Learn to Say the Names of Countries in Chinese

Want to learn how to say country names in Chinese? This article will help. Many of the country names in Chinese, you might notice, are transliterations of the English version names of the countries, especially in regards to the Western hemisphere. However, a lot of the Eastern country names sound nothing like the English ones.

To say China in Chinese, you say "Zhong guo," which means "The Middle Country." This name stems back from the days when the Chinese believed their country was at the center of the flat Earth, a belief that was common in many parts of the world in the past.

The United States is called, "Mei guo," which means "Beautiful country."

As far as Eastern countries go, Japan is called "Ri ben," North Korea is called, "Chao xian," and South Korea is called, "Hang guo." Vietnam is "Yue nan" in Chinese. The Philippines are "fei lue bin," which sounds similar to the English name for this country. Sri Lanka, formerly known as Ceylon, is "Si li lan ka" in Chinese. Malaysia is "Ma lai xi ya."

Nepal in Chinese is "Ni bo er." Russia, China's biggest neighbor, is "E luo si." Singapore is "xin jia po." Indonesia is "yin du ni xi ya."

Great Britain, or England, is "ying guo" in Chinese. Puerto Rico is "bo duo li ge," Cuba is "gu ba," and Costa Rica is "ge si da li jia."

France is "fa guo" while Germany is "de guo." You can see the word "de" in many place names in China that were occupied by Germany in previous times.

Canada is "jia na da" in Chinese. Outside of the United States, Canada is a popular place for Chinese immigrants.

Pakistan is "ba ji si tan."

Chinese is a difficult language to master, but it definitely isn't impossible if you are persistent at it. The phrases and words above are given in pinyin, which is the Chinese phonetic system. The pinyin tells you how the words sound, but words aren't actually written in pinyin in China-they are written in characters, a different character for each word.

By learning the pinyin, you will be able to say the words, but to be able to read them, you will have to learn the characters as well.

The important thing is to keep practicing. With consistent practice, you will soon be able to speak a lot of Chinese.