The Most Satisfying Feeling I Get from Learning Chinese
One of the most satisfying feelings I’ve experienced in learning Chinese is the feeling I get after hearing a new word and just *understanding* it. This isn’t that hard when reading (and that’s why we love 汉字), but when it comes to listening, it’s a whole different story. So the moments when I’ve heard a new word and intuitively known what 汉字 it consists of plus its meaning of have made me feel so accomplished. Over time I’ve jotted down some of these words, and I thought they would make a fun post.
迷失 míshī - to lose (one’s bearings) / to get lost I was able to understand this word thanks to knowing words like 迷路, 迷茫, 失去, and 消失. I first remember identifying this word in Escape Plan’s song 夜空中最亮的星.
旅途 lǚtú - journey / trip I know a lot of words with 旅 like 旅游, 旅行, and 旅程, and I was also familiar with 途 via 路途 and 前途. So 旅途 was very easy for me to understand.
心愿 xīnyuàn - cherished desire / dream / craving / wish / aspiration 心愿 is similar in meaning to 愿望 and 意愿, which I already knew. I believe I first heard this word in the song 有点甜 by 汪苏泷 and BY2.
高傲 gāo'ào - arrogant / haughty / proud I heard this word in the song 寻宝 by 沈以诚. I’ve listened to this song many times, and one day it just clicked! It’s all thanks to the similar words 骄傲 and 傲慢.
安稳 ānwěn - smooth and steady There are so many words with 安 like 安定 and 平安. I also know some 稳 words, such as 稳定 and 平稳. So I was able to put two and two together for 安稳.
还原 huányuán - to restore to the original state / to reconstruct (an event) The meaning of 还 here is very familiar from 还给 and 还清. Also, I know a lot of words with 原: 原来, 原本, 原始, 原先.
选拔 xuǎnbá - to select the best There are so many 选 words I see all the time like 精选, 选举, and 选择. I also know 拔 from 拔苗助长 and 自拔, so I was able to piece together the overall meaning of 选拔.
解压 jiěyā - to relieve stress I’ve already learned the word 缓解 which is related in meaning. Also, I’ve learned 施压 (or 施加压力), which is basically the opposite of 解压.
感人 gǎnrén - touching / moving I think this word is pretty easy to put together if you know similar words like 感染, 感动, and 动人.
认输 rènshū - to concede / to admit defeat I distinctly remember hearing this word in the Tanya Chua song 救生圈. I think I was able to understand it thanks to knowing that 认 can mean to admit like in the words 承认 and 公认.
Here’s to many more of these satisfying moments in 2022!
i went out of my way to take screenshots of my notes to post them… 3 weeks ago smile
writing chinese characters in the margins helps me stay at least semi focused (as opposed to drawing/thinking of other things/sneaking peeks at memes) so a lot of my notes and the print outs i’m given in topology are just chock full of hanzi from basically HSK 1 (we’re using a taiwanese textbook)
somehow my middle-of-the-semester tests went well so that was nice and ive been managing to use notion to keep things organized for 2 months now
The past couple years I’ve been taking efforts to expose myself to traditional characters. But after 12+ years of primarily being exposed to simplified characters, the adjustment process is difficult. Let’s look at some characters that have made my life a bit more frustrating or that I’m thankful I never had to handwrite in Chinese classes!
NOTE: My intention with this post is not to disrespect traditional characters. Sometimes I find that traditional characters are more beautiful! And even though I use simplified characters, I have family members who use traditional. My goal is simply to poke fun at myself and my struggles :-)
丰 / 豐 - This traditional character probably isn’t that hard to write, but I know from writing 幽默的幽 that I am not good at writing characters where there are elements inside the 山 component.
边 / 邊 - I was explaining the difference between simplified and traditional characters to someone. They asked me if I could write any traditional characters. I said that I probably could. I decided to try writing 邊. I soon realized I had literally no idea how to write it. 邊 and I are enemies now.
龟 / 龜 - I know a lot of people love this traditional character, but I butchered it so badly when my Chinese teacher made try to write it on the whiteboard. It haunts me to this day. I thought I understood strokes and stroke order well, but I look at 龜 and have no idea what is going on.
忧郁 / 憂鬱 - This doesn’t need an explanation. Writing 憂鬱 will make you 非常忧郁.
体 / 體 - This is a pretty common character, so I am very thankful I can get away with 体 instead of 體. My 骨s already don’t look great. A very thin 骨 would come out much worse.
铁 / 鐵 - In general I don’t like writing characters like 裁, 截, 戴, etc. because I am simply not good at getting the balance right. And the fact that the right side of 鐵 is so compressed/skinny is really just a recipe for disaster.
冲击 / 衝擊 - 6+5 strokes to 15+17 strokes? No way.
昼 / 晝 & 画 / 畫 & 书 / 書 & 划 / 劃 - I mentioned the first three of these in a recent post. I can’t really tell any of the traditional characters apart unless I put on my glasses and hold my face like an inch away from my laptop screen. 劃 is obviously more visually distinct, but I felt it should be grouped with its siblings. 10/10 not a fan.
