Confucius Institute - Entrance Exam - Study Materials

萨格勒布大学孔子学院
Standard Chinese Language

ENTRANCE EXAM
- Study materials -
Dear future Chinese language student,
We are glad that you are interested in learning the Chinese language. This is the first step towards
discovering the interesting world of Chinese rich culture and language.
On the following pages, you will find some basic information about Chinese history and culture
and some basics of the Chinese language so you can understand it better and therefore follow the
course.
Read everything carefully and learn as much as you can to obtain a great score on your entrance
exam!
The entrance exam will consist of two parts: the cultural part and the language part. There will be
25 questions altogether - 15 about the language and 10 about the culture.
Good luck and see you in Chinese class!

Table of contents
Chinese Culture........................................................................................................................................... 1
Brief History of China ............................................................................................................................ 2
China today.............................................................................................................................................. 4
Chinese Names .................................................................................................................................... 5
Time zone ............................................................................................................................................. 6
Colors ....................................................................................................................................................... 6
Chinese New Year ................................................................................................................................... 9
Chinese zodiac ....................................................................................................................................... 10
Confucius ............................................................................................................................................... 13
The thought of Confucius ................................................................................................................. 15
Chinese Language ..................................................................................................................................... 16
Tones ...................................................................................................................................................... 17
Test yourself ...................................................................................................................................... 19
Chinese words that sound the same in English .................................................................................. 20
Test yourself: ..................................................................................................................................... 21
Most common phrases .......................................................................................................................... 22
A Chinese writing system, how does it work? .................................................................................... 23
Test yourself: ..................................................................................................................................... 24
What exactly is a Chinese character? ................................................................................................. 27
Test yourself: ..................................................................................................................................... 29
Radicals: building blocks of characters .............................................................................................. 31
Test yourself: ..................................................................................................................................... 32
Answers to “Test yourself” ...................................................................................................................... 33
Chinese Culture
1
Brief History of China
SOURCE: https://www.britishmuseum.org/pdf/History%20of%20China.pdf
Humans have lived in the region of the world known nowadays as China for over 1 million years.
The development of agriculture during the Neolithic period (c.10,000 -1500 BC) led to the growth
of settlements alongside China’s main rivers. During this period power shifted among the different
groups of people and individual neighbouring cultures such as the Hongshan (c.3800 – 2700 BC)
and Liangzhu (c. 3300 – 2250 BC). Some of the earliest known Chinese jade, silk and lacquer
objects date from this time.
The Xia dynasty (c.2100-1600 BC) is often referred to as a ‘legendary’ dynasty because there is
disagreement about its actual existence. The first historically documented dynasty was the Shang
dynasty (c.1500 - 1050 BC). The Shang used bronze and the first examples of Chinese writing
were found on oracles bones dating from this period. The Shang Dynasty was followed by the
Zhou Dynasty (1050 - 221 BC) which aimed to create a single Chinese state. However, in 771 BC
the Zhou lost control of western China and moved their capital to the east. As a result, the Zhou
period is divided into Western Zhou (1050-771 BC) and Eastern Zhou (770-221 BC). During the
Spring and Autumn period (770-476 BC) and the following Warring States period (475-221 BC),
the Zhou king was unable to exercise strong central power and different states struggled to gain
power over their neighbours. This was also a period of great philosophers such as Confucius and
Laozi (the traditional founder of Daoism).
In 221 BC Ying Zheng, king of the Qin Dynasty (221 - 206 BC), unified the other states under his
rule and declared himself emperor under the title Qin Shi Huang. He was responsible for the
earliest Great Wall of China and the Terracotta Army (buried alongside his tomb at Xi’an). The
rule of the Qin Dynasty as emperors of China lasted only 20 years but their unification policy
allowed the dynasties which followed to rule as emperors of an Imperial China until AD 1912.
The Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 220), who followed the Qin Dynasty, were contemporaries of the
Roman eEmpire This period saw the invention of paper, the development of the Silk Road and the
introduction of Buddhism to China. Towards the end of the dynasty civil unrest and rebellion broke
out and in AD 220 the Han empire collapsed. Power was seized by local feudal lords who ruled
during a period of history known as the Period of Disunity which lasted over 300 years.
In AD 589 China was reunified by the Sui Dynasty whose strong central rule continued under the
following Tang dynasty (AD 618-906) for nearly 200 years. The Tang period is considered a
golden art for Chinese literature and art. Tang territorial expansion brought economic problems
and in AD 906 the dynasty finally collapsed in the midst of wide spread rebellion. Northern China
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divided into five separate kingdoms, known as the Five Dynasties, while southern China split into
ten independent states called the Ten Kingdoms.
In AD 960 an army general named Zhao Kuangyin united China and founded the Song dynasty.
Government reforms were introduced to strengthen central rule and there was economic growth.
However, the Song dynasty eventually lost control of the north of the country to the invading Jin
