Lingotopia

One of my preferred methods of learning multiple languages at the same time, is reading something in one language and then writing about it in another language. So, this month, I take part in the Chinese reading challenge by Hacking Chinese and decided to read an anthology by Yu Qiuyu  ( 余秋雨读本 ), one of the most famous and influential contemporary writers in China. I want to use what I read as an inspiration for writing texts in other languages. So, yesterday I wrote a short text in Italian about a topic inspired by this book. Let me first explain the topic a bit. The first essay in the anthology is about paifang , traditional Chinese arches. When I stumbled upon the word zhenjie paifang (贞节牌坊), which means chastity arch , I remembered that I've been to a village called Tangyue (堂樾) in Anhui Province 14 years ago. The village is famous for their seven memorial archways built by the Bao family during the course of several centuries. The first archway can be traced back to...

I studied Chinese at university as a minor, lived and worked in China for six years and have a Chinese husband. So, I should be pretty fluent in Chinese, right? Sadly 还差很多 (= I'm still far from it). Chinese is, next to Japanese, one of my strongest target languages but in the last six years, I haven't really done anything to both maintain and improve my Chinese level. I only took two years of Chinese classes, the first year at university and also the first year  So, in order to push myself to do something for Chinese, I signed up for this months "Hacking Chinese Reading Challenge" . The goal is to focus on extensive reading. I will try to read a book for a change instead of always staring at the computer or smartphone screen. Hacking Chinese by Olle Linge is my favourite website with tips for learning Chinese. It offers methods, ideas and links to resources not only for beginners and intermediate students but also for advanced students. On the picture you c...

What is the first day of the week? As in the picture above, often Monday is regarded as the first day of the week because in many countries it is the start of the working week. And in Chinese, the days of the week are numbered from Monday as literally "first day of the week" (星期一/周一 xingqiyi/zhouyi) to Saturday as the "sixth day of the week" (星期六/周一). Only the Sunday has a special name as "sunday" or "heaven day" (星期日/星期天/周日). Ok, problem solved. But, wait a minute. Isn't in Christian church Sunday regarded as the first day of the week? That would make Monday the second day of the week. Yes, so the Portuguese are right. In Portuguese, the days of the week are counted as in Chinese, but Monday is as "segunda-feira" the second day of the week and Friday is as "sexta-feira" the sixth day. Saturday (sábado) and Sunday (domingo) have separate names. Well, it must be a Christian thing then to count the days of the week like...