Learning Chinese Characters

Hi Satt!

Those are nice roses in your avatar! It's good to see you here! You are saying that this character:

夜 has a slightly modified 月? Hmmm, I'm not seeing that... do you mean the strokes in the lower right? I thought that was a bed or cot. I suppose I could see that as a crumpled moon (if I squint).

I am interested that it may be related to the vocalization of the character. I can barely imagine learning this and how to speak, too.

Since you can see these characters, Satt, I doubt that the Apple computer is the reason for Ossobuco's difficulty. I think these characters have an aesthetic appeal and I'm sorry they don't appear on her screen.

I found and opened a set of Chinese Nature Pictograph stamps that someone gave me. "Simple pictographs of natural forms," it says. There are fifteen different characters -- water, fire, earth, wind, flower, rain, sun, moon, autumn, spring, mountain, sea, garden tree and leaf. Each has a stylized drawing as well as a character.

(Hmmm, I see that this sea I have is very similar to 淡 -- the "emitting" character, but not quite the same.)

I don't know how to get these new characters to a2k. I guess there should be a list somewhere of the correct BBCodes.


Didn't find any online... but look what I found...

If you link to that site, can you see those characters, Osso?

hmm, I'll play with it. I have 9.2.

Stay tuned..

I found language tools, added chinese (zh), and...

nothing.

Didn't see Papyrus as a font choice. Any other fonts that work?

No, piff, all I see are question marks on that site.

At the bottom of that linked page, Osso, is some information. It starts out:



That part in blue isn't true hypertext on a2k, but on that website it does go to a different page. I guess you could try to follow that and see if you could download the character set.

ossobuco..

Here is a link which may be useful.

http://www.alanwood.net/unicode/macbrowsers.html#fonts

You may need one of the fonts, "Beijing", "Taipei", or "Osaka", installed.

Some of simple hieroglyphic characters are 心(heart) 山(mountain) 人(person) 川(river) 竹(banboo) 馬(horse) 車(car).. as well as 月.

Thanks, all, going to sleep now. Will try satt's link tomorrow..

By the way, I really appreciate the effort to help me see the characters.

Hi Piffka

I didn't know the word "month" also comes from the word for moon, but I thought about it when I explained the two meanings "moon" and "month" for the character 月... I don't quite understand the Roman's calendar.. October means 8? and November, 9?? December, 10??? How?? I'm fully confused!

星月夜 is a phrase and it's already in a very decent order so it makes nonsense to do any changes... Just, I'm now very interested in what you think about Chinese characters, is seems if I give you 5000 characters and you will give 5000 stories back, really a lot of fun. Your "story" about 影 is very cute, 影 also means shadow, so dun you think the right part is like a long shadow of 景??? LOL.. and 电, we use it mostly as the meaning of electricity nowadays but it was created as lighting at the beginning, so, is it like a lighting comes from sky? And a good explanation for 明, astronomical light! Well said!

Hmm, I dun think 夜 has a slightly modified from 月 (but it looks like no wrong since 夜 means night--the time when moon shines from dark to day break), but they do have a connection in pronunciation, 月 pronounces as "yue" and 夜 as "ye" in Pinyin. Pinyin only refers to pronunciation.

I noticed that you are learning Traditional Chinese? Your link shows that, while I usually use Simplified Chinese.. for example, 馬(horse) is Traditional Chinese but in Simplified it is 马. they both mean horse though...

welcome to a2k , lainchance

instructional post, thanks.

Hi thanks, Thok. Actually I learned also from talking about this thread

Eeek. Those two horses look so different! I was sure that I'd found a site that showed the same characters, Lain. Goes to show how hard it is for someone like me too differentiate the characters. I think I like the Traditional version better... for example, on this character you can plainly see the horses two ears four legs and tail. There is a modern beauty to the other, but the picture is much more obscure.

影 -- So this means shadow? Well, that makes more sense than a cheering crowd! The right part does look like a shadow of the left. Cool.

