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Hey hey! This site has made it through two years online and 100 posts! That makes an average of 50 posts a year, which averages out to a little less than one a week. Not terribly shabby, huh? In any case, on with the Chinese. 

I've been having a bit of trouble rounding up truly beginner texts, and whenever I try I end up with an intermediate post. But this one, though not earth-shattering, should certainly do. We've got three short jokes here of the silly variety, appropriate for young kids. <!--more-->

<img src="http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/20130126-INLINE.jpg" alt="Learning to Read Chinese for Beginners: Childrens Jokes in Mandarin Chinese" title="How to Read Chinese Jokes: Mandarin Exercise Passages for Reading" width="100" height="100" class="imgborder alignleft" />Though we could probably skip this info, you might want to know that 晨练 - meaning "morning exercise" - is a much more formalized concept in China than in west. Here, every morning in almost any weather, crowds of old people gather together in parks around 6-7a.m. to do group taiqi, stretch and take brisk walks. This is so prevalent that you can show up at any park or open community space in China early in the morning and see groups of mostly old people doing their exercises. So, while reading the first joke, you should imagine a scene of 40 or so retirees doing taiqi forms in the park. 

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<div class="postintro">
<h4>Click to Listen</h4>
晨练 - [pinyin]chen2 lian4[/pinyin] - Morning exercise
退休 - [pinyin]tui4 xiu1[/pinyin] - Retire
笨蛋 - [pinyin]ben4 dan4[/pinyin] - Idiot
汉堡 - [pinyin]han4 bao3[/pinyin] - Hamburger
告诉 - [pinyin]gao4 su5[/pinyin] - To tell
谈 - [pinyin]tan2[/pinyin] - Speak, discuss
蟑螂 - [pinyin]zhang1 lang2[/pinyin] - Cockroach
</div>
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<div id="chinesetext">
小姑娘指着<strong>晨练</strong>的老人问： 为什么他们能天天到公园来玩？
奶奶：因为他们是<strong>退休</strong>人员。
一天，爸爸问女儿：你长大当什么？
小姑娘：退休人员。


父亲教儿子学算术：“一加一是多少？”
儿子：“不知道。”
父亲：“是两个，<strong>笨蛋</strong>！知道了吗？”
儿子：“知道了。”
父亲：“那么，我和你，加起来是几个人？”
儿子：“是两个笨蛋！” 

一个女孩和一个男孩吃<strong>汉堡</strong>。男孩说女孩：“我要<strong>告诉</strong>你一件事！”
女孩说：“不要跟我说话在我吃的时候，当我吃我的汉堡，那么你就可以<strong>谈</strong>。”
所以，当他们吃完了女孩问男孩：“现在你想说什么呢？”
男孩说：“嗯，我是说，有一只<strong>蟑螂</strong>在你的汉堡里！” 
</div>
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A little girl pointing at old people doing morning exercises, said: "Why are they allowed to play in the park all day?"
Grandmother: "Because they are retirees."
One day, the father asked the little girl: What do you want to be when you grow up?
Little girl: A retiree!


Father is teaching his son arithmetic: "One plus one is how much?"  
Son: "I don't know." 
Father: "It's two, idiot! You get it?"
Son: "I get it." 
Father: "Now, me and you, put us together and how many people is that?"
Son: "It's two idiots!" 


A girl and a boy are eating hamburgers. The boy says to the girl: "I want to tell you something!" 
The girl says: "Don't talk to me while I'm eating, when I'm done with my hamburger, then you can speak."
So, when they finished eating the girl asked the boy: "Now what do you want to say?"
Boy says: "Huh, I was saying, there's a cockroach in your hamburger."
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