for example, after saying what you yourself want and then asking into the other person's desires.)

你在做什么吗？

This looks ungrammatical to me.  Without the 吗 it would be: What are you doing?

你做什么了？

What are you doing now?

The differences between these sentences, however, lie in the verb and the presence of the final particle (呢 or 了) in these cases, or not.  There are no special combinations at work with 什么, except in the case of #3, which has a problem because 什么 already signals a question in this case.  你什么也不要吗？ might work (= You don't want anything?), but I am not a native speaker, so I can't say for sure if it would sound natural (请教).  Or, for another example: 你知道什么吗？ (= Do you know something?).


The song that comes vaguely close is 让我们荡起双桨, which describes children rowing boats in a lake after school. This is an 1950s song which almost all mainland Chinese know.
https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%AE%A9%E6%88%91%E4%BB%AC%E8%8D%A1%E8%B5%B7%E5%8F%8C%E6%A1%A8

On the other hand, there are pop songs, eg in this list, but they are not even remotely well known.
https://y.qq.com/portal/playlist/1952753363.html

There are lots of poems about hiking though.


放 has many meanings

放 http://www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk/dictionary/characters/862/
[1] let go; release; set free
[2] let out; dismiss; take leave
....

学 in 放学 short for 学校 (school)
放学(school out) simply means  'be let out of school' or 'be released from school '
Examples for 放 as 'release ; let out':

放监 = be released from jail

放工 = be released from work

放假 = be released for day off; take leave for holiday


What is the correct pronunciation of 垃圾?

(As I very recently learned)
The standard pronunciation for 垃圾 is lājī in the PRC and lèsè in Taiwan
An obvious question to ask is Why? Although I could not find an authoritative source, I have seen a number of claims that are very similar to each other. I'll refer to the talk page for 垃圾 on Wikipedia:

标准普通话是读laji，以前的国语是读lese，因为垃圾本来是在方言中首先使用的，所以现在南方各地的方言里还是保留着当时的发音，后来普通话吸收了这个词，但是读音根据形声字的一般发音规则作了改变，所以读音改为laji，而台湾依然保留了lese的读音。--3dball 21:01 2006年1月13日 (UTC)
垃圾一词在宋朝就有, 见吴自牧的梦梁录. 本为lese, 是共产党有边读边念错变成laji --Bobbybuilder 2010年12月6日 (一) 18:36 (UTC)

An translation I've taken a few liberties with:

A: The reason that [on the mainland] it is read laji but [in Taiwan] it is read as lese is that the word was originally from a dialect. The word was borrowed into Mandarin, but the standard pronunciation eventually become laji based on a (mis)interpretation of the characters' phonetic components.
B: The characters do show up in Song dynasty texts (e.g., ...), but it was the CCP who mispronounced it.

Other important evidence:

The wiktionary page shows pronunciations in many dialects. If the characters are cognate, it's always an "s" for the second one.
The characters don't show up in Song dynasty 广韵 book of pronunciations (e.g., probably new characters), although they do show up in other Song dynasty texts.
The word was written with different characters in different texts; the standard was established rather late.
laji did not show up as the dictionary standard until PRC times.
In Cantonese, it's laap6 saap3
In Shanghainese: [lɒ²²ɕi⁴⁴], Suzhou dialect: [lɒ³¹⁻²²si⁴⁴]


How come AFC Championship become a "洲际比赛”

Because the member countries are not just located in the Asian continent now.

The Asian Football Confederation includes Australia (Oceania) and the Oceanian island of Guam, a territory of the United States.

洲级比赛 is not very common.


Both are valid but with subtle differences. 摆 is more like "put for display", while 放 is just "put".


Yes, it is a rhetorical question, the emphasis is on the lively and noisy fashion the village dwellers can celebrate compared to Beijingers. It is a good way to contrast difference. I would translate it (second sentence only) as 'How can you compare that to the lively manner of celebration in the countryside!'

PS. My English is not the best, native speakers can put it right, but I think the idea is clear.