Learning Chinese Characters

Got it..............................

What a joke!!!

It is not a very funny joke, lainchance. It is also old-fashioned ghetto slang. Very last year.

I hope you didn't find that on THIS site. Welcome to a2k and I hope, if you stay, that you find a warmer, friendlier set of posts and people. One of my favorites here is Oristar, who is also from China. He spends a lot of time asking questions about how to use the English language. Someday, maybe he'll loosen up and join in on some of the silly threads... like "What's in your Bag?"

Hi Piffka, thanks for your note. it started from a topic i posted in another english forum. I hope he doesn't mean it.

I think i would enjoy here, nice to meet you, Piffka. just call me lain is ok ^_^

Ok lain... (is that Little "L" or capital "I")... I'm betting little "L" as in LAIN.

I don't know the circumstance but it is likely whoever said yomomma to you was trying to be funny... maybe even friendly. Sometimes it is use to say "hello lady."

Just think how silly most Americans would sound if they were trying to speak Chinese. <grin>

You typed right, i'm Lain also lain, it's from a japanimation "Lain", have you ever seen it?

I really thinks English is a very intersting language to learn, i love it very much. thanks for explanation about yomomma, i can't get it from dictionary.

So how is your Chinese?? haha.....

Lain? My real-life middle name is Elaine. Just add a couple extra "e's."

Haha -- I do know one symbol in Chinese... the symbol for moon. I have also memorized (and forgotten) a few others. I am grateful to anyone willing to learn English since I am too old to learn another language.

I help run film programs at our local library and have watched some Anime (as we call it here). I've seen Princess Mononoke, Tokyo Godfather and a little Cowboy Bebop, but not Lain. I do, however, use the internet movie database A LOT (I need it for the film programming) and found this: The Serial Experiments: Lain. Is that the one you mean? It sounds very interesting.

LOL, so I won't forget your middle name...

Yes, Lain, that's it. I knew it cos of its theme song.. Actually I dun recall the every episode, but I remain the feelings the anime gives me. Lain is my nickname, I dun have an English name cos I'm too lazy to decide a good name, haha. My Chinese name just composed by two characteres, Guo Sha.

The symbol for moon--月, is very beautiful as it used much in Chinese poetry, you really choose a good character to remember If you like to know more Chinese I'd like to help.

Hmm, I dun agree with what you said about learning a foreign language. Let me put it this way. I'm of cos very happy if I can read an English novel or talk with native English speakers, but I'm also very happy when I learn a new word (maybe just cos I love the Chinese meaning of it), this two kinds of happiness are the same to me. I mean we enjoy the process of study but not to care about what we get last. So you start learning a new thing no matter how old you are. Correct me if you dun agree...

Oh I know "Princess Mononoke" and "Cowboy Bebop", they are both very popular

Hi Lain!

The symbol for moon is beautiful, isn't it? I like to see it in this print. Does it have other meanings besides the moon? How do you pronounce it?

I'd love to know more Chinese but there is so much... I wouldn't know where to start. It seems like my trying to learn would be like moving the ocean with a teacup.

Please tell me another Chinese symbol that you think I could remember.

Hi Piffka, we pronounce "月" as "yue" in Pinyin, dunno what a similar English pronunciation should be... "月 "does have another meaning in Chinese, that is month, for example:

January--1月
February--2月
March--3月
.
.
.
November--11月
December--12月

I think that is becos China uses lunar calendar so we use 月(moon) calling "month". Hmm, there is another beautiful word--星, means star. What do you think? Does it beautiful too? Now if you know the word "夜" which means night, you can put them together, like "星月夜", you get the picture of a starry night sky and the moon is shining.

Hmm my turn to questions, why you always say "Chinese symbol"? Is it cos Chinese characters just like symbols to you, or it's just the normal English expression?

