Dragon FruitDragon FruitA blog devoted to East Asian languages and cultures. Features posts about Japanese and Mandarin, recipes and cultural tidbits 
Articles
Doe Maar Gewoon
2008-05-29 19:15:00 Not related to Chinese, Japanese or anything remotely East Asian but I thought I’d let you all know that I have a ‘Life in the Netherlands’ blog : Doe Maar Gewoon. This is not my first attempt at a blog devoted to my life in the Lowlands, as some of you may know! I used to ...
Classical Chinese (??)
2008-05-17 23:20:00 This past week, I’ve been reading a book entitled 100 Ancient Chinese Customs by Li Zhenyi. I bought this when I was still living in Taiwan and it’s basically a bilingual book dealing with ancient Chinese customs and traditions. Not only has it proved very informative but it has also been a great little ... More About: Classical , Mandarin
Chinese Movies on YouTube
2008-05-11 00:10:00 I re-watched the movie The Blue Kite (???) last night. The movie follows the life of Tietou (??) and his mother and gives the viewer a good insight into the hardships and social chaos of the Great Leap Forward (???) and Cultural Revolution (?????). The first time I watched this movie was for my Chinese ... More About: Movies , Youtube , Films , Mandarin
AnimeCon 2008
2008-05-04 16:02:00 ????????????????? ????????????????????????????????????????? ????????????????????????????????????????? ????????????????????????????????????????? ????? Any corrections/suggestions would be most welcome. More About: Japanese , Practice , 2008
Adventures in Chinese Translation - Part 1
2008-04-20 13:20:00 It’s been a while since I did any translation work so lately I’ve been doing a few informal Chinese >English translations to keep my brain cells busy and improve upon my translation skills. The last time I did any official translation was during my time in Taiwan, where I translated and edited CVs, personal statements ... More About: Mandarin , Part , Adventures , Translation
Podcast Review - SpanishPod.Com
2008-04-14 11:21:00 I promised a podcast review some time ago. While I did say it would be one focussing on an East or South-East Asian language, I’ve decided to bend the rules a little this time and review SpanishPod.Com. I could make all sorts of excuses and say that Spanish is an increasingly popular language in ... More About: Resources , Podcasts , Review , Podcast , Listening
Guess Who?s Back!
2008-04-13 01:04:00 It’s been a few weeks but I finally have my internet connection back and am ready to start blogging from my new home! Thanks to those who have leave messages during my absence. I’ve approved them but haven’t had the chance to follow them up yet. I’ll post my replies shortly. While furniture ... More About: Books , Guess Who , Back , Mandarin , Guess
Moving!
2008-03-15 23:13:00 The blog is not moving…but I am! Tomorrow my parner and I will be finally moving into our new home after months of house-hunting and DIY. The downside is that I will be without internet for a few weeks (until mid-April) so that means I won’t be posting much during that time. While I ... More About: Moving , Updates
HKUL Digital Initiatives
2008-03-02 13:11:00 I’m afraid it’s been a busy week so I haven’t had the chance to write a follow-up to my grammar series on The Character ?. The next few weeks are going to be hectic as my partner and I will be moving house (and possibly be without internet for a few days/weeks!) so I ... More About: Resources , Mandarin , Databases , Digital
Adopting a Chinese or Japanese Name
2008-02-24 19:21:00 Anyone who’s studied or lived in China for a while has most likely been given a Chinese name at some point. At the start of my year abroad in Tianjin, I was given a name that approximated my English (ie. real) name : ???. It was quite strange getting used to a new name, especially ... More About: Random , Japanese , Mandarin
The Character ? - Part 1
2008-02-22 16:00:00 Today I’ve decided to dedicate a post to the character ?, a rather useful little character that serves as a suffix. As a suffix, ? helps form adjectives and abverbs and often can be considered the Chinese form of ‘-ly’. I’ve chosen a few words and examples to help illustrate its use. The examples ... More About: Mandarin , Character , Part , Grammar
Taiwan Panorama
2008-02-21 20:18:00 I was meaning to write a post about words containing the character ? but I haven’t quite finished writing it yet. Instead, I wanted to share a fantastic link that I discovered today via Chinese-Forums.Com. The link in question is to a bilingual online magazine about Taiwan , Taiwan Panorama . I haven’t had a chance ... More About: Links , Mandarin
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2008-02-12 21:59:00 ????????????????????????????????????????? ???????????????????????????? ?Ming Ya? ????????????????????????????????????????? ?????????????????????????????????? More About: Books , Japanese , Practice
?????
2008-02-08 22:47:00 ????????????? ???????????????????? ???????????????????????????????,????????? ??????????????????????Ming Ya ???????????? ???????????????????????????????? ?????, ?????????????,?????,????????. ????????????????????? I know my post is probably riddled with errors but it’s been a long time since I wrote anything in Mandarin . Please be gentle. More About: Practice
JOSHU - Japanese Online Self-Help Utility
2008-01-27 22:49:00 I came across a rather neat little site for learning Japanese grammar some time ago that I’ve only now had the chance to look at properly. The site is called Japanese Online Self-Help Utility (or JOSHU for short) and has a number of useful resources for Japanese language learners, including quizzes, flashcards and exercises for ... More About: Resources , Grammar
A Call for Podcasts
2008-01-20 20:07:00 I’ve decided to revive the language podcast reviews feature that I used to post on my now-defunct blog Aspiring Polyglot. I enjoyed checking out the various podcast lessons available on the web and sharing my finds and thoughts with fellow language learners/enthusiasts. While I have a small list of podcast sites pending review, I ... More About: Resources , Podcasts , Links , Call , Listening
?????
