Correspondence
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情爱的Mah太太。。。你很厉害！ 谢谢你教我们普通话。
Dear Mrs. Mah, you’re amazing/great! Thank you for teaching us Mandarin. 我特别喜欢 your flashcards on the story of silk and the Qin Dynasty. It’s easy to learn 用这个办法。。。and I feel like I’m in the same room with you. I’d like to take classes with you…do you ever teach? I live 5 miles away…in Newport Beach. 我大约有十三个月学中文。。。我自己学。 我需要很多练习，很多帮助！ 我等你说。。。 Here is a pix of my husband and I in Kunming, China…last year…in Walmart. Grace.
Dear Grace,
Stay tuned. We will be developing an IPad game to teach Chinese which will be launched in June, 2012.
Thanks for your input.
Adeline
I heard about a Chinese Reading Association Newsletter, is any of it in english?, how could I join it?
Sorry but I have not heard of it.
Adeline
Dear Dr. Mah,
Have you ever considered writing a book of lessons on having good manners in China? Now that so many Americans are traveling to China, it is more important than ever to understand the basic rules of good behavior in Chinese culture.
We love you books, and wish you the very best health and happiness.
Sincerely,
Mai and Steve Majewski
Dear Mai and Steve,
Thanks you for your email. You pose an interesting question. What would you like to know about good manners in China? Can you be more specific? What topics do you want me to cover?
Adeline
Dr. Mah,
I got to your website after reading your little book about your childhood.
Chinese script is something that fascinates me for a long, long time.
Since when sites that teach Chinese appeared on the web, few years ago, I started to listen to podcasts, which helped me to became familiar with the sound of Mandarin and understand few words.
But I did not progress much with the script itself.
I am not native English speaker. I learned by myself, after graduatingMy English after graduating high school was of nil level. I mastered the language nevertheless, by reading booklets in simplified English from the Longmans series. In short time my English was good enough to read serious literature and today my English reading skills are above average of native English speakers.
I hope to repeat this learning experience, at least to some extent, with Chinese too.
Will you help me to achieve that, Professor Mah?
Gladly. I am encouraged by your email to try harder. Please keep following my site because we will be launching an exciting IPad game in June to teach Chinese for free. Let me have your feedback.
Good luck!
Adeline Mah
Dear Dr. Mah,
I have been religiously reading the lessons you’ve been sending to me. But I have one question…Do you think the First Emperor is a bad person because of what he did ( such as burning of books) or is a good person for his deeds?
Kerstin
A mixture of both. Good and Bad.
Adeline
Dear Adeline,
I love the Chinese Cinderella series. I discovered the first series when I was at the school library. I was a library monitor, I was dusting a bookshelf. Then at the bottom of the bookshelf I saw the book, I took it from the bookshelf and flick through the pages. I read the back and decided to borrow the book. Even my library teacher read it and said it was Fantastic. Are you going to write more Chinese Cinderella series? I love the series except I hated the Niang. My big sister says that it’s for 13-15 years old people and I’m only 9 and a half, but I don’t care. Every time I pick up the book I read for 1-3 hours and then have a break. Some 成语 that I don’t understand I would ask my dad. And why did you wrote in Chinese Traditional instead of Chinese Simplified in the books?
From: Victoria
Dear Adeline,
My name is Yvonne, Yvonne Yih Yu. 俞懿. I enjoy reading your novels a lot. I am a very big fan. I am Chinese and I already bought your book ‘ china, land of dragons and emperors’ and I find it a very good read. A few times at school, we talked about china and I lent my book to the teacher so that she can read it out to the class. I already know Chinese and I was inspired by our book so much that I decided to do my project on china as my country. After reading your book, i now know many more facts about china than I did before and I got a very. Good grade on my project. I was wondering, do you know cantonese?
Yes. I know Cantonese.
Adeline
Dear Adeline,
Dear Adeline,
My name is Yvonne, Yvonne Yih Yu. 俞懿. I enjoy reading your novels a lot. I am a very big fan. I am Chinese and I already bought your book ‘ china, land of dragons and emperors’ and I find it a very good read. A few times at school, we talked about china and I lent my book to the teacher so that she can read it out to the class. I already know Chinese and I was inspired by our book so much that I decided to do my project on china as my country. After reading your book, i now know many more facts about china than I did before and I got a very. Good grade on my project. I was wondering, do you know cantonese?
Dear Dr. Mah,
I have just finished reading your book Chinese Cinderella. What a sad yet inspirational book it is. Your persistence and determination to gain your father’s respect during your childhood are qualities to be admired and emulated. I also was happy to read that you did succeed in gaining permission to go to England to be educated. And that you have had a highly successful medical career, writing career, marriage and lovely children.
I will surely read your other books.
Dear Adeline Yen Mah(Chinese Cinderella)
I read your book (chinese cinderella ) and it was brillant!!!
I was wondering do you come to schools?
I am such a big fan and please may YOU and not anyone else reply!
Dear Cherry,
Thank you for your email. Unfortunately, I cannot come to schools.
Adeline
Dear Dr. Mah,
I am following up to see if you have any further question. My contact info is listed below. We really hope we may have the honor to invite you. Your favorable consideration is highly appreciated. Thank you!!
Yulan Chung
Director
Chinese American Reading Association
http://www.chinese4kids.org
Email: director@chinese4kids.org
How can I be of help to you?