I am disappointed that 电 doesn't mean screen! I think I can see lightning, but it also looks like overhead electricity poles & wires, too. <grins>

I found this website that explains the months' names and origins far better than I could. Goodness... two unnamed months in winter because it was a boring time of year? LOL

Yes.. This is good fun. I do have a question about my nature characters -- I have one for flower and another for leaf -- yet that Chinese character website (the traditional one) identifies the leaf character as used for flower as well. Hmmmmm?

Hi Piffka... Personally I love Traditional Chinese more as well, as it passes more ancient culture. Hong Kong and Taiwan use Traditional mostly; mainland China uses Simplified, but most of us can read both.

The character for flower is 花, and leaf 葉 (in traditional), I dun think the leaf character can be used for flower... Maybe that flower's name is XX葉, or X葉X or 葉XX, I suppose?

do you know how to say hello in Chinses? I now just type and speak traditional ok? Since you like it better. ok,


Piffka: 妳好, 我是Piffka.

hello--妳好/你好

你 and 妳 are both ok, 妳 is used as if you are female, and 你 is if you are male.

我--I

It doesn't matter if you are a female or a male, the character is the same.

and last,

是--is


So, 妳好, Piffka, 我是Lain.

妳好, Lain!

我 是Piffka. We both like the traditional characters for the same reason!

Yes, this character 花 is-是 in my set and is-是 identified as a

妳 Female
你 Male - These characters are-是 alike on the right-hand side, so I-我 think that must mean person or human. The figure on the left of the character for female looks like it is-是 sitting down, and for the character for male, as though it is-是 standing up.


好 Hello (woman) - The right hand side looks like a German number "7"! I-我 can see in it a figure with its arms outstretched and head nodding a hello!

我 I - I-我 see two characters here. One, on the lower right looks like the female character... that dot above is-是 saying this one... this particular one. (I-我 think no one says "I" unless they are-是 differentiating themselves from someone else... thus there have to be two characters.)

是 Is - This seems like the most difficult character. Does it mean all the forms of to be- Is, Am, Are, Was, Were? There seems to be a stable base -- the line in the middle. Above is-是 a sun-like character, below there are-是 two characters -- one that shows movement, one that shows more stabilty. It makes me-我 think of the world... this is-是 how things are-是 .

Did you notice that the last three characters printed in a darker form with less of the look of brush stroke? Odd. I-我 didn't notice that until I-我 enlarged them.

Thank you, Lain, for my Chinese lesson. This is-是 fun for me-我, but hard! The 花 是 a thank-you gift.


And thank you, Satt for offering these characters... 心(heart) 山(mountain) 人(person) 川(river) 竹(banboo) 馬(horse) 車(car).

I-我 now see I-我 made a mistake with my idea of which character meant person. Hmmm. Those characters do show good pictures of their meanings except for the car. I-我 am-是 msytified by the car. I-我 love the way the bamboo looks as if it is duplicating itself.

<A thousand pardons if I-我 used 我 and 是 incorrectly. It would not be the first time I-我 made a mistake. Just practicing!>

Hi Piffka... Sorry I'm late... I've been tired all the time cos of Olympics, hahaha.

Now for today's lesson :wink:

你 and 妳, we use 妳 for female cos the left part 女 actually means female, and the left part of 你.. dun you think it is like the character for person 人? Cos in ancient China, people think man is superior to woman, so if yuo see the left part of 你, it's usually used for male.. But in simplified, we just got the word 你 instead of 你 and 妳. As for the right part of these characters, 尔, we dun use this word as much as the ancients did, it means "you"..

好 doesn't have a female or male character, it means hello, ok, alright, good, kind and nice and so on. Again, your story made me smile

是, yes, is means Is, Am, Are, Was, Were-- all forms! Is it quite simple? and it also means "Yes", for example, are you Piffka? you can only answer one word: 是.

No need to thank me, Piffka cos I enjoy it too, I love the dot story of 我, you make me think about what is 我? what makes me, me. Thanks. And dun hesitate to ask if you have any questions, I'm glad I can help.

