About Us

This web site, MauiChinese.com, is a living, growing entity, and hopefully an entity that will grow on you, the visitor. Besides introducing the opportunity of learning Chinese on Maui, this web site is dedicated to exploring the Chinese language as well as Chinese culture. Though a small drop in the ocean of cyberspace, it is hoped this site can facilitate both individual and cultural enrichment and understanding.

Conventions of MauiChinese.com web site

Languages

On certain pages, besides English, Chinese words are included. These Chinese words may consist of both traditional and simplified characters. Unfortunately, certain older browsers may not be set to read non-English characters, and render these words as an unintelligible gobbledygook. Those inspiring to be serious students of Chinese will likely eventually want to remedy this situation, either by optional language installations or trying a different web browser, while the casual visitor can simply ignore the gobbledygook. More recent browsers and computer operating systems should render the Chinese characters properly.
Chinese characters and words have been rendered in English in the most recently Chinese government approved fashion. Sometimes, this means that even words commonly known in the West appear here spelled differently from what one is accustomed to. For example the Chinese exercise form, usually spelled Tai Chi, is rendered on this website as Tai Ji. Why? While Tai Chi has arguably become an English word and, as such, its spelling should be recognized as legitimate, Maui Chinese is primarily concerned with teaching the Chinese language. We feel it is in the greatest interest for students or potential students to render Chinese words using the government recognized spellings.
Keep in mind that these English renderings do not necessarily correspond to English pronunciation. In fact, Chinese pronunciation is very unique, and probably best taught by a native Mandarin speaker. The four tones of Mandarin Chinese are indicated on this website by the numbers, 1,2,3, and 4. There are other ways these tones are sometimes indicated, such as "ā" for the first tone. We have chosen numbers as web browsers can universally read them.

External links

Linking to resources or information on other web sites is one of the benefits of the internet, and MauiChinese.com has made use of this amazing technology. So as not to confuse external links from links within this web site we have placed an external link icon to the right of these links. By clicking on these links you will be leaving MauiChinese.com, and can use the back button on your browser or the browser's history to return. These links are provided in the spirit of being of possibe of interest or as aids to the study and understanding of Chinese. However, we have no control over the content or policies of these web sites, nor do we necessarily agree with all the information presented on them. Please use your own discretion.

History of Chinese characters

Many Chinese characters evolved as simple pictures of phenomena or events. These pictures evolved over the ages to make the characters easier to write and more symmetrical, so much so that the origins of the characters are often lost in history. Certain places on this website explore the origin of these characters as being of cultural interest. Many times the opinions expressed here concerning the origin of certain characters are not the only opinions. There can be a number of differing opinions on the origins of these words, with the truth lost in time.

Technically speaking

This is an original, totally crafted by hand site. We have taken the extra step to create a universal, interoperable web site.