Dynasty in AD 1127 and moved their capital to southern China where they continued to rule as
the Southern Song dynasty until AD 1273. In AD 1234 the Jin were themselves conquered by the
Mongols who then went on to conquer the southern Song and place all of China under the control
of the Mongol Empire.
The Mongol leader Kublai Khan (AD 1215-1294) founded the Yuan dynasty (AD 1279-1368) and
in AD 1266 established a new capital city at Beijing. During this period Chinese textiles, ceramics,
lacquerware and metalwork were exported to the West and had a particularly strong influence on
Turkey and Iran. In AD 1368 the Mongols lost power to the Chinese military leader Zhu
Yuanzhang who founded the Ming dynasty (AD 1368-1644). The Ming dynasty continued in
power for nearly 300 years until the founding in AD 1644 of the Qing dynasty (AD 1644-1911)
by the Manchu people, who invaded China from the north and subsequently ruled China for over
250 years. Under Qing rule ,there was massive territorial expansion and the arrival of European
traders and missionaries. In the mid AD 1800s Qing rule was weakened by Chinese defeat in the
First Opium War (AD 1839-1842) and Second Opium War (AD 1856-1860) with Great Britain.
In AD 1911 a republican revolution broke out in northeast China. The unrest quickly spread across
China and in February AD 1912 imperial China came to an end with the abdication of the last
emperor of China and the foundation of the Republic of China with the military commander Yuan
Shikai as President. This new regime soon lost power, leading to local rule by regional feudal lords
and conflict between different political parties (in particular the Nationalist and Communist parties)
until the eventual victory of the Communist Party. In AD 1949, under their leader Mao Zedong,
the Communists founded the People’s Republic of China which continues as the government of
mainland China to this day.
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China today
Stretching 5,000 kilometers from east to west and 5,500 kilometers from north to south, China is
a large country with widely varying landscapes. Its territory includes mountains, high plateaus,
sandy deserts, and dense forests.
One-third of China's land area is made up of mountains. The tallest mountain on Earth, Mount
Everest, sits on the border between China and Nepal.
China has thousands of rivers. The Yangtze and the Yellow Rivers are the most important. At
6,300 kilometers long, the Yangtze is the world's third largest river.
With a population of 1.3 billion, China has more people than any other country on Earth. About a
third of the population lives in cities. The rest of the people live in the country.
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Arts and crafts have a long history in China. Thousands of years ago the Chinese were some of the
first people to use silk, jade, bronze, wood, and paper to make art. The artistic writing called
calligraphy was invented in China.
Much of China's modern beliefs and philosophies are based on the teachings of a government
official who lived nearly 3,000 years ago. Kongfuzi, also known as Confucius, taught people the
value of such things as morality, kindness, and education.
China's diverse habitats are home to hundreds of species of animals and plants. More than 3,800
species of fish and hundreds of amphibians and reptile species live in the rivers, lakes, and coastal
waters.
China's forest wildlife is threatened by logging and clear-cutting (clearing the land of all trees) for
farmland. Expanding deserts in the north also shrink animal habitats. The Chinese government has
created more than 1,200 reserves to protect plant and animal species.
The giant panda lives in the misty mountains of southwest China and nowhere else on Earth. They
eat bamboo and usually live near stands of the woody evergreen plant. Pandas have been hunted
and only about 1,600 remain in the wild.
China is an authoritarian state ruled by a very powerful central government. A huge workforce and
lots of natural resources have driven economic change. This has forced the communist government
to permit more economic and personal freedoms, but it has come at a huge cost to the environment.
Many experts predict that the 21st century will be the "Chinese century." Whether or not that
proves to be true, there is no doubt that what happens in China will affect many other nations.
Chinese Names
The names of Chinese people have their own tradition and characteristics. Unlike westerners, the
family name in China is put first, followed by the given name. Interestingly a married woman does
not use her husband's family name. The given name usually contains one or two Chinese characters.
Given Name
Chinese names are meant to convey special meaning, with the given names often expressing the
best of wishes on the new-born. Some imply the birthplace, birth time or natural phenomenon, like
Jing (Beijing), Chen (morning), Dong (winter) and Xue (snow); Some embody the hope of virtue,
like Zhong (faithful), Yi (righteous), Li (courteous) and Xin (reliable) while others express the
wishes of life, like Jian (health), Shou (longevity), and Fu (happiness).
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Family Name
Altogether some 22,000 family names have been used in China but over time, some of them have
become reserved and only 3,500 are commonly used nowadays. The most popular three are Li,
Wang and Zhang, respectively occupying about 7.9%, 7.4% and 7.1% of the whole Chinese
population. There are 270 million Chinese people who own one of these top three surnames.
Among all the family names, 100 common ones cover almost 87% of the total population. Of these,
19 are more popular than others, including Li, Wang, Zhang, Liu, Chen, Yang, Zhao, Huang, Zhou,
Wu, Xu, Sun, Hu, Zhu, Gao, Lin, He, Guo and Ma, and represent about half of the whole Chinese
people.
Time zone
Measuring around 4800 kilometers from its western border shared with Pakistan to the East China
Sea in the east, China covers more than 60 degrees of longitude, incorporating 5 ideal time zones
with UTC offsets ranging from UTC+5 to UTC+9.
However, all of China observes the same time zone, which is UTC+8. It is internationally called
China Standard Time (CST). In China, the time zone is known as Beijing Time.
Macau and Hong Kong are special administrative regions of China, and have the same UTC offset
as the rest of the country.
History of Time Zones in China
From 1912 until 1949, China did have 5 time zones: Kunlun (UTC+05:30), Sinkiang-Tibet
(UTC+06:00), Kansu-Szechwan (UTC+07:00), Chungyuan (UTC+08:00), and Changpai
(UTC+08:30).
In 1949, Communist Party Chairman, Mao Zedong, decided that all of China was to use Beijing
Time.
Colors
Colors have special meanings in the Chinese culture. Some are considered lucky and some are
considered as taboo colors and should be avoided in certain situations.
Red — Happiness, Success and Good Fortune
Red represents fire and is the most popular color in China. It is also the national color representing
happiness, beauty, vitality, good luck, success and good fortune.
Red is famously popular in relation to anything Chinese and is widely used during festivals and
important events like weddings.
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Red lanterns adorn businesses and residences. Double rows of red "Xi" (happiness) letters are
pasted on gates and doors. People wear red during weddings, festivals and other celebratory events.
Red envelopes are stuffed with money and given as gifts during Chinese New Year.
Although red is considered a lucky color, Chinese people will never write a name in red because
a name written in red used to relate to a prisoner who is sentenced to death.
Green – cleanliness, purity and infidelity

