Learning Chinese - Lesson 1 - Tone

Tone is very important in Chinese. There are 5 tones in Chinese and they are as follows:

* high level – first tone
* rising – second tone
* falling rising – third tone
* falling – fourth tone
* neutral - no tone

Many characters have the same sound so to differentiate the words tone is also used. This is called Pin Yin.

Pin Yin uses either numbers or tone marks to indicate the tones. Here is the word ‘ma’ with tone marks:

* First tone: ma1 or mā
* Second tone: ma2 or má
* Third tone: ma3 or mǎ
* Fourth tone: ma4 or mà

The tones are used to determine the meaning of a word. So mǎ (horse) is very different from mā (mother).

Here is a video on pronunciation Click here

Mooncake

The Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as the Moon Festival or Zhongqiu Festival is a popular harvest festival celebrated by Chinese and Vietnamese people, dating back over 3,000 years to moon worship in China's Shang Dynasty. It was first called Zhongqiu Jie (literally "Mid-Autumn Festival") in the Zhou Dynasty.In Malaysia, Singapore, and the Philippines, it is also sometimes referred to as the Lantern Festival or Mooncake Festival.

The Mid-Autumn Festival is held on the 15th day of the eighth month in the Chinese calendar.It is a date that parallels the autumnal equinox of the solar calendar, when the moon is at its fullest and roundest. The traditional food of this festival is the mooncake, of which there are many different varieties. The flavours I tried were walnut,red bean,white lotus,pink lotus.