酷我-北美枫

[江落雨]

Chinese, a colorful flower


Before learning it many foreign students always think that the Chinese Language is the most difficult language in the world, just like climbing the Himalayas. But as everybody knows, it is also difficult to start everything. When you determine to learn it well, you will find that Chinese is just like a flower, colorful and beautiful.
To most foreigners who speak the Indo-European languages, the most unacceptable thing is that in Chinese pronunciation and character are different at all, not even similar. I have a friend who comes from Madagascar once told me her understanding about learning Chinese. She said that she couldn’t understand why the Chinese pronunciation is so different from the character, and it is too hard to remember both pronunciation and character for those who speak French. She told me French is much easier than Chinese owing to the identity of pronunciation and character. You can read it out when you see a French word according to their regulations of pronunciation. Maybe she is right, but do remember, what she thinks is unacceptable is the same as what we think about French –all the things are either male or female. Do remember which word is male and which is female, do remember each pronunciation of each character. You can easily read a French word out but there are many pronunciations that are different, but Chinese pronunciations are limited. That is to say, a same pronunciation may belong to many characters, for example, pronunciation he can means river, lotus, nut, rice, box and so on. If you can pronounce these pronunciations, you can speak Chinese very well. All you have to do is to remember the pronunciation of each character. Read it out. It is the best way to learn a language. The more you read, the easily you remember them.
As to characters, it is impervious to reason that they are like drawing not characters. You can’t remember them by remember theirs letters A, B, C, D, you have to recognize their styles of character and remember how to write them. In fact Chinese characters are composed by heng, shu, pie, na, zhe and dian, but you can’t read them out like read letters A, B, C, D out. You have to write it, the more, the better. I have a friend who comes from Indonesia. I always met her in the library where she was studying very hard. She has a notebook on which she wrote many Chinese characters. She told me when she saw some new characters in the newspaper she will write them down and try to remember them. I asked whether it was too difficult to remember Chinese characters and she shook her head. She said Chinese is like drawing, the more you write the more interest you will find. What she said reminded me of my past during which I learned Chinese. I still remembered when I was in the first grade of primary school my teacher taught us Chinese At first she drew the sun, the moon, water and fire and then drew a line in the middle of the sun it becomes ri, drew two lines in the moon and it changes into yue, and water, fire, hill and so on. I found it interesting because they come from nature, come from this colorful and beautiful world. So it is a good way to remember them by their material objects. But as more and more Chinese you learn, it is unable to learn in this way. When you have learned some Chinese you will find that most of them have their regulations—character components (pian pang bu shou). For example, san dian shui refers to water, such as he (river), hai (sea). Mu zi pang refers to plants, especial trees, such as shu (tree), yang (poplar), liu (willow). It is interesting to collect these characters and it will help you to remember as much characters as you can.
You have to remember many words to read an English article, but you needn’t recognize so many Chinese characters in a Chinese composition due to its combination. Each character is an independent character, and they can combine to form a new word. Take the following six characters for example: dian (electricity), nao (brain), xian (thread), ke (shell), bei (shellfish) and suo (search). You can mix two of them into a new word. dian nao(computer), dian xian (wire), nao ke (skull), xian suo (clue), bei ke (clamshell). That is to say, you only remember six Chinese characters and combine them, you can know eleven words; but in English you have to remember eleven words. So do not lose heart. Chinese is not so difficult as you think.
Chinese has many phrases, which are difficult to understand and remember for foreigners. But do you know that many phrases have their interesting stories? They were handed down from generations to generations, carrying their remote and antique histories. For example, bei gong she ying. If you just look at the phrase you can’t understand what it means, but if you have heard its story, you can comprehend it easily and remember it firmly. The story comes from “feng su tong yi”. It is said that long long ago there was a man who invited a guest to have a dinner. On the wine cup reflected an arrow which was hung on the wall, but the guest mistook it for a snake and fell ill when he came back, thinking that he had been poisoned. From then on this phrase is compared to those who are terrible suspicious and panic.
You see, Chinese is not so difficult to learn as long as you find a right way. If you make up your mind to learn it well you will feel it is like a flower, colorful and beautiful.

note: This composition was first published in China Daily on Sep 29,2006.

