{"id":1047,"date":"2016-08-18T16:32:56","date_gmt":"2016-08-18T16:32:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/eacenter\/?p=1047"},"modified":"2019-05-06T14:48:06","modified_gmt":"2019-05-06T14:48:06","slug":"can-use-%e6%88%90%e8%af%ad-chengyu-learning-chinese-flas-fellow-margaret-walrod","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/eacenter\/2016\/08\/18\/can-use-%e6%88%90%e8%af%ad-chengyu-learning-chinese-flas-fellow-margaret-walrod\/","title":{"rendered":"Can You Use \u6210\u8bed (ch\u00e9ngy\u01d4)?  Learning Chinese with FLAS fellow Margaret Walrod"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify\">Margaret Walrod, a UW graduate student in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.appliedinternationalstudies.uw.edu\/\">Applied International Studies<\/a>, was awarded a Summer 2016 <a href=\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/advise\/funding\/flas\/\">Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowship<\/a> by the <a href=\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/eacenter\/\">East Asia Center.<\/a>\u00a0 She is spending her summer studying Chinese in Beijing with a teacher from the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.chinaledu.com\/\">Chinese Language Education<\/a> program.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-10961 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/Great-Wall-300x300.png\" alt=\"Great Wall of China\" width=\"250\" height=\"250\" \/>She writes, &#8220;Before my first Chinese class, I couldn\u2019t help but feel intimidated by the language. From mastering the 5 tones, to the intricacies of the 3,500 common characters, I did not know where to begin. After a year of intensive study, things began to click. I worried less about mixing up my tones, and words that had once intimidated me like \u201cpanda,\u201d a tone away from the word for \u201cmen\u2019s chest hair,\u201d flowed off my tongue with ease. In fact, I began to enjoy Chinese for its simplicity.<\/p>\n<p>Take for instance the word for stoplight \u7ea2\u7eff\u706f h\u00f3ngl\u01dcd\u0113ng, meaning Red Green Light, or the word for foreigner, \u5916\u56fd\u4eba w\u00e0igu\u00f3r\u00e9n, which translates to Outside Country Person.\u00a0 Although one may not have formally studied the word for stoplight or foreigner, if he knows the definition of the individual characters, chances are he can glean an understanding. Many Chinese words can be deduced to their definitions as each character carries a meaning. Moreover, if one cannot recognize a character outright, the character\u2019s radical, similar to a root word, can also help one infer the definition. The radical \u6c35shu\u01d0 for instance, can be found in words related to water such as \u6d77 h\u01cei, meaning \u201csea\u201d, or \u6e38\u6cf3 y\u00f3uy\u01d2ng, the verb \u201cto swim&#8221;.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>One of the challenges for those learning Chinese is understanding\u00a0 <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Chengyu\">ch\u00e9ngy\u01d4<\/a>.\u00a0 Ch\u00e9ngy\u01d4 are idioms usually derived from myths, stories or historical facts presented in ancient literature.\u00a0 They express a meaning greater than the 4 characters used; they typically allude to an entire story and the moral embedded in the story <a href=\"#[i]\">[i]<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_10958\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"width: 250px\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-10958\" src=\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/Ink-300x300.png\" alt=\"Chinese Ink Blocks\" width=\"250\" height=\"250\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Chinese ink blocks<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Margaret writes, &#8220;Nevertheless, there are times when I am still humbled by Chinese.\u00a0As a FLAS fellow in Beijing, I am using my grant to study Chinese in a one-on-one setting. Each day my teacher sets aside a chunk of time to drill me on idiom phrases comprised of 4 characters called \u6210\u8bed ch\u00e9ngy\u01d4.\u00a0 The ability to drop ch\u00e9ngy\u01d4 into everyday conversation is the telltale sign of an advanced Chinese speaker; however it\u2019s not always easy. One day, after mixing-up the characters for a common ch\u00e9ngy\u01d4, I earned myself a new nickname: \u5c0f\u72d7\u718a xi\u01ceo g\u01d2u xi\u00f3ng. The title gives reference to a small panda\u2019s eating habits \u2013 picking up bamboo, taking a bit, and throwing the stalk down. In the eyes of my teacher, the way in which a panda discards his food is not unlike my retention of new ch\u00e9ngy\u01d4 vocabulary. I seem to digest only the first bit of the phrase before discarding the rest. A little bit embarrassed, and a whole lot motivated, I know this term is one I won\u2019t soon be forgetting.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-10957 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/Mask-233x300.png\" alt=\"Student Margaret Walrod with Chinese Mask\" width=\"233\" height=\"300\" \/>FLAS Fellowships are funded by the <a href=\"http:\/\/www2.ed.gov\/about\/offices\/list\/ope\/iegps\/index.html\">International and Foreign Language Education <\/a>office of the U.S. Department of Education.\u00a0 FLAS fellowships support undergraduate, graduate and professional students in acquiring modern foreign languages and area or international studies competencies.\u00a0\u00a0 Students from all UW departments and professional schools are encouraged to apply.\u00a0 Find out more about the FLAS Fellowship <a href=\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/advise\/funding\/flas\/\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h5><\/h5>\n<p><a name=\"[i]\"><\/a><strong>Endnote:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Chengyu\">[i] &#8220;Chengyu.&#8221;\u00a0 <em>Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia.<\/em>\u00a0 Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., 08\/18\/2016.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Margaret Walrod, a UW graduate student in Applied International Studies, was awarded a Summer 2016 Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowship by the East Asia Center.\u00a0 She is spending her summer studying Chinese in Beijing with a teacher from the Chinese Language Education program. She writes, &#8220;Before my first Chinese class, I couldn\u2019t help<\/p>\n<div><a class=\"more\" href=\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/eacenter\/2016\/08\/18\/can-use-%e6%88%90%e8%af%ad-chengyu-learning-chinese-flas-fellow-margaret-walrod\/\">Read more<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":506,"featured_media":1060,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,12],"tags":[17,48],"class_list":["post-1047","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-student","tag-china","tag-student","region-china"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Can You Use \u6210\u8bed (ch\u00e9ngy\u01d4)? 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