How to Write in Chinese. You probably think learning how to write in Chinese is impossible. And I get it. Im a native English speaker, and I know how complex Chinese characters seem. But youre about to learn that its not impossible. Ive teamed up with Kyle Balmer from Sensible Chinese to show you how you can learn the basic building blocks of the Chinese written language, and build your Chinese vocabulary quickly. First, youll learn the basics of how the Chinese written language is constructed. Then, youll get a step by step guide for how to write Chinese characters sensibly and systematically. Wondering how it can be so easy Then lets get into it. Download Pleco Chinese Dictionary' title='Download Pleco Chinese Dictionary' />A review of the best FREE resources to learn Chinese online Dictionaries, Grammar, Audio, Video and much more. Dont have time to read this now Click here to download a free PDF of the article. Download Pleco Chinese Dictionary' title='Download Pleco Chinese Dictionary' />How to Write in Chinese. Chinese is a complex language with many dialects and varieties. Before we dive in, lets just take a second to be clear exactly what well be talking about. First, youll be learning about Mandarin Chinese, the standard dialect. Download Pleco Chinese Dictionary' title='Download Pleco Chinese Dictionary' />There are 5 mains groups of dialects and perhaps 2. China Taiwan. Mandarin Chinese is the standard used in Beijing and spoken or understood, by 23 of the population. Second, there are two types of Chinese characters Traditional and Simplified. Happy Days Mp3 Songs Free Download 320Kbps here. In this article, well be talking about Simplified Chinese characters, which are used in the majority of Mainland China. There is an ongoing politicised debate about the two kinds of characters, and those asking themselves Should I learn traditional or simplified Chinese characters can face a difficult choice. First Steps in Learning Chinese Characters. Chinese dictionaries and tools http Theron Stanfords Pinyin tone marking tool Generates pinyin with tone marks as you type. Kilauea Mount Etna Mount Yasur Mount Nyiragongo and Nyamuragira Piton de la Fournaise Erta Ale. When learning a European language, you have certain reference points that give you a head start. If you are learning French and see the word lhotel, for example, you can take a pretty good guess what it means You have a shared alphabet and shared word roots to fall back on. In Chinese this is not the case. When youre just starting out, every sound, character, and word seems new and unique. Learning to read Chinese characters can feel like learning a whole set of completely illogical, unconnected squiggles The most commonly taught method for learning to read and write these squiggles is rote learning. Just write them again and again until they stick in your brain and your hand remembers how to write them This is an outdated approach, much like reciting multiplication tables until they stick. I learnt this way. Most Chinese learners learnt this way. Its painfuland sadly discourages a lot of learners. However, there is a better way. Even without any common reference points between Chinese and English, the secret is to use the basic building blocks of Chinese, and use those building blocks as reference points from which to grow your knowledge of written Chinese. This article will Outline the different levels of structure inherent in Chinese characters. Show you how to build your own reference points from scratch. How to build up gradually without feeling overwhelmed. The Structure of Written Chinese. The basic structure of written Chinese is as follows I like to think of Chinese like Lego its very square The individual bricks are the components also known as radicals. We start to snap these components together to get something larger the characters. We can then snap characters together in order to make Chinese words. Heres the really cool part about Chinese Each of these pieces, at every level, has meaning. The component, the character, the word they all have meaning. This is different to a European language, where the pieces used to make up words are letters. Letters by themselves dont normally have meaning and when we start to clip letters together we are shaping a sound rather than connecting little pieces of meaning. This is a powerful difference that comes into play later when we are learning vocabulary. Lets look at the diagram again. Here we start with the component. This has the meaning of childinfant. The character good is the next level. Look on the right of the character and youll see. We would say that is a component of. Now look at the full word Hello. Notice that the is still there. The character is built of the components and. The character is built from. The word in turn is constructed out of. Heres the complete breakdown of that word in an easy to read diagram Now look at this photo of this in real life Dont worry if you cant understand it. Just look