Daimashin

山雞舞鏡 (Shān jī wǔ jìng) - Self obsessed Literal meaning - Pheasant dances in the mirror. During the end of the East Han era, an official presented Cao Cao with a pheasant. It was said that the pheasant knew how to dance. No matter how the official pursuaded it, the pheasant refused to even move a muscle. Cao Cao's son, Cao Cong then asked the official about the place where the pheasant usually danced. It was then known that the pheasant loved to dance at the riverbed. Cao Cong realized that the pheasant only liked to dance in its on shadow so he ordered a mirror to be placed in front of the pheasant. The pheasant finally danced, and danced until it passed out and died due to exhaustion. Cao Cao asked his son as to why this happened, and Cao Cong told his father that the pheasant was already fatigued due to the long journey but because it saw how graceful it was, the pheasant just couldn't stop. 山雞舞鏡 (Shān jī wǔ jìng) means a person that is too proud and self-obsessed. Example: "一早到晚都說自己多漂亮，多聰明.簡直是「山雞舞鏡」"

因勢利導 (Yīnshìlìdǎo) - Act according situation. Literal Meaning - Because of circumstances, benefit's lead. During the Warring States, Kingdoms Qi and Wei were fighting each other. Qi was inferior to Wei in terms of sheer army numbers. Qi's general Sun Bin was aware that this situation would have made Wei's general overconfident so he devised a plan. Qi's army would pretend to retreat from the battlefield, in each camp Sun Bin ordered his men to gradually reduce the amount of cooking spots to give a false impression to Wei that their army was dwindling due to soldiers abandoning camp. Wei's general fell into the trap and left the majority of his troops behind and only brought one-third of his army to pursue Qi's army. Upon reaching a certain narrow ravine, Qi's army ambushed Wei and killed Wei's general, subsequently winning the battle. 因勢利導 (Yīnshìlìdǎo) means to follow the flow of current situation and act accordingly. Example: "既然他以為他是贏定， 我們就「因勢利導」引他入局."

Sounds like a really hard thing to do but I'm sure it can be done. Not having any tutelage can be difficult initially because you won't know where to start. Of course, there are plenty of self-learn books out there you can get and here at linguaholic where you can ask questions.

I was skeptical at first until I read the replies and clicked the link myself. I was fairly surprised at how creative their "explanations" were for memorising the words. This is really helpful for people struggling to write Kanji but be wary as some are quite "radical."

此地無銀 (Cǐdì wú yín) - A cover up backfires. Literal Meaning - There is no gold here. Once upon a time while a man was walking he found a bag containing 300 ounce of gold. He brought it home but was afraid that the gold might get discovered so he buried the gold in his backyard. However, he was still worried that someone might find it. He then came up with an idea, he stuck a piece of paper on the wall which wrote, "There is no 300 ounce of gold here." and thought that there was no way anyone would knew about it anymore. After a while, his neighbor walked by his house and saw the notice. He knew that there was bound to be gold in that spot where the notice was and dug up the gold. He realized that since he was the neighbor, the owner will be suspicious of him. The neighbor went ahead and did the same thing, he too stuck a piece of notice next to the original one that stated, "This gold is not stolen by your neighbor." The next day, the owner of the gold woke up only to found out that his gold was stolen. He suspected his neighbor initially but put away the thought after he saw the notice about how the gold wasn't stolen by his neighbor. 此地無銀三百兩 (Cǐdì wú yín sānbǎi liǎng) means that someone that tried to cover up a secret but ended up being exposed by the cover up itself. Example: "我都沒有說我的手錶是幾時不見得，他就說哪個時候不在家，分明是「此地無銀」."

I think what makes idioms confusing is the metaphor. Understanding the metaphor is key to understanding idioms. If we know the meaning of the words and interpret on its meanings, idioms can be very easy to understand.

Speaking of watching cartoons and kids shows remind me of how I improved my English language last time. I watched Sesame Street everyday when I was a child, there are many aspects of English that I didn't know I learned from Sesame Street.

No book ever gave me much inspiration but there is one novel that taught me a lot about the meaning of life. The Chinese novel Journey to the West mentioned a lot of teachings and morals from Buddhism that taught me a lot about being a human. The values have helped me in deciding many things in life.

樑上君子 (Liángshàngjūnzǐ) - A thief. Literal meaning - Gentleman on the beam. Once upon a time there once was a thief that broke into an old man's house. The old man was doing some reading and noticed that his things was missing. It was the thief roaming around picking things off. The old man then called his sons into the room and started talking to them about life lessons. The old man said that everyone is born with a pure heart, only under circumstances that people did bad things. The old man believed that people should be given a second chance. His sons were puzzled as to what their father was talking about until the old man revealed that he was talking about the "gentleman" hiding on the horizontal beam. The thief felt ashamed and climbed down. He apologized and asked to be forgiven. The old man forgave him and let him go. 樑上君子 (Liángshàngjūnzǐ) means thief. Example: "你不好好讀書， 小心大了以後， 淪為盜賊當「樑上君子」."

I think "I could murder something for ..." is the more common one meaning I really need to have something. Some also use "I could kill for ..." As far as I know, there aren't that many idioms with the word "murder" in it. "Kill" may be more widely used.

