Dan+Chinese+English= 不好

It's that time again where I take another nonalcoholic drunken swing at this nifty thing called Chinese. To start off were going to attempt some sentence making with the aid of a Chinese character book (thank you 林老师）Here we go!

1. 我晚上比她。
2。学校不是不图书馆吗？
3。她吃四鹿！
4。我有林老师与聿。
5。小高丢失他越排箫。


Wasn't that fun? Well let me translate or rather tell you what I was trying to say.

1. At night I confronted her.
2. The school has a library?
3.She ate 4 deer!
4.I have lin Lao Shi's paintbrush.
5.Xiao Gao lost his panpipes.

Fun fun! As it is probably evident I'm still rather weak in my Chinese grammar but I hoping that, do too recent events ,this will changed. What recent events you ask but don't really care? Well the last Chinese test I took was... 不好. Very 不好. But thanks too the amazing teacher I'm seeing a way too climb out of this hole. It actually reminded me of the time I went to China Town in Chicago last semester. I was so completely overwhelmed it was almost scary. Just like this test. But from this complete destruction of my confidence I found myself striving forward with renewed vigor in hopes of conquering or at least bettering myself in the hopes of attaining a higher knowledge. Some times a swift kick to the crotch is in necessary. It's not pleasant but it is important. Once I catch my breath and stand back up I hope to learn from my mistakes and strive forward.


Today's topic of Chinese culture that I'm going to take a peak at is Character writing. To try and cover it all is a fools game so I'll just be hitting a few things that have cropped up recently. One of my favorite part s of learning the Chinese language is the Chinese characters. This is also one of the most frustrating and difficult parts as well. What I love about it so much is the combination of art and writing. Two of my favorite things. Each character is different though they share similar parts. Though this sounds helpful it can be extremely confusing especially when there is only a very small variation is different or when the same characters are used but have completely different meanings. An example is the xiōng 兄 and zhǐ 只. xiōng means brother while zhǐ means only.

One thing I noticed when I watched my teacher draw the characters on the black board, he has a sway or flow in his motions. I forgot to mention, the characters are written in multiple strokes and actually have a correct pattern in which to write the character. At first I paid little attention too this flowing motion but once I started doing a large amount of Character practice, I saw my hand starting to flow into similar rhythm as my teacher. It's almost like the characters are a song and you dance to their rhythm. Its very refreshing and an intriguing idea that I found slipping into my normal English writing. My writing is still atrocious but I see myself writing the letters in a flowing motion.

One of the big things that one will notice if they decided to take on Chinese characters is that there are two main forms. Traditional and simplified. Simplified is more or less self explanatory as is traditional. The main difference is the number of strokes that are used. Simplified doesn't necessarily mean it is easier to write but it probably has fewer strokes. For instances traditional character for tīng has 22 different strokes 聽 . The simplified version only has 7 different strokes听 . Though sometimes there is no stroke reduction just a different way of writing it. In this case, liàng traditional 亮 becomes 亮. The argument of which should be used, traditional or simplified, is a huge battle that I don't fully understand. I will say this though, I found that when writing the characters, I actually prefer the traditional over simplified even though there is more strokes to remember. I find that it is easier and flows better when there is more strokes (most of the time) Also when the characters are simplified, they begin to look like other characters. Though the traditional may have more, they are more unique and can be more easily identified. Though, like in the tīng example, sometimes simplified is better. Not only is traditional easier to remember and has a better flow, I think in general they are much more asteticlly pleasing. An example is yuè or music. Traditional 樂 Simplified 乐 .

I know that I'm extremely young into the world of Chinese characters and I don't fully understand both sides. My opinions might change but these are what they are now. As this is an extremely interesting and enjoyable subject I will probably talk about this subject after I had a little time to become better informed and well versed in it. I will leave with this one last thought. The traditional character for love or ài is 愛 and the simplified version is 爱 . I know its real small and most probably don't understand so I will point it out. The simplified version takes the heart xīn 心 out. Other words, the heart of love has been taken out. Thanks for reading everyone, take care and stay safe. zàijiàn

p.s. due too editing problems I had to change all the font red. Sorry if that bothers you.
~Love~