for some shapes that you have seen before. The font is a little funky, so here are the typed characters What components have you seen before Did you spot them This is a big deal. Heres whyWhy Character Components are So Important. One of the big scare stories around Chinese is that there are 5. Now, this is true. But learning them isnt half as bad as you think. Firstly, only a few thousand characters are in general everyday use so that number is a lot more manageable. Second, and more importantly, those 5. And you already know one of them  its one of those 2. The fact that you can now recognise the in the image above is a huge step forward. You can already recognise one of the 2. Even better is the fact that of these 2. This makes Chinese characters a lot less scary. Once you get a handle on these basic components, youll quickly recognise all the smaller pieces and your eyes will stop glazing over This doesnt mean youll necessarily know the meaning or how to pronounce the words yet well get onto this shortly but suddenly Chinese doesnt seem quite so alien any more. Memorising the Components of Chinese Characters. Memorising the pieces is not as important as simply realising that ALL of Chinese is constructed from these 2. When I realised this, Chinese became a lot more manageable and I hope Ive saved you some heartache by revealing this early in your learning process Here are some useful online resources for learning the components of Chinese characters TAKEAWAY Every single Chinese character is composed of just 2. Only 5. 0 1. 00 of these are commonly used. Learn these pieces first to learn how to write in Chinese quickly. Moving From Components to Characters. Once youve got a grasp of the basic building blocks of Chinese its time to start building some charactersWe used the character good in the above example. Unlike the letters of the alphabet in English, these components have meaning. They also have pronunciation, but for the sake of simplicity well leave that aside for now means woman and means child. When they are put together, and become and the meaning is good. Therefore woman child good in Chinese When learning how to write in Chinese characters you can take advantage of the fact that components have their own meanings. In this case, it is relatively easy to make a mnemonic memory aid that links the idea of a woman with her baby as good. Because Chinese is so structured, these kind of mnemonics are an incredibly powerful tool for memorisation. Some characters, including, can also be easily represented graphically. Shao. Lans book Chineasy does a fantastic job of this. Heres the image of for instance you can see the mother and child. Source http chineasy. Visual graphics like these can really help in learning Chinese characters. Unfortunately, only around 5 of the characters in Chinese are directly visual in this way. These characters tend to get the most attention because they look great when illustrated. Chinglish Wikipedia. A warning sign in Guilin states in Chinese When there are thunderstorms Please do not climb the mountain. This sign demonstrates the complexity of translation. Lighting prone area Please do not climbing. Chinglish refers to spoken or written English language that is influenced by the Chinese language. In Hong Kong, Macau, and Guangdong, the term Chinglish refers mainly to Cantonese influenced English. This term is commonly applied to ungrammatical or nonsensical English in Chinese contexts, and may have pejorative or deprecating connotations. Other terms used to describe the phenomenon include Chinese English, China English, and Sinicized English. The degree to which a Chinese variety of English exists or can be considered legitimate is disputed. TerminologyeditThe English word Chinglish is a portmanteau of Chinese and English. The Chinese equivalent is Zhngsh Yngy simplified Chinese traditional Chinese literally Chinese style English. Chinglish can be compared with other interlanguage varieties of English, such as Britalian from Italian, Czenglish from Czech, Denglisch German, Dunglish Dutch, Franglais French, Greeklish Greek, Runglish Russian, Spanglish Spanish, Swenglish Swedish, Hunglish Hungarian, Heblish Hebrew, Engrish Japanese, Hinglish Hindi, Konglish Korean, Singlish in Singapore and Tinglish Thai. The Oxford English Dictionary defines the noun and adjective. Chinglish, n. and a. Brit. tgl, U. S. tgl. Forms 1. 