Kaixin4China

China History, Culture, Society

 

风向转变时,有人筑墙,有人造风车

When the wind of change blows, some build walls, while others build windmills

 

Kaixin4China highly recommends ChineseLoveLinks

 

 

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Tuesday
Feb122013

空穴来风,未必无因 - Kōng xué lái fēng, wèi bì wú yīn

 

Chengyu

成语

 

 

 

Kōng xué lái fēng, wèi bì wú yīn

空穴来风,未必无因


Literally: If the wind comes from an empty cave, it's not without a reason

Meaning: Things don't happen for no reason; everything has a cause

English Equivalent: Where there's smoke, there's fire

 

 

List of Chengyu

 

 

Dictionary of 1,000 Chinese Idioms
Marjorie Lin (Author)


Four-character idioms (know as "chengyu") are key ingredients of the Chinese language. The authors have selected 1,000 of the most frequently used idioms, listing them in alphabetical order with Pinyin transcription, while providing the equivalent English translation and the original Chinese characters. This is an essential book for any serious student of the Chinese language, as well as for Chinese speakers studying English as a second language.

 

ABC Dictionary of Chinese Proverbs
John S. Rohsenow (Author)

Rohsenow has collected and codified hundreds of proverbs from the Chinese peasant oral tradition in this volume. These proverbs are not Chengyu from the great literary works and are seldom seen in written form. The introduction includes an extremely insightful take on the subtle differences between proverbs, idioms and other devices in Chinese language and how they reflect on the culture as a whole.

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is only ONE WAY to learn a new language

YOU HAVE TO SPEAK IT!!!

I (Graeme, Ed of Kaixin with Xiaosui) am a mature age adult and I have never been good a learning a language.

I studied online for 5 years and I knew a LOT about how to speak Chinese.

BUT, I could not speak it!

Then I met a wonderful woman who is to be my wife.

She spoke little English so I had to stumble through my rudimentary Chinese.

She is very very patient and I was soon speaking with some fluency. It was still simple Chinese and I am sure many of the tones are wrong, but she can understand.

I then realized that if I had done that from the very beginning I would be fluent by now.

You can't learn a language by just studying it.

You have to use it from the very beginning.

So don't waste 5 years like I did, start with an online tutor from eteacher and you will soon be speaking your new language fluently.

 

Chinese Students, the same applies to you. You will not learn English UNLESS you use it.

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