Humanities

Week of 2/12 - 2/16

Source: ​https://www.dartmouth.edu/~chinese/maps/maps.html

Chinese is a part of the Sino-Tibetan language family, which is one of the largest language

families in the world. With 1.1 billion people speaking Sinitic (Chinese dialects), it is the world’s
largest speech community.
The predecessor of Sino-Tibetan is Proto-Sino-Tibetan (PST), which encompases all
dialects that Sino-Tibetan languages originated from. PST originated somewhere in the
Himalayan plateau where the great rivers of East and SE Asia are sourced.
 Above: Map of Himalayan Plateau
Some of these rivers include:
- Yellow River
- Yangtze River
- Mekong River
- Brahmaputra River
- Salween River
- Irrawaddy River
The TB (Tibetan-Burman) people
slowly started to fan out across
the river valleys, and entered
peninsular SE Asia sometime
during the mid 1st millennium.

Left: Peninsular Southeast Asia

Sometime around 4000 BCE,
there was a time of hypothetical
ST (Sino-Tibetan) unity when the
Proto-Han, or Proto-Chinese,
and the Proto-Tibetan-Burman
(PTB) people formed a similar
linguistic community-- which is a
fancy way of saying that the
Proto-Han and PTB used similar
languages at this time.
 Since Chinese uses
characters instead of an
alphabet, historical linguists
have issues trying to
reconstruct the phonology of
earlier forms of Chinese and
establishing a connection
between Chinese and other
languages.
A Swedish Sinologist named Bernhard Kalgren
recognized two earlier stages of Chinese
before our modern chinese: Archaic/Old
Chinese (abbr. OC), which was used during the
early Zhou dynasty at the beginning of the first
millennium BCE; and Ancient/Middle Chinese
(abbr. MC), which was used during the 2nd half
of the first millennium CE.
Reconstruction of MC is based mainly on
“rhyme books”, especially the ​Qieyun​ published
in (602 CE). In this book, each character was
giving phonetic value by glossing it (providing
an explanation of a word) with two other
characters. The first character had the same initial consonant as the target character, while the
second had the same “rhyme” (vowel, final consonant if any and tone) as the target character.
Above: excerpt of the ​Qieyun
Below: Chapter from the​ Book of Odes

Reconstruction of OC is more indirect and tricky than MC

reconstruction. It is based on patterns of rhyming in the earliest Zhou
dynasty text, especially the ​Book of Odes​. This uses the
graphological structure of characters, the vast majority of which are
constructed of a ​radical​ which gives a clue to its meaning, and a
phonetic​ which gives a clue to pronunciation. These are only clues,
however, as it can’t be assumed that all characters followed this
format.

While Kalgren’s method has helped put sounds to many of

the characters in MC and OC, there are still many limitations to
this method. For one, the phonological system that is implied by
Qieyun​ is extremely complex and is panlingual, only noting the
differences in any dialect that the compilers (who are from
different regions) were familiar with. There is also non reason to
 assume MC phonology from the ​Qieyun​ was the exact linear
descendant of the OC system found in the ​Book of Odes ​rhymes
and graphic structure of characters. Also modern groups of
dialects (e.g the Min dialects), have undergone distinct
phonological developments that are impossible to trace back to
the MC system of rhyme books.

Sources:
Matisoff, James A. “The Sino-Tibetan Language Family.” The Sino-Tibetan Language Family |
STEDT, University of California, Berkely, stedt.berkeley.edu/about-st.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QY0AMmLuiqk

