Learning Chinese will re-wire your brain. OK, this isn't a scientific study I'm referring to - it's only my own experience. But check whether you would pass or fail ...
I was walking through London's St Katherine Docks recently, and there was a little pedestrian bridge near Dicken's Inn. I saw this little sign at the one end ... which basically means that mothers should look after their kids. I guess.
But that's not what I read. Nope. What did you think when you saw the sign (pictured to the right)?
Yeah, me too. I immediately thought about the character for "good" in Mandarin - 好 (hǎo). This is made up of 女 (woman) and 子 (child).
So I was chuckling at myself, taking this picture ... and all the people walking past looked at me really strangely!
(Now would probably be the right time to read a previous post on How to end with 'hǎo'.)
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OK, let's now have some fun ... what other signs make you think of Chinese characters?
- For example, this character would probably be "train". Below I see "fire" and "car". The Chinese word for train is: 火车 (huǒchē, i.e. fire car)
- What could the following signs be? Leave your ideas as a comment below ...
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#2 连
ReplyDelete#3 从
LOLZ wooow Greg. As much as I love and understand Chinese I never think that much about pictures. There are very few that make me think about other objects:
ReplyDelete囧 a shocked face
冏 a crying face
And a few others :)
However, 1. looks like 摩托车 (motorcycle, obviously from the picture xD)
2. I don't know . . . 连 makes sense though :)
As for 3. 从 also does make sense, but I was thinking about the original character for 人， where it shows a person, and eventually as time went on it was made to look like run (the people who were drawn get taller or shorter, and wider to have the spread 'legs' that 人 has.
Good job with learning the new 178 (I think?) characters by the way!! :)
Kara
Dear CL & Kara. I love the ideas you've suggested - really good! Am curious to see what others people come up with. Surely there are more suggestions?
ReplyDeleteHehe, Actually I learnt my traffic rules as thinking of thems "combined 汉字". But reading this post was so funny, because I first saw the picture before reading the text and I instantly thought of 好. And that's from a guy who is learning Mandarin for a shorter period than you are Greg.
ReplyDeleteJust keep up the good work with the site and all, which I have been following from the beginning.
I have to admit thinking the exact same thing when I saw that picture. :D
ReplyDeleteYou said Chinese is rewiring your brain...? I think it's melting YOUR brain!
ReplyDeleteTaming, thanks for following along for so long.
ReplyDeleteAnd to you and Charlie - you've both made me feel better - glad I wasn't the only one who has been rewired!
Magnus, I think you're right. I bought a beer tonight in a London pub, and thanked the (English) barman by saying "xie xie". It took me a moment to work out why he looked so confused!
The third sort of reminds me of 朋 from 朋友. The old man and woman are friends. ^_^
ReplyDeleteAlso the first one reminds me of 骑 as in to ride.
Comments posted below on behalf of XY, who is currently unable to post on Blogger from China:
ReplyDeleteGreg, I've used my brain trying to figure out what the three pictures stand for.
Graph No.1:
Guess 1: motorcycle and car 摩托车
Guess 2: 轰（in the Chinese way of thinking,，两辆车)
Graph No.2:
Guess 1: slippery and car (I really don't how to put together these two) 滑车 (Physics term).
Guess 2: Could it be 连？
Graph No.3:
Guess 1: two people 从.
Guess 2: It could also be 好, since that is a lady on the lefthand side and a man on the righthand side(女子，where 子 is honorific for man in acient China).
Guess 3: 耄耋 （Which might be a bit advanced for you).
Thanks to both Niel & XY - that's a bunch of great guesses. I'm really starting to look at hanzi in a new way! (And XY, you're right ... '耄耋' is definitely waaaaay ahead of me right now! :-)
ReplyDelete