In Chinese culture, green stands for cleanliness and purity from contamination. Green is used to
describe organic things, like calling organic milk “green milk” or calling pesticide-free vegetables
"green vegetables". On the other hand, the Chinese think that someone who does not feel good has
a green face. “Having a green face” also means to be angry. Another popular meaning is to cheat
on someone. “Wearing a green cap” means being unfaithful to your husband. Generally, this term
is used for a woman who had a relationship with another man and therefore dishonored her husband.
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White – purity and death

White is the symbol of purity in Chinese culture, however it is also the color of mourning and is
associated with death. In ancient Chinese culture Chinese people wore white clothes when they
mourned for the death, as such white is predominantly used at funerals in Chinese culture.
Yellow — Royalty and Power of the Throne
Yellow — corresponding to earth — symbolizes royalty and is reserved for the emperor.
The first Emperor of China was known as the Yellow Emperor. China was often referred to as
'Yellow Earth', and its mother river is the Yellow River. This is the most important color from an
ancient perspective.
During the Song Dynasty (960-1279), yellow glazed tiles were used to build imperial palaces.
During Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1636-1911) Dynasties, emperors were dressed in yellow
imperial robes. They rode in "yellow palace" carriages and traveled on "yellow paths". Official
flags were yellow.
In Chinese Buddhism, yellow is associated with freedom from material needs and monks wear
yellow robes.
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Chinese New Year
The majority people in the world celebrate the New Year on 1st of January, but for people in some
Asian countries the New Year is different. They celebrate the Lunar New Year which falls between
January 21 and February 19, depends on the year. It has several names such as Lunar New Year
or Spring Festival, but the most spread out name is Chinese New Year. The date depends on the
Moon because people of China traditionally used a lunar calendar which is based on the stages of
the moon. Each month of the lunar calendar begins with a new moon. This happens when the earth
moves between the moon and the sun. Chinese New Year starts the first day of the lunar calendar’s
first month. As we’ve already mentioned, it may fall on a different date each year. The New Year
lasts 15 days or two weeks. On the last day of the celebration, the full moon lights up the sky.
Chinese New Year is about new beginning, a great chance for everyone to wish for good luck in
the year that is coming. Families and friends visit each other and bring appropriate gifts.
The celebration of Chinese New Year started a long time ago, about 4,000 years ago and it is the
longest holiday of the year.
Old Chinese stories say the holiday started with a terrible monster named Nian who lived near a
small Chinese town. He would go to the town on New Year’s Eve and eat anyone who crossed his
path! A wise old man came up with an idea to defeat the dragon. He told everyone that Nian was
scared of the color red, bright lights and loud noises. Everybody in the town listened to the old
man and they hung lanterns and red decorations on their houses, clanged drums and gong, they
even lit firecrackers. The old man was right! The monster was too scared to come to the town and
left the people alone. Nian stayed an important part of Chinese New Year and celebration parades
often include dragon floats and all the things the people used to scare Nian.
Preparations for the celebration begin one week before the New Year itself. People clean their
houses, sweep the floors, repaint the houses to make room for good luck by cleaning out bad luck.
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Some families hang spring couplets, two-line poems printed on red and gold paper. It is believed
they bring good luck.
Food is an important part of the celebration of Chinese New Year’s Eve. The food has special
meaning: some people serve a plate of fish, but always leave a little bit of it on the plate. They
believe eating an entire fish will bring good luck, while leaving some fish on the plate will bring
good luck.
The night ends with fireworks at midnight to scare away evil spirits. People hope the noise and
light will also draw in good spirits who will bring happiness in the new year.
Xinnian Kuaile means “Happy New Year” in Chinese.
The morning after Chinese New Year’s Eve is really exciting and active. Family members and
friends visit each other and give each other gifts. Children often get red envelopes that are called
hong bao and they have money inside of them. They are a promise of good luck in the year that
ahead. Another interesting custom is setting your old clothes aside and wearing new clothes. This
symbolizes a break with hardship of last year.
On the last day of the celebration, there is a lantern festival. Shop owners hang paper lanterns
outside their stores and sometimes children march with their own paper lanterns.
Chinese zodiac
Another thing related to Chinese New Year is Chinese zodiac. Every year pairs with one of 12
animals. The zodiac cycle repeats every 12 years.
The animals on the calendar are: Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey,
Rooster, Dog, Pig.
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Zodiac signs play an integral part in Chinese culture and everyday life. They can determine your
fortune for the year, marriage compatibility, career fit, best time to have a baby, and many more.
It also plays a major role in marriage and career decisions, fortune-telling.
The year 2019 is the year of the Pig which is the last of all zodiac animals. There are different
myths on the order of the animals. One myth says that the Pig is last because he overslept, while
the other myth tells us that a wolf destroyed his house and he had to rebuild it. That’s why he
arrived last. Pig is also associated with the Earthly Branch and the night period between 21h and
23h. In terms of yin and yang, Pig is yin. In Chinese culture pigs are a symbol of wealth, their
