How did we turn a very interesting learning into something very dull?

Is Chinese difficult? Ask ten people and ten will answer: extremely difficult. But this is a huge misunderstanding. We've made a simple thing complicated, an easy thing difficult, and an interesting thing dull.

 

Why do I say this?

 

Let's look at a few examples.

 

How many of these four characters (song typeface) do you recognize, possibly none.

 

But what about the following

 

 

How many of these four do you recognize? Possibly two or more.

 

They are characters Mountain, Water, Sun, and Moon.

 

The four below are exactly same characters of the four above, they are in shell bone script, created and used in 3500+ years ago, the earliest Chinese characters which are pictography. Ancient Chinese just drew object to represent it.

 

The four above are song typeface, formed in Song Dynasty (960 – 1279), current standard Chinese script.

 

Is there a connection?

Yes.

The latter evolved from the former.

There are other scripts between them, the whole picture is like the following

 

 

 

From left to right: shell bone script, big script, small script, clerical script. After clerical script in Han Dynasty (202 BC – 220 AD), song typeface was formed around 1000 – 1200 (not show in the table above).

 

If you learn this way, you'll understand how each character originated, and you'll grasp the meaning of each stroke. This makes learning interesting and easier to remember.

 

Unfortunately we don’t teach the earlier forms, we start with the song typeface: 山，水，日，月. As a result, students don't know where these characters came from, why they are written in those way, and can only memorize them by rote. A potentially fascinating study becomes a tedious chore and very hard to remember thousands of Chinese characters. Thus, it feels difficult.

 

Why teach Chinese this way? Firstly, because after First Emperor burned the books and buried the scholars, the knowledge of shell bone script was lost until its rediscovery in 1899. So, for 2000 years, Chinese people didn't know about this pictographic form of writing. Secondly, it’s a shortcut. Isn’t it faster to learn the song typeface script directly? Why bother learning shell bone script, big seal script, small seal script, and clerical script? But this shortcut cuts off the evolutionary history of Chinese characters, turning them into cryptic symbols that seem to have fallen from the sky. When you don’t understand their meaning, you’re left with rote memorization. Thirdly, 100% Chinese language teachers did hear the pictography of Chinese characters, but 99%+ only know a few pictography of a few (less than ten) characters. They have to be trained before they can teach the pictography of Chinese characters. But neither the government nor the teachers have recognized the need for training, they feel very comfortable in the current system and don't feel any pressure to change. 

Therefore, not only do hundreds of millions of Chinese students have to continue to memorize by rote, but tens of thousands or millions of foreign students have to do the same.

 

Look at how a process that could be easy and interesting has become arduous and tedious. Now that we've identified the problem, it's up to you whether you want to abandon the arduous path of rote memorization and adopt a new method that involves understanding the pictographic and evolutionary nature of characters. The answer might seem simple, but it's not, due to inertia and because this learning method does not fit into the current Chinese language education system. I hope that one day people will realize we have to change, and we should embrace this easier, more interesting method that reflects the true nature of Chinese characters through their pictographic evolution.

 

If you are interested, I give four more characters for you to guess, to see how many you could guess right ?

Chinese, the most interesting and simple language in the world

By Lewei Shang

 

The biggest feature of Chinese is pictographs. 

 

What are pictographs? Pictographs are drawings, the simplest drawings. I have been introducing pictographic Chinese characters on my blog for many years, and readers who follow my blog should have seen many pictographic Chinese characters that I have introduced, and their evolution. Learning Chinese characters through pictographs is very interesting and easy to understand.

 

For example:

 

 

From left to right:

Shell bone script, big seal script, small seal script, clerical script.

 

The top is 目 (mù), which means eyes; the bottom is 人 (rén), which means person. Many people think that shell bone script is too difficult, and many even translate shell bone script as Oracle script (a mysterious font). This translation is incorrect; Oracle bone script should be translated as Shell bone script. Shell bone script is not mysterious. Do you think the shell bone script for "目" - an eye, and the shell bone script for "人" - the side of a human body above, are mysterious? They are much more similar to eyes and human bodies than the characters in Song typeface. They are much easier to understand than English words "Eye" and "Human being" or "People". But why don't we say Song typeface is difficult to understand, or English is difficult to understand? The reason is that you have not seriously studied shell bone script, so you think it is difficult. In addition, Oracle script - a mysterious font, Ancient Egyptian script, and Ancient Mayan script are more difficult to understand than Shell bone script. If Shell bone script is called Oracle, then what should they be called? Therefore, Shell Bone script is the most appropriate English translation.