Week of: Feb 19th-23rd

Chinese Slang
Internet slang (numbers):
Chinese people use numbers for slang, as their pronunciation can resemble other words.
● 1314: “For ever”, usually preceded by a phrase such as “I love you” or whatever.
○ 1314 (yīsānyīsì) represents 一生一世 “one life, one world” (yīshēng yīshì).
● 233: “laughter" 233 (pinyin:èr sān sān） represents 哈哈哈 （pinyin: hā hā hā).
○ from the No.233 emoticon of Mop forum (one of the biggest forums in China) and
that emoticon is a laughing figure. And Chinese people on the Internet also use
23333 or 233333333333333 to express the happy emotion. The number of 3s
you attach at the end is proportionate to how funny something is.
● 4242: “Yes” or “It is”
○ 4242 (sìèr sì'èr) represents 是啊是啊 (shì’a shì’a).
● 520: “I love you”
○ 520 (wǔ'èrlíng) represents 我爱你 (wǒ ài nǐ).
● 555: “(crying)”
○ 555 (wǔwǔwǔ) represents 呜呜呜 (wūwūwū) the sound of tearful crying
● 666: “doing something really well”
○ 666 (liùliùliù) represents 溜溜溜 (liùliùliù).
● 7451 or 7456: “I’m angry”.
○ 7451 (qīsìwǔyī) or 7456 (qīsìwǔliù) represents 气死我了 (qìsǐ wǒle)
● 748: “Go and die!”,
○ 748 (qīsìbā)：represents 去死吧 (qùsǐba), the equivalent of “Get lost!”, or “Go to
hell!”
● 88: “Bye bye” (goodbye).
○ 88 (bābā) represents “bye bye"
● 995: "Help”, “Save me!”
○ 995 (pinyin: jiǔjiǔwǔ) represents 救救我 (pinyin: jiùjiù wǒ).
Other Slang
● 酷 (kù) - cool
● 帅 (shuài) - good looking or handsome (used to describe a guy)
● 爽 (shuǎng) - satisfying, enjoyable
● 超 (chāo) - very, extremely, super, ultra-
● 烂 (làn) - rotten, crappy
● 吓死 (xià sǐ) - terrified, scared to death
● 吹牛 (chuī niú) - to brag, boast (literally, something like “blow cow”)
● 菜鸟 (cài niǎo) - beginner, notice, rookie (literally, “vegetable bird”)
● 笨蛋 (bèn dàn) - idiot (literally, “stupid egg”)
● 坏蛋 (huài dàn) - crook, scoundrel (literally, “rotten egg”)
● 白痴 (bái chī) - idiot (literally, “white fool”)
● 傻瓜 (shǎ guā) - fool (literally, “stupid melon”)
● 疯子 (fēng zi) - madman, lunatic
● 厚脸皮 (hòu liǎn pí) - cheeky, brazen; thick skinned (used kind of negatively)
● 废话 (fèi huà) - nonsense
● 闭嘴 (bì zuǐ) - shut up (as an interjection)

你行你上 (nǐ xíng nǐ shàng)

Literal translation: you can you up
Meaning: if you think you can do better…
- Coined by the fans of NBA players. When some fans criticize those players who do not
play well, other fans will fight against them by saying “If you think you can do better, why
don’t you go play?”. Now it is used to tease person A who criticizes person B’s work but
cannot do better than person B.

Méijìn [没劲]
Literal translation: no strength
Meaning: whatever!

黑手党 (hēishǒu dǎng)

Literal translation: Black Hand
Meaning: the mafia

富二代 (fù èr dài)

Literal translation: rich second place
Meaning: describes someone whose parent(s) are rich and have passed the money down.

Wúliáo [无聊] or wúliáo sî le [无聊死了]

Literal translation: bored to death
Meaning: boring
Xiâo yàng le ba [小样了吧] - {shyow yahng luh bah}
Literal translation: look at that little face
Meaning: suck on that!

Xiē cài [歇菜]

Literal translation: rest vegetable!
Meaning: quit it! Knock it off!

Qù [去]
Literal translation: go
Meaning: shut up!

Bì zuî [闭嘴]
Literal translation: close mouth
Meaning: shut up!

Nî hên jīchē [你恨機車]

Literal translation: you are very scooter
Meaning: you’re really annoying

Nâozi huài le ba? [脑子坏了吧]

Literal translation: is your brain broken?
Meaning: are you stupid?

Nî gân [你敢]
Literal translation: do you dare?
Meaning: go ahead - I dare you

Nî xiāshuō [你瞎说]
Literal translation: you’re speaking blindly
Meaning: you’re full of crap

Gôupì bùtōng [狗屁不通]

Literal translation: dog unable to fart
Meaning: that’s total bull

Shūdāizi [书呆子]
Literal translation: book idiot
Meaning: bookworm, nerd

Lânchóng [懒虫]
Literal translation: lazy bug
Meaning: lazy bones
Shísān diân [十三点]
Literal translation: thirteen o'clock
Meaning: weirdo, crazy fool

Gûndàn [滚蛋]
Literal translation: roll away, egg
Meaning: get lost!

Huángliânpó [黄脸婆]
Literal translation: yellow-faced woman
Meaning: middle-aged, old and ugly woman

Nî bú shì rén [你不是人]

Literal translation: you are not a person
Meaning: you’re worthless

Qù sî [去死]
Literal translation: go die
Meaning: go die, go away

Lâo bù sî de [老不死的]
Literal translation: old and not dead
Meaning: old, elderly person

REASON: Chinese people are very creative when using numbers for slang online, and have a
lot of really interesting ways to call people, things etc.

