Getting Thru The Airport With Braces

Chinese - taster

offers a first glimpse of the Expo Lingua Berlin online introductory course in the Chinese language. The small survey was made possible with support from our partners The China office eV .

The greeting in Chinese

Ni Hao
Hello

The left character means you will be in pinyin and ni (the third tone, falling-rising) thereafter.
The right character means well, and we in Pinyin hao (in the third tone. Falling-rising very

The Chinese greeting formula Ni hao is the same as Hello in German The response of the person addressed should also Ni hao are

.. The goodbye in Chinese

Zai Jian
bye

ie left character "nor" or "back" and in Pinyin zai (in the fourth tone: falling) thereafter.
The right sign means "look" and is in jian Pinyin (also in the fourth tone: falling) thereafter.
corresponds Together, "goodbye" in German.

Is Burning When Urinating Normal?

Chinese - most widely spoken native language

A guest post by Dr. Susan Buschmann
Chinese Cultural Center in Berlin.美

For Central Europeans hardly imagine, but true: Chinese is the most commonly spoken language in the world. More than a fifth of the world's population speaks Chinese, even taking into account that this language breaks down into many, sometimes very different dialects. Can we therefore have classified Chinese as a world language? In China on this issue recently flared up a lively discussion, because it is still a fact that Chinese is spoken mainly by the Chinese themselves. It should be noted that Chinese on the 1, 3 billion inhabitants of the People's Republic of China is also still used by hundreds of millions of overseas Chinese as mother tongue.

A look at the situation here in the last decade shows a clear change on the use on the World Wide Web.Hier is Chinese, for example, has become the second most common language after English - not least because that there are hundreds of millions of Chinese who use the Internet daily. And for over 60 years, Chinese recognized official language of the UN. More and more spread internationally, the recognition that development of the wealth of culture and history of China, going beyond the superficial, only by knowing its language and writing is possible. Is currently quite consistent with the growing role of China in the international community in many countries around the world, the demand after learning of the Chinese clearly, including Germany and Berlin.

Chinese in any age

Not only young people but also many older people can get involved in the language, despite the fact that Chinese is to learn in general, rather difficult. This will make many, the experience that the spoken Chinese to European ears at first sounds very strange indeed, Chinese is a language with different clays, but is certainly learn.

The mastery of Chinese writing does, however, compared to alphabetic systems much more time and effort. But the effort is worth it. For only by knowing the Chinese characters are the Europeans really opens up access to new and old culture of China. The Chinese writing, the oldest writing system in the world, not just once other East Asian cultures have been taken, even today it plays in the modernization process of China an increasingly important role. This is a very lively writing, which not only serves as a practical means of communication in China and East Asia, but in the same time reflecting the culture of China in a special way. This close connection between language and writing of history, culture, lifestyle, philosophy and feelings of a nation is to be a unique phenomenon in the world dar.

Detached Retina Following Cataract Surgery

The Shanghai Writing Program

This article appears in media partnership with the German-Chinese Culture Network www . cn.net de. This involves the Shanghai Writing Program 2010th In order the Sino-German cultural network led Li Jianming (李健鸣) an interview with Wang Anyi (王安 忆), the chairman of the Shanghai Writers' Association.

The well-known Chinese writer Wang Anyi in China was 19 54 in Nanjing born and raised in Shanghai. Their main work, The Song of Everlasting Sorrow was at the 5th Presentation of the Mao Dun Literature Prize awarded and later filmed. Since 2001, Wang Anyi is chairman of the Shanghai Writers' Association. She was often a guest in Germany, where it has participated in readings and discussions.

can you tell us what caused this program is?

Sun floated before me a program for some time. In 1983 I had my mother - accompanied an international writer program at the University of Iowa, which was organized by Nie Hualing (聂华苓) and her husband - the famous, already deceased writer Ru Zhijuan (茹志鹃). This has greatly inspired me at that time. Gradually, the idea to make a similar event in Shanghai on the legs, then taken shape, but the conditions have not voted in a long time. Not until three years ago, the governing body of the Shanghai Writers' Association pledged its active support, it was my desire to be realized. We be responsible for the foreign authors for the tickets, accommodation and - for two months - the cost of living, these are significant issues. Of course, we now have the ability, these costs in full.

