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