Hi Lain,
I'm not sure why I said symbol instead of character. The two words are not too different in meaning to me, but I will try to remember to use character, since I am sure it is correct. I have read that there are a few Chinese characters that are like pictures but most are not. There seem to be so many different ones -- I suppose, like English, you have hundreds of thousands of words. I looked at this website hoping for some answers: http://zhongwen.com/ however, it is quite difficult to follow.

Pinyin. Does that refer to writing the words in English script, or does that refer to the pronunciation?

It is interesting about the Chinese character 月 also meaning month. You likely know that the native Americans often used the word moon to mean month as well. Is the number always and correctly put before 月? Or could it be written 月12?

This makes me wonder then, does the character for sun (whatever that is) mean "day"?

Thank you for adding two more characters for me to learn. I need to see them in a large font to be sure I'm seeing all their parts and then I make up a story about them. I can tell, it will be easier for me to learn the pictographs then it will be to learn the aggregate characters! For example, with the moon... it has three visible phases and this character 月 seems to show them. Obviously, if I learn more Chinese characters, I will soon need to have a better memory aid!

Meanwhile...

星 This is star? It is very beautiful to me, Lain. It seems perfectly balanced, yet there is movement. To me, it looks like the three lower horizontal lines are the earth... and the three upper lines are heaven... with the short slanted line being a connection between the two. A Star!

夜 Now this sign, this character, is not quite so beautiful, but it has a home-like feel. I see the rudiments of a house, and possibly a bed inside. I can't decide what the slightly curved line is... maybe the passage of time?

Do the three characters need to be in this order 星 月 夜 to mean a starry night with moon, or does it change their meaning if they're in a different order... OR is it just incorrect?

Do the characters have other meanings besides star and night? In the USA, for example, a "star" could mean a famous actor or actress.

This is lots of fun for me, Lian. Hope it is not too boring for you!

Lain, how would you translate this into Chinese characters?

the candle-light of stars

I ran into this just now and thought it would be an interesting form. Thanks! Piff

Hi Piffka..... I'm afraid this thread need to be moved twice, maybe to other language forum? hahaha........

Hmm You better not to write 12月 as "月12", that looks strange and I guess no Chinese would understand...

About 星月夜, you see every word is a noun so actually there is no mistake if you changed them in another order, we put them like this just cos we used to. If it was created as 夜月星 to mean 星月夜, I think we will take 夜月星...

I agree Chinese is hard to master, I'm a Chinese but there are still a lot Chinese characters I don't know. Pictographs are easier to learn cos they are more straight. Last year when I visited Yunnan, in the old town of Lijiang, I found some of people are still using pictographs, which is called "Dongba Wen" there. Very mysterious...

Yeah the character for sun--日 does mean "day" also, for instance 8月26日 means August 26th. 星 and 夜 dun have other meanings if you dun put other character before or after it. If you wanna say a famous actor or actess, it's 影星. 影 is a short for 电影 which means movie; pop star is 歌星, 歌 means song. Does it help?

The light of stars is 星光 (光 means light) and the candle-light of stars... I'm not sure if I should take candle as weak here? if so we may have a lot translations, lol. like 微弱的星光 or 忽明忽暗的星光 or 暗淡的星光..

I do love reading the stories you made up for Chinese characters, they are touched.

Hi Lain,

Yes... the moderators might move this to language, but we'll still be able to find it on our posts list.

So, very interesting about 8月26日 meaning August 26th. I am thrilled to have guessed that the character for sun would also mean day, btw! Thanks!

I was thinking yesterday that I should have mentioned, just in case you didn't know, that the English word "month" also comes from the word for moon. All cultures seem to have this in common. I like the Asian method of using numbers (though I doubt that the Arabic numerals were originally used) instead of giving each month's name to some Roman god or general. Even the Roman's, after a while, determined that it was easier to just call the months by number -- October comes from the word Octo, which means 8, and the same for November, 9, and December, 10. I forget why they are numbered that way and at the end of the calendar when there are twelve months. (I could look this up if you are interested.) Mostly, I remember that January came from the Roman god, Janus, who had two faces and July came from the Roman general and leader, Julius Ceasar.