chubby faces and big ears are signs of fortune as well.
You can read more about the zodiac on the following link: https://chinesenewyear.net/zodiac/
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Source: https://chinesenewyear.net/zodiac/
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I never said
Confucius half of those
things!
SOURCE: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Confucius
Confucius is China’s most famous teacher, philosopher, and political theorist, whose ideas have
influenced the civilization of East Asia.
Confucius’s life, in contrast to his tremendous importance, seems starkly undramatic, or, as a
Chinese expression has it, it seems “plain and real.” The plainness and reality of Confucius’s life,
however, underlines that his humanity was not revealed truth but an expression of self-cultivation,
of the ability of human effort to shape its own destiny. The faith in the possibility of ordinary
human beings to become awe-inspiring sages and worthies is deeply rooted in the Confucian
heritage, and the insistence that human beings are teachable, improvable, and perfectible through
personal and communal endeavour is typically Confucian.
Confucius was born in Qufu in the small feudal state of Lu in what is now Shandong province,
which was noted for its preservation of the traditions of ritual and music of the Zhou civilization.
September 28 is widely observed in East Asia as Confucius’s birthday. It is an official holiday,
“Teachers’ Day,” in Taiwan. His family name was Kong and his personal name Qiu, but he is
referred to as either Kongzi or Kongfuzi (Master Kong) throughout Chinese history. The adjectival
“Confucian,” derived from the Latinized Confucius, is not a meaningful term in Chinese, nor is
the term Confucianism, which was coined in Europe as recently as the 18th century.
Confucius’s ancestors were probably members of the aristocracy who had become virtual poverty-
stricken commoners by the time of his birth. His father died when Confucius was only three years
old. Instructed first by his mother, Confucius then distinguished himself as an indefatigable learner
in his teens. He recalled toward the end of his life that at age 15 his heart was set upon learning. A
historical account notes that, even though he was already known as an informed young scholar, he
felt it appropriate to inquire about everything while visiting the Grand Temple.
Confucius had served in minor government posts managing stables and keeping books for
granaries before he married a woman of similar background when he was 19. It is not known who
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Confucius’s teachers were, but he made a conscientious effort to find the right masters to teach
him, among other things, ritual and music. His mastery of the six arts—ritual, music, archery,
charioteering, calligraphy, and arithmetic—and his familiarity with the classical traditions, notably
poetry and history, enabled him to start a brilliant teaching career in his 30s.
Confucius is known as the first teacher in China who wanted to make education broadly available
and who was instrumental in establishing the art of teaching as a vocation, indeed as a way of life.
Before Confucius, aristocratic families had hired tutors to educate their sons in specific arts, and
government officials had instructed their subordinates in the necessary techniques, but he was the
first person to devote his whole life to learning and teaching for the purpose of transforming and
improving society. He believed that all human beings could benefit from self-cultivation. He
inaugurated a humanities program for potential leaders, opened the doors of education to all, and
defined learning not merely as the acquisition of knowledge but also as character building.
For Confucius the primary function of education was to provide the proper way of training
exemplary persons (junzi), a process that involved constant self-improvement and continuous
social interaction. Although he emphatically noted that learning was “for the sake of the self” (the
end of which was self-knowledge and self-realization), he found public service integral to true
education. Confucius confronted learned hermits who challenged the validity of his desire to serve
the world; he resisted the temptation to “herd with birds and animals,” to live apart from the human
community, and opted to try to transform the world from within. For decades Confucius tried to
be actively involved in politics, wishing to put his humanist ideas into practice through
governmental channels.
In his late 40s and early 50s Confucius served first as a magistrate, then as an assistant minister of
public works, and eventually as minister of justice in the state of Lu. It is likely that he
accompanied King Lu as his chief minister on one of the diplomatic missions. Confucius’s political
career was, however, short-lived. His loyalty to the king alienated him from the power holders of
the time, the large Ji families, and his moral rectitude did not sit well with the king’s inner circle,
who enraptured the king with sensuous delight. At 56, when he realized that his superiors were
uninterested in his policies, Confucius left the country in an attempt to find another feudal state to
which he could render his service. Despite his political frustration he was accompanied by an
expanding circle of students during this self-imposed exile of almost 12 years. His reputation as a
man of vision and mission spread. A guardian of a border post once characterized him as the
“wooden tongue for a bell” of the age, sounding heaven’s prophetic note to awaken the people
(Analects, 3:24). Indeed, Confucius was perceived as the heroic conscience who knew realistically
that he might not succeed but, fired by a righteous passion, continuously did the best he could. At
the age of 67 he returned home to teach and to preserve his cherished classical traditions by writing
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and editing. He died in 479 BCE, at the age of 73. According to the Records of the Historian, 72
of his students mastered the “six arts,” and those who claimed to be his followers numbered 3,000.
Further on Confucius: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFt_VGG0kJU

