Picture of the Day 12/11

I'm not really sure why I started posting pictures, but I think it's fun to show you some of what I see here, even if there's not story behind it. Hope you are enjoying them!

Picture of the Day 12/9

Picture of the Day 12/8

The view from my apartment window

12/5 Picture

12/4 Picture

Hui (Chinese muslim minority group) women

Compound Words

I'm don't want to give a grammar lesson, but I appreciate the way that Mandarin uses compound words, because it helps me remember the words. If I can take the word apart or already know a part of the whole word, it means less to remember. Compound words, by the way, are words that are formed by putting two (or more) words together. (So for example, in English, the word "sandpaper" is a compound word, because it's made up of "sand" and "paper.") Chinese is the same way, only it happens more often.

Today as I was studying, I thought some of the new vocab words made more sense if I pulled them apart. Here are some examples - see if you can guess what they mean!

• 呼吸 (hūxī) 呼=inhale, 吸=exhale

• 急诊室 (jízhěnshì) 急=urgent, 诊=diagnose, 室=room

• 开刀 (kāidāo) 开=open, 刀=knife

• 大腿 (dàtuǐ) 大=big, 腿=leg

I'll post the answers in another post :)

Picture of the Day

Xi'an's city wall at night