What are the goals of this program?
We want foreign authors get to Shanghai in order to train them in literature from Shanghai and China. Of course we also hope that they contribute something of our literature in the world.

And as the program runs exactly?

The program takes place this year for the third time. In the first year there were three authors, in to five and now there are seven. We decided from the beginning, the writer is not in hotels but to be accommodated in Chinese neighborhoods in order to meet a Chinese living environment. In the last two years we have consistently received very positive feedback received from foreign authors. So the writers who came in the first year from Japan, Canada and Australia, have the program on their return recommended by itself to other writers. Our program is also used by the Chinese consulates of some countries active in support of including those from the Czech Republic, Israel and Sweden.

The authors make their stay in Shanghai mainly themselves, they only need to give a talk on a given topic from us and once for a meeting with students of Fudan University are available. In the first year, the theme was "Home and Away" in the second year, "Where do you come from", so it was home to literature and the concept of home, and also about one's own questioning. This year, however, is the motto of "City and writing" that affects primarily with questions of work and survival of authors who live in cities. For this year, so instead of the EXPO in China, and has the motto "Better City - Better Life".

Were there any problems with the implementation of the program?

course. During the selection of the authors. Our project is not a replacement program, but we had yet with the cultural institutions of other countries get in touch to let us propose of them writers. Some famous writers can hardly win an invitation, because they are terribly busy. In addition, many issues are organized by agents, making it impossible to establish direct contact with these authors.

Of course there are language barriers, but the standard needs of everyday life, so to ask for directions or buy something, make really is not a problem because many people in Shanghai speak some English. If the authors make visits and inspections, participate in panel discussions or give a talk, we always ask them for an interpreter to the side.

terms of substance, we have made over the past two years to many tourist activities. We want to make this year different. For example, we want to show the foreign authors of the more outlying areas of Shanghai and visit with them as schools for migrant workers' children, so they can see not only the development of the city, but also the new problems arising from this development. Also

communication with foreign cultural institutions can be difficult, especially if there are no regular contacts.

What impact has the program in the society?

a very positive one. First, the students of Fudan University extremely interested in the presentations of the writer and are also happy to participate in the discussions. But the Shanghai-authors benefit from contact with foreign writers. In other countries there are usually no writers' organizations, and when we travel abroad, it is often very difficult to meet with real writers. The Shanghai Media actively participate in our program, for example, has been in the English edition of the Shanghai Daily reported on our activities.

you have any new plans for the program?

Yes, I would hope that in future we can put the emphasis on developing countries and invite more writers from Third World countries to Shanghai.

you were already in Germany, what impression they have of the German literature?

Although I have not received comprehensive cultural education, but have the translations of European literature in particular and of course German works influenced me greatly. I was already a few times to visit in Germany, have lived a while in Bonn and met the local daily. I noticed that the Germans are very anti-materialistic. However, I found life in Germany, all in all a bit boring.

A final question: Would you tell us what are you working now?

For half a year I write a new novel. The novel is set in Shanghai and depicts a story from the Ming period. I will write the book later this year completed.

Wang Anyi, thank you for your time!

Interview / Text: Li Jianming (李健鸣)
translation: Julia Buddenberg
October 2010

Related Links
Shanghai Writers' Association
Tina Uebel travel blog
The original

image sources:
Wang Anyi 2005 in Shanghai, Photo: Zhang Peng © ImagineChina
participants www.de "Shanghai Writing Program 2010 © Shanghai Writers' Association

Chinese Walnut Biscuits

10 Questions for ... Chen Danyan

This article appears in media partnership with the Sino-German cultural network -cn.net . In its "Ten Questions to ..." tell-known figures in German and Chinese cultural life about their personal connection to the other country. The writer Chen Danyan told in the interview from its relations with Germany.