The thought of Confucius
SOURCE: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Confucianism
Confucianism, the way of life propagated by Confucius in the 6th–5th century BCE and followed
by the Chinese people for more than two millennia. Although transformed over time, it is still the
substance of learning, the source of values, and the social code of the Chinese. Its influence has
also extended to other countries, particularly Korea, Japan, and Vietnam.
The story of Confucianism does not begin with Confucius. Nor was Confucius the founder of
Confucianism in the sense that the Buddha was the founder of Buddhism and Jesus Christ the
founder of Christianity. Rather, Confucius considered himself a transmitter who consciously tried
to reanimate the old in order to attain the new. He proposed revitalizing the meaning of the past
by advocating a ritualized life. Confucius’s love of antiquity was motivated by his strong desire to
understand why certain life forms and institutions, such as reverence for ancestors, human-centred
religious practices, and mourning ceremonies, had survived for centuries. His journey into the past
was a search for roots, which he perceived as grounded in humanity’s deepest needs for belonging
and communicating. He had faith in the cumulative power of culture. The fact that traditional ways
had lost vitality did not, for him, diminish their potential for regeneration in the future. In fact,
Confucius’s sense of history was so strong that he saw himself as a conservationist responsible for
the continuity of the cultural values and the social norms that had worked so well for the idealized
civilization of the Western Zhou dynasty.
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Chinese Language
16
Tones
Source: https://chinesepod.com/tools/pronunciation/section/17
Mandarin Chinese is a tonal language. It means that the same syllable can be pronounced with different
tones and those tones give a different meaning to the syllables. Mandarin's tones give it a very distinctive
quality, but the tones can also be a source of miscommunication if not given due attention.
Mandarin is said to have four main tones and one neutral tone (or, as some say, five tones). Each tone has
a distinctive pitch contour which can be graphed using the Chinese 5-level system.
First Tone
The first tone is high and level. It is important to keep one's voice even (almost monotone) across the whole
syllable when pronouncing the first tone. It is represented by a straight horizontal line above a letter in
pinyin (or sometimes by a number "1" written after the syllable).
Second Tone
The second rises moderately. In English we sometimes associate this rise in pitch with a question. The
second tone is represented by a rising diagonal line above a letter in pinyin (or sometimes by a number "2"
written after the syllable).
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Third Tone
The third tone falls and then rises again. When pronounced clearly, its tonal "dipping" is very distinctive.
It is represented by a curved "dipping" line above a letter in pinyin (or sometimes by a number "3" written
after the syllable).
Fourth Tone
The fourth tone starts out high but drops sharply to the bottom of the tonal range. English-speakers often
associate this tone with an angry command. It is represented by a dropping diagonal line above a letter in
pinyin (or sometimes by a number "4" written after the syllable).
Neutral Tone
The neutral tone is not mapped on the tone chart because it differs from the other four tones in that it does
not have a defined pitch contour. The neutral tone is pronounced quickly and lightly without regard to pitch.
Syllables with a neutral tone have no tone mark (but are sometimes marked with a "5" or a "0" after the
syllable). This tone is usually very easy to pick up. Note that aside from grammatical particles, single
syllable words cannot have a neutral tone.
You can practice listening here:

https://chinesepod.com/tools/pronunciation/section/17
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZB9-vZFesk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wV8B4bx1lM&t=84s
Learning goal:
 Know how many tones are there in Chinese.
 Know the general difference among the tones in theory.
 Be able to tell the difference when you hear two different tones.
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Test yourself:
When you hear two single-syllable words, will you be able to tell if they have the same tone? The words
will be pronounced clearly and slowly. You can hear them as many times as you need. Try it out.
(play audio 1)
1. mao bao
2. tu lu
3. niu diu
4. zhan chen
5. yan yuan
6. lian tian
7. gou dou
8. bei pa
9. xiang xia
10. jia jie
Answers are available in the end of the document.
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Chinese words that sound the same in English

