Today, we will look at the Chinese characters meanings for 伴.

伴
bàn
companion (n), accompany (v)

Evolution of 伴

伴 has two parts: 亻(variant of 人) meaning “man” and 伴 meaning “half”.

It’s saying that a man who is alone is half of a pair and needs company. Therefore it has come to mean “companion” or “to accompany”.

Extra: You may notice that 半, the second component, is also the phonetic component, ie how you say it (bàn). Many Chinese characters have a phonetic component, as you will see later on.

Genealogy:

In the diagram below, you can see how 伴 evolved and how it fits into the larger scheme of things.

Chinese Character Meanings: 伴 – Example Words

Chinese Character Meanings 伴  - Example Sentences:

1.

她是个好伴侣
tā shì ge hǎo bànlǚ.
She is a good companion.
She`s an excellent companion.

2.

我的生意伙伴骗了我， 结果我损失了一百万人民币。
wǒde shēngyi huǒbàn piàn le wǒ, jiéguǒ wǒ sǔnshī le yībǎiwàn rénmínbì.
My business partner cheated me, result I lost P one-million RMB.
My business partner screwed me and I ended up losing 1,000,000 RMB.

3.

我陪伴你走过了一生。
wǒ péibàn nǐ zǒuguòle yīshēng
My accompany you to-go-past all-one`s-life
I accompanied you your whole life.

4.

你来中国以后很容易找到一个女伴。
nǐ lái Zhōngguó yǐhòu hěn róngyì zhǎodào yīge nǚbàn

You come China after very easy to-find a female-companion.
When you come to China, it`s easy to find a female companion.

5.

性伙伴太多会很麻烦的。
xìng huǒbàn tài duō huì hěn máfan de
sex-partner too many will very troublesome P.
Too many sex partners can mean trouble.

Why did I choose these words and sentences?

Sentence 1: I found it difficult to find a good companion for me in Shanghai. Sure there are many beautiful girls, but after a while you`re bored to death or super annoyed. Luckily there are some great gems out there, you just need to look harder and practice more.

Sentence 2: I`ve heard way too many stories in China about their business partner screwing them over. Watch out for that

Sentence 3: My friends and I get a big kick out of watching and reading books by world famous pickup artist such as Mystery (he did that show on VH1 called The Pickup Artist). Because I spend most of my twenties here in Shanghai, my friends and I practised some of that knowledge “in the field“. One of the many tactics is to bring other female friends with you to the bar, as that will usually attract other girls thus making it easier to talk to them.

Sentence 4: Yes, finding a female companion can be easy, but beware of that `blindness`that new foreigners get when they first arrive in China – ie, thinking that every girl is hot. I supposed it`s part of that whole “asian fever“ thing and it`s probably be one of the reasons why foreigners get a bad rep in China, going from girl to girl. There`s been more than a few times where I had to pull away my `newbie` friend from making a huuuge mistake.

Sentence 5: Well, this one is pretty self-explanatory (I hope).  Juggling can be a lot of work and you will probably just end up making more trips to the hospital for a few expensive swabs…(ouch!)

Home Work for Chinese Character Meanings for 伴：

A)   Keep practising until you can read these sentences without looking at the Pinyin

1. 她是个好伴侣
2. 我的生意伙伴骗了我， 结果我损失了一百万人民币。
3. 我陪伴你走过了一生。
4. 你来中国以后很容易找到一个女伴。
5. 性伙伴太多会很麻烦的。

In a Chinese-English dictionary, take a peek under 伴 and choose the words you think you would use regularly (words you would use at your job, shopping, at the gym, travelling, etc.). Now take these words and make a few sentences that you could use daily or weekly. Once you do this for many Chinese characters, you will soon have a library of sentences that are specific to your life and before you know it you will be fluent in Chinese.

Put your chosen 伴 words in this table below:

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Today’s video shows you how to watch almost any DVD with both Chinese subtitles and English subtitles at the same time.

You may ask yourself, “so what?” Well, this is a great feature for a couple reasons:

1) Eg, you are American and are watching a Dutch movie and need English subtitles. While your girlfriend is Chinese and needs Chinese subtitles. But the movie is all in Dutch and both of you don’t understand Dutch.

2) You simply enjoy watching movies with Chinese subtitles and English subtitles because you can study a little Chinese while watching the movie. (I personally find that learning Chinese through movies is very effective).

So, how do you accomplish this little subtitle trick? Well, you need to download a program call CyberLink PowerDVD. Once you install it on your computer and insert your DVD, you can select the primary and secondary subtitles. So, in this case it was English and Chinese.

If you’d rather have a friend “loan” this software to you, I may be able to point you in the right direction and you can leave a comment below and ask me.

So that’s about it – now you can watch your movies with Chinese subtitles and English subtitles. If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment and I’ll respond right away

Oh yeah, the DVD mentioned in this video is Brief Interviews with Hideous Men. Looks great! (Don’t pay attention to the IMDB rating).

I’m going to show you places to visit in Shanghai and how to find it with:

no address,
only pinyin address, or
only Chinese address.

If you don’t know the address, an easy way is to type the name of the place into smartshanghai.com and hit “search”. The search results will show you both Pinyin and Chinese addresses.

If you want to search using the Pinyin address, it’s better to use googlemaps. First search for “shanghai” and hit enter, then type in the Pinyin address and press “search”. Look at the map and find the name of the nearest subway station.

Then go to ExploreShanghai and, click on your starting point and drag it to your destination. The site will then show you your transit time and ticket price.

If you prefer to search in Chinese (I do because you learn more quickly this way, more immersed) you should go to ddmap.com and search for the Chinese address there, find the nearest subway station and use ExploreShanghai as described above.

