Chinesetolearn ♫ learn Mandarin in a fun way ♫

Have you ever got hit on the eyes and the struck transformed your eyes to those huge and cute eyes of pandas? If so, you might love today’s one Chinese sentence a day? We are going to learn – how to say ” Pandas live in forests and eat bamboo” in Chinese: 猫熊住在森林里以竹子维生。Mao1 xiong2 (猫熊 noun, pandas) zhu4 (住 verb, live) zai4 (在 preposition word, at / in) sen1 lin2 (森林 noun, forest) li3 (里direction／location word, inside) yi3 (以 verb, use) zhu2 zi3 (竹 zhu2 is a noun means bamboo, and 子 zi5 is a suffix particle habitually follow certain nouns) wei2 sheng1 (维生 wei2 sheng1 is 維持生活 wei2 chi2 sheng1 huo2 for short; 维持 wei2 chi2 is a verb phrase means to make, and 生活 sheng1 huo3 is a noun phrase means life. So, 维生 wei2 sheng1 means to make a living).

So, if you are a teacher, then you can say
我以教书维生。
wo3 yi3 jiao1 shu1 wei2 sheng1.
I make a living by teaching.

If you are a painter, then you can say
我以画画维生。
wo3 yi3 hua4 hua4 wei2 sheng1.
I make a living by painting pictures.

There are two ways to say pandas in Chinese: 熊猫 xiong2 mao1 or 猫熊 mao1 xiong2. 猫 means cats, and 熊 means bears. The term 熊猫 Xiong1 mao1 means the cat looks like bears, while 猫熊 mao1 xiong2 means a bear looks like cats. But, no matter you call it 猫熊 mao1 xiong2 or 熊猫 xiong2 mao1, they all mean pandas.

Let’s learn more about this symbolic 象徵性的 (Xiang4 zheng1 xing4 de5) animal (动物dong4 wu4) of China:

In the misty, rainy mountains of southwestern China’s bamboo （竹子 zhu2 zi5）forests （森林 sen1 lin2）live one of the world’s rarest mammals （哺乳类 bu3 ru3 lei4）: the giant pandas, they are also called the pandas. Pandas eat almost nothing but bamboo shoots （芽 ya2）and leaves （叶子 ye4 zi5）. Sometimes they eat other vegetation, fish （鱼 yu2）, or small animals, but bamboo accounts for 99 percent of their diets.

Pandas have to eat fast, and they eat a lot; they spend about 12 hours （小时 xiao3 shi2）a day doing it. Why they have to eat like an eating champion （冠军 guan4 jun1）? That is because 99 percent of a panda’s diet – bamboo leaves and shoots – don’t have much nutritional value （价值 jia4 zhi2）, and that is why pandas live a low-energy, sedentary lifestyle and love to eat so much! It is said that pandas must eat about 30 to 40 pounds （磅 bang4）of bamboo a day just to stay full. How about their time besides eating? Mmmmmmm the rest of time, they just sleep. So, now you should know why pandas look so plump and chubby like stuffed animals; and it is called the power of eating and sleeping:) You can do some experiment to see whether or not prolonged eating and sleeping have same effect on human beings, but I don’t recommend though — New Year’s resolution is too painful sometimes, especially the fitness goals!!! It is harder than learning Chinese right?

The first panda came to the United States (mei3 guo2 美国） in 1936 – to a zoo （动物园 dong4 wu4 yuan2） in Chicago, and it took another 50 years before the States would see another cutie （可爱 ke3 ai4）panda.

A newborn panda cub is very tiny; it weighs only 3 to 4 ounces. It is about 1/900th the size of its mother and it’s length is like a stick of butter （奶油 nai3 you2）.

There are only about 1,000 giant pandas left in the wild （野外 ye3 wai4）. They are endangered animals. We all love pandas, so we should do something to protect them. In what way people can help pandas? People must stop invading their habitats （栖息地 qi1 xi2 di4), and give them more land to connect the forests, so they can have secure pathways to hunt bamboos and live a happy eating life.

Let’s learn more about these cute panda bears:)

Elusive Giant Panda

See the cute baby pandas

I never forgot to deliver a song for you:) or two?