Movies can teach you

Learning to speak Chinese is no easy task. It requires a lot of commitment and perseverance. The process can be so frustrating at times you may be tempted to just drop it!.
There are literally thousands of resources available on the web to help you in your studies but one thing I have found to be of enormous help is watching Chinese movies. I cover the subtitles and listen to the audio in Mandarin just to force myself to find and recognize familiar words. It helps a great deal to get used to the sound of natural or connected Chinese speech. It will definitely help you improve your Chinese language pronunciation.

A great movie to practice is "House of the Flying Daggers". I must have watched this film at least 3 dozen times . In all honesty, one of the reasons I keep watching it over and over again is because I AM MADLY IN LOVE with both Andy Lau and Takeshi Kaneshiro, but that's another story altogether.

House of the Flying Daggers ( 十面埋伏 • shi2 mian4 mai2fu2) is a movie of the 武俠 • wu3xia2 • chivalry genre. From what I have read, the four character idiom means "lying in an ambush in ten sides".

十 • Shi2 is the word for the number ten; 面• mian4, refers to side, aspect, surface or area; and 埋伏 • mai2fu2 is a the word for "ambush" (where 埋 • mai2 = bury and 伏 • fu2 = prostrate or hide).

During the reign of the Tang dynasty (唐朝 • tang2chao2) in China, a secret organization called "The House of the Flying Daggers" rises and opposes the government. A police officer called Leo （劉船長 • liu2chuan2zhang3) sends officer Jin (金船長 • Jin1chuan2zhang3) to investigate a young dancer named Mei (小妹 • xiao3mei4), claiming that she has ties to the "Flying Daggers". Leo arrests Mei, only to have Jin break her free in a plot to gain her trust and lead the police to the new leader of the secret organization.

When I first saw the movie I had no idea that 章子怡 (zhang1 zi3yi2) could sing at all. As it happens, she does and beautifully. The movie introduces a theme performed by her and borrowed from a famous poem written by 李延年• li3 yan2nian2, a poet from the Han Dynasty (漢朝 • han4chao2).

These are the lyrics with some personal annotations to help you understand where the meanings come from:




















































You can listen to the song here
Remember you can practice your Chinese language pronunciation online with Pinyin Talker!

Chinese Martial Arts

(photo) Demonstrating Kung Fu at Daxiangguo Monestary, Kaifeng, Henan. Taken by Ariel Steiner. - Wikipedia Commons


Kung Fu is the prevailing term when referring to Chinese martial arts. Funny enough, the term Kung Fu (功夫 • gong1fu1) actually refers to an individual's accomplishments or acquired skill, which could be in the field of martial arts, cooking, dancing, or what have you. Gong1 (功) means "contribution; achievement" and Fu1 (夫) means "work".
Another term that has become very popular lately, I imagine thanks to the proliferation of Chinese actors and actresses in the hollywood scene, is Wushu (武術 • Wu3shu4). This term is more precise and it does refer to martial activities: Wu3 (武 ) means "martial or military" and Shu4 (術) referst to " method or technique".

Other martial related terms are:

武打 • wu3da3 • Traditional Chinese schools of martial arts
武德 • wu3de2 • Martial Morality
武打片 • wu3da3pian4 • Martial arts movie
武功 • wu3gong1 • martial arts skill
武俠 • wu3xia2 • Chivalry
武俠小說 • wu3xia2xiao3shuo1• Martial arts novel

*Traditional martial arts deal with the study of martial arts not just as a means of self-defense or mental training, but also as a system of ethics. Wu3de2 (武德) can be translated as "martial morality" and is constructed from two Chinese characters, "wu3" (武) which means martial and "de2" (德) which means virtue or righteousness. Wu3de2 (武德) deals with two aspects; "morality of deed" and "morality of mind". The ultimate goal is reaching no extremity or limit (Wu2ji2, 無極) - wu2 • without; ji2 • extreme - where both wisdom and emotions are in harmony with each other.

• Concepts referring to Morality of deed:

• Humility (謙虛 qian1xu1)
• Loyalty (忠誠 zhong1cheng2)
• Respect (尊敬 zun1jing4)
• Righteousness (正義 zheng4yi4)
• Trust (信賴 xin4lai4)

• Concepts referring to Morality of mind:

• Courage ( 勇氣 yong3qi4)
• Endurance (忍耐 ren3nai4)
• Patience (耐心 nai4xin1)
• Perseverance (毅力 yi4li4)
• Will (意志 yi4zhi4)

My favorite Chinese Martial Artists:
Credit: International action-movie star and Hong Kong native Jackie Chan enjoys his experiences on the flight deck during a tour of the Kitty Hawk. USS Kitty Hawk's current mission is to provide a forward presence in the Asia/Pacific region, conduct training and exercises with regional allies, and, as America’s “9-1-1” Battle Group, remain available to respond to emergent national taskings wherever and whenever needed. (Image 021202-N-0271M-011)
U.S. Navy photo by Photographer’s Mate 3rd Class Lee M. McCaskill - Wikipedia Commons

Jackie Chan (B. 1954, 成龍 • cheng2long2) - Hong Kong martial artist and actor widely known for introducing physical comedy into his martial arts performances, and for actually doing most of the stunts in his films. One of my favorite Jackie Chan's film is "Who am I". I don't ever remember laughing so hard!

Bruce Lee 李振藩 • His real name was li3 zhen4fan1 although if you look him up in a Chinese dictionary you'll probably find 李小龍 • li3xiao3long2 for his stage name. He was and still is my brother's idol! He is considered an important icon in the 20th century.

And last but least,
Jet Li (B. 1963, 李連杰 • li3 lian2jie2) A five-time sport wu3shu4 champion of China, also an accomplished movie actor. You just have to love him in "Hero" and "Fearless".

* Reference: Wikipedia