Daimashin

I've read one of the later revised versions of this. Love the novel. Also worth to note that it's one of the four great novels of China along with Journey to the West, Water Margin, and Dream of Red Mansion.

塞翁失馬 - A blessing in disguise Literal Meaning - Old man Sài lost a horse. Once upon a time at the edge of the border, there lived 塞翁(Sàiwēng) and his son. They were horse breeders, one day his son took one of the horses out to feed on grass. Sai's son was busy playing so he left his horse alone to feed. Since the place was devoid of any grass, having been ignored by its owner the horse left the boy in search of better areas. Soon after, the boy realized that his horse has gone missing so he rushed home to inform his dad about the ordeal. Sai didn't blame his son for what has happened, instead he consoled his son and said, "Don't worry son, I'm sure the horse will return." The next day, the horse did return and along with it a herd of wild horses. They were delighted and Sai's son said, "It really is a blessing in disguise." Actually the story didn't end there but since what continued is similar in terms of its meaning so I've decided to omit them to make for a shorter read. Example: "正所謂『塞翁失馬』， 輸了比賽不一定是壞事. 現在你有時間去做你要做的事"

Mostly at night, that's the time when I'm done with my daily routines. That's when I attend my night courses. That's how I studied Chinese Literature last time.

They are only bad because people made them out to be. You can say bad things to people but as long as they are not the perceived "bad" words, they are more tolerable but in reality these words mean the same only in a different word. It's not really "bad", it's just another way of expressing dissatisfaction.

Pick the source material that you are interested in. Holding something you like will be a big enough motivation to read. After you're comfortable reading long books that you like, you can start picking up books of other genres.

I can say that I'm a slow reader since I prefer to speak the words clearly no matter in my head or out loud. That way, I'll understand better and other people can understand me clearly.

I used to take Chinese Literature and 成语 is the part I'm most good at because I find the stories behind them is very fascinating. Here's an example on how to incorporate this into a sentence or speech: "我已經把所有括出去了， 我這一次是「破釜沉舟」。 一定要成功"

完璧歸趙 - To return something to its rightful owner in perfect condition. Literal meaning - Return whole the jade to Zhao. During the Warring States period, the king of Zhao, King Huiwen obtained a precious bi(a round jade with a hole in the center) called Hé shì bì(Jade of the He family). King Zhao of Qin came to know of the news and demanded King HuiWen to hand over the bi in exchange for fifteen cities belonging to Qin. Even though King HuiWen knew well that King Zhao can't be trusted, but due to Qin being much stronger than Zhao at the time, he reluctantly agreed under the advise of his advisor Lin XiangRu who guaranteed that he will bring back the bi in one piece. Upon arriving Lin found out that King Zhao had no intentions of exchanging anything so the clever Lin tricked King Zhao in order to get back the bi by saying that the bi has imperfections. Lin said, "Here, my lord. Give me the bi and I'll show you where it is." King Zhao handed the bi over to Lin. Lin exposed that it was a lie and warned King Zhao to not try to take it by force or he'll break the bi while killing himself. Having no choice the king agreed to truly exhange fifteen cities, here Lin once again tricked the king saying that the bi is a sacred artifact and it requires five days of fasting prior to officially handing the bi over. The reason why Lin lied is so that he could buy time by having one of his men secretly return the bi to King HuiWen of Zhao. Soon the day arrived, ready to sacrifice himself, Lin told the king, "I've returned the bi to my king as I've promised. Since I've lied to you, you can do whatever you deemed fit to me." Seeing that the bi is longer with Lin, King Zhao let him go since it's meaningless to kill Lin. Example: "這個東西本來就屬於你的， 我現在完整無缺地'完璧歸趙'."

Be one with the language you're speaking and you won't feel different no matter what language you use. It's also a very efficient way to be good at that language. Speaking another language should be second nature. So no, I don't feel like a different person since I technically I don't feel like I'm using a foreign language.

Oh okay. In that case, your sentence is correct. I'll try to include an example on its usage on my next thread, and a literal translation.

Yes, it's a correct way to use it. Most of the time it depends on the context and situation.

English has to be smooth and sounds right when used. If the sentence doesn't sound right when read then there's probably something wrong. My two cents would be, as long as what you're writing or saying sound right, you can use whatever type of words you think work.

