Last week I found another way to enjoy Mandarin Monday–with a group meet up. Apparently there are a few hundred groups around the world that meet up on Mondays to speak Mandarin. The groups that I’ve come across are listed on the site meetup.com, which is a social networking site that gets people to meet in person. Most of the groups are in the U.S., but it looks like there are a few in Europe, Australia, and Asia.

If you’d like to get involved, check out the Web site to find a group near you. Or you can start your own group to find people interested in studying Mandarin. The publisher of Terracotta Typewriter is now participating in the group in New York City.

There are also other Mandarin language groups that do not participate in Mandarin Monday, but we won’t hold that against them.

Today we have another Mandarin Monday post to go with the World Cup, despite the English-speaking countries being knocked out of the competition. This is probably one of the more difficult words for which to find a translation, but it defines this year’s World Cup in South Africa (南非 nánfēi) and provides a nice China connection.

Vuvuzela (that loud plastic horn that is now invading countries around the world): 呼呼赛拉 hūhu sàilā

In case you’ve been living under a rock, we’d like to remind you that the World Cup has kicked off in South Africa. We’ll give you a few useful words and phrases to go along with the event.

Soccer (football to you non-Americans): 足球 (zúqiú)

World Cup: 世界杯 (shìjièbēi)

Goal: 进球得分 (jìnqiú défēn)

Getting published is like scoring a goal at the World Cup.
出版一本书就好像在世界杯进球得分。(chūbǎn yìběn shū jiùhǎo xiàng zài shìjièbēi jìnqiú défēn.)

These Monday holidays in the US always throw us off our schedule. The Memorial Day weekend was full of barbecues and fun.

Today’s Mandarin Monday (Tuesday) phrase:

I forgot it was Monday because of the holiday. I’ll get it to you on Tuesday.

星期一我忘了因为是节假日，我星期二答复你。(xīngqīyī wǒ wàngle yīnwèi shì jié zuò rì. Wǒ xīngqīèr dáfù nǐ.)

Welcome back to Mandarin Monday. This week we have an idiom for you that can be applied to writing.

画蛇添足 (huà shé tiān zú) means to add feet to a snake. It is used to describe someone who adds something unnecessary, thus ruining the original work (the remakes of Star Wars come to mind…).

Your novel is well written. If you write more it will be adding feet to a snake.

你的小说写得很好。别再多写了不然就是画蛇添足了。(nǐ de xiǎo shuō xiě de hěnhǎo. bié zài duō xiěle bùrán jiù shì huà shé tiān zúle.)

We’re trying to get back on track with our weekly features. Now that Issue #4 is online, we should have more time to focus on other aspects of the literary journal.

This week we hope our Mandarin Monday post will inspire us to come up with more short weekly lessons for our readers.

Our Mandarin word for the day is:
Muse: 希腊神话 xīlàshénhuà (in relation to the Greek myth)

Muse: 灵感 línggǎn (in relation to sudden inspiration)

I lost my muse and have writer’s block.
我失去了我的灵感，思路完全受阻。(wǒ shīqùle wǒde línggǎn, sīlù wánquán shòuzǔ.)

For those of us who become successful in our writing, it may be useful to learn a few words and phrases to describe our careers.

Publisher: 出版社 (chūbǎnshè) This is specifically a publishing company or publishing house. A person as a publisher is 出版商 (chūbǎnshāng).

Agent: 经纪人 (Jīngjìrén) This word for agent is specific for those working with writers, musicians, and actors.

My agent just sold my new novel to a publisher in New York.
我的经纪人刚把我的新小说卖给了纽约的出版社。(wǒde jīngjìrén gāng bǎ wǒde xīn xiǎoshuō màigěile niǔyuēde chūbǎnshè)

Xujun Eberlein brought a new piece of Mandarin slang to my attention in a post on her blog. 最牛 is used as an adjective that doesn’t seem to have an equivalent in English–Xujun does a great job of trying to explain it uses and potential meanings. 牛 is cow, and can be used as an adjective to describe someone as being good in some way. 最牛, therefore would translate to “most cow.” Though, it seems that the term is being used in a semi-sarcastic sense.

Anyway, 最牛 is a fun new word for those of us still learning Chinese. We’re open to your translations of this word. And we’re also open to any submissions of poetry or prose that somehow incorporate this Chinese word or translation (literal or otherwise).

While you go off and debate it meaning and use, we’ll coin a new English word from this: cowiest. Example: Bill was the cowiest executive at the bank, and was the first to be laid off.

Last month we discussed problems and benefits of getting a degree in writing. Today we want to apply this conversation to learning Mandarin.

My personal experience with learning Mandarin started with a move to China–I listened to a CD and picked up a phrase book (it helped me learn two very short phrases before arriving in China). My first job in China offered weekly classes, but those classes didn’t have a textbook and didn’t build on previous lessons to help me improve. I bought a few textbooks and studied on my own, asking for help from co-workers and restaurant staff. I’ve used a variety of resources, including Chinesepod and Rutgers University’s online Chinese lessons.

Some friends have enrolled in university classes in China with mixed results. As with any course, university Chinese classes depend on the instructor and classmates. The instructor may be great, but if the students don’t interact it can impede progress. And a group of enthusiastic students can lose out if the instructor isn’t passionate.

We want to know your experience with learning Mandarin. Have you taken classes or do you study on your own? Is there any one resource that has been especially helpful in your acquisition of Chinese?

Phrase for the day: 我自学中文三年，但是我并没有上过任何中文课。(wǒ zìxué zhōngwén sān nián, dànshì wǒ bìng méiyǒu shàng guò rènhé zhōngwén kè.)

I’ve been studying Chinese for three years, but I haven’t taken any classes.

…a lot if you’re not careful about choosing your Chinese name.

In many tourist traps around China, they sell transliterated names in nice brush strokes–but they usually don’t provide the meaning of the characters. For example, the closest sound for Matthew in Chinese is 马修, which unfortunately translates to Horse to Repair. And forget about using your name if it happens to be Ben–using the wrong tone on that would mean stupid. There’s also a very good reason why most people named Peter will translate it to Bi te instead of Pi te–the latter could translate to special fart.

Of course, the same could be said for directly translating Chinese names to English. Many parents give their children meaningful names in Chinese that sound great when spoken, but they don’t quite work when translated. Plenty of women have names that mean beautiful (or a variation of such), and would be considered conceited if they used that as their English name.

Terracotta Typewriter would like everyone to carefully choose their names in Chinese and English. If possible, get a friend who is fluent in the language to help.