How to read and write Chinese Characters – zhao peng you

Hello Class. 大家好！

The title of today’s lesson is looking for a friend. We will go through five new Chinese characters in this children song in Chinese in details. And we will also provide the English translation of this Chinese children song for easy understanding at the end of this lesson. The five new characters we have chosen to go through in this lesson are 找, 呀, 朋, 友 and 到. These are rather common Chinese characters used in daily situation.

The lyrics for this children song in Simplified and Traditional script is:　                                                 

找呀，找呀，找朋友

Zhǎo ya, zhǎo ya, zhǎo péngyǒu                                

找到一个(個)好朋友

Zhǎo dào yī gè hǎo péngyǒu

敬个礼(個禮)，握握手

jìng gè lǐ, wò wòshǒu

你是我的好朋友

Nǐ shì wǒ de hǎo péngyǒu

Repeat

找呀，找呀，找朋友

Zhǎo ya, zhǎo ya, zhǎo péngyǒu

找到一个(個)好朋友

Zhǎo dào yī gè hǎo péngyǒu

笑嘻嘻，点点头(點點頭)

Xiào xī xī, diǎn diǎn tóu

大家都是好朋友

Dà jiā dōu shì hǎo péngyǒu

The Chinese character 找(Zhǎo) means to look for; to find; to search in English. This Chinese character has seven strokes and under the radical 扌. Simplified and traditional script is written in the same way.

找 is a verb and is placed before the noun just like in English. 找朋友 look for a friend; 找东西(Zhǎo dōngxi) looking for something; 找书(Zhǎo shū) looking for a book. The pinyin of 找( Zhǎo ) is in the third tone.  

呀(ya) is a word you use when you are surprised or at the end of a sentence as an exclamation. This Chinese character also has seven strokes and under the radical 口. This word is similar to another exclamation word 啊. A common expression using 呀 is 哎呀 meaning oh no, my goodness. 呀(Ya) has a neutral tone, that is toneless.

朋友(péngyǒu) means friend in English and is made up of two Chinese characters 朋 and 友. 朋 by itself was used as a monetary term in the olden days. 友 refers to people who have a close bond or relationship with others. 朋 is under the radical 月 and has a total strokes of eight. 友 on the other hand has 4 strokes and under the radical 又. 朋友(péngyǒu) is pronounced in the second and third tone respectively. If you want to say boyfriend / girlfriend, you just add the gender in front of 朋友. Boyfriend is 男朋友(Nán péngyǒu) , and girlfriend is女朋友 (Nǚ péngyǒu)

到(dào) means arrived, go or until in English. It can be used as a verb or as an adverb. The Chinese character到 has eight strokes and under the radical刂. 到(dào) is in the fourth tone. Some examples of how this Chinese character can be used. When you want to say that you have arrived at a certain destination, you can use 到…..了. Place a destination word in between到 and了. For example, 到家了 arrived home (Dàojiāle)；到学校了 arrived school (Dào xué xiào le). When到 is used to mean go – 他到公司去 He went to the office (Tā dào gōngsī qù) and when used to mean until, you can say 我睡到十点 I slept until ten (Wǒ shuì dào shí diǎn).

The English translation for this children song is:-

找呀，找呀，找朋友

finding, finding, finding a friend                

找到一个(個)好朋友

found a good friend

敬个礼(個禮)，握握手

Take a bow, shake hands,

你是我的好朋友

You are my good friend

找呀，找呀，找朋友

finding, finding, finding a friend

找到一个(個)好朋友

found a good friend

笑嘻嘻，点点头(點點頭)

Smiling, nodding my head

大家都是好朋友

We are all good friends

If you have forgotten what the Chinese characters 都 and是 means, you can refer to our earlier lessons on these two characters. They are very commonly used and useful characters for your daily usage. Some of the phrases using都 and是 are:- 他们都爱吃菜Tāmen dōu ài chī cài (They all love to eat vegetables). 这些都是她的衣服Zhè xiē dōu shì tā de yīfú (These are all her clothes).

This children song in Chinese is very easy to sing as it is always repeating itself. Follow and sing along so that you are able to pronounce the words and repeating the Chinese words can also help you to remember them better. Learning a foreign language is all about listening and practicing what you have learned.

That is all for today. See you again soon!