F2F Class Notes (Tony)

Vocabulary

Lotus – a beautiful summer flower, lian hua

eg: Lotus root and Lotus Seed

Root – part of the plant that grows underwater or underground, the lotus root is underwater

eg: Lotus root is used often in cooking.

fiber – long thin string    fibrous ADJ.

eg: Lotus root and bamboo chutes are very fibrous. They have a lot of fiber.

cheng yu – idiom (phrase with special meaning)

eg: Cheng yu is like an idiom, but also like a poem. Because it follows some rules.

eg: Cheng yu is like a short Haiku. It has structure, metaphor and poetic meaning.

Lotus Cut Silk Flower

Lotus root can break, but the silk fibers remain.

Even broken lotus roots are still connected.

Poem – often short, and beautiful writing.

Haiku – a short Japanese poem, has some rules about structure.

Rhyme – words that have the same sound, and sound good together, often in songs and poems.

eg: Banana is a hard word to rhyme with. Not many words sound like banana. maybe only Cabana. Tomato rhymes with potato.

eg: So many Chinese words rhyme with each other.

Hua she tian zu – This is Chengyu, it’s like an idiom and a short haiku. It means you often do something more than you should do.

Don’t draw legs on a snake.  (The snake is a metaphor for the thing you are doing) (The legs are a metaphor for the extra things you did, but didn’t need to do)

It’s not a good thing. words