Source: http://blog.tutorming.com/mandarin-chinese-learning-tips/8-chinese-words-that-sound-the-same-
in-english
Learning Chinese can be tricky, but fortunately there are many loan words shared between English and
Chinese! Whether they originated from Chinese to begin with, or were adapted from English words, most
of them have long been accepted into Chinese dictionaries and the vocabulary of native speakers. Check
out these words that sound quite similar to their Mandarin Chinese counterparts!
1. COFFEE (咖啡, KĀFĒI)
Coffee was not introduced to Asia until the late 19th century and has only been popular in China during
recent decades. Today, many cafes, restaurants, and bakeries that serve coffee can be found all over China,
and coffee-related loan words have expanded to include: latte (拿铁, nátiě) and cappuccino (卡布其诺,
kǎbùqínuò).
2. SALAD (沙拉，SHĀLĀ)
Salad is introduced to China also in the late 19th century, and still is not widely accepted in China. In Chinese
cuisine, food is rarely served cold and raw. It is considered not healthy according to traditional medicine.
3. TOFU (豆腐, DÒUFU)
Tofu, which translates to “bean curd”, is a key ingredient in many Chinese dishes. It originated from China,
and eventually spread to other parts of Asia, and then to the West. The English word is borrowed from the
Japanese word tofu, which comes from the Chinese equivalent, dòufu.
4. TYPHOON (台风, TÁIFĒNG)
A typhoon is a tropical cyclone that occurs in the North Pacific Ocean. The word comes from 台风, which
originated from the Cantonese pronunciation of 大风, meaning “big wind”. Typhoon season in China spans
the summer months, and the windstorms occur on the coast and spread inland.
You don’t need to know the stories behind these words, but rather focus on how they sound in Chinese.
Practice listening and learn more here with the videos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGfDoqWa_VI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0M2Zqz2jIw
Learning goal:
 Know about how Chinese and English/International vocabulary influence each other.
 Understand a few Chinese words of this kind when hear them. Check the list below.
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Test yourself:
Practice listening. Don’t worry about the pinyin and the Chinese characters for now. Focus on the audio.
(play audio 2)
English word Chinese pinyin Chinese characters
Coffee kāfēi 咖啡
Salad shālā 沙拉
Chocolate qiǎokèlì 巧克力
Pizza pīsà 披萨
Tofu dòufu 豆腐
Typhoon táifēng 台风
Tea (Čaj) chá 茶
Zen chán 禅
Kong Fu gōngfu 功夫
21
Most common phrases
To begin your journey of learning Chinese, you can start with some simple and useful phrases.
Here are 5 most common phrases you need to learn for the entrance exam. Practice learning and speaking
after the audio. Try to read it slowly and prolong the sound as much as you can, so you can hear the
difference between yours and the audio.
Don’t worry about the pinyin and the Chinese characters for now. Focus on the audio.
(play audio 3)
English Chinese characters Pinyin
Hello. 你好。 Nǐhǎo.
Thanks. 谢谢。 Xièxie.
Goodbye. 再见。 Zàijiàn.
Sorry. 对不起。 Duìbuqǐ.
Very good. 很好。 Hěn hǎo.
Learning goal:
 You can understand the phrases when you can hear them clearly and slowly.
22
Chinese writing system, how does it work?

Chinese writing system is not based on an alphabet, but on characters. Characters are like the basic building
blocks for any Chinese text. A Chinese word can have one character or more, mostly two or three, and the
meaning of the word usually is the combined meaning of the characters.
For example, the word mobile phone in Chinese is 手机, and the pinyin of which is shǒujī. This is a two-
character word and each character contributes to the meaning. The first character 手 means hand and the
second character 机 means machine. Mobile phone = hand + machine, telling you that mobile phone is
considered a machine you can hold in your hand in Chinese language. Does it make sense to you?
Now let’s look at how sentences are formed. Here is a sentence: 我的手机在哪儿? It means: where is my
mobile phone? You can see that in a Chinese sentence there is no space in between words. Surprise! It just
looks like a big word with a lot of characters! Well, not if you know the meaning of each word and where
to have pauses. We can break down the sentence in this way.
Pinyin (pronunciation) Wǒde shǒujī zài nǎr ?
Character 我的手机在哪儿？
Meaning my mobile is where ?

phone
You can see this sentence has 4 words, and each word has a meaning in the sentence. This is a helpful, and
a very common way of learning Chinese.
Read more here:
http://blog.tutorming.com/mandarin-chinese-learning-tips/how-do-chinese-characters-work
Learning goal:
 Understand how characters form a word, and how words form a sentence.
 Be able to count how many characters are there in a word or sentence.
 Be able to identify a word given an example.
23
Test yourself:
IMPORTANT!
Here is a list of some basic words. You don’t have study all the words here. For now, just get to know them.
You can come back to check this list during the exam. Remember, however, being familiar with the words
will help you identify them more quickly, which you will need for the exam.
Chinese word Pinyin Meaning
我 wǒ I; me
你 nǐ you
爸爸 bàba Dad
妈妈 māma Mom
看 kàn to read, to look
吃 chī to eat
喝 hē to drink
爱 ài to love; love
书 shū book
苹果 píngguǒ apple
水 shuǐ water
24
Can you find the meaning for the following sentences? Match them.
Exercise 1
我看书。 I love you.
你喝水。 I read books.
我爱你。 You drink water.
Exercise 2
I love to read books. 爸爸爱我。
Dad loves me. 妈妈爱爸爸。
Mom loves dad. 我爱看书。
Exercise 3
我吃苹果。 Mom drinks water.
妈妈喝水。 Dad reads books.
爸爸看书。 I eat apples.
1. Look at the following sentence and answer the questions below.
苹果无疑是现今最赚钱的智能手机品牌，其价格一直不断走高。
a) Can you count how many characters are there in the sentence?
b) Can you find the word 手机 in the sentence?
25
2. Here is a text about iPhone. Please focus on two words that show repetitively in the text, 苹果 and
手机. The first word means apple, which is the translation of the brand Apple, and the second word
means mobile phone, as you already know.
苹果无疑是现今最赚钱的智能手机品牌，其产品价格一直不断走高。上周四发布的新品中，
iPhone XS Max 的最高价达 1099 美元，打破了去年 iPhone X 的价格，成为了历史上最贵的 iPhone
新款手机。
发布会结束后，苹果公司 CEO 库克（Tim Cook）表示：“苹果从来不以追求销量为目标，我们能