Plus, about the character 人. I love this character cos, it's like the two persons support each other, dun you think?

But I dun really get this.... could you explain more?


Thanks for your gift, I love it

妳好, Lain!

Congratulations on the Olympics! China did really well. Lots of medals from lots of practice. Which was your favorite sport?

I have to say, when I looked at what I'd written a few days ago and was trying to respond, I couldn't remember anything! I thought... did I really know what I was doing? Two days and I forgot so much!! I need to concentrate hard to do well on these lessons! Thank you for taking the time to help me.

I agree that the left part of 你.. is like 人. Both have two brush strokes (I've been reading about characters, y'see?) but here 你, the left-hand leg has been squeezed up, or maybe the guy is just taking a big step. Or, if you see it as two people propping each other up... one is pushing very, very hard! (Just like a man!)

Did I understand correctly? In Simplified, there is no 妳? So when you say hello... it is only with the masculine form but it is now used for all? That is interesting. Can we say that it might show there is more equality for women? Are the other changes in simplified like that -- letting one masculine-related character take over for both male and female versions.



That's quite a lot of meaning to have for one idea. I'm still trying to comprehend it all -- a greeting, an agreement, and positive attributes. It's all good but very different from English, though I was surprised to see myself writing greeting and agreement -- they look like they may be from the same root word. (I should look that up.) I still see the hands outstretched and the head nodding and I like it even more. It is a hopeful and friendly character. You're teaching me some good ones!

I am thrilled that there are not a lot of different versions of "to be" as there are in English! I like this one character, 是 even more. Do you see how the lower left figure looks like "person"? I'm thinking that the person is holding the world (or at least his version of the world) on a platter. I like it very much that if someone asked if I were Piffka, I could answer... 是!

人 This is a great character -- it seems so sturdy and complete, even though it so very simple. Yes, two people holding each other up is right. It also looks a little like a clothes-pin doll...



You said you'd like me to explain what I meant about how some of the characters looked different -- with less of the look of brush strokes. Well, I thought about it a lot and realized what made them look different is that the lines were solid and the same thickness all the way to the ends. In some of the other characters that have lines that look like brush strokes, the lines may start thick but they end thin. (Does that make sense?)

Glad you liked the rose!

Thanks very much for your helping me... I hope you teach me more. I would especially like to learn the characters for "thank you" and "friend."

Piffka

妳好 Lain,

These Chinese characters were on the IKEA China website. Can you help me understand what they mean? The first one looks very spare, as though it is an economical thing and perfectly balanced. The second looks like there is something valuable inside a box, which would certainly be an accurage representation of IKEA.

中国

Thanks for helping! Piffka

LOL Piffka, 妳好. I should have told you something about my montherland earlier.. the characters 中国 are for China in Simplified, and yes the inside part is actually another word, a valuable thing--玉, which means jade. The Chinese for IKEA is 宜家, they have a similar pronunciation. I dunno what IKEA means in Enghish, but in Chinese, "宜家" means appropriate for home, 宜--appropriate or fine or pleasant; 家--home.

Characters for "thank you" are 謝謝你/妳. 謝謝 means thanks, you can also simply say 謝謝 to mean thank you, omitting 你/妳.

"Friend"--朋友. Sorry I dunno why they were created in that shape by meaning friends... At least not all characters created in pictographs way..



Yes, you understand very well, that is what I tried to explain!



About this, did you ever hear of chinese calligraphy? If you did, you would find the answer yourself :wink:

Do my answers help? Oh wait... let me check if I missed any questions, lol. I'm running a forum Lain's Sky(my friend built it and gave it to me), I'd like to share your stories you make up for characters with my friends, cos I really love them... May I? I also like to know where you are from, India? But it seems you live in the United States? Hmm, my fav sports... those ones I prefer to watch, haha. Like diving, swimming and figure skating and so on.... What about you?

妳的朋友, Lain

Oh and the clothes-pin doll picture is cute, lol.