Hanyu Pinyin "bi" and "bu"

We started to look at "bi" and "bu" today. As we started to learn more about the pronounication and blending the initial consonants together with a, o, e, i, u, etc and learning about the chinese characters behind such pronounication, it was fun.

I was telling Kai that Chinese Characters are derived from the drawing and now I regret not shipping over my HanZiGong Series (汉字宫). They are a very good series for learning Chinese and each chapter in a DVD explains the meaning of the word and its usage and also show how each Chinese Character comes about from drawing to the traditional chinese character and then to the simplified character.

Nevertheless, we tried to make good use of the resources we have and maybe I could suggested to the Library here to get it for their DVD collections. And at the meantime asking my friends in Beijing and Hong Kong to help me source books that shows how Chinese Characters derive from drawing to the present Simplified Chinese Characters.

I have gotten for Kai the card for iflashbook and after seeing him getting so interested to learn Chinese, we find went onto the website and use it. (The iflash book cost S$21 from Popular Bookstore in Singapore and it costs S$19.80 if get online. And it has a valid log on period of a year). Kai started to use it and he is enjoying it and asking for more after each session. PanPac iflashbook (我的华文动漫书) is the Singapore Primary School Textbook online and we can listen to the pronounication and read along as well as record one's reading and play back. And each card is valid for a level and for a year period.

By the interest shown by Kai and his willingness to even used it at night after dinner, I thought the money spent is worthwhile. And Daddy also finds it interesting.


Our Chinese for "bi" and "bu"

bi
bī	bí	bǐ	bì	bi
逼	鼻	比	比
屄	荸	笔	币
偪		彼	闭
皀		俾	臂
		吡	毕
		疕	必

bu
bū	bú	bǔ	bù	bu
哺	醭	哺	步
逋		卜	不
晡		补	布
钸		捕	钸
		卟	部

NB:
1. Some words has two intonation depending on which part of the sentence it is used. We used the soft intonation sometimes at the end of a sentence.

2. For repeated words, the second word intonation is soft intonation, such as 爸爸 (bàba).

3. Some chinese characters have more than one intonation and can also be pronounced differently like 卜. 卜 can be pronounced as bo or bǔ. When it is pronounced as bo, it means turnip. When it is pronounced as bǔ, it means foretell or a surname.

As we go about learning more about Hanyu Pinyin and each characters, we find that it is really interesting to find out how each character came about and hope to have the chance to learn more about China and its history.