Practice makes perfect. Nothing can be said about this. I found that reading subtitles from movies actually helps improve reading speed because subs often come and go very quickly. You can try it if you want and see if it helps.

指鹿为马 (zhǐ lù wéi mǎ) - To twist facts This phrase came from during the Qin Dynasty under the rule of Emperor of Qin the 2nd. There was a Supreme Eunuch called Zhàogāo that ruled with an iron fist that even the Emperor is afraid of him. Feeling concerned about the growing dissatisfaction from the ministers. Zhàogāo devised a plan. One day, while he was accompanying the Emperor for a stroll along with the ministers, the group saw a deer. Zhàogāo called out to the Emperor and said, "Look your highness, such a beautiful horse." when in fact it's a deer. Even though everyone including the Emperor is aware that the creature is a deer, they didn't dare to argue with Zhàogāo. The Emperor then replied, "Yes, it's a beautiful horse indeed." Everyone but a few agreed afterwards and sang the same tune as Zhàogāo. Not long after, Zhàogāo ordered to have the few that disagreed and disputed executed. You see, Zhàogāo placed that deer there on purpose. It was his plan all along to see who is loyal to him and who isn't. Those that opposed him obviously didn't live long enough to see the end of Zhàogāo after the fall of Qin by the hands of the rebellion but that is another story. 指鹿为马 (zhǐ lù wéi mǎ) is used to describe when someone is obviously lying and twisting facts just like Zhàogāo was.

You guys are lucky that your parents actually cared. My parents however don't even remember that there was a first word. They were like "what first word? Who cares?"

多謝你的歡迎. 是的， 我最擅長就是廣東話. 其實我是福建人, 不過半桶水而已.

I'm not surprised it's English. English words are combinations of the twenty six alphabets so it's to be expected. Imagine how many variations you could have with mixing these alphabets.

I like Japanese a lot so if I were to learn a new language it would be Japanese. I always find the language to be very polite, and the tone sounds classy and respectful.

Whenever I sat for exams I'll always leave the final the day before the exams start to relax. I will not touch anything related to that exam as I want to relax my brain. I found out that forcing yourself to more information will only increase my stress level and that won't help my memory one bit. I might end up losing more stuff instead.

Proud to say that I rarely use that term. In fact, I don't even know when to use it exactly. I don't get why people find the need to add that in every sentence when it brings absolutely nothing to the overall context.

Google Translate is a sort of robot. It does direct translation. Different languages have different sentence structures so it's never accurate. If you want to fully understand a language, there's no other way than to learn it yourself. I only use Google Translate for single words and terms, a long sentence only when I've got no choice.

Happened to me once online, they were badmouthing me in Chinese because they thought I was an American but they didn't know I'm Chinese myself. I told them to at least respect themselves even if they don't want to respect others and left.

大家好, 我是今天才加入的新成員. 來自大馬. 現在沒工做所以很空閒 hehe. 我會盡量post一些成語讓大家看.

Please excuse me but I need to quote you on this. Simplified Chinese doesn't mean it's Mandarin and Traditional Chinese certainly is not Cantonese per se. The terms simplified and traditional only mean the form of writing. "Simplified" as it implies is an easier way to write which requires less strokes while "traditional" is ... well, traditional. Each province has their own dialect. Cantonese and Mandarin are dialects, so are Hokkien and Hakka but every ethnic group uses one unified writing and that is Chinese (either traditional or simplified). There is still no "one" standard to the usage of the Chinese writing yet so it's all up to the preference of the writer. As to the TC's question, personally I prefer Traditional Chinese because I find Simplified Chinese to be sloppy and less complete while Traditional Chinese is more clean and elegant.

破釜沉舟 meaning no turning back 破釜沉舟 originated from a historical event where during the Battle of Julu (巨鹿之战), "Conqueror of the West" Xiang Yu (項羽) led an army against the Qin Army in order to avenge his uncle's death. While on his way to the Qin territory, he saw on his ship that his men had no discipline and were slacking away. In order for his men to be motivated, Xiang Yu ordered to have the cooking utensils destroyed and upon landing, had his ships sunk. Before headed into battle, he told his men, "We only have food for three days. If you want food to eat, it will be from the enemies' camp. If you want ships to go home to, it will be from the enemies' harbors." This resulted in his men fighting to the death because there was no other way for them to survive. In the end, Xiang Yu's army was victorious defeating the Qin Army that is larger than theirs 10 to 1.