Comments on: On Having Favorite Characters http://www.lostlaowai.com/blog/learning-chinese/on-having-favorite-characters/ No-nonsense China Expat & Travel Community Thu, 09 Feb 2012 03:53:18 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Carl http://www.lostlaowai.com/blog/learning-chinese/on-having-favorite-characters/#comment-19983 Carl Thu, 26 Aug 2010 14:15:00 +0000 http://www.lostlaowai.com/blog/?p=928#comment-19983 I've always been a big fan of 噩. As a singular character it's full of meaning and totally memorable. Wenlin has this to say about it: An older form is 咢, from 吅 and 亏. "Beat the drum, give alarm; startle, startling -- the first form (咢) has 屰 below in the seal, now deformed: to attack with 吅 great shouts; second form (噩) is a modern corruption" --Karlgren (1923). Etymologically the same word as 愕 è as in 愕然 èrán 'astounded'. Compare 恶 è 'evil'. Not sure if that helps me decode the meaning of its elements though. Zhongwen.com simply says: King 王 and clamor (the four 口s). Regardless, it's pretty cool as an ideograph. I’ve always been a big fan of 噩. As a singular character it’s full of meaning and totally memorable. Wenlin has this to say about it:

An older form is 咢, from 吅 and 亏. “Beat the drum, give alarm; startle, startling — the first form (咢) has 屰 below in the seal, now deformed: to attack with 吅 great shouts; second form (噩) is a modern corruption” –Karlgren (1923). Etymologically the same word as 愕 è as in 愕然 èrán ‘astounded’. Compare 恶 è ‘evil’.

Not sure if that helps me decode the meaning of its elements though. Zhongwen.com simply says: King 王 and clamor (the four 口s).

Regardless, it’s pretty cool as an ideograph.

]]> By: Kellen http://www.lostlaowai.com/blog/learning-chinese/on-having-favorite-characters/#comment-11620 Kellen Sun, 09 Nov 2008 02:48:26 +0000 http://www.lostlaowai.com/blog/?p=928#comment-11620 before i could read many characters, 印 drove me freaking nuts for looking like Ed (or Ep). i hated it with every ounce of me just for looking like something that i knew it couldn't possibly be. before i could read many characters, 印 drove me freaking nuts for looking like Ed (or Ep). i hated it with every ounce of me just for looking like something that i knew it couldn’t possibly be.

]]> By: wenwang http://www.lostlaowai.com/blog/learning-chinese/on-having-favorite-characters/#comment-11618 wenwang Sat, 08 Nov 2008 20:40:07 +0000 http://www.lostlaowai.com/blog/?p=928#comment-11618 纔 is an obsolete variant character. People that use full form characters write 才, even in official and formal documents. I sometimes wonder if this silly myth about character use is spread by some conspiracy of the CCP, Hanban, and PRC Chinese teachers, or if they have just never read materials published in traditional characters or gone to karaoke... 纔 is an obsolete variant character. People that use full form characters write 才, even in official and formal documents. I sometimes wonder if this silly myth about character use is spread by some conspiracy of the CCP, Hanban, and PRC Chinese teachers, or if they have just never read materials published in traditional characters or gone to karaoke…

]]> By: Chip http://www.lostlaowai.com/blog/learning-chinese/on-having-favorite-characters/#comment-11581 Chip Sun, 02 Nov 2008 16:17:08 +0000 http://www.lostlaowai.com/blog/?p=928#comment-11581 囚－a guy in a box, great 好,a guy and a girl, that's "good" 藥-happy grass 件-well, it's a guy and a cow, must be a "thing" 印- just looks like "Ed", 安,nothing more like peace and quiet than a woman indoors, 纔,the only character that makes me somewhat glad for simplified characters. 囚－a guy in a box, great
好,a guy and a girl, that’s “good”
藥-happy grass
件-well, it’s a guy and a cow, must be a “thing”
印- just looks like “Ed”,
安,nothing more like peace and quiet than a woman indoors,
纔,the only character that makes me somewhat glad for simplified characters.

]]> By: Klortho http://www.lostlaowai.com/blog/learning-chinese/on-having-favorite-characters/#comment-11554 Klortho Thu, 30 Oct 2008 05:43:08 +0000 http://www.lostlaowai.com/blog/?p=928#comment-11554 It's just not true that pinyin wouldn't work for Mandarin. It would. <a href='http://pinyin.info/news/2008/online-texts-in-hanyu-pinyin/' rel="nofollow">This page</a> has lots of examples of Mandarin written in pinyin -- they are very comprehensible. They're perhaps a little more difficult to read than the same texts in Hanzi, but that's not because pinyin doesn't work as an orthography, but rather because you're not as fluent in reading it. It's important that the pinyin be properly split at word boundaries (which, granted, involves some guesswork) because that reduces the problem of the homophones considerably. As for favorite characters, I'm with Ryan that 肏 cào （"enter the meat") is hands-down the best. I also like any of the number of ones involving the "尸 shī body" radical, like 屎, 尿, 屄, 屌 (guess I'm into potty humor). And I just recently learned about <a href='http://www.chinasmack.com/glossary/#%E5%9B%A7' rel="nofollow">囧 jiǒng</a> It’s just not true that pinyin wouldn’t work for Mandarin. It would. This page has lots of examples of Mandarin written in pinyin — they are very comprehensible. They’re perhaps a little more difficult to read than the same texts in Hanzi, but that’s not because pinyin doesn’t work as an orthography, but rather because you’re not as fluent in reading it.