9 Chinglish, 1. Chenglish rare. Blend of Chinese n. English n. Compare earlier Japlish n., Spanglish n. Compare also Hinglish n. Singlish n. 2A. n. A mixture of Chinese and English esp. English used by speakers of Chinese or in a bilingual Chinese and English context, typically incorporating some Chinese vocabulary or constructions, or English terms specific to a Chinese context. Also the vocabulary of, or an individual word from, such a variety. Cf. Singlish n. 2. Badj. Of or relating to Chinglish expressed in Chinglish. This dictionary cites the earliest recorded usage of Chinglish noted as a jocular term in 1. Chinese English in 1. Chinglish commonly refers to a mixture of English with Modern Standard Mandarin, but it occasionally refers to mixtures with Cantonese,7Shanghainese and Taiwanese Hokkien. Chinglish contrasts with some related terms. Chinese Pidgin English was a lingua franca that originated in the seventeenth century. Zhonglish, a term for Chinese influenced by English, is a portmanteau of Zhngwn Chinese language and English. Some peculiar Chinese English cannot be labeled Chinglish because it is grammatically correct, and Mair calls this emerging dialect Xinhua English or New China News English, based on the Xinhua News Agency. Take for instance, this headline China lodges solemn representation over Japans permission for Rebiya Kadeers visit. This unusual English phrase literally translates the original Chinese tichu yanzheng jiaoshe lodge solemn representation, combining tichu put forward raise pose bring up, yanzheng serious stern unyielding solemn, and jiaoshe mutual relations negotiation representation. Pure Chinese is an odd English locution in a Web advertisement CONFUCIUS INSTITUTE Teach you pure Chinese. This Kongzi Xueyuan is Chinese for the Confucius Institute, but Mair notes that pure Chinese curiously implies impure Chinese. One author divides Chinglish into instrumental and ornamental categories. Instrumental Chinglish is actually intended to convey information to English speakers. Ornamental Chinglish is born of the fact that English is the lingua franca of coolness. Meaning aside, any combination of roman letters elevates a commodity khaki pants, toilet paper, potato chips to a higher plane of chic by suggesting that the product is geared toward an international audience. HistoryeditEnglish first arrived in China in 1. British traders reached Macao and Guangzhou or Canton. In the 1. 7th century, Chinese Pidgin English originated as a lingua franca for trade between British people and mostly Cantonese speaking Chinese people. This proto Chinglish term pidgin originated as a Chinese mispronunciation of the English word business. Following the First and Second Opium War between 1. Pidgin English spread north to Shanghai and other treaty ports. Pidgin usage began to decline in the late 1. Chinese and missionary schools began teaching Standard English. In 1. 98. 2, the Peoples Republic of China made English the main foreign language in education. Current estimates for the number of English learners in China range from 3. Chinglish may have influenced some English expressions that are calques or loan translations from Chinese Pidgin English, for instance, lose face derives from diulian lose face be humiliated. Some sources claim long time no see is a Chinglish calque from hojibjin long time no see. More reliable references note this jocular American English phrase used as a greeting after prolonged separation was first recorded in 1. Native Americans speech, and thus more likely derives from American Indian Pidgin English. Chinese officials carried out campaigns to reduce Chinglish in preparation for the 2. Summer Olympics in Beijing and the Expo 2. Shanghai. Soon after the International Olympic Committee selected Beijing in 2. Beijing Tourism Bureau established a tipster hotline for Chinglish errors on signs, such as emergency exits at the Beijing airport reading No entry on peacetime. In 2. 00. 7, the Beijing Speaks Foreign Languages Program BSFLP reported they had, worked out 4,6. English translations to substitute the Chinglish ones on signs around the city, for instance, Be careful, road slippery instead of To take notice of safe The slippery are very crafty. BSFLP chairperson Chen Lin said, We want everything to be correct. Grammar, words, culture, everything. Beijing will have thousands of visitors coming. We dont want anyone laughing at us. Reporting from Beijing, Ben Macintyre lamented the loss of signs like Show Mercy to the Slender Grass because, many of the best examples of Chinglish are delightful, reflecting the inventiveness that results when two such different languages collide. The Global Language Monitor doubted that Beijings attempt to eradicate Chinglish could succeed noting that we share the charm and joy of the Olympic Games is found on the official website of the Beijing Olympics. Hundreds of scholars have proofed the site and decided that the word charm is most appropriate in describing the Games. In Shanghai, for Expo 2. Chinglish signage. A New York Times article by Andrew Jacobs2. Shanghai Commission for the Management of Language Use. Fortified by an army of 6. English speakers, the commission has fixed more than 1. Teliot and urine district, rewritten English language historical placards and helped hundreds of restaurants recast offerings. James Fallows attributed many Shanghai Chinglish errors to rote reliance on dictionaries or translation software, citing a bilingual sign reading Translate server error canting means dining room restaurant.