The Chinese are a very hardworking and materialistic people who “plow” every day to provide for their needs and requirements. Residents of the Celestial Empire do not believe in God, very rarely help each other on the street in emergency situations, are constantly busy with work and related hassles, but nevertheless, their pride and welcoming mood can always be reinforced with a couple of simple, but so pleasant phrases in Chinese , which will encourage your interlocutor to communicate and make communication more open and simple.
1. 谢谢,老板 (xie xie lao ban) ~ Thank you boss!)))
How many emotions does this simple phrase evoke on the face of a Chinese person you barely know, be it a salesman in a store, a subway worker, or just a passer-by. Say this phrase to show that you know Chinese.
The “cult of laobang” in China has been developing since the times Ancient Civilization, but when a foreigner says the word “boss” in relation to a Chinese, it’s three times more pleasant.
2. 你英语说得那么厉害！(ni ying yu shuo de na me li hai) - Your level of English is amazing!
If a Chinese person tries to talk to you in English language, even if it is further from ideal, praise it. Say this phrase - and the Chinese are 100% yours)
3. 我们交朋友吧 (wo men jiao peng you ba) - Let's be friends!
Here the Chinese are finally cleared of all doubts that you will not “get along culturally” - now there is no reason not to trust you. The Chinese is yours again!)
4. 我对中国文化很感兴趣 (wo dui zhong guo wen hua hen gan xing qu) - I have an incredible interest in Chinese culture!
The Chinese love their Motherland, are very proud of its history and modern achievements. Therefore, if you utter this phrase, they will immediately accept you as one of their own and understand that you really take China very seriously. You didn’t come here to “hang out in clubs,” but to develop. Start learning Chinese with this simple phrase)
5. 因为中国是一个世界上最强的国家 - (yin wei zhong guo shi yi ge shi jie shang zui qiang de guo jia) - Because China is the most powerful state in the world!
New Tang Dynasty Television recently reported that more than a hundred Taiwanese entrepreneurs living in Shanghai traveled to Taiwan to recruit young people to work for their companies.
When asked why they are looking for people in Taiwan when there are many talented people is also in Shanghai, managing a company engaged in by human resourses, explained with a feeling of disappointment: “Because young people in mainland China have a wolfish nature.”
He also said that young people from Taiwan have more creative potential and loyalty to the company they work for.
These are young people of the same race, speak the same language, just live on different shores. So why do people on one bank retain the qualities of devotion and fidelity characteristic of the traditional Chinese culture, and on the other they show heartlessness?
Perhaps we can find the reason if we look at the Chinese character 愛 (ai), meaning “love.”
Initially, this hieroglyph did not have a deep emotional meaning associated with a person or event. It was an expression of gratitude from a hungry man.
When creating the character, 愛 was written as 㤅, that is, an expression of gratitude for the food provided. At the top of the 旡 there is a picture of a hungry man with a large open mouth. The lower part is represented by the character 心, meaning heart. This is an accurate representation of the physical heart.
During the Qin Dynasty, more than 2,000 years ago, the image of a slow walking pace (夊) was added to the bottom to show reluctance to part with something.
The essence of the character 愛 (love) is that it includes the character “heart”. If a person is truly in love or grateful, he does it with all his heart.
However, in the simplified version of this Chinese character, the "heart" in the middle has been removed.
Young people from Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau and even Japan write the character for “love” with “heart.” But young people from mainland China write it without “heart.”
The character 心 (heart) has only four strokes. It's not difficult to write.
It is strange that the character 鬼, which means ghost and has a negative meaning, has ten strokes. It has not been simplified, even in its use as a root. For example: 魔 (demon);
魂 (soul);
This makes one wonder about the motives for simplifying Chinese writing and the destruction traditional values Chinese people.
Let's consider the meaning of the hieroglyph “U”: 悟 – “comprehension”. Since this compound hieroglyph contains some more symbols, for example, “self”, “heart”, we will also get acquainted with these signs of Chinese writing.
Chinese character for "comprehension"
Hieroglyph “comprehension”, pronunciation: wù/у (4th tone). Illustration by Maria Kononenko.
When a hieroglyph is part of another hieroglyph, it is called a grapheme. Thus, in the character “comprehension” you can find 4 graphemes, each of which can also be used as full-fledged independent characters in various Chinese texts.
These are the graphemes of the hieroglyph “comprehension”: 口 - “mouth, hole”, 五 - “five”;
吾 – “own self”, 心 – “heart”.
Ancient hieroglyph "heart". Image by zdic.net
The ancient schematic accurately reproduces this vital human organ.