 

Pictographic Chinese characters are mainly nouns with shapes, such as: 口 (kǒu) - mouth, 人 (rén) - person, 目(mù) - eyes, 木 (mù) - tree, 门 (mén) - door, 山 (shān) - mountain, 水 (shuǐ) - water, 田 (tián) - field, 火 (huǒ) - fire, 日 (rì) - sun, 月 (yuè) - moon, 云 (yún) - cloud, 鸟 (niǎo) - bird, 鹿 (lù) - deer, 雨 (yǔ) - rain, 鱼 (yú) - fish, etc. For adjectives and verbs without shapes, such as: 见 (jiàn) - see, 看 (kàn) - look, 明 (míng) - bright, 鸣 (míng) - sing, 沐 (mù) - bathe, 相 (xiāng) - each other, 泪 (lèi) - tears, 渔 (yú) - fish, 问 (wèn) - ask, etc., they are composed of individual pictographic characters according to their meanings, so they are called compound ideographic characters.

 

For example:

From left to right:

Shell bone script, Big seal script, Small seal script, Clerical script, Simplified Song typeface.

 

The top is "目" (mù), the bottom is "人" (rén), forming the character "见" (jiàn). This is very obvious and easy to see. Learning Chinese characters like this is undoubtedly a pleasant and easy process.

 

Each individual character is like an electronic component, and then different logical circuit boards are built according to their functions. These circuit boards can then be used to build more complex circuit boards. There are only about four hundred individual characters (the smallest, undividable, meaningful units) but they form tens of thousands of compound characters, including compound ideographic characters and phono-semantic characters. As long as you understand these four hundred or so individual characters, it is easy to understand other compound characters. You don't need to remember every character. From these individual and compound characters, phrases can be formed.

 

Simple, easy to understand, very easy to learn, and very enjoyable, without the need to memorize Chinese characters by rote.

 

But if pictographs are not discussed, all Chinese characters become meaningless symbols, and can only be memorized by rote, making learning extremely difficult.

 

 

In addition to making Chinese characters interesting and easy to understand, Chinese grammar is also extremely simple. I have previously written an article discussing "Why is Chinese Grammar Extremely Simple?", and today I will represent Chinese grammar with diagrams, which may be easier to understand.

 

 

Chinese verbs only have one tense, there is no past tense, no perfect tense, and no future tense. There are also no problems with singular or plural verbs that need to be changed, and there are no irregular verbs. There is also no subjunctive mood in verbs; as long as "如果" (rúguǒ) (if) is added, it becomes a subjunctive mood. There is no requirement for verbs in question sentences to be placed before; as long as a "?" is added at the end, it is enough.

 

So, one verb is just one word, for example: 做 (zuò) - to do, in English there are: do, does, did, doing, done, have done, will do, would have done, etc. In Chinese, it's simply 我做 (wǒ zuò) - I do, 你做 (nǐ zuò) - you do, 他做 (tā zuò) - he do, 我们做 (wǒmen zuò) - we do, 我现在做 (wǒ xiànzài zuò) - I do now, 你昨天做 (nǐ zuótiān zuò) - you do yesterday, 他明天做 (tā míngtiān zuò) - he do tomorrow, etc. Anyway, it's all "做" (zuò) – to do. Similarly, for 是 (shì) - to be, in English there are: am, is, are, was, were, have been, will be, would be, etc. In Chinese, it's 我是 (wǒ shì) - I be, 你是 (nǐ shì) - you be, 他是 (tā shì) - he be, 我们是 (wǒmen shì) - we be, 我现在是 (wǒ xiànzài shì) - I be now, 你过去是 (nǐ guòqù shì) - you be in the past, 他将来是 (tā jiānglái shì) - he be in the future, etc. Anyway, it's all "是" (shì) - to be.

 

Chinese grammar should be taught early, like the main beam of a house. Once the main beam is erected, adding other supports, doors, and windows becomes easier.

 

For example:             AB learn XY

 

AB can be nouns, pronouns, XY can be nouns, pronouns, adverbs. As long as it makes logical sense, it can form a sentence

 

I study Chinese, you study singing, they study painting, Zhang San study boxing, Li Si study martial arts, Wang Wu study very well, They study Math yesterday, She study Art tomorrow, etc.

 

It's a bit like combining individual characters into compound characters mentioned earlier, and then combining them into phrases. Here, adding verbs forms sentences, and with sentences, you can write articles.

 

But if Chinese grammar is taught according to English grammar, it complicates simple issues.

 

The third characteristic of Chinese: many homophones.

 

Having many homophones is a major disadvantage of Chinese, with one sound having multiple characters. 目(mù), 沐 (mù), 木 (mù), 幕 (mù), 穆 (mù), 墓 (mù), 慕 (mù), 牧 (mù), 暮 (mù), 募 (mù), 睦 (mù), 钼 (mù), all pronounced "mù". If tones are not considered, then there are even more characters. Which characters correspond to "Mu li ji zhong"? Is it 牡蛎及钟? 木犁几种 ? 穆立击中? 暮里挤肿 ? 目力集中? etc., you simply don't know which characters they are, because they are all pronounced exactly same. 

