Chinese lesson

Hi everyone! Today, I'm going to teach you a couple of Chinese words. Learning a new language is fun!

Let's start with one of my favorite -- if not my most favorite -- word. You guessed it. HONEY.

In Chinese, "honey" is 蜂蜜 and pronounced fēngmì. I like to eat 蜂蜜。

Next, let's learn a very closely related word: BEE.

Do you see anything interesting about the word for BEE?

If you said it is the reverse of BEE, you are right! In Chinese, the word for BEE is 蜜蜂 and pronounced mìfēng.

So, be sure not to confuse the two. You don't want to eat 蜜蜂  - that would really sting!

I hope you enjoyed this Chinese lesson!

Hot pot

Hello! Today, I am reporting LIVE from a Chinese hot pot restaurant where we will be enjoying a delicious meal.

I was greeted by a panda bear when I arrived at the restaurant.

"你好！" he said.

"你好!" I replied.  (你好 means "hello" in Chinese - I have been studying Chinese with Uncle Tibbs).

I was also pleased to see panda bear cushions on every one of the chairs in the restaurant. This is a very bear-friendly restaurant so far.

For those who have never visited a hot pot restaurant before, let me explain briefly what it is. You first choose a delicious broth and the server brings it to your table. These are special tables with a cooking plate built into it.

Let's turn it up to a roiling boil!

While the broth is boiling, the server has brought out all the ingredients we have selected for our hot pot. These can be vegetables, noodles, meat, and FISH!

One of the most important parts of the hot pot experience is the sauce. To my right here, you can see I've created a fabulous concoction of soy sauce, scallions, garlic, and hoisin sauce. There is no right or wrong answer here. You can put anything into your sauce.

It's important to keep the raw food plates and utensils away from the cooked items so they won't be contaminated. Add the raw items into the broth one by one until they are fully cooked. It usually doesn't take long since the meat is sliced very thinly.

That's a lot of food! My favorite item here are the FISH BALLS! Enjoy your hot pot!

Chinese New Year

https://translate.google.com/

I wasn't sure what the card said that Julie Jane Zebra and Elsie sent me, so I decided to ask Uncle Tibbs about it.

"Hey Uncle Tibbs," I started to say.  "这张卡是 。。哦，怎么了？我为什么突然会说汉语呢?"

“因为今天是春节！” Uncle Tibbs 回答了。
“春节？”
“对， 春节啊！  新年快乐 Ajdin！” 他说。
“你说什么我都能听懂。。。好奇怪！” 我惊讶得说。
“今年是猴年，” Uncle Tibbs 说。

“哦，不是熊年吗？”
“不，生肖没有熊。哦，还有这个红包！给你！”
“恭喜发财！红包拿来！谢谢！” 我说。“呵呵呵！”

我们祝大家新年快乐！恭禧发财！多吃蜂蜜！多吃三文鱼！加油！

Chinese lesson with Uncle Tibbs

Someone asked if Mr. Tibbs could speak Chinese.  I thought this was a good question since he said he spent some time there, so when he woke up, I asked him.

"我会讲中文," he said to me.  I did not understand.  He laughed and then said, "我可以教你."  I shook my head, still having no idea what he was saying.  I never heard a bear speak Chinese before.

"I said 'I can speak Chinese, and I can teach you'," Mr. Tibbs explained.  He rustled through his collection of books (since he arrived a few days ago, several more large boxes containing his personal items arrived at the door), then opened up to a page in a yellow book.

"Wow!  This is a lot different than English," I exclaimed.  "Are those words?  They look like little sticks."

"These are called Chinese characters.  In Chinese, there are no letters and there is no alphabet.  Every word has a different character."  Mr. Tibbs flipped the page.

"I will never understand Chinese...it's too hard and complicated," I sighed.

"Of course you can learn it, Ajdin," said Mr. Tibbs as he patted me on the head.  "I learned it, and you can too.  You learned English, didn't you?  I bet that wasn't easy, but here you are speaking fluent English.  There is no limit to what you can learn if you work hard at it."

"Yeah, you're right, Mr. Tibbs.  I guess I can do it."  I flipped to the first page and began to read.

"你好," I struggled to say.  (That means 'hello' in Chinese.)

"Please call me Uncle Tibbs from now on.  I have a feeling we bears are all related somehow anyways."

Learning languages is fun!  How many languages do you speak?