[[清凌凌]]

Chinese, a colorful flower


Before learning it many foreign students always think that the Chinese Language is the most difficult language in the world, just like climbing the Himalayas. But as everybody knows, it is also difficult to start everything. When you determine to learn it well, you will find that Chinese is just like a flower, colorful and beautiful.
To most foreigners who speak the Indo-European languages, the most unacceptable thing is that in Chinese pronunciation and character are different at all, not even similar. I have a friend who comes from Madagascar once told me her understanding about learning Chinese. She said that she couldn’t understand why the Chinese pronunciation is so different from the character, and it is too hard to remember both pronunciation and character for those who speak French. She told me French is much easier than Chinese owing to the identity of pronunciation and character. You can read it out when you see a French word according to their regulations of pronunciation. Maybe she is right, but do remember, what she thinks is unacceptable is the same as what we think about French –all the things are either male or female. Do remember which word is male and which is female, do remember each pronunciation of each character. You can easily read a French word out but there are many pronunciations that are different, but Chinese pronunciations are limited. That is to say, a same pronunciation may belong to many characters, for example, pronunciation he can means river, lotus, nut, rice, box and so on. If you can pronounce these pronunciations, you can speak Chinese very well. All you have to do is to remember the pronunciation of each character. Read it out. It is the best way to learn a language. The more you read, the easily you remember them.
As to characters, it is impervious to reason that they are like drawing not characters. You can’t remember them by remember theirs letters A, B, C, D, you have to recognize their styles of character and remember how to write them. In fact Chinese characters are composed by heng, shu, pie, na, zhe and dian, but you can’t read them out like read letters A, B, C, D out. You have to write it, the more, the better. I have a friend who comes from Indonesia. I always met her in the library where she was studying very hard. She has a notebook on which she wrote many Chinese characters. She told me when she saw some new characters in the newspaper she will write them down and try to remember them. I asked whether it was too difficult to remember Chinese characters and she shook her head. She said Chinese is like drawing, the more you write the more interest you will find. What she said reminded me of my past during which I learned Chinese. I still remembered when I was in the first grade of primary school my teacher taught us Chinese At first she drew the sun, the moon, water and fire and then drew a line in the middle of the sun it becomes ri, drew two lines in the moon and it changes into yue, and water, fire, hill and so on. I found it interesting because they come from nature, come from this colorful and beautiful world. So it is a good way to remember them by their material objects. But as more and more Chinese you learn, it is unable to learn in this way. When you have learned some Chinese you will find that most of them have their regulations—character components (pian pang bu shou). For example, san dian shui refers to water, such as he (river), hai (sea). Mu zi pang refers to plants, especial trees, such as shu (tree), yang (poplar), liu (willow). It is interesting to collect these characters and it will help you to remember as much characters as you can.
You have to remember many words to read an English article, but you needn’t recognize so many Chinese characters in a Chinese composition due to its combination. Each character is an independent character, and they can combine to form a new word. Take the following six characters for example: dian (electricity), nao (brain), xian (thread), ke (shell), bei (shellfish) and suo (search). You can mix two of them into a new word. dian nao(computer), dian xian (wire), nao ke (skull), xian suo (clue), bei ke (clamshell). That is to say, you only remember six Chinese characters and combine them, you can know eleven words; but in English you have to remember eleven words. So do not lose heart. Chinese is not so difficult as you think.
Chinese has many phrases, which are difficult to understand and remember for foreigners. But do you know that many phrases have their interesting stories? They were handed down from generations to generations, carrying their remote and antique histories. For example, bei gong she ying. If you just look at the phrase you can’t understand what it means, but if you have heard its story, you can comprehend it easily and remember it firmly. The story comes from “feng su tong yi”. It is said that long long ago there was a man who invited a guest to have a dinner. On the wine cup reflected an arrow which was hung on the wall, but the guest mistook it for a snake and fell ill when he came back, thinking that he had been poisoned. From then on this phrase is compared to those who are terrible suspicious and panic.
You see, Chinese is not so difficult to learn as long as you find a right way. If you make up your mind to learn it well you will feel it is like a flower, colorful and beautiful.

note: This composition was first published in China Daily on Sep 29,2006.

[晓鸣]

好文章。你的分析让那些视学中文为畏途的人有了一些捷径。虽然这捷径还是如蜀道一样难。我女儿经常都在感叹学中文太难了。

[[自己的敌人]]

好文章。你的分析让那些视学中文为畏途的人有了一些捷径。虽然这捷径还是如蜀道一样难。我女儿经常都在感叹学中文太难了。

[angel]

But as everybody knows, it is also difficult to start everything.
_________________
U R always in deep my heart

[[凯伦]]

But as everybody knows, it is also difficult to start everything.
_________________
U R always in deep my heart