为 / 為 / 爲 - 为 is so common—I really can’t imagine having to write so. many. strokes. every time I write 因为 or 为了 or whatever.
聋 / 聾 - Just 龙 to 龍 is already a lot. 龍 stacked on top of something else? I would not be able to cope. Poor 耳 will get squished down there!
Literal Translation: to mark the boat to seek the sword
Individual Characters:
刻 (kè) : to cut/carve
舟 (zhōu) : boat
求 (qiú) : to seek
剑 (jiàn) : sword
Story:
There was a man from Chu (楚国) who was very set in his ways. He’d copy actions exactly as he saw other people do them without adapting to different situations. One day, when he was on a mountain, he saw a woodcutter drop his ax into the underbrush below. The man marked where he had dropped it before climbing down; he was easily able to find his ax by looking at his marking.
Later, when the man from Chu was crossing a river using a ferry, he dropped his sword into the water. The ferryman offered to stop so the man could retrieve his sword, but the man refused. He cut a mark into the side of the boat where he had dropped the sword. When the boat docked, he dove into the water to look for his sword, using his mark as a guide. He was unable to find the sword since the boat had long since passed the spot where he dropped the sword, and his sword was lost to the river.
Figurative Meaning:
刻舟求剑 means to act while ignoring circumstances/acting rigidly
In your Chinese studies you’ve probably learned: 红色、橙色、黄色、绿色、蓝色、紫色、灰色、白色、黑色、咖啡色、粉红色
But there are so many beautiful colors out there! Let’s learn some more. These are color terms I’ve come across outside Chinese class.
In general you can indicate a light shade with 浅 and a dark shade with 深. I have also seen 墨 for dark and 淡 for light, but when I Googled various color terms, there were more results for 浅 and 深 than 淡 and 墨.
I spent way too much time messing with HTML to color the text to match (except for the shades of white).
褐色 hèsè - brown
橘黄色 júhuángsè - orange
奶油色 nǎiyóusè - cream
金黄色 jīnhuángsè - gold color
朱红色 zhūhóngsè - vermilion
米色 mǐsè - beige
棕色 zōngsè - brown
青色 qīngsè - cyan / blue-green
灰白 huībái - light gray / ash-colored
蔚蓝 wèilán - azure / sky blue
纯白 chúnbái - pure white
雪白 xuěbái - snow white
洁白 jiébái - spotlessly white / pure white
漆黑 qīhēi - pitch-black
铜色 tóngsè - copper
乌黑 wūhēi - jet-black / dark
靛色 diànsè - indigo (color)
金色 jīnsè - golden / gold (color)
银色 yínsè - silver (color)
Here are some single characters I’ve seen as well. Some of these are commonly used in names, like 彤 and 丹.
彤 tóng - red
丹 dān - red / pellet / powder / cinnabar
缇 tí - orange-red silk / orange-red colored
赤 chì - red / scarlet / bare / naked
碧 bì - green jade / bluish green / blue / jade
翠 cuì - bluish-green / green jade
皓 hào - bright / luminous / white (esp. bright white teeth of youth or white hair of old age)
颢 hào - bright / white
玄 xuán - black / mysterious
彤, 丹, and 缇 are all described as a red-orange color. I’m not really sure of the difference, so I just made them all the same shade. I’m also unclear on exact distinction between 褐色 and 棕色. Image search results certainly suggest that they are used differently. Not sure how 咖啡色 fits in either.
I stumbled across this giant Wikipedia table with many beautiful colors that you can check out to learn more!
褐 and 棕 can be used interchangeably nowadays to refer to brown colour, but originally 棕 is a type of 褐. 咖啡色 is a modern word, as in the colour of coffee. The following are all brown colour. 咖啡色 is usually the one on the left.
来自：Yoyo Chinese Upper Intermediate Conversational Level 1 Unit 3
From now on, I will be including traditional characters as well as simplified in my notes! Traditional are in parentheses, wish dashes indicating the characters are the same in traditional form, just to keep things consistent with how Pleco does it!
单词：
寒暄 / hán xuān / small talk, greetings
辛苦 / xīn kǔ / hard, strenuous
焦虑 (-慮) / jiāo lü(4) / anxious
要不然 / yào bù rán / otherwise
适应 (適應) / shì yìng / to adapt, get used to
安定 / ān dìng / sedative
安眠药 (–藥) / ān mián yào / sleeping pill
不管 / bù guǎn / no matter
不管怎么样都 (—麼樣-) / bù guǎn zěn me yàng dōu / no matter what/how, regardless of
Something I haven’t done in past posts but thought would be fun to do this time is share some of the songs that I heard these words in! See them under the cut.
Where do I find suitable online reading resources?
Free online resources:
My Chinese Reading (all levels) *I’ve used this it’s great, especially as graded reading material that gradually increases in difficulty in a manageable way
