How to Celebrate the coming Chinese New Year

[kbling]

In Chinese, we called “celebrate new year”guo nian.

中国最重要的节日就是春节,也叫中国新年。
Zhōng guó zuì zhòng yào de jié rì jiù shì chūn jié, yě jiào zhōng guo xin nián.
The most important holiday in China is Spring Festival, also known as the Chinese New Year.

对中国人来讲它象西方的圣诞一样重要.
Duì zhōng guó rén lái jiǎng, tā xiàng xī fāng de shèng dàn yi yàng zhòng yào.
To the Chinese people it is as important as Christmas to people in the West.

这个盛大庆典是由中国的农历决定。
Zhè ge shèng dà qìng diǎn shì yóu zhōng guó de nóng lì jué dìng .
The dates for this annual celebration are determined by the lunar calendar.

“过年”意思是“度过年假这几天 ”
"Guò Nián," yì si shì "dù guò nián jià zhè jǐ tiān"
"Guò Nián," meaning "passing the year,"

人们常用放爆竹来赶走邪灵和迎接新的一年。
Rén mén cháng yòng fàng pào zhú lái gǎn zǒu xié líng hé yíng jiē xīn de yī nián.
People often let off fire-crackers which serve to drive away the evil spirits and to greet the arrival of the new year.

除夕，是所有的家庭成员共同的节日。
chú xī, shì suǒ yǒu de jiā tíng chéng yuán gòng tóng de jié rì.
On New Year's Eve, all the members of families come together to feast.

北方人喜欢吃饺子,而南方人喜欢粘甜糯米糕,称为年糕。
Běi fāng rén xǐ huān chī jiǎo zi, ěr nán fāng rén xǐ huān nián tián nuò mǐ gāo, chēng wéi nián gāo.
Northern people like to eat Jiaozi, a steamed dumpling; while southerners favor a sticky sweet glutinous rice pudding called nian gao.

This course is offered by Mandarinrise Center. For more information about this mandarin school, visit their website! mandarinrise.com

[lewisa]

What's the difference between the mandarin language and the chinese one? Is it a dialect or simply a complete language with it's vocabulary and a special grammar?

[frederick.k]

In English, the term "Chinese" can be used broadly (referring to all the varieties of speech and written language that share the same heritage of classical Chinese, and which are now quite divergent) or narrowly (to refer the the dominant and official variety of speech and the style of writing and reading that is based on it). The narrow reference of Chinese is also called Mandarin, when the distinction is important. The broad meaning covers the native language varieties of about 95% of the population in the People's Republic of China, while the narrow meaning refers to the variety that is natively spoken by about 70% of the population, although most of the other 30% speak Mandarin as a second language.
[My answer is getting too long, and it is off-topic, so I am posting a continuation as a separate post, please reply there if you want to keep discussing.]

- Fred, a linguistics student trying to learn written Chinese

[candie111]

mandarin language is the Standard chinese uesd in by officials and all over the world china
it is exactly right that the main difference between mandarin and the chinese one is theDialect