It’s important that the pinyin be properly split at word boundaries (which, granted, involves some guesswork) because that reduces the problem of the homophones considerably.

As for favorite characters, I’m with Ryan that 肏 cào （”enter the meat”) is hands-down the best. I also like any of the number of ones involving the “尸 shī body” radical, like 屎, 尿, 屄, 屌 (guess I’m into potty humor). And I just recently learned about 囧 jiǒng

]]> By: KaLi http://www.lostlaowai.com/blog/learning-chinese/on-having-favorite-characters/#comment-11539 KaLi Tue, 28 Oct 2008 08:30:25 +0000 http://www.lostlaowai.com/blog/?p=928#comment-11539 Have you ever seen this? It was actually published in a Beijing newspaper in response to the government wanting to Westernize (and move only to pinyin). Story goes that the author made a great point and this is one of the reasons the push was abandoned. http://mmtaylor.net/Literacy_Book/DOCS/05.html Granted, the pinyin is missing tonal marks, but still, the point is very obvious. I am convinced you can only become truly fluent if you can read Chinese because so many words can be mistaken for other words. I don't have any favorite characters yet. I'm just happy to remember ANY of them! Have you ever seen this? It was actually published in a Beijing newspaper in response to the government wanting to Westernize (and move only to pinyin). Story goes that the author made a great point and this is one of the reasons the push was abandoned.

http://mmtaylor.net/Literacy_Book/DOCS/05.html

Granted, the pinyin is missing tonal marks, but still, the point is very obvious. I am convinced you can only become truly fluent if you can read Chinese because so many words can be mistaken for other words.

I don’t have any favorite characters yet. I’m just happy to remember ANY of them!

]]> By: Alex http://www.lostlaowai.com/blog/learning-chinese/on-having-favorite-characters/#comment-11535 Alex Mon, 27 Oct 2008 14:24:25 +0000 http://www.lostlaowai.com/blog/?p=928#comment-11535 Tried Vietnamese? Cognates abound. Tried Vietnamese? Cognates abound.

]]> By: Ryan http://www.lostlaowai.com/blog/learning-chinese/on-having-favorite-characters/#comment-11531 Ryan Mon, 27 Oct 2008 02:31:36 +0000 http://www.lostlaowai.com/blog/?p=928#comment-11531 How can you not appreciate the simple, if not a bit crude, 肏. @Jason: (- -)凸 - that's awesome. How can you not appreciate the simple, if not a bit crude, 肏.

@Jason: (- -)凸 – that’s awesome.

]]> By: Jeremy http://www.lostlaowai.com/blog/learning-chinese/on-having-favorite-characters/#comment-11530 Jeremy Mon, 27 Oct 2008 02:21:07 +0000 http://www.lostlaowai.com/blog/?p=928#comment-11530 Totally recommend Remembering the Simplified (or traditional) Hanzi which might be coming out at the end of the year - what's funny about that system is that you can learn one essential meaning of the most common 3000 characters without knowing a word of Chinese. Imagine if we all learned an esperanto of sorts based on some form of characters - they would allow you to communicate with anyone who learned the system. Totally recommend Remembering the Simplified (or traditional) Hanzi which might be coming out at the end of the year – what’s funny about that system is that you can learn one essential meaning of the most common 3000 characters without knowing a word of Chinese.

Imagine if we all learned an esperanto of sorts based on some form of characters – they would allow you to communicate with anyone who learned the system.

]]> By: Magnus http://www.lostlaowai.com/blog/learning-chinese/on-having-favorite-characters/#comment-11529 Magnus Mon, 27 Oct 2008 01:20:40 +0000 http://www.lostlaowai.com/blog/?p=928#comment-11529 Funny post. I think "snow" 雪 looks like a snowflake...so that helps to remind me... When I was studying Chinese I really liked "can" of "canting" 餐厅 mainly because it was so hard to write. The challenge maybe... Funny post. I think “snow” 雪 looks like a snowflake…so that helps to remind me…

When I was studying Chinese I really liked “can” of “canting” 餐厅 mainly because it was so hard to write. The challenge maybe…

]]>