Chen Danyan The writer, born in a
958 published already as a student first literary texts. From 1978 to 1982 she studied Chinese literature at the Eastern China Normal University and worked after graduation as an editor of the Children's Epoch magazine.

Danyan Chen is one of the few Chinese writers, dealing mainly with young people and their feelings. Her stories and novels have been in China many times awarded literary prizes. Great Success was the German translation of her book about the childhood of a girl in Shanghai during the Cultural Revolution, which in 1995 under the title Nine Lives: A childhood in Shanghai appeared in a translation by Barbara Wang. It received several awards in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, and 1997, the UNESCO Prize for Children's Literature in the Service of Tolerance.

Another important topic for Chen Danyan is traveling. 'Strong wanderlust led her often to Europe - 2001 as a guest of the international literature festival berlin - but also brought them to an intensive study of her home city of Shanghai and its European influences. In September 2010 the author presented at the invitation of the Confucius Institute Hamburg as part of CHINA TIME her new book on the history of the Shanghai Federation ago with its colonial architecture. Another date to follow on 9 November 2010: Chen Danyan is invited for the event series of meetings in 2010 China to Oldenburg.


1) What you have studied in recent times?

With the completion of a travel book in which I deal with my daughter's notes from our travels together. We started with the records when she was eight years old and then lifted up before this year was the university degree for my daughter and we the time after deliberating over a bridge year. Since we realized that traveling had accompanied their growing up. And so we have arranged to travel over the summer and are now working to make a book out of it, even to parents who take their children on the road today have to share our experiences from all these years.

2) When and how did you first come into contact with Germany?

In the spring of 1992 I first came to Germany as a Visiting Scientist at the International Youth Library in Munich. At that time I traveled through Germany, made the acquaintance with German culture and made friends that are still . Continue

3) In what way has influenced the encounter with Germany, your work or your life?

Germany is the first European country that I have traveled extensively and with whom I came into contact. That my novel, Nine Lives was published in German, was not a merit of the last German translator. For the German edition of this book to me a UNESCO Prize for Literature was awarded in three German-speaking countries and I got first and second prizes. I was very encouraged.

The experiences I had made while living and working in Germany, I realized that I am a man of great passion for driving. So I started to travel around every year for a time in the world, and I visited most European countries. It made me realize that for my generation, who spent her youth in a society isolated from the outside world, European culture had a very sustainable and far-reaching influence, they have affected us deeply, it makes this generation almost unique.

4) What was your best experience in Germany?

case of a reading night in a Freiburg bookstore once asked me a reader, why you could feel in my work as strong echoes of the Russian literature. At that time I had the feeling that this German Readers my books really understood and perceived the mood was that my personal experiences and the reading preferences of my youth have left in my work. has the same question I have only found one of my fellow students at the university, which later became the editor of my books. That evening I noticed that my German readers may be close.

5) What was your most unpleasant experience in Germany?

When I had fought in Berlin with my friend and me alone so made their way home. I took the wrong exit in the subway and promptly got lost. At that time I felt very lonely.

6) Do you have a favorite German food?

Cold meatballs with brown bread.

7) What do you consider "typically German"?

The so unconventional thinking and serious wrinkles in the region between the eyebrows, this serious and brooding face.

8) What cultural achievement from Germany impressed you most?

The serious themes in the literature.

9) Who would you like to swap in Germany one day?

with a waiter in a coffee house in Berlin-Mitte. There, I worked on my books, friends made, eaten, I made notes, Journalists given interviews and sorted my feelings and thoughts. In short, for me was the time I spent there lot, very useful. The noise in these coffee houses, is familiar to me, and I love their potato soup. I've always painted, even to work as a waitress, wearing a long black waiter apron, casual and fast at the same time. In this job I would be quite at home.

10) What habit or idea from Germany would like to take you in China?

That one night can also sometimes eat something very simple.

Copyright: Sino-German cultural network
translation: Julia Buddeberg
September 2010

Related Links

Chen Danyan biography at the international literature festival berlin
China Youth Daily: Chen Danyan: Shanghai and Europe are two important themes in my works
Southern Daily: Chen Danyan Europe

www.de The original