I'm inclined to believe that the answer is "you're welcome to visit" mainly because "you're welcomed to visit" doesn't sound right. If you're referring to something not happened yet, I believe "welcome" is right. Thinking about this, I think both can be correct depending on the context of the sentence.

口蜜腹劍 (Kǒumìfùjiàn) - Hidden agenda. Literal Meaning - Mouth honey, stomach sword. During the Tang Dynasty, a gold mine was discovered at the Hua Mountain by an official by the name of "李林甫"(Lilínfu). Discovery of such a thing should have been reported to the Emperor but he didn't. Instead, he told his arch enemy "李適之"(Lishìzhī) about it and asked that Lishìzhī be the one to tell the Emperor. Lishìzhī being an honest person went ahead and reported to the Emperor about the gold mine. The Emperor then summoned Lilínfu to inquire about it. Lilínfu said that he knew about this but didn't disclose it was because Hua Mountain was the heart of the Tang Dynasty, and to mine there was to destroy the empire. The Emperor was furious upon hearing it and had Lishìzhī demoted because the Emperor thought that Lishìzhī wanted to topple the empire. 口蜜腹劍 (Kǒumìfùjiàn) means something sounds sweet on the surface but is actually a trap. Example: "此人「口蜜腹劍」 表面上跟你說會跟你合作. 其實他是有別的目的, 千萬不要相信他."

Watching movies and shows got me interested in learning Chinese actually. Even though I'm a native speaker, I was never interested in Chinese literature until I watched the movies and shows about Chinese history.

Subtitle work to some extent. I mean it helps to understand what is being said on screen but I don't think it helps too much on learning. We may know what is being talked about but we don't actually know the meanings word for word unless you're studying the language already and are using subtitles as reference.

Great insights from you guys, thanks! I do hope that one day a new universal language will appear that everyone will use. This way, we will be able to break the language barrier and everyone will be able to understand each other. A lot of misuderstanding could be averted if that day comes.

邯鄲學步 (Hándānxuébù) - Losing personality. Literal meaning - Learn to walk at Han Dan City. Once upon a time, there was a man who walked with the foot facing inwards. Villagers were always saying that he walked very hideously. One day, he met an old man that told the man that people at Han Dan City have the best walking posture. So the man set out to Han Dan to learn how to walk properly. He came back a month later, his fiancee was shocked to see that he was crawling back instead of walking back. The man said that the people of Han Dan indeed had beautiful postures but everyone walked differently. The man got confused and in the end, didn't learn anything and forgot how he initially walked. 邯鄲學步 (Hándānxuébù) is used to describe someone so focused on imitating others that he/she loses personality. Example: "你每一件事都要學別人, 小心「邯鄲學步」搞到自己原有的風格都給忘記掉."

Do you think that one day a new language will surface? Is it still possible for a language other than what we have now to be created? So many new words are made up nowadays that I believe that one day these words will become a new language of its own.

It's indeed difficult to learn two languages at a time. It's very hard to focus when we can easily mix up between the two languages. I'm not a multitasking person so it's definitely not for me, I prefer to do things one at a time.

Other than Obamacare, I pretty much agree with every other new words listed there. I also find some of the "not so important" words to be annoying like schmazing for example. These words don't make any sense and sound like something made up by illiterate people.

I like to study at someplace quiet where I can focus on absorbing the things I read. It helps too that the place is somewhere I'm comfortable with. It doesn't matter where the place is at as long as it fulfills these two things.

I might be surprised but I wouldn't bother arguing with the person. I won't explain either on the importance of English in this world. Not because I'm arrogant or I think that I'm smarter, it's just that I know that there is no use in explaining because if the person thinks like that, his/her mind is already set.

Or maybe if languages didn't exist, humans would have been able to communicate telepathically. With the presence of language, the human brain stopped evolving in terms of communication because it's no longer necessary. If there is no language, the brain might have skipped to the next level of communication. What am I saying, it's getting nonsensical.

好好先生 (Hǎohǎo xiānshēng) - Mr. Nice Guy Literal Meaning - Good good mister. During the East Han period, there was a man named "司馬徽"(Sīmǎ huī). One day, while he was walking at the market, he saw a man being arrested because that man was criticizing the government for being bad. After that, Sīmǎ huī came across a fruit stand. One customer complained that the fruits were bad and got scolded for it while another one praised the fruits and got one free. Sīmǎ huī then came to a conclusion that people only wanted to hear praises. Sīmǎ huī had a visit by a friend, his friend asked him of his wellbeing, Sīmǎ huī answered, "Good, good," his friend then told him that he was moving in to become his neighbor, Sīmǎ huī again answered, "Good, good!" While at it, his friend told him that his son just passed away, Sīmǎ huī continued to answer, "Good, good!" Angered by Sīmǎ huī for being insensitive, the friend left. 好好先生 (Hǎohǎo xiānshēng) was initially used to mock someone that has no backbone, indecisive, and has no stand on things. Throughout the years, this idiom is now being used the same as Mr. Nice Guy. Example: "你的朋友真是一個「好好先生」, 脾氣好又樂於助人."

Thousands of documents does indeed sound right so I'd go with thousands of documents too. Thousand of documents sounds off when read. Thousands in this would mean that the number of documents is somewhere in the thousands and not a definite figure.

Language is a form of communication thought up by humans to communicate with each other. If language doesn't exist I bet human beings would have came up with some other forms of communication. Evolution always finds a way.