Today's word is:

It means "sky" as in "The sky above" or "the big blue sky".

Chinese is a hard language to learn.  It is difficult because the grammar, pronunciations, and syntax are so different from Western languages.

It is also difficult because the words are character-based.  With an alphabet-based languages, it is possible to figure out how to pronounce a word or deduce its meaning just by looking at the spelling.  This is not so with a character...either you know what it means and how to say it or you don't.  

The only way is to learn it is to memorize them a character at a time.  There are no short cuts, no magic methods, or simple solutions...just hard work :-) However, we are going to try to make it a bit more FUN!  Yes, hard work can be fun!

The way we are going to do this is to take a photo and describe all of the things in it.  We hope that in this way, the characters will have more context and will be easier to remember.

We will also be adding sound (Cantonese at first, Mandarin later) and video (writing) to help reinforce the learning of each character.

More advanced students and those interested in Chinese calligraphy may want to take a look at the "1000 Character Text DVD".  This DVD has the famous "1000 Characters" written in four different styles.

The cost of the DVD is $40 + shipping and is available now.