However, in the process of the evolution of Chinese writing, the character for “heart” has changed significantly, and is currently written like this: Modern hieroglyph for “heart”, pronunciation: xīn/xin. Illustration by Maria Kononenko
忄 is also a “heart” grapheme, but in this form the sign is used exclusively as an element within another hieroglyph, for example, as in our case with the concept of “comprehension”.
Chinese, broadly also "hole"
Hieroglyph “mouth”, pronunciation: kǒu/kou. Illustration: Maria Kononenko
Ancient hieroglyph "five". Image from zdic.net
The hieroglyph “five” illustrated above symbolizes the “5 elements” (Chinese Wu-hsing), according to the interpretation of the Showen Jiezi dictionary *.
According to the ideas of the ancient Chinese, the “five elements” (Water, Fire, Wood, Metal, Earth) are the primary elements of the entire Universe. The “5 elements” come from two opposite principles “yin” and “yang”, which symbolize day and night, Heaven and Earth, masculine and feminine, etc.
The upper and lower lines in the ancient hieroglyph symbolize Heaven and Earth (“yang” and “yin”), which in the process of interaction and struggle give rise to the “five primary elements” or “five elements”.
The modern hieroglyph “5” has changed significantly and is now written like this:
Modern hieroglyph “five”, pronunciation: wǔ/у (3rd tone). Illustration by Maria Kononenko
Etymology of the Chinese character for "self" By combining the two graphemes “hole” and “five” described above, the ancient Chinese gave a designation to the concept of “self.”
How are these two signs related?
We will find the answer in traditional culture China.
According to the same concept of the “five elements”, a person has five organs (symbolically “holes” - author) of perception of the world - these are eyes, ears, tongue, nose, skin (touch, tactile sensations). A person also has five senses that spontaneously react differently to the world– this is joy, melancholy, thoughtfulness, grief, anger. They shape personality in many ways.
“5 virtues” of a person: humanity or humanity, rules of decency or a sense of tact, trust and faith, decency or a sense of duty, wisdom - the main characteristics of a person, which distinguishes people from animals in their manifestations to the outside world. This also forms the “own self”.
Etymology of the hieroglyph “comprehension” (one’s own self)
The hieroglyph “comprehension” 悟 is extensive and also carries the content of the concepts “wake up”, “awaken”; “enlightenment”, “understanding”; “awareness” (of one’s own self).
In Chinese culture, the character “Wu” (pinyin: wù) plays a special role. Let's give one example of this. One of the main characters of the very famous classic Chinese novel “Journey to the West,” the mystical immortal monkey Sun Wukong, has the hieroglyph “Wu” in his name (Wu-kun, from Chinese, “comprehended emptiness”).
To designate such an abstract concept as “comprehension,” the ancient sages combined two graphemes “heart” and “self.” And a new hieroglyph arose.
The structure of the Chinese character for “comprehension” (self). Illustration from https://www.facebook.com/ShenYunPerformingArts. On the company page representing using
Hello to all blog readers! In this article, we will clarify one important secret of Chinese characters that will help you memorize new words quickly. When we first started writing and memorizing hieroglyphs, it seemed to us a very interesting and entertaining activity, and did not cause any particular difficulties. But more than a month passed and something happened that really upset us...
Have you encountered such a problem? You learn hieroglyphs - you study for a day, two, a week, a month. Every day there are new interesting, funny hieroglyphs. But then some time passes and you completely forget them? You don’t remember how they are read, what they look like or what they mean. For us, this was a great difficulty on the path to improving the language.
It took some time before a secret was revealed to us. This is rather a fact about Chinese characters that not everyone knows. Many people understand this themselves, after considerable time of studying the Chinese language, I independently analyze the characters I study. But, in order to save time for those who are just at the beginning of their journey, we will reveal this secret now to facilitate your learning.
Secret by name: hieroglyph of phonetic category
This name and this translation are offered by dictionaries for hieroglyphs: 形声字 。Why are hieroglyphs of this particular type so important to us? It's simple: 90% of Chinese characters are these very characters of the phonetic category. And if you know the features of these hieroglyphs, then you will know the features of most of the hieroglyphs.
Now let's get down to business.
Features of hieroglyphs of the phonetic category
Let's figure out what a phonetic category hieroglyph is?
These are hieroglyphs consisting of two parts: (for example, right and left parts, lower and upper parts, outer and inner parts) one of which is responsible for the meaning, and the second for pronunciation.
想 - To think, to want. The upper part is responsible for the pronunciation of “相” [xiāng], the lower hieroglyph is one of the variations of the hieroglyph “heart”, i.e. our emotions and feelings that come from our heart. It is this part of the hieroglyph that carries its meaning.
