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Chinese Characters: They’re Not as Hard as You Think
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Chinese Characters: They’re Not as Hard as You Think
You might already know that Chinese has a phonetic system, “Pinyin”, that uses the Latin alphabet to elicit the pronunciation of a word. However, Pinyin is in no way a system used for communication — it’s only used for language learning, and won’t be found anywhere outside of a textbook or dictionary.To get more news about chinese alphabet for beginners, you can visit shine news official website.
And if you’re chatting with that cute Chinese girl/guy on Wechat, there’s a chance they’ll understand your Pinyin messages, but they’re most likely going to be confused most of the time. You’re probably the only person that’s ever tried to use Pinyin to talk with them. Imagine if someone messaged you in English using the dictionary’s phonology system instead of the actual words!
Characters also play a key role in learning Chinese vocabulary. For example, you’ll learn that jiào shī and jiào shì mean classroom and teacher. But which is which?!
If you were looking at the characters instead of the Pinyin, it would be a lot more obvious.Not only will characters help you distinguish words, they’ll also help you memorize them. Attaching words to an image is an excellent way to store the memory of that word in your mind. When you see that character used again, you’ll be able to draw that memory back up. That process would be a lot less efficient if all you know is “shi.”A painting can be made with any number of brush strokes, in any direction, in any combination. A simplified Chinese character, on the other hand, is made with only eight different types of strokes.
Moreover, these eight different strokes aren’t just made in random combinations. They’re composed into a limited number of radicals, or character “segments.” Thousands of Chinese characters are all made up of only 214 different radicals. Learning these 214 radicals will allow you to quickly memorize the thousands of Chinese characters. Use the image below for reference:If you looked at the “character” in the above image, you could view it for two seconds then look away and easily draw it from memory. Why? Because it’s a combination of four shapes that are very familiar to you. You didn’t have to memorize how to draw each shape. You already know how to draw them. You only needed to memorize the order of the shapes.
In the same way, most Chinese characters are made up of a combination of “shapes,” or radicals. The character on the right of the image is made of three radicals. You’ll see these radicals reused throughout many different characters that you learn, simply placed in different orders. Over time, the radicals will become as familiar as the shapes you learned as a child. When you learn a new character, it will become as simple as memorizing “arrow, two triangles, circle, and heart.”
Electronic dictionaries now have features that can automatically detect a character when you take a photo of it, showing you the dictionary profile for the character. Some apps can even show you the live translation as you wave your phone over the character.
There are also apps that allow you to draw the character with your finger. This is known as “stroke input.”Unless your profession is directly related to handwriting, the only frequent handwriting you’ll do is writing your Chinese name. Otherwise, you’ll likely be communicating through email, text messaging, Wechat, etc.
When typing in Chinese, a Pinyin input system is used. You’ll simply enter the Pinyin of the characters you want and select the corresponding characters.