给大家带来创新和价值，那就有人愿意买单，我们也能从中获得合理的价值，而且现在不少人都
是分期购买手机的。”
Source: https://www.yicai.com/news/100028150.html
c) Can you find all the 手机? How many of them are there in the text?
d) Can you find all the 苹果? How many of them are there in the text?
e) Can you find a character that shows more than 5 times in this text?
26
What exactly is a Chinese character?

There are more than 100,000 different Chinese characters. It is impossible to count them all precisely. The
number of useful characters, for a literate person however, is “only” between 3,000 and 6,000.
A Chinese character is a complex unit. There are three elements in one character: pronunciation, meaning,
the image. Let’s look at them one by one.
1. Pronunciation and pinyin
You can know the pronunciation by reading the pinyin. Pinyin is the phonetic system designed in the last
century to help both native speakers and second language learners. Pinyin uses Latin alphabet, which makes
it more approachable to English speakers. Learners typically learn how to vocalize pinyin in the beginning
and then know how to pronounce a word when given the pinyin of that. For example, the character 我
means I, but knowing the meaning doesn’t help you to speak it. You need the pinyin for the word, wǒ,
which sounds like uo with a first falling then rising tone.
Read more:
https://www.thoughtco.com/basics-about-chinese-characters-4080664
2. Meaning and pictograph

Second, the meaning. Chinese character is often considered pictograph. That means some of the characters
are drawn from the looking at the world. For pictographs, you get the meaning by looking at the pictures.
For example, the character 山, meaning mountain, is a typical pictograph. It originates from picture like
this: . Does it look like a mountain to you? Do you find the character 山 similar to this picture?
Characters of natural objects are mostly pictographs. You can easily know the meaning of them after it’s
explained to you. However, pictographs make up only a small portion of the total number of characters.
Still, it is important to know how pictographs work because they are the most basic kind of Chinese
character and they appear frequently in compounds.
Source and read more:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buc2q9TqlMk
https://www.writtenchinese.com/learn-to-read-with-these-20-chinese-pictographs/
3. Image and strokes

A character is like a small picture. In order to recognize the character, you need to know how it is written.
A character is not a random drawing. It is made of strokes. There are 8 basic strokes. Some of them have
27
several variants, and strokes can be combined to create more strokes. But the basic idea is that most
characters are made from a small number of strokes. Here is a basic collection of strokes.
In a way, strokes are closer to the concept of letters than characters are. They are the smallest unit of Chinese
writing. For example, the character 你，which means “you”, has 7 strokes, as showed in the following
graph. Give yourself a bit of time, you can find every stroke in the above form.
Stroke order is important. Kids learn which stroke goes before which at school. It is important because of
how muscle memory works. Our brain is able to automatically remember a complex sequence of movement.
If strokes were written in a random order, they would be much harder to remember. There are only a
few rules for stroke ordering. Characters that look very complex at first, are in fact just a familiar sequence
of strokes.
Source and read more:
https://www.thoughtco.com/importance-of-strokes-2278357
https://www.thoughtco.com/building-blocks-of-chinese-characters-4024400
Learning goal:
 Understand that a Chinese character contains information about the meaning and sound.
 Understand what pictograph is and be able to identify some characters based on the pictograph.
 Understand what stroke is and be able to identify some strokes.
28
Test yourself:
1. Check out the evaluation of some pictographs. Can you connect the character with the picture it
originates from?
Source: https://sachinese.wordpress.com/2013/02/06/types-of-chinese-calligraphy/
Can you now tell the meaning of the following characters?
木水山月日门田
2. Can you find out the stroke that is not a component of the given character?
29
Tip: You can look them up in an online dictionary here.

https://dict.naver.com/linedict/zhendict/dict.html#/cnen/home
Just copy the character and search it. When you go to a character, you will find its pinyin, meaning as well
as the strokes. Click the strokes (on the right) you will see an animation showing how the character is
written.
丁 has 2 strokes, which one of the following is not one of them?
大 has 3 strokes, which one of the following is not one of them?
女 has 3 strokes, which one of the following is not one of them?
马 has 3 strokes, which one of the following is not one of them?
30
Radicals: building blocks of characters