 

So, the path of Romanization of Chinese characters is not feasible. At the same time, the method emphasized in learning English of "listening and speaking leading, reading and writing following" cannot be applied to learning Chinese, because homophones quickly make you unable to continue. This is why many foreigners can quickly learn "hello" and "goodbye", but after a few years, they are still stuck with just these two sentences, or maybe a couple more.

 

Apart from homophones, the lack of relationship between the pronunciation and writing of Chinese characters makes learning Chinese even more difficult. The pronunciation and spelling of English are closely related; if you can say it, you have about seventy to eighty percent certainty of being able to write it. So, knowing how to say English words can help you remember them. But there is no relationship between the pronunciation and writing of Chinese characters; you can say a sentence, but you might not be able to write a single character.

 

The relationship between the writing and expression of Chinese characters and real objects is pictographic, so learning pictographs can help remember Chinese characters. English does not have this relationship, which is its shortcoming. Teaching English as "listening and speaking leading, reading and writing following" is a strategy to highlight strengths and avoid weaknesses: highlighting the closeness between English pronunciation and spelling, while avoiding the lack of pictographic characteristics of English words. Similarly, the strategy for learning Chinese is to highlight strengths and avoid weaknesses: highlighting the pictographic nature of Chinese characters, making writing characters like drawing; as long as this strength is highlighted, the weakness of rote memorization is naturally avoided, and at the same time, the problem of too many homophones is also avoided because when you speak, the corresponding Chinese characters come to mind, and you will never get confused.

 

In summary:

 

The greatest strength of Chinese characters: pictographic, characters are drawings.

 

The second greatest strength of Chinese characters: very simple grammar.

 

These two points make Chinese the simplest and most interesting language.

 

The greatest weakness of Chinese characters: too many homophones, and the pronunciation and writing of Chinese characters are unrelated.

 

The second greatest weakness of Chinese characters: individual characters are difficult to remember. But this only exists when we don't teach pictographs; if we do, this weakness naturally disappears.

 

Conclusion:

 

As long as we highlight strengths and avoid weaknesses: teach pictographs, teach grammar, and then follow up with Pinyin, Chinese is the most interesting and simplest language.

 

March 1, 2024

 

 

Why is Chinese grammar so simple?

 As we all know, compared with other languages, Chinese grammar is very simple. It may be the language with the simplest grammar in the world, or at least one of the languages with the simplest grammar.

For example, the modal verb "是" in Chinese means: 我是(I be), 你是(you be), 他是(he be), 我们是 (we be), 你们是 (you be), 他们是 (they be), 我是(I be) in the past, 你是(you be) now, 他是(he be) in the future, etc. Even if the grammar is not complicated in English, something like this be: I am, you are, he is, we are, they are, I was, you were, they were, he was, I have been, you will be, they would be, etc. There are many different forms of be.

 

The other thing is tense. For example, English has past tense, past perfect tense, present tense, present continuous tense, future tense, future perfect tense, and so on. I did, I had done, I have done, I do, I am doing, I have been doing, I will do, etc. There is also the subjunctive mood. There are also conjugations for singular and plural verbs: I do, he does, they do.

Chinese is very simple: 我做过（I do before），我早做了(I do earlier time)，我已经做了(I do already)，我正在做 (I do right now)，我一直在做 (I do all the time) ，我将要做 (I do late)，我们做 (we do)，他会做 (He do late)。 Every situation used "做"(do), no matter what tense it is, it is "做"(do), whether it is singular or plural, it is "做"(do).

 

Then you may ask: Are the English did, do, and will do more accurate than Chinese expressions? Won't. Chinese can use adverbials to resolve tenses: I 做 (do) it yesterday, you 做 (do) it now, we 做 (do) it tomorrow. Sometimes adverbials must be added in English too: We went there Friday. Without this Friday, the listener would not know when you went. Chinese also adds Friday, but Chinese does not need to change the tense of "go": we went yesterday and we will go tomorrow. In English, you need to change go into went. Chinese says the same things as “we go（去） yesterday” and “we go（去） tomorrow”. You are confused? Of course Not.

 

Another example is nominative case, object case, there are many rules in English. I love him; He loves me. English needs to distinguish between "he/him, love/loves, I/me". It's a lot of trouble. In Chinese it means "我爱他“ （I love him） and "他爱我”（he love me）. Both used Love, no loves needed.

 

There are unnecessary repetitions here in English: First of all, why do we add s to the verb after a singular noun? It seems unnecessary. Just like the Chinese saying: I love him, he love me, no one would misunderstand.

 

There is also passive voice. In English, "He was asked; the table is broken; they were moved", be asked, be broken, be moved, are all passive voice: you need to add be (was, is, were), the verb is also Change to past tense. The Chinese is simple: “他被问“（he be asked）; “桌子破了“（the table be broken）; “他们感动了“（they be moved）. People can understand.

