Chinese Lesson: China’s Favorite Animal

They’re cute. They’re cuddly. They sneeze and over 160 million people flock to YouTube to watch it happen. They’re the most spoiled animals at every Chinese zoo.

熊猫

Pinyin (i.e. the transcription of the Chinese words into Latin script): xiong2 mao1 (the numbers indicate what tone the words are said in.) Pronunciation: “shee-ong” (say it all like it’s one syllable) “mow” (rhymes with “now”). Translation: Literally, “bear cat.” Better known as the panda (but you knew that).