Category Archives: Mandarin

Wenlin on sale

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Wenlin

One of my favorite programs, Wenlin Software for Learning Chinese, is having a special sale. Normally Wenlin costs US$99. But through December 31, 2015, Wenlin is available for just US$49 for the version you can download directly to your computer (Windows or Mac OS).

Truly, there are few things more beautiful than Wenlin’s
Edit → Make Transformed Copy → Pinyin transcription.
But Wenlin is filled with all sorts of other great features as well. And it comes with the electronic edition of the terrific ABC English-Chinese/Chinese-English Dictionary built in.

I love this program and use it on a near-daily basis, so I can recommend it highly.

If you’re looking for a Christmas gift for someone studying Mandarin, Wenlin would be a good choice.

To receive the special price, use the discount code CCMS2015.

Common Taiwanese given names

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This supplies the most common male and female given names in Taiwan. If you’re writing a story about Taiwan and need “safe” names for characters, this is a good reference — at least if your story is set in the present or not too far past.

For the most common family names in Taiwan, see Taiwan personal names: a frequency list. The data there are a few years older but remain valid, with only slight changes in the order of frequency. And don’t forget that over here the family name comes first, e.g., “Chen Ya-ting,” not “Ya-ting Chen.”

For the rankings of individual names in given years, see my PDF of the most common given names in Taiwan.

Note: Although I refer to these as “Taiwanese” names, I give the Mandarin forms (since Hanyu Pinyin is a system for writing Mandarin), not names in Hoklo/Hokkien (the language often referred to as Taiwanese).

Most popular given names for Taiwanese males, born 1976–1994

Hanzi Pinyin Spelling Likely Used by This Person
柏翰 Bǎihàn Pai-han
承翰 Chénghàn Cheng-han
冠霖 Guānlín Kuan-lin
冠廷 Guāntíng Kuan-ting
冠宇 Guānyǔ Kuan-yu
家豪 Jiāháo Chia-hao
家銘 Jiāmíng Chia-ming
建宏 Jiànhóng Chien-hung
家瑋 Jiāwěi Chia-wei
俊宏 Jùnhóng Chun-hung
俊傑 Jùnjié Chun-chieh
俊賢 Jùnxián Chun-hsien
威廷 Wēitíng Wei-ting
信宏 Xìnhóng Hsin-hung
彥廷 Yàntíng Yan-ting
宇軒 Yǔxuān Yu-hsuan
哲瑋 Zhéwěi Che-wei
志豪 Zhìháo Chih-hao
志宏 Zhìhóng Chih-hung
志偉 Zhìwěi Chih-wei
宗翰 Zōnghàn Tsung-han

Most popular given names for Taiwanese females, born 1976–1994

Hanzi Pinyin Likely Spelling
慧君 Huìjūn Hui-chun
惠如 Huìrú Hui-ju
惠婷 Huìtíng Hui-ting
惠雯 Huìwén Hui-wen
佳樺 Jiāhuà Chia-hua
佳慧 Jiāhuì Chia-hui
佳玲 Jiālíng Chia-ling
嘉玲 Jiālíng Chia-ling
佳蓉 Jiāróng Chia-jung
佳穎 Jiāyǐng Chia-ying
家瑜 Jiāyú Chia-yu
靜宜 Jìngyí Ching-yi
靜怡 Jìngyí Ching-yi
美玲 Měilíng Mei-ling
佩君 Pèijūn Pei-chun
佩珊 Pèishān Pei-shan
詩涵 Shīhán Shih-han
詩婷 Shītíng Shih-ting
淑芬 Shūfēn Shu-fen
淑華 Shūhuá Shu-hua
淑惠 Shūhuì Shu-hui
淑慧 Shūhuì Shu-hui
淑娟 Shūjuān Shu-chuan
淑玲 Shūlíng Shu-ling
淑貞 Shūzhēn Shu-chen
思穎 Sīyǐng Ssu-ying
婷婷 Tíngtíng Ting-ting
庭瑋 Tíngwěi Ting-wei
婉婷 Wǎntíng Wan-ting
琬婷 Wǎntíng Wan-ting
瑋婷 Wěitíng Wei-ting
筱涵 Xiǎohán Hsiao-han
心怡 Xīnyí Hsin-yi
欣怡 Xīnyí Hsin-yi
馨儀 Xīnyí Hsin-yi
雅芳 Yǎfāng Ya-fang
雅涵 Yǎhán Ya-han
雅惠 Yǎhuì Ya-hui
雅慧 Yǎhuì Ya-hui
雅玲 Yǎlíng Ya-ling
雅萍 Yǎpíng Ya-ping
雅琪 Yǎqí Ya-chi
雅婷 Yǎtíng Ya-ting
雅文 Yǎwén Ya-wen
雅雯 Yǎwén Ya-wen
雅筑 Yǎzhù Ya-chu
怡安 Yí’ān Yi-an
宜君 Yíjūn Yi-chun
怡君 Yíjūn Yi-chun
怡伶 Yílíng Yi-ling
怡如 Yírú Yi-ju
宜庭 Yítíng Yi-ting
怡婷 Yítíng Yi-ting
依婷 Yītíng Yi-ting
怡萱 Yíxuān Yi-hsuan
郁婷 Yùtíng Yu-ting
鈺婷 Yùtíng Yu-ting
郁雯 Yùwén Yu-wen

