Learn to read Chinese ... with ease! | ShaoLan

Summary

In this engaging script, the speaker, raised in a calligraphy-rich environment, shares her fascination with the Chinese language and its complex characters. She introduces a novel, rapid method to make learning Chinese characters more accessible, starting with eight fundamental 'radicals' that form the basis for hundreds more. With this approach, learners can quickly grasp the essence of the language, akin to a Chinese eight-year-old, and start forming phrases, exemplified by creating words for 'volcano' and 'Japan'. The talk is both educational and entertaining, leaving the audience with a newfound appreciation for Chinese characters.

Takeaways

• 📝 The speaker grew up in Taiwan and was inspired by her calligrapher mother to appreciate the beauty of Chinese characters.
• 🌐 Chinese language is seen as complex and difficult to outsiders, often compared to the Great Wall of China in its impenetrability.
• 💡 The speaker has been contemplating a new, efficient method to learn Chinese to make it accessible to those interested in its beauty.
• 🎓 Learning Chinese characters traditionally involves memorizing each stroke in sequence, a process the speaker began at the age of five.
• ⏱ Given the time constraint of a five-minute presentation, the speaker suggests a simplified approach to learning Chinese.
• 🔢 A Chinese scholar may know 20,000 characters, but basic literacy only requires 1,000 characters, with the top 200 covering 40% of basic literature.
• 🔠 The speaker introduces eight fundamental characters, or radicals, as building blocks for creating more complex characters.
• 🚶‍♂️ Characters can be combined to form new meanings, such as 'person' and 'walk' combining to mean 'follow'.
• 🔥 The character for 'fire' can be humorously imagined as a person on fire to aid in memorization.
• 🌲 The character for 'tree' can be expanded to 'woods' with two trees and 'forest' with three, demonstrating how characters evolve.
• 🏠 The character for 'door' can be modified with other elements to create new words, such as 'door bolt' or 'question'.
• 🌄 Combining characters allows for the creation of phrases, like 'mountain' and 'fire' to form 'volcano'.
• 🌞 The character for 'sun' combined with 'origin' forms 'Japan', demonstrating how geographical concepts are represented.
• 👥 The speaker humorously notes that two women together can mean an argument, and three, adultery, showing cultural nuances in character combinations.

Q & A

What is the speaker's background and how did it influence her fascination with Chinese characters?

The speaker grew up in Taiwan as the daughter of a calligrapher. Her fascination with Chinese characters began with her mother showing her the beauty, shape, and form of these characters, which she treasured as one of her most memorable experiences.

Why does the speaker describe the Chinese language as 'impenetrable as the Great Wall of China' to outsiders?

The speaker uses this metaphor to express the perceived complexity and difficulty that outsiders might face when trying to understand and appreciate the Chinese language, which can seem as daunting as the ancient wall.

What is the speaker's goal in relation to the Chinese language?

The speaker's goal is to break down the barriers that make the Chinese language seem inaccessible, allowing anyone interested to understand and appreciate its beauty through a new, fast method of learning.

How many Chinese characters does a scholar typically understand, and how many are needed for basic literacy?

A Chinese scholar would understand around 20,000 characters, but only about 1,000 are needed for basic literacy.

What is the significance of the top 200 Chinese characters in terms of comprehension?

The top 200 Chinese characters allow one to comprehend about 40 percent of basic literature, which is sufficient for understanding road signs, restaurant menus, and getting the gist of web pages or newspapers.

What is the concept of 'radicals' in the context of Chinese characters, and why are they important?

Radicals are the fundamental building blocks of Chinese characters. They are essential because they can be combined to create many more characters, simplifying the learning process.

How does the speaker use the concept of 'radicals' to teach the audience new characters?

The speaker introduces eight basic radicals and then demonstrates how these can be combined or modified to form additional characters, making the learning process more intuitive and memorable.

What is the method the speaker uses to help memorize the character for 'idiot'?

The speaker uses a mnemonic device by placing the character for 'tree' under the character for 'mouth', suggesting an image of a talking tree, which is considered 'idiotic', thus making the character easy to remember.

How does the speaker explain the formation of the character for 'volcano' using radicals?

The speaker combines the character for 'mountain' with the character for 'fire' to form the character for 'volcano', illustrating the concept of combining radicals to create new meanings.

What is the historical context behind the character for 'exile', and how has its meaning evolved?

In ancient China, the character for 'exile' represented being sent beyond the mountains, which was a common punishment for political enemies. Over time, the meaning has evolved to simply mean 'getting out'.

How does the speaker demonstrate the formation of the character for 'exit'?

The speaker combines the character for 'mouth' with the concept of 'exile' or 'getting out', suggesting that the mouth is indicating the way out, thus forming the character for 'exit'.