Source: https://www.thoughtco.com/learn-to-read-chinese-characters-2278356
To the untrained eye, Chinese characters can seem like a confusing mess of lines. But characters have a
logic of their own, revealing clues about definition and pronunciation. Once you learn more about the
elements of characters, the logic behind them begins to emerge.
The building blocks of Chinese characters are radicals. Almost all Chinese characters are composed of at
least one radical.
For beginner learners, radicals are important because they often provide clues for meaning. For example,
most characters having to do with water or moisture all share the radical 水 (shuǐ). The radical 水 on its
own is also a Chinese character, which translates to "water."
Some radicals have more than one form. The radical 水 (shuǐ), for example, can also be written as 氵 when
it is used as part of another character. This radical is called 三点水 (sān diǎn shuǐ), which means "three
drops of water" as, indeed, the radical looks like three droplets. Therefore, radicals can be a useful tool for
remembering the meaning of Chinese characters.
Here are a few examples of characters based on the radical 水 (shuǐ):
汁 – zhī – juice, fluid
汗 – hàn – perspiration, sweat
江 – jiāng – river
More about radicals are explained here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sV6VElzIwew
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvebdr0sNao
https://www.thoughtco.com/learn-to-read-chinese-characters-2278356
Learning goal:
 Understand what is radical and be able to identify some radicals given an example.
31
Test yourself:
1. Can you group the characters by their radicals? Note that all of the radicals for these characters are
on the left. You have three characters for each radical.
找河你打妈海好何清佳指如
Radical of hand:
Radical of water:
Radical of man:
Radical of woman:
32
Answers to “Test yourself”s

Tones
1. same, 2nd tone
2. different, 2nd and 4th tone
3. different, 3rd and 1st tone
4. same, 4th tone
5. same, 3rd tone
6. different, 3rd tone and 2nd tone
7. different, 4th and 1st tone
8. different, 3rd and 4th tone
9. same, 1st tone
10. different, 3rd and 4th tone
Chinese writing system

1.
我看书。 I love you.
你喝水。 I read books.
我爱你。 You drink water.
I love to read books. 爸爸爱我。
Dad loves me. 妈妈爱爸爸。
Mom loves dad. 我爱看书。
我吃苹果。 Mom drinks water.
妈妈喝水。 Dad reads books.
爸爸看书。 I eat apples.
2.
a) 28 characters
33
b) The word 手机 is highlighted in the sentence.
苹果无疑是现今最赚钱的智能手机品牌，其价格一直不断走高。
3.
c) The word 手机 is highlighted in the sentence. There are 3 of them.
新款手机。

d) The word 苹果 is highlighted in the sentence. There are 3 of them.
新款手机。

e) Character 的 is the most frequent character here. There are 7 of them.
新款手机。

34
Chinese Character
1.
木水山月日门田
tree water mountain moon sun door field
2.
丁 the 2nd stroke
大 the 2nd stroke
女 the 4th stroke
马 the 3rd stroke
Radicals
Radical of hand: 找，打，指
Radical of water: 河，海，清
Radical of man: 你，何，佳
Radical of woman: 妈，好，如
35

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萨格勒布大学孔子学院

Standard Chinese Language

Dear future Chinese language student,

Good luck and see you in Chinese class!

Brief History of China

Green – cleanliness, purity and infidelity

White – purity and death

Chinese New Year

Xinnian Kuaile means “Happy New Year” in Chinese.

Further on Confucius: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFt_VGG0kJU

You can practice listening here:

 Know how many tones are there in Chinese.

 Know the general difference among the tones in theory.

Answers are available in the end of the document.

Chinese words that sound the same in English

1. COFFEE (咖啡, KĀFĒI)

3. TOFU (豆腐, DÒUFU)

4. TYPHOON (台风, TÁIFĒNG)

English word Chinese pinyin Chinese characters

Chocolate qiǎokèlì 巧克力

Tea (Čaj) chá 茶

Most common phrases

English Chinese characters Pinyin

Hello. 你好。 Nǐhǎo.

Thanks. 谢谢。 Xièxie.

Goodbye. 再见。 Zàijiàn.

Sorry. 对不起。 Duìbuqǐ.

Very good. 很好。 Hěn hǎo.

Chinese writing system, how does it work?

Meaning my mobile is where ?

 Be able to count how many characters are there in a word or sentence.

 Be able to identify a word given an example.

Chinese word Pinyin Meaning

看 kàn to read, to look

我看书。 I love you.

你喝水。 I read books.

我爱你。 You drink water.

I love to read books. 爸爸爱我。

Dad loves me. 妈妈爱爸爸。

Mom loves dad. 我爱看书。

我吃苹果。 Mom drinks water.

妈妈喝水。 Dad reads books.

爸爸看书。 I eat apples.

1. Look at the following sentence and answer the questions below.

b) Can you find the word 手机 in the sentence?

发布会结束后，苹果公司 CEO 库克（Tim Cook）表示：“苹果从来不以追求销量为目标，我们能

What exactly is a Chinese character?

2. Meaning and pictograph

3. Image and strokes

 Understand what stroke is and be able to identify some strokes.

Tip: You can look them up in an online dictionary here.

丁 has 2 strokes, which one of the following is not one of them?

大 has 3 strokes, which one of the following is not one of them?

女 has 3 strokes, which one of the following is not one of them?

马 has 3 strokes, which one of the following is not one of them?

Answers are available in the end of the document.

Radicals: building blocks of characters

Here are a few examples of characters based on the radical 水 (shuǐ):

汁 – zhī – juice, fluid

汗 – hàn – perspiration, sweat

More about radicals are explained here:

Answers are available in the end of the document.

Answers to “Test yourself”s