DATA 3: Differences in Dialects

There are seven major groups of dialects in the Sinitic language:

Mandarin/ Putonghua
- Official language of China
- Thought of as a northern dialect since it’s heavily based on the Beijing dialect
Gan
- Spoken in southern part of china
- Spoken heavily in Jiangxi province
Kejia/ Hakka
- Language of Hakka people
- Spoken in Taiwan, Guangdong, Jiangxi, Guizhou & beyond

Min
 - Spoken in China’s southern coastal province, Fujian
- Most diverse dialect
- Within dialect group there is still variation in word pronunciation

Wu/Shanghainese
- Spoken in Yangtze delta & Shanghai

Xiang
- Southern dialect concentrated in Hunan province

Cantonese/Yue
- Southern dialect
- Soken in Guangdong, Guangxi, Hong Kong and Macau
Tone differences in dialects:
Mandarin: 4 tones
Cantonese: 6 tones
Gan: 5 tones
Hakka: 6 tones
Min: 5-6 tones
Shanghainese: 5 tones
Xiang: 6-7 tones

Pronunciation differences:
Word: 我; I, me
Mandarin: 我 = wo3
Cantonese: 我 = ngo5
Min: 我 = goá
Gan: 我 = wo3
Shanghainese: 我 wú

REASON: There are seven main dialect groups spoken in china. Each of these seven language
groups have a distinct sound and way of speaking, but are all united by the use of the same
character-based alphabet.
Math
Week of 2/19 - 2/23

Though it’s hard to read the numbers in this photo, this week I started to put together my rough
draft of my budget for China. I’m gonna emphasize the fact that this is a ​ROUGH DRAFT​, as the
research I’ve done for science this week has shown me that I might have to adjust prices due to
what an average Chinese diet is. I also found out that I would be able to work for Disney as an
English teacher if I wanted to move to China, which is super cool!! I love Disney, so being able
to do something like that would be a dream come true.

The two concepts I think I’m going to look at next week are how taxes on paychecks work, if
they are a thing in China, how it differs from in the U.S. etc. and exchange rates, how they
change over time and why they change etc.

I’m displaying my learning for this week in two ways: one in a physical notebook (the one in the
photos), so if I ever lose any of my information then I can always get back to it, and also on my
digital learning log. Since I took the first paragraph directly from my learning log, I’m going to
add more of a reflection on what I learned this week and how it’s tying into my project.

https://www1.salary.com/CO/Translator-salary.html
https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/in/Denver
https://jobs.disneycareers.com/teach-english-in-china
http://www.theskinny.co.uk/travel/living-abroad/living-in-beijing-an-expat-guide
Owning pets in China
https://www.sublet.com/spider/supplydetails.asp?supplyid=2435888
https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/loans/student-loans/student-loan-calculator/

Science
Week of 2/12 - 2/16

https://ethnomed.org/clinical/nutrition/chinese_food_cultural_profile
WHAT EXPERIENCES OR SKILLS ARE YOU HOPING TO DEVELOP?
- Knowing the primary diet in China
- Knowing how this diet affects the body
- Find out if Chinese people are healthier than Americans based on what they eat

ASSUMPTIONS: What will I have done by exhibition

- Be able to explain the general diet of people in China and how it affects their body and
the people as a whole

CONSTRAINTS: What might get in the way?

- It might be hard to find a lot of data on this topic, especially once I start looking at the
nutrition aspect of it.

DATA 1: general diet in China

Most people go shopping for fresh food daily, as it’s vital for Chinese cooking. They usually pick
their poultry and seafood while it’s still alive, and then have it butchered for them at the
marketplace.

Unlike the U.S. where fast food is a common

staple in many people’s diets, the Chinese eat
primarily fresh meat and seafood, and seasonal
fruits and vegetables picked from local markets.

Left: fruit in a Chinese market

Daily meals in China consist of 4 food groups:
- Grains
- Vegetables
- Fruit
- Meat

Due to lactose intolerance, Chinese people don’t consume large amounts of dairy products.
Instead, they substitute dairy with soymilk and tofu, which also have large amounts of calcium
and protein.

Vegetables, fruit and meat are usually fresh with some exceptions like:
- Preserved vegetables/meat
- Snow cabbage
- Mustard greens
- Preserved eggs
- Salted and dried fish
- Preserved snacks
- Beef & cuttlefish jerky
- Sweet and sour preserved plums
- Salted and dried fish

Chinese people rarely eat canned or frozen foods.

Western desserts (e.g. cookies, cakes, pies and ice cream) are only eaten during special
occasions like birthdays or weddings

Chinese desserts like read bean soup, sweet white lotus seed soup and steam papaya soup are
served every so often as a special treat on hot summer nights.