 

Of course, there are some problems with this. For example, the most common mistake Chinese students make is to always use the present tense: We do, we do yesterday, we do tomorrow. There is also no distinction between singular and plural: We do, he do, she do. This is due to the influence of our long-term Chinese grammar. Chinese verbs are not divided into tenses, and there is no distinction between singular and plural.

 

So why did Chinese develop such a simple grammar? The main reason is that it is very difficult to create pictographic Chinese characters. Each character is the result of at least decades or hundreds of years of natural selection. For example, the word "是" was originally written in bronze.

 

 

The upper part is character Morning – 早, formed by 日- Sun, and 十 – means Grass here. In the morning the sun is very low, just like as low as grass. 

 

The lower part is character Foot – 止. Chinese proverb says "A day's plan begins in the morning." Get up early and go out to start working. The ancients believed that this was "yes", which means affirmation and the right thing that a person should do. This is still the literal meaning of "is." But later it was used in modal verbs, which means "I am, you are, he is". In fact, the meaning is similar, that is, "sure or confirm". "I am a student" is a confirmation of identity.

It is conceivable that many people should have created different "是", but in the end most people accepted the current "是" and then it was passed down. This process should have taken at least decades, probably hundreds of years. This is the process of formation of pictographs. 

 

If there are different "be" like English: am, is, are, was, were, have been, will be, etc. Then can Chinese characters create so many "是" characters? Add extra one stroke, two strokes, or remove one stroke or two strokes to the word "是" ? Where to add it? Which stroke could you eliminated? None, because if you do, the character lost its pictography completely.

 

It is precisely because Chinese characters were not enough that ancient Chinese even had made a character to have multiple meanings: for example, "乐": music, happiness; "差": bad review, errand; "行": action, or bank ; "参": participate, ginseng, etc.

 

The corresponding Chinese character for do mentioned earlier is "做".

 

Big seal script of 做

 

On the left is character Person. The middle is character Ancient, but it means here is a wine measuring vessel made of bamboo, the bottom mouth is the bamboo tube, the top is the bamboo pole and handle. People who are now over 60 years old may have seen such a wine measuring device in the grocery store when they were children. It can measure wine, vinegar, and soy sauce. Grocery stores in remote rural areas may still use it. On the right of the character, a hand (lower part) with a tool, such as a hammer (top part), a person holding the tool to make a wine measurer.

 

The ancients racked their brains to come up with such a word. It is almost impossible to divide it into present tense, past tense, present continuous tense, perfect tense, etc.

 

All in all, it is impossible to create different Chinese characters according to different tenses, singular and plural numbers like English. Too much trouble and unnecessary.

The ancestors probably never thought of doing that at all. Since there is only one "是"（be）, our ancestors used the word "是" to express all "是"s with a subject in front. Later, adding time adverbials solved all the problems. For example, "I 是 a student in the past", "past 是" = 是. The singular and plural forms of the present tense have no effect on Chinese verbs: "I 做（do）, we 做." Does it affect understanding? Absolutely not. So why should we impose restrictions on ourselves?

 

It is easy to spell words in English, such as: do, does, doing, done, did, or work, working, worked, worker, etc. "It is easy to be willful", so many rules are set, some are necessary and some maybe unnecessary, it makes the syntax very complicated. Chinese is forced to set simple grammar because it is impossible to create many forms of one verb due to different tense, and singular or plural in Chinese.

 

Will such simple grammar in Chinese cause misunderstandings? China’s thousands of years of history tells us: No. So can foreigners understand grammar like Chinese? Yes. For example, "Long time no see" is a typical Chinese expression: no subject, no object, but everyone understands it, and now it has become standard English.

 

There are many strokes in Chinese characters. If you don’t understand pictograms, it will be very difficult to learn them by rote memorization. Therefore, Chinese characters are considered to be the most difficult language in the world to learn. But if we start from pictograms, Chinese characters become very simple and interesting. The difficulty of creating Chinese characters forced the Chinese language to form a minimalist grammar. Chinese actually has a strong advantage: Chinese characters that look like paintings, plus the simplest grammar.

 

As long as pictograms are introduced into Chinese teaching, Chinese can become the most beautiful and easiest language in the world.

 

Written on January 11, 2024

Translated on January 19, 2024

Note: Update information

1, Amazing Chinese Characters blog has changed name to Learn Chinese with Pictography, and changed its URL address too, the new URL is

Learn Chinese with Pictography.blogspot.com/

2, Pictographic Chinese Calligraphy blog has changed name to Chinese Pictographic Calligraphy, and the new URL is

Chinese Pictographic Calligraphy.blogspot.com/

You are welcome to access the new sites for Chinese learning. Please update your bookmarks.