I find that using the above methods saves me a lot of time and money and I get to know my way around the city much better.

Of course, you could just take a cab and show the taxi driver the Chinese address that you or your friend wrote down and the cabbie will take you straight there and you will not be practising any Chinese. But what would be the fun in that?

Knowing the public transportation systems definitely comes in handy when it’s rainy in Shanghai (which is a lot) and there are NO cabs available. Instead of waiting for a cab for hours, you can jump in a bus or subway in minutes.

Lately there are lots of cool new places opening up in Shanghai. If you guys know any, please leave a comment below and tell me!

Lesson Two:   半   bàn    half

Today’s lesson we look at Chinese Words and Symbols Using 半.

Evolution of 半

半 has two parts: 八 and 牛:

八 is an ideograph and represents division or to divide something (it’s also the number 8). 牛 means cow.

The character 半 originally meant “to slaughter an ox/cow by cutting it in half” and later meant “half”in a more general sense.

Example Words

Chinese Words and Symbols Using 半 - Example Sentences:

1.

人妖是一半男孩子一半女孩子

rényāo shì yībàn nánháizǐ yībàn nǚháizi
Ladyboy is one-half boy one-half girl
A ladyboy is like a half man half women.

2.

我开了一个party,就半数人来了.

wǒ kāi le yīge party, jiù bànshù rén lái le
I open P a Party, only half (the number) people came P
I had a party and only half the people showed up

3.

我耽误了半天时间.

wǒ dānwu le bàntiān shíjiān
I waste-time P half-the-day time.
He spent half the day procrastinating.

4.

昨天半夜，我吃了一瓶花生酱.

zuótiān bànyè, wǒ chī le yī píng huāshēngjiàng
Last-night midnight, I ate P one jar peanut-butter.
At midnight last night, I ate a whole jar of peanut butter.

5.

过半年以后我会变成百万富翁.

guò bànnián yǐhòu wǒ huì biànchéng bǎiwànfùwēng
Past half-year later I will become millionaire.
In six months, I will be a millionaire.

Why did I choose these words and sentences?

Sentence 1: I usually go to Thailand once a year and, as you know, there are lots of ladyboys there. Some Chinese girls love looking at pictures of the beautiful ladyboys on the internet, they simply can’t believe a guy could be so beautiful. Some Chinese like to go to Thailand just to see the ladyboys.

Sentence 2: Lately, I’ve been going to a few Chinese people’s birthday parties. Instead of having a house party (like most Westerners do), they like to have the party in a KTV place. I’m not a huge fan of KTV, but when I do go prefer the cheaper KTV places (100 RMB/yr or less), with a bar and ice, and where you can bring your own drinks. Sometime you can have not a bad party because you don’t need to worry about breaking/spilling anything – their staff will clean it up.

Sentence 3: I’m trying to shake this bad habit – procrastinating. You can use this sentence to describe many people you know. 半天 can also mean “a very long time”.

Sentence 4: Sometimes I crave a midnight snack, like peanut butter. There are also many midnight snack places here in Shanghai at midnight (mostly fried noodles, fried dumplings…) so it’s useful to know the word “midnight”.

Sentence 5: In Shanghai, you can meet many rich people and millionaires. Many of the students I used to tutor math to, their parents are millionaires. Chinese love money and you will hear the word “millionaire” a lot.

Home Work

A)   Keep practising until you can read these sentences without looking at the Pinyin

1.  人妖是一半男孩子一半女孩子

2.  我开了一个Ｐａｒｔｙ，　就半数人来了

3.  我耽误了半天时间

4.  昨天半夜，我吃了一瓶花生酱

5.  过半年以后我会变成百万富翁.

B)   In a Chinese-English dictionary, take a peek under 半 and choose the words you think you would use regularly (words you would use at your job, shopping, at the gym, travelling, etc.). Now take these words and make a few sentences that you could use daily or weekly. Once you do this for many Chinese characters, you will soon have a library of sentences that are specific to your life and before you know it you will be fluent in Chinese.

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Chinese Symbol for Cow:      牛  niú       cow; bull

Evolution of 牛

Oracle Bone Inscription > Bronze Vessel  Inscription > Small Seal  Character > Standard Style Character

Example Words

Example Sentences:

1.

你的茶里要加牛奶吗？

nǐde chá lǐ yào jiā niúnǎi ma?
Your tea inside want add milk QP?
Do you take milk in your tea?
2.

你的牛排要几分熟？

nǐde niúpái yào jǐ fēn shóu?
Your steak want several minutes cooked?
How do you want your steak?

3.

我要一串牛肉串.

wǒ yào yī chuàn niúròu chuàn
I want one MW   beef    kabab.
I want a beef kabab.

4.

不要当牛仔.

búyào dāng niúzǎi.
Don’t be   cowboy.
Don’t be a cowboy.

5.

她喜欢穿牛仔裤.

tā xǐhuān chuān niúzǎikù.
She likes to-wear jeans.
She likes to wear jeans.

6.

他光吹牛，什麽实际的事都不干。

tā guāng chuīniú, shénme shíjì de shì dōu bù gān
He only brags, any actual P matter all not do.
He talks big but doesn’t actually do anything.

***

Why did I choose these words?

I do most of my grocery shopping at Chinese food markets in Shanghai and every week I usually buy 牛奶, 牛排, and 牛肉 (milk, steak, beef). 牛仔裤 (jeans) are pretty much the only kind of pants I buy. (tip: China makes many good knock-offs – jeans are not one of them. Don`t buy fake jeans – they fit weird, look weird, and you`ll be thoroughly disappointed).  I don`t usually use the word “cowboy” (牛仔), but I included it because it is part of the word for jeans. Some of my friends are lazy and “talk big” and I can use the word 吹牛 to describe them.