Outlines

00:00

📚 Innovative Chinese Learning Method

The speaker, Joseph Geni, shares her childhood fascination with Chinese calligraphy and the complexity of the language. She introduces an innovative method to simplify learning Chinese characters by using eight basic radicals to build more complex characters. She demonstrates this method with examples like 'mouth', 'person', 'fire', and 'tree', showing how they can be combined to form new words. The goal is to make Chinese more accessible to outsiders, with the ability to learn a couple of hundred characters quickly, similar to a Chinese eight-year-old's literacy level.

05:02

🗻 Building Phrases with Chinese Characters

In the second paragraph, the speaker continues to explore the method of learning Chinese by combining characters to form phrases and words. Examples given include 'volcano' made from 'mountain' and 'fire', and 'Japan' by combining 'sun' and 'origin', reflecting Japan's position as the 'land of the rising sun'. The speaker also touches on the evolution of the character for 'exile' into 'get out' and uses humor to illustrate the character for 'exit'. The presentation concludes with a reminder to stop speaking and exit the stage, eliciting applause from the audience.

Keywords

💡Calligrapher

A calligrapher is an artist who specializes in writing in a visually artistic way, often involving the use of brushes and ink. In the context of the video, the speaker's mother was a calligrapher, which influenced the speaker's appreciation for the beauty of Chinese characters. This term is crucial as it sets the stage for the speaker's fascination with the art of writing in Chinese.

💡Chinese Characters

Chinese characters are the written symbols used in the Chinese language, each representing a word or a meaningful part of a word. The video's theme revolves around the beauty and complexity of these characters. The speaker uses them as a starting point to discuss her method of teaching Chinese, emphasizing their visual and structural elements.

💡Impenetrable

The term 'impenetrable' refers to something that is difficult or impossible to understand or get through. In the video, it is used metaphorically to describe the perceived difficulty of the Chinese language to outsiders, likening it to the Great Wall of China, which is known for its grandeur and inaccessibility.

💡Radicals

In the context of Chinese language, radicals are the basic components of a character, often indicating the pronunciation or the meaning of more complex characters. The speaker introduces eight basic radicals as the foundational elements for building understanding and learning more complex characters, which is central to her method of teaching.

💡Basic Literacy

Basic literacy refers to the minimum level of reading and writing skills needed to function effectively in everyday life. The video mentions that knowing around 1,000 Chinese characters is sufficient for basic literacy, which is a key point in understanding the accessibility of learning the language.

💡Stroke Order

Stroke order is the sequence in which the strokes of a Chinese character are written. It is an essential part of learning to write Chinese characters correctly. The speaker mentions learning the stroke order for each character from the age of five, highlighting the traditional approach to learning Chinese.

💡Mnemonic

A mnemonic is a memory aid or technique that helps in remembering information. The speaker uses mnemonic devices to help the audience remember the meaning of Chinese characters, such as associating the character for 'fire' with a person yelling for help, making the learning process more relatable and easier.

💡Phrase Building

Phrase building is the process of combining individual words or characters to form phrases or sentences. The video demonstrates how knowing the basic characters allows for the creation of phrases, such as 'fire mountain' for 'volcano', which is an important step in advancing from individual characters to more complex language use.

💡Proliferation

Proliferation in this context refers to the rapid increase or spread of something, specifically the ability to learn a few basic characters and then rapidly expand one's vocabulary by combining them. The speaker illustrates this with the example of learning eight radicals that can be combined to form many more characters.

💡Cultural References

Cultural references are allusions to elements of a particular culture that can provide deeper understanding or meaning. The video uses cultural references, such as the association of Japan with the rising sun, to explain how characters are combined to form words with specific cultural significance.

💡Visual Learning

Visual learning is a learning style where understanding is achieved primarily through visual aids and images. The speaker's method heavily relies on visual learning, as she uses shapes and forms of characters to teach their meanings, which is a key aspect of her approach to making Chinese more accessible.

Highlights

Growing up in Taiwan, the speaker's fascination with the beauty of Chinese characters began with her mother, a calligrapher.

Chinese language is seen as complex and impenetrable by outsiders, compared to the Great Wall of China.

The speaker aims to break down barriers to understanding and appreciating the beauty of the Chinese language.

A new, fast method of learning Chinese is proposed for easier understanding and appreciation.

Learning every stroke in sequence for each character is a traditional way of studying Chinese.

A Chinese scholar understands 20,000 characters, but basic literacy only requires 1,000 characters.

Knowing the top 200 characters allows comprehension of 40% of basic literature and understanding of everyday language.

Eight basic characters, or radicals, are introduced as building blocks for creating more complex characters.

Mnemonic techniques, like associating the shape of 'fire' with a person yelling for help, make learning easier.

