祥 - Xiang2 - Auspicious

The Eight Auspicious Symbols of Buddhism

Al Gathafi Speaks! With solutions to everything from the Korea problem to the World Cup - but still no definitive answer on how to spell his name.

暑 - Shu3 - Heat, Hot Weather

暑假 - Shu3 Jia4 - Hot Weather Vacation — Summer Vacation

數 - Shu4 - Number, Figure, Count

數獨 - Shu4 Du2 - Number Single — Sudoku

轟 - Hong1 - Rumble, Explosion, Bang, Boom

轟炸 - Hong1 Zha4 - Rumble Explode — Bomb

劍 - Jian4 - (double-edged) Sword

短劍 - Duan3 Jian4 - Short Sword — Dagger

Other types of Chinese swords.

森 - Sen1 - Forest

森林 - Sen1 Lin2 - Forest

Funky Forest was definitely the strangest movie I’ve ever seen. I usually avoid reading about movies so I have no idea what they are about beforehand, but in this case I have no idea what it was about even after having seen it! The only thing I know for sure is it has something to do with dancing.

亮 - Liang4 - Light, Bright

漂亮 - Piao4 Liang5 - Float Bright — Pretty, Beautiful

月亮 - Yue4 Liang4 - Moon Bright — Moon

第 - Di4 - (prefix for ordinal)

第一 - Di4 Yi1 - (ordinal) One — First, Number One

屏 - Ping2 - Screen

屏門 - Ping2 Men2 - Screen Door

鳥 - Niao3 - Bird

蜂鳥 - Feng1 Niao3 - Bee Bird — Hummingbird

We have hummingbirds! He comes to the two Fuchsias Jenny hung at the front door.

它 - Ta1 - It

He and It are pronounced the same, but written differently.

松 - Song1 - Loose, Pine

松鼠 - Song1 Shu3 - Pine Rat — Squirrel

Speaking of rats, Walde stepped on one in a subway station today! It didn’t like it.

鳳 - Feng4 - Phoenix

鳳梨 - Feng4 Li2 - Phoenix Pear — Pineapple

???!??!

山 - Shan1 - Mountain, Hill

Kind of looks like one.

學 - Xue2 - Learn, Study, Science, -ology

New Chinese dictionary site: 學中文.net

疑 - Yi2 - To Doubt, To Misbelieve, To Suspect

猜疑 - Cai1 Yi2 - Guess Suspect — Suspicious

功 - Gong1 - Merit, Achievement, Result, Service, Accomplishment

功夫 - Gong1 Fu5 - Kung Fu

歡 - Huan1 - Joyous, Happy, Pleased

歡迎 - Huan1 Ying2 - To Welcome, Welcome

Happiness is ninety-eight thousand three hundred and four working pixels.

像 - Xiang4 - Look Like, Similar, Look, Appearance, Image, Picture

像點 - Xiang4 Dian3 - Picture Point — Pixel

Touching may be good, but stuck pixels are VERY VERY BAD!

舟 - Zhou1 - Boat

The World Bible School has found incontrovertible proof of the literal truth of the Bible encoded in the most unlikely of places - the Chinese language! The theory is that Chinese, being the oldest continuously used written language, encodes Bible stories right into the characters. One of the most interesting examples is 船 - Chuan2 - Ship. If you look inside this character, you find 舟 - Zhou1 - Boat + 八 - Ba1 - Eight + 口 - Kou3 - Mouth (person). As we all know, Noah’s Ark had eight people on it! QED.

Our friend Tian decided that this seemed to be a fun game and decided to have a go at it himself. His shocking result? Well, Jesus was a man who prayed on the cross. So if you take 人 - Ren2 - Man + 口 - Kou3 - Mouth (praying) + 十 - Shi2 - Cross and put them together, you get 呆 - Dai1 - Stupid…???!?! Wait! What are the authors of ancient Chinese trying to tell us anyway?

亞 - Ya4 - Asia, Inferior

亞洲 - Ya4 Zhou1 - Asia Continent — Asia, Asian

I wonder why the same character means “Asia” and “Inferior”?

夜 - Ye4 - Night

半夜 - Ban4 Ye4 - Half Night — Midnight, Middle Of The Night

夜市 - Ye4 Shi4 - Night Market

志 - Zhi4 - Will, Ambition

大志 - Da4 Zhi4 - Big Will — High Aims

眾志成城 - Zhong4 Zhi4 Cheng2 Cheng2 - Multitude Will Complete Wall — “Unity Of Will Is An Impregnable Stronghold”

囉 - Luo1 - Fussy, Talkative

囉唆 - Luo1 Suo1 - Fussy Incite — Bothersome

我很囉唆。 Or at least that’s what Jenny always says.

又 - You4 - Again, Both … And

I watched Wild Zero again, and Jenny saw it for the first time. Turns out not only does she cheat at video games, she also has terrible taste in movies!

方 - Fang1 - Square, Quadrilateral, Direction, Just

立方 - Li4 Fang1 - Cube

I can’t beat level 16. Somehow Jenny beat the whole game, all 30 levels. Obviously, she must have cheated or got lucky somehow.

左 - Zuo3 - Left

And 右 - You4 - Right.

北 - Bei3 - North

北京 - Bei3 Jing1 - North Capital — Beijing

Cardinal directions are now complete, along with 南, 東 and 西.

舞 - Wu3 - Dance, Wield, Brandish

跳舞 - Tiao4 Wu3 - Dance