“Little Tadpoles Look for Their Mom” is a classic animation which was based on Chinese traditional water-color paintings. This animation was done in 1960, but it is still a very charming animation.
Frog mother laid eggs and swam away. Little tadpoles were hatched and started their journey looking for their Mom. They met different creatures in the pond and asked around, “where is our mom? Are you our mom? ” They got disappointing answers until they saw the frog who was looking for her children. She said “Hi, babies, I am your mother. ” Tadpoles could not believe her because they do not look like her. But in the end, they believed that they found their mom and then happily swam with her till they grew up — yes, till they turned into the form of frogs!
Tutu did not want to go to the kindergarten, but there was no way to escape. One day, he was visiting Grandpa Niu who was staying at bed because he broke his leg. He had lots of delicious food and he had TV to watch all the time. Tutu got inspiration and made himself sick by eating tons of ice cream and sleeping without a cover at night. But when he was sick, he could not enjoy the delicious food his mom made for him; and he could not watch TV because there was no electricity… How much he missed kindergarten…
A lot of people know “你好“ (nǐ hǎo) as a greeting phrase in Chinese. I myself have been greeted many times in the street in Europe. Like “hello”, “你好“ (nǐ hǎo) is probably the most popular Chinese phrase known and used by foreigners.
However, do you know, actually there are a couple more greeting phrases in Chinese? Depending on the situation, different phrases should be used. Here I want to list some:
－－你好(nǐ hǎo) — Hello.
It is used in informal situations. It is used when addressing to one person. When used, no response is expected.
－－您好（nǐn hǎo) — Hello.
In formal situations, “您好” is used when addressing an elder person or a person at a higher rank.
－－你们好(nǐ mén hǎo ) — Hello.
This can be used in both formal and informal situations. It is used when addressing a group of people.
Sometimes you may hear “你好吗？” (nǐ hǎo mā?) which is a greeting question instead of a greeting, so an answer is expected. A typical answer is “我很好，谢谢，你呢？“ In detail,
－－你好吗？(nǐ hǎo mā?) — How are you doing?
—我很好，谢谢。你呢？（wǒ hěn hǎo. xiè xiè. nǐ nē?) — I am very well. Thank you. And you?
I hope it would be helpful to understand the difference.
Tutu loves TV. He could spend hours in front of TV. Once he was watching TV while he was eating fish. A fish bone got stuck in his throat. His parents decided to limit his time watching TV, so they gave him 10 TV time coupons - half an hour per coupon.
Tutu was scared of water. He was afraid of going to bath, not to mention swimming in a pool. His parents tried different ways to encourage him to learn swimming.
Tutu’s mother bought him a bowl of instant noodles and won a big prize. Then she fell into the prize seeking fever. She kept on buying all kinds of things which offered opportunities of winning prizes…
Tutu’s Dad announced that he would quit smoking. So Tutu became the policeman to watch him from sneaking around to steal cigaret. With Tutu’s help, his Dad successfully quit smoking!
China, the most populated country in the world, is also one of the countries with longest civilization. It is the 3rd largest country in the world. With 56 ethnic groups, it has diverse culture and traditions. It is hard to summarize China and Chinese culture in several sentences. Here is a nice video which introduces China. If you want to know some general information about China, this can be a nice start.