2008-01-06 22:23:00 I wanted to wish all my readers a (belated) Happy New Year! Apologies for the lack of posts over the holiday season. Not only was I back home during the Christmas period (and thus away from my beloved Internet) but my grandmother also passed away just over a week ago so my heart hasn’t ... More About: Mandarin
ChineseRadio.NL
2007-12-21 00:31:00 I came across a rather good source for Chinese listening practice a few days ago while I was at work. Lately I’ve been listening to a lot of Japanese and Chinese web radio as a way to immerse myself in these languages. Since my job keeps me very busy and I have so little free ... More About: Links , Mandarin , Listening
A Mandarin Christmas
2007-12-11 21:08:00 Christmas is almost open us so I thought I’d write a festive post listing some Christmas-related vocabulary in Mandarin . Please note that I’m from a mostly British background so some of the things may be unfamiliar or different to what you’re used to. Also, while I’ve made every effort to make sure the Mandarin ... More About: Christmas , Vocabulary
Tagged!
2007-12-08 19:34:00 I’ve been tagged by Todd from The Daily Bubble Tea so I thought I’d be a good sport and write seven random things about me. Since this is a blog focusing on East Asian cultures and languages, I’ll try and keep my random things in theme. 1) My favourite types of sushi/sashimi are salmon sashimi ... More About: Random , Memes , Tagged
Interpreting and Reading Practice
2007-12-01 18:35:00 I had my first experience as an amateur interpreterer (Mandarin - English) about a week ago when I was back home visiting my grandmother in hospital. A Chinese national had had an accident on one of the ships in harbour and was admitted to hospital for a few days prior to my visit. My mum ... More About: Reading , Resources , Links , Practice , Interpretation
Language Learning Goals for Japanese
2007-11-10 13:20:00 I’ve given some thought to my language learning goals lately (plenty of time to think when you spend almost 4 hours a day commuting to and from work!) and I’ve drawn up a little list of these, not only to help me remember what my goals are but to also help others who are in ... More About: Japanese , Goals , Language , Learning , Earning
Why ?Dragon Fruit??
2007-11-04 17:53:00 Hi, i love visiting bookstore too and love reading your blog about books which you recommended. Am wondering ?dragon fruit? in mandarin is ?????or ?????? Why named your blog dragon fruit? I received this comment from one my readers the other day and thought I might as well explain how this blog got its rather unusual name as ... More About: Questions , Fruit , Dragon , Drago
A Visit to Ming Ya
2007-10-29 22:37:00 I visited a bookstore in Amsterdam last Friday which specialised in Chinese books. The bookstore, for those of you living in the Netherlands or planning on visiting Amsterdam in the near future, is called Ming Ya and can be found at 105 Geldersekade in central Amsterdam, not too far from its ‘Chinatown’ district. I didn’t really ... More About: Books , Visit
Character Analysis - ?
2007-10-21 16:37:00 For my first kanji/hanzi analysis, I’ve chosen to look at the character ?. As a former student of Mandarin and an aspiring Japanophile, I thought I’d look at the various meanings of this character and its common compounds for the benefit of other Mandarin or Japanese students. If there are any errors or you would ... More About: Analysis , Character , Char
Building Up a Library
2007-10-16 23:21:00 I’m back from the UK! Sorry for not updating the blog this weekend but I was celebrating a cousin’s wedding and enjoying some quality time with the family.:) I managed to squeeze in some book-shopping while I was in the UK as English-language books are significantly cheaper there than they are in the Netherlands (we could ... More About: Building , Books , Resources , Library , Libra
Blog Round-Up
2007-10-11 15:28:00 It’s only been a couple of days since I launched this new blog so needless to say, it’s a little low on content…. Which is why I think a round-up of what other bloggers are writing about is a good way to stall for time (especially since I’ll be away visiting family in the UK this ... More About: Blog , Round Up , Round
Shota no Sushi
2007-10-11 11:08:00 I stumbled across a fantastic resource yesterday for those of you who are learning an East Asian language, be it Cantonese, Mandarin, Korean or Japanese : Crunchy Roll. It’s very similar to the better-known YouTube but hosts mostly videos in the aforementioned languages. As someone who’s trying to maintain her Mandarin and better her Japanese, ... More About: Sushi , V Series
Welcome to Dragon Fruit!
2007-10-09 13:44:00 Welcome to Drago n Fruit , my new blog about East Asian languages and cultures. Some of you may already know me from my languages blog, Aspiring Polyglot. While I’ve decided to stop updating Aspiring Polyglot, I hope this new blog will satisfy some of you other language enthusiasts and maybe open your eyes to other cultures. This ... More About: Updates |
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