The secret language that we can speak ... 能说的秘密...
你好。我叫百翠珂。我在 George Watson College学中文。
I chose to study 中文for many different reasons. Here are some of them.
Reasons
我的哥哥学中文，我的姐姐也学中文. This would mean that we have our own secret language which 我妈妈和爸爸 wouldn't be able to understand。
中国 is at the forefront of technology， business and science. Learning 中文would mean that I could work with these people without needing a translator.
中国 has a current population of almost 1.5 billion people. Learning 中文 would mean I could connect with these people.
Codebreaker:
我的哥哥学中文，我的姐姐也学中文. Wǒ dí gēgē xué zhōngwén, wǒ de jiějiě yě xué zhōngwén.
My brother learns Chinese and my sister also learns Chinese.
我妈妈和爸爸 Wǒ māmā hé bàba My mom and dad
中国 Zhōngguó China
The thing I like most about learning 中文 is piecing together characters to make new words.
This word is from when I was learning about transport.
火车 Huǒ chē train
Trains used to run on steam which was made by heating water with fire (火🔥. Huǒ）and vehicle is 车 Chē
so, 火 fire + 车 vehicle = 火车 train
I think the Chinese way of creating word is very clever in every way.
Codebreaker:
The Chinese writing system is not based on an alphabet. Chinese is all about characters. A character is a single written symbol. All characters have a meaning and one character on its own can be a word, but many words are made up of two, three or even more characters put together. In the example above, 火 is both a character and a word because 火 can be used in a sentence to mean fire, e.g. 火太大了! Huǒ tài dàle The fire is too big. 火车 (火車) “train” is also a word, but it’s a word that consists of two characters.
The most difficult thing I find about learning 中文…
I think learning about how to write 中文 characters is the most difficult thing about learning 中文. I find that writing the characters out and using the look, cover, write, check method really helps.
Codebreaker:
There is always more than one way to skin a cat, here’re some other ways.
Look for patterns: While you learn to write Chinese is to continually look for patterns in the Chinese writing system. Make lists of characters that share a component and look for a theme. Doing this will tie in very nicely with making mnemonics for all the characters and components you learn. The idea is to get very familiar with how Chinese characters work, how they're put together, and to actively think about Chinese characters.
Think of Chinese as LEGO brick, very ‘square’ and highly visual. Learn Chinese with yiqihanzi combining design thinking and drawings to make Chinese characters understandable.
by 百翠珂 Kneen, S3