Julia
Learning Article : Learn Chinese The Chinese Way: Tang Poetry 唐诗 And Children's Songs 儿歌

Discuss the Article : Learn Chinese The Chinese Way: Tang Poetry 唐诗 And Children's Songs 儿歌

<a href='/article/255/learn-chinese-the-chinese-way-tang-poetry-and-childrens-songs-' target='_blank'>Learn Chinese The Chinese Way: Tang Poetry 唐诗 And Children's Songs 儿歌</a>

What if you could learn Chinese the way Chinese children do? Childrens' songs and poetry are a traditional and very useful part of learning Mandarin. Here are three lovely examples to get you started...

Sep 16, 2014 12:00 AM
Comments · 15
4

Can you share links where we can hear the tune of the songs? I would love to hear how they are supposed to sound!

August 28, 2015
4

Thanks for the article, Julia.

 

The 小小的船 poem is particularly interesting because it 'doubles up' both nouns and adjectives.  Can you do that with any noun or adjective to emphasize the word?  (I'm sure the answer is 'no', yet the poem suggests it may be possible.)

 

Also, the first line reads: 弯弯的月儿小小的船。

And the translation reads: "The curved moon looks like a small boat."

But I cannot see any characters which say "looks like".  Does the phrase 弯弯的月儿小小的船 <em>actually</em> mean "The curved moon looks like a small boat"?  Or is it using "poetic license" and the reader must infer the missing characters?

 

Thanks for taking the time to write the article.  If you can spare any time to answer these questions, that would be appreciated also.

September 17, 2014
4

Thank you very much, I will try to write more articles to help more students.

September 16, 2014
3

弯弯的月儿小小的船  I understood it to be "The curved moon is (or "is like", not "looks like") my little boat", which is a way to imagine you are sitting on the moon (which is now your boat) watching the sky.

 

My second interpretation was that it was the little boat which looked like the moon. Then you explain your boat looks like the moon with two pointy edges and you watch the sky from the boat.  But I prefer my first interpretation of having the moon as my little boat :D.

October 22, 2014
3

Regarding Allister's point, I'm curious if the 儿话 carries grammatical weight, both in this poem and in general.

 

In the first line of 小小的船 I notice the concrete concept, moon, has the -儿 suffix, but not its metaphorical link, boat. However, in the second line, boat does have the -儿, when it has moved to the head noun position.

 

It seems like the presence or absence of the -儿 suffix plays a syntactic role.

 

thank you!

September 18, 2014
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