Most of the elements responsible for the meaning of the hieroglyph are keys or, in other words, radicals, about which you can read more.
Here are some examples of semantic parts and their meaning:
Key "speech"讠 [ yán]: 话 words, expressions， 说 - speak， 请 - ask
Hand key手 [ shǒu]： 打 - to hit, hit， 找 to look for， 提 - to lift
Key "food"饣 [ shí]： 饭 food, food， 锇 [è] - hungry， 铰子 - dumplings
Tree key木 [ mù]： 树 -wood，床 -bed，桌子 -table
Heart key心 [ xīn]： 想 - want， 感到 - feel，焦急 - nervous
The right side of the hieroglyph is the phonetic part, by which you can find out the pronunciation of the hieroglyph. Here are more examples involving the right side:
晴 - sunny
清 - clean, light, transparent
请 - to ask, to make a request
All these hieroglyphs right part is the same and is responsible for pronunciation. They are all pronounced like qing only in different tones. But the right parts of these hieroglyphs carry meaning: 晴 - left part: sun, 清 - left part: water, 请 - left part: speech
Rules for the distribution of semantic and phonetic parts
Now perhaps the most important thing: how to distinguish the semantic part from the phonetic part?... There are certain rules that the most of hieroglyphs of this type.
The semantic part in most cases is located: in the left, upper, or outer part of the hieroglyph.
The phonetic part usually occupies the following positions: right, bottom or inner part.
Of course, not all hieroglyphs obey this rule. Sometimes the opposite happens, but these cases are certainly less common.
Let's look specifically at examples so that you can understand
情 - feeling, emotion, mood.
The left part, which carries the meaning, is one of the variations of the “heart” key, the right part is responsible for pronunciation.
Here are some more examples:
Do not forget that Chinese characters have a fairly long history. Over the course of centuries and even thousands of years, they have changed. And it often happened that the hieroglyph that previously had certain meaning, in modern times has been replaced by another. And now it is quite difficult to understand why some hieroglyphs are read and have exactly this pronunciation and meaning. For example:
猜 - guess, guess; guess, guess.
If we take into account modern interpretations, then its left part is usually used in hieroglyphs associated with animals, and the right is read as . In this case, this hieroglyph has a completely different pronunciation and is certainly not connected in any way with any animal.
Method for memorizing new hieroglyphs
So, now when you suddenly learn a new hieroglyph, there is a high probability that it belongs to this category. Therefore, do not translate it immediately, but try to guess its approximate meaning based on the context and the part that is responsible for the meaning. After all, what we come up with ourselves, and not what is presented to us on a silver platter, is remembered by the brain for a longer time. As they say, what is hard won is more valuable.
And when you memorize this hieroglyph, be sure to pay attention to the key used and the part that is responsible for pronunciation. Try to remember other hieroglyphs that have the same hieroglyphs as this one.
This is how we do it. For example, we want to remember a new character 盯. Looking at the table of radicals, you can see that the radical used here is 目, which translates as eye. What hieroglyphs have we previously learned that use this radical?
眼 - eyes, 看 - look, 泪 - tear
From this we can guess that this hieroglyph is somehow connected with eyes, vision, gaze.
But the radical 丁 does not appear in the table. Therefore, we can assume that he is responsible for pronunciation. Let us also recall the hieroglyphs in which 丁 is used:
顶 - top or counting word for headdresses, 订 – armor, 钉 – nail
After analyzing these hieroglyphs, it is easy to understand that they all have a similar pronunciation.
So in in this case we can assume that this character 盯 will most likely be pronounced as ding with some of the tones and be related to gaze, vision or eyes.
We look at the dictionary and see that the translation of this word is: stare, look intently, and it is read as dīng. Which once again confirms that the left side 目 is responsible for the meaning, and the right side 丁 for pronunciation.
That's the whole secret. It is quite simple, but can significantly increase efficiency in memorizing hieroglyphs. After all, a hieroglyph remembered in this way stays in your head much longer than one that you have written down several dozen times. But it’s better to use these two methods together – i.e. this method plus mechanical memory - so that your hand also remembers how to write a given hieroglyph, then the effect will be even better!
That's basically all. It remains only to add that not all hieroglyphs clearly coincide with the above example. Sometimes pronunciation and meaning may differ (pronunciation often differs in tones and consonants), and the meaning may not seem quite the same to you, because language does not stand still, and at the time this hieroglyph appeared, it may have had a different meaning, but now it has changed. So guys, be patient! Patience, ingenuity and diligence will help you!
Well now you know this one little secret, which I hope will bring you considerable help in learning Chinese!
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