In 星月夜, does it change the meaning or lay more emphasis on either the stars or the night if the order is changed? In English, we could say "a night with stars and the moon" or "the moon in the starry night" or "the moon and stars in the night," "the stars in the night with the moon" and several other variations, each meaning something slightly different.



I love this, and yes, I see more pictures in these characters. I'll describe them, since you say you enjoyed my last set of "stories."

电 This looks like a movie screen to me... honestly, doesn't it?

影 And this looks like many people (see their little square heads? They're all cheering!

歌 I see a person, the stick figure to the right, who is seeing written music (down below) and repeating it (up above). Singing! I see that little tag on the top (song) as coming directly from the figure.



光 This almost looks like a light-bulb, or a candle. Definitely a light source glowing.

微弱的星光 This is hard. I see X, X, day with a tag+X, star, light.

微 -- I admit, this character is awfully confusing to me. It looks like a group of houses, but there seems to be that bed shape. ???

Is this 弱 one character or two? Oh, it must be one as I can't break it apart. Hmmmmm. What does this mean? Maybe something to do with duplication or copying?

Aha, this 的 is also one character. Small day with a tag plus something inside a house. Could this have something to do with artificial light needed during part of the day?


忽明忽暗的星光

忽 - ??(looks like rain falling on somebody who is lying down... maybe not rain, maybe light from above?

明 -- Sun plus moon -- astronomical light?

Hmmm, maybe together the above two describe light from the sky

忽 -- this one again!

And now it is paired with 暗 -- another little day, plus... oh dear, a squatty day with a flare on top. Looks like a crown.


暗淡的星光

And here -- my crowned day, plus, uh-oh...

淡 -- this one is new. It makes me think that the figure on the right is emitting whatever is on the left... in three directions.

And then, the now familiar, 的星光 -- artificial-light + star + light

Yikes, Lain, that is difficult!

What do you mean, the people from Lijiang only used pictographs? They just refused to use all the other characters? That would be mysterious! I want to hear more about that.

Thanks for the lesson!
P

You two have me completely befuddled...

Do you see the big bold question marks differently that I do?

quoting,

? This is star? It is very beautiful to me, Lain. It seems perfectly balanced, yet there is movement. To me, it looks like the three lower horizontal lines are the earth... and the three upper lines are heaven... with the short slanted line being a connection between the two. A Star!

? Now this sign, this character, is not quite so beautiful, but it has a home-like feel. I see the rudiments of a house, and possibly a bed inside. I can't decide what the slightly curved line is... maybe the passage of time?


What?

Gee Osso... that's a shame. There are some beautiful Chinese characters that are shown on my screen. Maybe it is a problem with Mac vs MS technology?

I noticed that each of the characters that were posted have a BBCode that starts with an &# then several numbers and ending with a semicolon.

Can you see any of the little characters? I thought it was obvious, but in case it wasn't, all those big question marks should be showing enlarged copies of individual Chinese characters. I thought it would be easier to decipher. When children learn to read and write, it helps to have the letters be quite large. I figured it would work for me and anyone else who might read this.

One theory about the character 夜 is that the (slightly modified) part 月 in the character signifies the sense ("moon" -> "night") and that the other part of the character has the role of clarifying the pronunciation "ye."

Oh, good, that means I'm not completely crazy. Glad you all see something besides question marks!

Satt - all I see are question marks all over the place, with different descriptions after them; this makes no sense.

I will grant that it could make sense if I saw the characters.

I'll go check my profile. Maybe Bcc code is shut off. But ...it probably is something related to my computer.

Yes, I have BCC code allowed, so there must be something else going on, sniff.

ossobuco..
If my memory is correct, your are using a Mac. You can use your multiple fonts installed on a Mac. Try changing the default fonts of your browser in "Preferences" of the browser. In this case encoding does not necessary to be changed, but only the fonts used. My default fonts are "Papyrus(!)" with English as the default language on Mac OSX, but I can see japanese/chinese characters fully.
(On Mac 9.x you may use language tools.)