English

Learn to read Chinese with ease!

Speech by Shao Lan

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.

我在台湾长大。 作为一位书法家的女儿， 我最珍贵的记忆之一 是妈妈为我展示了 汉字的形意之美。 从那时起， 我开始着迷于这美妙的语言。

但对于门外汉来说， 汉字就跟中国的长城一样 高不可攀。 过去几年，我一直思考 如何能够攻克这堵墙， 让那些要理解和欣赏 这复杂语言优雅地方的人， 可以这样做。 我开始思考，如何创造一种新的、 快速的方法， 有助于学习汉字。

从五岁起，我开始学习 如何按照正确顺序、一笔一划的 书写每个汉字。 在十五年期间， 我每天都学习新的汉字。 因为我们只有五分钟时间， 最好有一个更简易便捷的学习方式。 一位中文学者认识二万个汉字， 你只需认识一千个汉字， 就可看懂简单的文学作品。 认识顶部二百个汉字， 让你看明白百分之四十的基本文献—— 足以读懂路标、餐厅菜单、 以了解中文网页的基本想法 或报纸内容。 今天我用八个汉字 来展示这个方法如何有效。 大家准备好了吗？

把你的嘴张得越大越好， 直到变成正方形。 这就是一个“口“字。 这是一个人正在散步。 “人”字。 “火”字的形状就是 一个人在两边有两只胳膊， 好像她正在大喊大叫： “救命啊！我着火了！” —— 实际上，这符号最初 来自于火苗的形状， 但是我喜欢那方法。 大家随便选。 这是一棵树木。 "木"。 这是一座"山"。 "日"。 "月"。 “門”的符号 就像狂野西部片里轿车上的一对门。

我称这八个字为基本字， 它们是一堆组件， 以创造出很多其他的字。 一个“人”。 如果另一个人走在后面， 意思就是“跟随”。 有句谚语， 二人为从，三人为众。 如果有个人打开双臂， 这个人说：「它有这么大。」 把“人”放在“口”里，这个人被困住了。 他就变成了"囚"徒， 就像约拿被困在鲸鱼肚子里。 一棵树是"木"。 两棵树在一起，就是“树林”。 三棵树在一起，就是“森林”。 把一块木板放在树下面， 我们就有了“基本”。 把一张嘴放在树上，那是“呆子”。 (笑声) 记起来非常容易， 因为一棵会说话的树 是很呆傻的事情。 还记得“火”吗？ 两团“火”在一起，就变得非常“炎热”了。 三团“火”在一起，就是“焱”， 非常多的火焰。 把火放在两棵树下， 就会“焚烧”。 对于我们来说， 太阳是一切生机的来源。 两个太阳在一起，就是“昌”盛。 三个太阳在一起， 那就“闪闪发光亮晶晶”。 当太阳和月亮在一起闪耀时， 那就是“光明”。 一个白天一个夜晚之后，就是"明天"。 太阳正从地平线上升起。“旦”。 一扇“门”。在门里放块木板， 就是“门闩”。 把一张嘴放在门里，就是“问”。 “砰砰”，有人在家吗？ 这人正要溜出门口， “躲闪”，“逃避”。 左边，我们有一个女人。 两个女人在一起，准会有场争论。 （笑声） 三个女人在一起，要小心，就是通"姦"。

我们已经学了差不多三十个汉字， 通过这个方法，这八个基本字 可以衍生出三十二个汉字， 下一组的八个汉字 又会衍生出另外32个汉字。 所以，大家很轻松地 就可学到几百个汉字， 这相当于八岁中国孩子的汉语程度。 在学过了这些字后，我们开始学习造词组。 比如，把“山”和“火”放在一起， 我们有“火山”。这是“火山”。 我们知道日本是太阳升起的地方。 这里把太阳和原点放在一起， 因为日本位于中国的东面。 所以把太阳和原点放在一起，就是“日本”。 在“日本”后面加个“人”，我们得到什么？ “日本人”。

左边的字有两座山， 上下叠在一起。 在古代中国，这意味着流亡， 因为中国的皇帝把政敌 流放到大山之外。 现今，“流放”变成了“走出去”。 一个“口”字告诉你从哪里出去， 就是“出口”。