Monday, March 27, 2006
Remembering characters 1
(note: if you are reading this in an RSS reader, you probably won't be able to see the pinyin tooltips, in which case you should click on the link to the original post.)
Recognizing characters becomes pretty easy after a while, but remembering how to write them is definitely one of the most challenging parts of learning Chinese. I find it becomes easier once you have some frame of reference. Then a once complex character suddenly becomes clear.
葬 - bury
葬礼 - funeral
火葬 - cremation
葬地 - grave
(sorry about the morbid theme!)
I always had trouble remembering how to write 葬 until my teacher pointed out the composition of the character. The top part is grass - 艹，the middle is a dead body - 死, and the bottom is a kind of stone table on which the body is laid to rest (this can be seen as a coffin). So the character is a picture of a body in a grave, and now you shouldn't have any trouble remembering how to write it! Hope that hasn't depressed you too much! I'll try a happier character next time.
(A book which I've found invaluable in learning to read and write Chinese is Remembering the Kanji, by James W. Heisig. It's actually for learning to read Japanese Kanji, but many of the characters are the same, and it will certainly give you some good ideas for memory techniques)
Recognizing characters becomes pretty easy after a while, but remembering how to write them is definitely one of the most challenging parts of learning Chinese. I find it becomes easier once you have some frame of reference. Then a once complex character suddenly becomes clear.
葬 - bury
葬礼 - funeral
火葬 - cremation
葬地 - grave
(sorry about the morbid theme!)
I always had trouble remembering how to write 葬 until my teacher pointed out the composition of the character. The top part is grass - 艹，the middle is a dead body - 死, and the bottom is a kind of stone table on which the body is laid to rest (this can be seen as a coffin). So the character is a picture of a body in a grave, and now you shouldn't have any trouble remembering how to write it! Hope that hasn't depressed you too much! I'll try a happier character next time.
(A book which I've found invaluable in learning to read and write Chinese is Remembering the Kanji, by James W. Heisig. It's actually for learning to read Japanese Kanji, but many of the characters are the same, and it will certainly give you some good ideas for memory techniques)
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Labels: Characters
posted by Dan at 10:00 AM
6 comments
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6 Comments:
Hey Dan - I really like this website. My Chinese is bad enough that I always get something out of reading it. Hopefully you're getting enough traffic coming through to encourage you to keep it up. I always try and point people learning Chinese to give you a visit.
Hey Dan - I really like this website. My Chinese is bad enough that I always get something out of reading it. Hopefully you're getting enough traffic coming through to encourage you to keep it up. I always try and point people learning Chinese to give you a visit.
grave,
we will use 墓地/坟地 not exactly 葬地. but you can call it 葬身之地/埋葬地.
I think the example your teacher gave to you shortened 葬身之地 as 葬地, it's not a common use.
Hmmm...
It's the most valuable excellence of Chinese vocab I believe. I was always troubled with the words such as "cow", "bull", "calf", etc. when learning English. I was used to but couldn't found the relationship of them. Then, there was so large a vocab to be remembered. Anyway, many new tech words are much better for me, such as "internet", "software", "hardware", etc.
I've used a few Chinese/English dictionaries, but try Wenlin (easily downloaded for free by torrent) has a great dictionary with multiple images of the characters progression from oracle bone to modern simplified character. As well as dictionary definition that explain how a character is put together, with references to Kalgren and the like. I find it invaluable.
我们不用葬地，会说“死无葬身之地”
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