REASON:
Chinese people often eat fresh fruit, meat, grains and vegetables bought from local markets,
while saving most desserts for special occasions.

FIELD EXPERIENCE: DO YOU HAVE DOCUMENTATION OF YOUR CONTACT?

INTERVIEW? SHADOW? FIELD EXPERIENCE?
I have gotten in contact with my 5th-grade teacher, and am currently working on getting a date
set up to come in and teach her class.

HOW WILL YOU IMPLEMENT THE FIELD EXPERIENCE INTO YOUR EXHIBITION?
I will implement my field experience into my exhibition by trying to get either video or pictures of
her class working on some of the activities I have planned, and try and put together a reflection
of how the day went to put alongside my physical learning log that I will have out during
exhibition night.
Week of 2/19 - 2/23
1. Where are you with your project?
Right now, I feel like I’m at a pretty good place research wise. I have a lot of work done
for my humanities topics, and I feel pretty confident with my plan for where I’m going for math,
english and science. Right now what I need to start doing is figuring out how I want to put all of
my research together into a cohesive “mini-workshop” for my exhibition.

2. Are you prepared to give your passion presentation for exhibition? Why? Why not?
As of right now, I’m not prepared to give my passion presentation. This is mainly
because I only have research done, but nothing actually put into something that I consider
“exhibition ready”.

3. Do all of your standards showcase your passion? Why? Why not?

I think most of my standards showcase my passion. The main one that really doesn’t
show my passion is English, and that’s mainly because my standards for English are all based
on research and oral presentations. While both of these skills are important for me (especially
the latter when you think about how I want to go into a field that is all about speaking in front of
people), it doesn’t really tie into my passion of China and the languages.

4. HAVE YOU COMPLETED YOUR FIELD EXPERIENCE? IF NOT, IS IT SCHEDULED?

I am currently waiting on a reply from my contact to see when we can set a date within
the next couple of weeks or so.

Week of 2/26 - 3/2

1. What impact did your SCIENCE STANDARD have on your passion?
With the standard that I was looking at this quarter, I was able to learn a lot about a
different aspect of Chinese culture that I haven’t looked at before. However as I continued on
with my project, I started to focus more heavily on the linguistics aspect of Chinese, so I feel like
my science piece doesn’t really fit in with what my exhibition has turned into.

2. What is your exhibition booth going to look like? What do you need? What will you say?
What I’m planning on doing for exhibition is a mini-lesson teaching people about the
Chinese language, and how it isn’t just one singular language that developed one way-- rather it
can be seen as a large language family united by a common alphabet and culture. The main
thing I’ll really need is to be in a room with a projector, so I can do this lesson effectively.
3. FIELD EXPERIENCE: WHAT DID YOU LEARN FROM THE EXPERIENCE?
I haven’t actually gotten to do my field experience yet, and I’m hoping to be able to do it
March 14th.
English
Week of 2/19 - 2/23
WHAT EXPERIENCES OR SKILLS ARE YOU HOPING TO DEVELOP?
- Oral presentation skills for teaching people about more difficult topics
- How to cite sources for linguistics & cite things in a different language

ASSUMPTIONS:
- Well written, clear oral presentation that clearly explains everything that I’ve learned

CONSTRAINTS:
- It’s going to be difficult to explain some of the more convoluted topics (e.g. technical side
of Sinitic) to some audiences who have no understanding of how Chinese works.

DATA 1: Citing things in different languages

- Need to decide if you need to keep the text in the original language, translate it or show
both based on the following:
- Familiarity with the language and culture from your audience
- If you don’t believe your audience will know the language, ​translate the
language
- Attention that you put on specific vocabulary that you’re bringing into your writing
- If a word has multiple meanings in english, then you should clarify the
meanings without taking away from the text
- The effect you want to have on your audience
- You can change a person’s experience reading the text by leaving
something translated or untranslated, but it has to have a logical
relationship to your writing

DATA 2: How to explain difficult concepts in simpler terms

- Understand your audience
- If you don’t know what the audience can understand, you can’t begin to know
what to explain to them or how to explain it
- Define your terms
- Extended definitions can be helpful if the concepts involves difficult or
unfamiliar vocab.
- Divide the concept into chunks that can be described more easily
- Shows how the concept fits into the “big picture”
- Compare/contrast
- Show how your concept is similar or different from other concepts that
your audience are familiar
- Tell a story or give an example
- It can show how a concept is used in practice
- USE EXAMPLES!!!!