A Chinese A Day (一日一中國語)

Introduction

It started as a half joke, but I really wanted to learn Chinese language from one of my Chinese colleagues, Guowen Zheng(鄭, 國文). Finally, I have it started today. I do not know how long we can maintain it this way, but I'll try.

I do not know who made Chinese characters, but it is believed to be a collaborative, collective works of the ancient people. Its history goes back to more than 8,000 years. The art of this character is that contemporary people could understand the meaning of very old text written by their ancestors without distortion of meaning, as it's a pictorial character, the most primitive form of language.

Korean people used this Chinese character for the most of her history until 600 years ago when King Sejong invented far more advanced alphabet system now called "Hangeul". - MinsooKim, 6/19/2008 EDT.

2008/06/19

今天(jīn tiān); Today. 오늘.

2008/06/20

Extenstion from the previous day to make a short sentence.

今天是星期五; Today is Friday.

According to Guowen, seven-day-week system was introduced to China from Western world during Chin Dynasty. In Chinese, Monday through Sunday is as follows; it basically count from one through six, then Sunday is treated special. 日 means the Sun.

I found it very interesting as Korea and Japan are using different characters for a day of the week. In Korean language, Monday through Sunday is as follows;

AChineseADay (last edited 2009-03-04 20:47:05 by localhost)