The Spring Festival

elaine — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 03:01:52 +0000

The Spring Festival, which starts at New Year’s Eve (Chuxi除夕) and finishes at the Lantern Festival, is the most important and exciting festival in China. People usually decorate the doors and windows with red Spring Festival couplets and Fuzi (福字) because the colour of red means good luck according to the tradition of Chinese people. On the day, which marks the beginning of the Chinese Lunar, all family members should eat dumpling and have a big reunion dinner together.

Here are some words and phrases about the Spring Festival:

鞭炮　firecrackers

新年愿望　New Year’s resolution

红包　red envelope

传统　tradition

阴历　lunar

灯笼　lantern

团圆饭 reunion dinner

春联 Spring Festival couplets

除夕　New Year’s Eve

Chinese culture series: Cultural differences

elaine — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 08:19:51 +0000

For most of Chinese people, the earpick is such a normal thing which can be used almost everyday. But for most of my students, they are definitely unbelievable that it could be used to pick one’s ear. I was told by my student that they are not taught to put anything smaller than ear hole into ear. That is why he was fairly surprise at the new word “挖耳勺” which we have to learn for a new lesson last week .

It is not important for us to figure out why Chinese people use the earpick since… (i have no idea) long ago maybe. The point is we can both understand the culture of each other’s and get inspired to go on learning and teaching happily. And what quite valuable is that “挖耳勺”, for my student, is the first words to be remembered among those on that day.

Elaine » Chinese culture series

The Spring Festival

Chinese culture series: Cultural differences