Simple characters can be combined to form more complex ones, such as 'follow' from a person walking behind another.

The number of trees in a character can indicate different concepts, like one tree for a single tree, two for woods, and three for a forest.

Combining characters can create new meanings, like placing a mouth on top of a tree to form 'idiot'.

Learning a small set of radicals can enable the creation of many more characters, expanding vocabulary rapidly.

With the first eight radicals, 32 characters can be built, and the next group of eight adds another 32.

This method allows learners to quickly acquire a vocabulary comparable to that of an eight-year-old Chinese speaker.

Building phrases with learned characters, such as 'fire mountain' for volcano, demonstrates the method's practical application.

Geographical and cultural references, like 'sun' with 'origin' to represent Japan, are used to form new characters.

The speaker uses humor and visual aids to make the learning process engaging and memorable.

The method emphasizes the importance of understanding the radicals as the foundation for learning Chinese characters.

The presentation concludes with a reminder of the method's goal - to enable anyone to appreciate the beauty of the Chinese language.

Transcripts

Translator: Joseph Geni Reviewer: Morton Bast

Growing up in Taiwan

as the daughter of a calligrapher,

one of my most treasured memories

was my mother showing me the beauty, the shape

and the form of Chinese characters.

Ever since then, I was fascinated

by this incredible language.

But to an outsider, it seems to be

as impenetrable as the Great Wall of China.

Over the past few years, I've been wondering

if I can break down this wall,

so anyone who wants to understand and appreciate

the beauty of this sophisticated language could do so.

I started thinking about how a new, fast method

of learning Chinese might be useful.

Since the age of five, I started to learn how to draw

every single stroke for each character

in the correct sequence.

I learned new characters every day

during the course of the next 15 years.

Since we only have five minutes,

it's better that we have a fast and simpler way.

A Chinese scholar would understand 20,000 characters.

You only need 1,000 to understand the basic literacy.

The top 200 will allow you to comprehend

40 percent of basic literature --

enough to read road signs, restaurant menus,

to understand the basic idea of the web pages

or the newspapers.

Today I'm going to start with eight

to show you how the method works.

You are ready?

Open your mouth as wide as possible

until it's square.

You get a mouth.

This is a person going for a walk.

Person.

If the shape of the fire is a person

with two arms on both sides,

as if she was yelling frantically,

"Help! I'm on fire!" --

This symbol actually is originally from the shape of the flame,

but I like to think that way. Whichever works for you.

This is a tree.

Tree.

This is a mountain.

The sun.

The moon.

The symbol of the door

looks like a pair of saloon doors in the wild west.

I call these eight characters radicals.

They are the building blocks

for you to create lots more characters.

A person.

If someone walks behind, that is "to follow."

As the old saying goes,

two is company, three is a crowd.

If a person stretched their arms wide,

this person is saying, "It was this big."

The person inside the mouth, the person is trapped.

He's a prisoner, just like Jonah inside the whale.

One tree is a tree. Two trees together, we have the woods.

Three trees together, we create the forest.

Put a plank underneath the tree, we have the foundation.

Put a mouth on the top of the tree, that's "idiot." (Laughter)

Easy to remember,

since a talking tree is pretty idiotic.

Remember fire?

Two fires together, I get really hot.

Three fires together, that's a lot of flames.

Set the fire underneath the two trees, it's burning.

For us, the sun is the source of prosperity.

Two suns together, prosperous.

Three together, that's sparkles.

Put the sun and the moon shining together,

it's brightness.

It also means tomorrow, after a day and a night.

The sun is coming up above the horizon. Sunrise.

A door. Put a plank inside the door,

it's a door bolt.

Put a mouth inside the door, asking questions.

Knock knock. Is anyone home?

This person is sneaking out of a door,

escaping, evading.

On the left, we have a woman.

Two women together, they have an argument.

(Laughter)

Three women together, be careful, it's adultery.

So we have gone through almost 30 characters.

By using this method, the first eight radicals

will allow you to build 32.

The next group of eight characters

will build an extra 32.

So with very little effort,

you will be able to learn a couple hundred characters,

which is the same as a Chinese eight-year-old.

So after we know the characters, we start building phrases.

For example, the mountain and the fire together,

we have fire mountain. It's a volcano.

We know Japan is the land of the rising sun.

This is a sun placed with the origin,

because Japan lies to the east of China.

So a sun, origin together, we build Japan.

A person behind Japan, what do we get?

A Japanese person.

The character on the left is two mountains

stacked on top of each other.

In ancient China, that means in exile,

because Chinese emperors, they put their political enemies

in exile beyond mountains.

Nowadays, exile has turned into getting out.

A mouth which tells you where to get out

is an exit.

This is a slide to remind me that I should stop talking

and get off of the stage. Thank you.

(Applause)