The names were derived from Chih-Hao Tsai’s list of 25 most common given names by year. I have added Pinyin and the spelling in the romanization system likely used by someone in Taiwan with that name (bastardized Wade-Giles). In addition, with the help of my wife, I assigned names to the categories of male or female.

The data are from the university entrance exams, 1994–2012. Positing that the students were age 18 when they took the exam supplies the range for years of birth.

Sign in seal script

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It’s time again to play What’s That Character?

Feel free to ask others what they think, though enlisting the aid of historians and calligraphy masters would count as cheating, as all of these examples are not from a museum or a calligraphy scroll but from a sign outside a building meant to be read by all.

Chinese character number one:
mystery_hanziv

Chinese character number two:
mystery_hanziii

And Chinese character number three:
mystery_hanziiv

OK? Ready?

Here are the answers:

How’d you do?

*** SPOILERS BELOW ***

If you got even one right, hái bùcuò. That’s probably as well as or better than the average person literate in Chinese characters.

Here is the entire sign, which will probably make things much clearer.

If you’re a Mandarin speaker and used to reading Chinese characters, you can probably tell what the entire sign says without too much effort. But as this exercise may help to show, that is not because most people can truly read all the characters but because they can fill in the blanks, as it were, when presented with adequate context. Yes, those are all written in seal script, not in a modern style; but seal script is all that is given on the sign.

I want to stress that this isn’t a sign for a historical museum or even the Cultural Bureau. Nope, it’s for the Xinbei City Government’s Environmental Protection Department, here in lovely Banqiao. Those used to the ways of Taiwan (or maybe just the ways of the world) have probably already correctly guessed that it was the director who thought a seal-script font would be a good idea. (See the news stories below for more on that. Although the reports are from a couple of years ago, I took the photos just a couple of weeks ago.)

Don’t forget: If you want to put Chinese characters or tonal Pinyin in your comments, use the encoder first and copy and paste the results into the comments box.

News stories:

Dissolving Pinyin

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Late last week, Victor Mair — with some assistance from Matt Anderson, David Moser, me, and others — wrote in “Lobsters”: a perplexing stop motion film about a short 1959 film from China that gives some Pinyin. In some cases, the Pinyin is presented for a second and then is quickly dissolved into Chinese characters. Since Victor’s post supplies only the text, I thought that I’d supplement that here with images from the film.

See the original post for translations and discussion.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKYMO73hLRY

The film often shows a newspaper. The headline (at 7:57) reads (or rather should read, since the first word is misspelled):

QICHE GUPIAO MENGDIE
DAPI LONGXIA ZHIXIAO

longxia_pinyin_757

But since the image above doesn’t show the name of the paper, I’m also offering this rotated and cropped photo, that allows us to see that this is the “JIN YUAN DIGUO RI-BAO”
longxia_ribao

Elsewhere, there are again some g’s for q’s. For the first example of text dissolving from Pinyin to Chinese characters (at 2:11), I’m offering screenshots of the text in Pinyin, the text during the dissolve, and the text in Chinese characters. Later I’ll give just the Pinyin and Chinese characters.