Adeline Yen Mah
Dear Dr Mah,
I am an Italian woman and when I was a student I got a University Degree in Chinese language and culture.
So many years have passed since then, but I am still loving this beautiful language although it is quite difficult for me to practice it.
I’ve read your books and I really appreciate your interest and love for ancient chinese history. In my town, there is now a wonderful exibition dedicated to the last chinese dynasty and the exhibits, from Manchurian collections and archives, have never before been seen in the west. Fantastic! (exhibition website: http://www.laviadellaseta.info – unfortunatly only in Italian)
I have a question for you as you are so aknowledged with Chinese history. Do you think that the founder of Qing dynasty, Nurachi, chose his eighth son Huangtaiji only because he was a very bright and intelligent child? Or simply beacuse he was the eighth son and the number eight in China is highly regarded? Thank you very much for your kind answer, with warm regards
Francesca
Francesca,
I think he chose him because he was the most capable son.
Adeline
Dear Dr. Mah,
Greetings from Chinese American Reading Association, a non-profit educational organization. My name is Yulan Chung. I currently serve as Director of Chinese American Reading Association. We are establishing a new Children’s Chinese Library. The library is scheduled to open its door to the public in April, 2012 We would like to invite you to be our Honor Guest if possible.
This is the very first Children’s Chinese Library in Southern California. We hope it will provide important service to many families who have children learning Chinese as a second, foreign or heritage language. Your favorable consideration is very much appreciated. Please feel free to contact me if you have any further question. Thank you very much!
Yours,
Yulan Chung
Dear Ms Chung,
Thank you for your invitation. Where is your library located? What’s the opening date?
Adeline Mah
Dear Dr. Mah,
Thank you so very much for your prompt reply. The library is located in 18927 Daisetta St. Rowland Heights and it’s scheduled to open its door on April 22. It’s part of our celebration of “2012 World Book and Copyright Day”. Please let me know if you have any further question. Thank you!!
Yulan Chung
Director
Chinese American Reading Association
http://www.chinese4kids.org
Email: director@chinese4kids.org
马 教 授，你 好 吗？ 我 姓_Schepers 叫 Inge/英奇. 我 想 学 中 文。 你 肯 教 我 吗？ 谢 谢。我喜欢你的书。我从南非来。我今年住马来西亚。
英 奇， 你 的 中 文 很 好。 学 了 多 久？
马 教 授
Dear dr Mah, my name is Toby 陳澆桐. I tried to leave a message for you last time but it didnt work for me, my comments were all gone. So do you what the problem was?
祝身體健康
Thank you for your wonderful books, website and lessons. You are a truly inspiring example for women everywhere.
Hello Dr Mah
我叫陳澆桐, I can speak and write Cantonese but I’m pretty bad with the pronunciation of mandarin, how do you think I could improve it?
And I read your book’ the chinese cinderalla the mystery of the song dynasty painting’ it was a really attractive book that I couldn’t stop reading it until the end…..祝你身體健康！I hope you could read traditional characters….
Love
Toby
Dear Toby,
I am in the process of developing a game on iPad that will teach you how to pronounce Chinese characters in Mandarin. Please keep tuned!
Adeline
Dear dr Mah
I’m so happy that you replied my comment, I’m going to install the game that you were talking about but I wonder how could i do it???
And I come from hong kong, I’m so glad that you have stayed in hong kong before? How do you find it?
Toby,
I am developing my iPad game to teach Chinese at this very moment. Hopefully, it will be installed by May or June this year. I will make an announcement when it is ready.
Hongkong is a marvelous city. Do you go to school there? Good luck!
马 医 生
Dear dr Mah
Hello,你好嗎? I was studying in hong kong before but then I went to Australia to study as an oversea student. I’m still learning English at the moment, hope I could get better for both of the mandarin and English. I love learning different languages, they are so fascinating and I’m so exhilarate once I understand what other foreigners are talking about. I’m learning english, coincide with learning mandarin and German.
PS. Sometimes, my English grammar isn’t correct. 對不起!
马教授，你好吗？我姓 Schepers 叫英歌。我想学中文。你肯教我吗？谢谢。I cannot get the book downloaded yet.
Please let me know if you can download the book.
Adeline
Dr Mah,
My name is nina i am 13 years old and i have just finished reading your book chinese cinderella (for english), this story touched me a lot and i thought that it was the best book i have ever read.
I now have to do an assignment on the book and i would really like to know if you could help me, i don’t have an online version of the assignment at the moment but i will ask my teacher so i could send it to you
Lots of love Nina
#55
“生产丝的方法是不准被洩漏的贸易秘密 ”一句中，“洩”是旧式写法，现在普通话中均写作“泄”。
#56
“一直到十三世纪後,丝的生产已经遍佈(普遍的)在义大利以及欧洲各地.” 中“後”简体为“后”，“佈”简体为“布”，“义大利”通常写作“意大利”
谢 谢。
Adeline
在#53中，我认为，将filaments译为“丝”或“纤维”比 “条”更合适。
此外，在’他们把丝线边起来,用六条或八条其他的丝线边起来边成一条粗的丝线”中，“边”应改为“编”。但是根据英文句子中的词“twist”，我觉得译为“绞”字更合适。编和绞是不一样的。
我 同 意。谢 谢。
Adeline
“clay soldiers = 泥土兵ní tǔ bīng”,通常的说法叫“兵马俑”