Hongdang Louwang
Yipi hongdang zai daogi [sic] jiudian jihui buxing guanbu [sic] louwang

longxia_pinyin_211a

longxia_pinyin_211b

longxia_pinyin_211c

Soon thereafter (at 2:44), we get a handwritten note.
longxia_pinyin_244a

longxia_pinyin_244c

At 3:39 we’re shown the printed notice in the newspaper of the above text.
longxia_pinyin_339a

longxia_pinyin_339c

A brief glance at the newspaper at 3:23 gives us FA CHOU, which is probably referring to the stink the bad lobsters are giving off.
longxia_pinyin_323

Here a man is carrying a copy of Zibenlun (Das Kapital), by Makesi (Marx).
longxia_pinyin_911

Actually, it’s not really Das Kapital, just the cover of the book; inside is a stack of decadent Western material. “MEI NE” is probably supposed to be “MEINÜ” (beautiful women).
longxia_pinyin_558_meinu

I imagine that, in the PRC of 1959, the artists for this film must have inwardly rejoiced at the chance to draw something like that for a change, and that is also why there’s a nude on the wall in one scene.
longxia_pinyin_439_meinu

Pinyin font: Skarpa

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Today’s Pinyin-friendly font is Skarpa, by Aga Silva of Poland. It’s a bit quirky (e.g., second-tone o’s and lowercase q’s) but still sharp.

Hanyu Pinyin pangram using the Skarpa font

Skarpa was later modified into Skarpa 2, which is not free but which comes in several weights and types.

Most of Silva’s other fonts also can handle Pinyin with tone marks. Those are all commercial rather than free.

AP exams: using highest and lowest scores to look at the case of Chinese

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The results of the Advanced Placement exams from the College Board can give us an idea of what’s going on with the teaching of Mandarin Chinese in U.S. high schools.

As the charts below demonstrate, there’s something very different about the scores for the AP exam in Chinese Language and Culture compared with the scores for just about everything else.

The tests are graded on a five-point scale, with a 5 being the top score. Generally, a 3 is considered a pass, though some universities choose to give or deny credit based on different scores.

The first chart shows the percentage of of test takers who received a score of just 1 (lowest) on their respective AP exams. The median of the figures below for the percentage of test takers who received the lowest score is 18.2. The figure for Chinese (in green, at 3.2) is just 0.18 times that. Studio Art Drawing and Studio Art 2-D Design are at about the same level here as Chinese Language and Culture. But everything else is at least twice that — in most cases many times that.

AP Exams Taken by the Class of 2013 During High School: Percent of Exams with the Lowest Score
AP_exams_percent_with_bottom_score
(click any chart to enlarge it)

So, relatively speaking, almost no one received the lowest score on the AP Chinese Language and Culture exam.

What about the highest score? The median of the figures below for the percentage of test takers who received the highest score (of 5) on their respective AP exams is 13.9. The figure for Chinese is 5.0 times that.

AP Exams Taken by the Class of 2013 During High School: Percent of Exams with the Highest Score
Advanced Placement exams, showing the percentages earning the top score on different AP tests

Finally, below is a chart putting the differences into greater perspective. It shows the ratio of highest scores to lowest scores on various AP exams.

The median of the figures below for the ratio of highest scores to lowest scores on the AP exams is 0.8. The figure for Chinese is 27.1 times that.

As is obvious from the image below, nothing else is even close.

AP Exams Taken by the Class of 2013 During High School: Ratio of Highest Scores to Lowest Scores
AP_exams_2013_highest_vs_lowest_scores

The reason for this massive difference is that the Advanced Placement exam for Chinese Language and Culture is taken mainly by native speakers and others who generally have not had to learn most of their Mandarin in their high school AP classes. This doesn’t bode well for newcomers to the language who want to learn. But as lopsided as the situation is, things are improving. More on that in later posts.

source: The 10th Annual AP Report to the Nation, February 11, 2014

See also Results of US AP exams: first year for Mandarin, Japanese, Pinyin News, February 14, 2008.