Why is learning Chinese so damn hard? There's a better way to learn Chinese characters and words.
A simple explanation of Chinese characters - Yester+day
1. Why is learning Chinese so hard?
Thinking of learning Mandarin Chinese? Almost everyone says it’s hard, but maybe it isn’t…
A succinct, first-timer-friendly explanation posted by Adrien Grandemange from back in 2015 gives a great first step introduction to the feeling of learning Chinese words and characters.
Yester+day
昨+天
“天 = day”.
Divide and conquer. The parts of any Chinese word can be separated, interpreted using something you know from English and re-combined into a complete unit of meaning that makes sense.
Easy, right? Makes you feel like learning Chinese words might not be so hard after all. Your foot is officially in the door.
2. But then, why do high school Chinese language programs in Australia have a 94% dropout rate?
…It (a study into the results of Chinese language programs in Australian high schools) finds that 94% of students who learn Chinese at some stage during their education drop out before year 12.
Of the 4% still studying the language at year 12, 94% are “first language” speakers — Chinese-born or of Chinese descent.”
The story is the same across the western world.
Why did my 4-year Chinese language course at university go from around 20 people in the first semester, to 15 in the second semester, to below 10 in year 2, 5 people in the 3rd year and me all by my lonesome in the final writing and culture class of the degree. (Check the comments on the Lingua Franca link –this happens a lot). …it got lonely.
One thing is certain: most people who are motivated enough to take the dive and start learning Mandarin do at some point get frustrated and lose motivation.
Why does this happen?
Let’s take another look at “yester+day”.
3. “Yester+day” is a band-aid fix… and that band-aid won’t stay stuck for long.
Yester+day
昨+天
“天 = day”. Easy.
But fast forward to later lessons and textbooks. That same 天 you had all figured out is causing problems.
Let's see if "day" makes sense when you put it together with some other characters to make more Chinese words:
聊+天 = Chat
Chat + ? = chat
---
天+空 = Sky
? + empty = the sky
---
天+气 = weather
? + air = weather
天 doesn’t seem to mean “day” anymore. The pieces aren’t explaining the whole anymore. The band-aid is coming loose.
4. What has gone wrong? Why Chinese characters and words are so damn hard.
天 has 10 or so possible meanings… and guess what – the overwhelming majority of the most common Chinese characters are just like 天 - they are polysemous. Some have 2 or 3 meanings, some have up to 20 and 30. These make up more than 70% of the building-block Chinese you will be learning in basic and intermediate Chinese.
Many students come to this realization and get frustrated.
Teachers offer little comfort or hope, usually responding with some version of the old “Just keep at it, you’ll scorch it into your brain eventually”… but it isn’t long before all those half-memorized, not s well understood words start to short circuit your brain.
5. Is there a solution??
Most learners don’t have a super-human memory, and even if they do, most aren’t happy memorizing as a substitute for understanding.
Yes there is a solution – why else would I be writing this?
What we need is a more sophisticated understanding of 天.
Polysemous Chinese character word trees - a better way to understand Chinese characters
6. Chinese words are trees. All meanings come from the same seed.
天has 10 meanings… but wouldn’t it be nice if 天 meant the same thing every time you saw it?
I want to suggest that it actually does.
In other words, those 10 meanings are branches of a tree of meaning, and they all share the same core – the same trunk – the from the same original seed.
Traditionally, Chinese isn’t taught like this, but I believe this one, key insight could be the difference between a generation of learners that quit Chinese out of frustration and a generation of non-Chinese heritage children that don’t just start learning Chinese, but stick with it.
7. Tell me about your 天 tree, bro.
a) Chinese characters aren’t like English words – their polysemy makes them more like… trees.
Traditional teaching doesn’t tell Chinese language learners that the many meanings of a Chinese character grow from a single seed. They have a central pillar – the trunk. They have branches – the polysemous character’s many meanings.
The character 天 is no exception: it’s a tree.
b) What’s at the center of the 天 tree?
The 天 tree’s seed and trunk is the thing that we see when we look up outside. It is the thing that exists opposite to the land and sea below. It’s the thing that stretches upwards and overhead from the horizon. It is the sky.
The center of the 天 tree is the “sky” that we know and love.
c) What are the 天 tree’s branches?
As with all trees, at some point the trunk turns into branches.
The 天 tree’s trunk splits into two, thick primary branches:
The first: the sky is up.
It is above the land. It is above us, and we are below it.
The second: The sky changes.
It becomes dark and then brightens. It becomes different colors, and is sometimes covered in clouds.
Now the 天 tree has a trunk, a “sky is up” branch and a “the sky changes” branch.
But again, as is the case with all trees, they wouldn’t be branches unless they continued to branch.
We can only follow one branch at a time. Let’s follow the “sky changes” branch first - it leads to something we’re looking for.
d) Please note: branches branch.
What do “sky changes” mean to us as people on the earth?
The 天 tree’s “sky changes” branch splits into another two branches:
One: Changes in the sky signal time.
The sky is dark, then lights up. The sun moves across the sky, then falls, after which the sky darkens again. When the sky darkens, we rest and sleep. When the sky brightens, we rise and work.
Two: Changes in the sky signal weather.
The sky moves. Clouds form and block out the sun. Rain falls. Thunder booms. We seek shelter. We wait for the sky to clear.
Weather: 天气. Keep a mental note: 天 -> Sky -> sky changes -> sky changes signal weather. OR: IN REVERSE: weather -> changes in the sky signal weather -> sky changes -> sky -> 天
The “sky changes signal weather” branch doesn’t split into any further branches. Weather is one meaning on the 天 tree.
e) The 天 tree’s “sky changes signal time” branch splits into another two branches – two types of time that the sky signals to us:
One: One sky is one unit of time – a day.
The sun rises, the sky brightens, the sky appears. The day begins. The sun changes position. It moves across the sky. From low, to high, to low. Then the sun sets. The sky goes dark, disappears. This is one day – and one day is a way of measuring time.
Let’s ignore the second branch for now – we’ve found an old friend. Just know – we can follow each of the trees branches to their end, and at the end of each, there will be another meaning of 天. We can also trace the branches backwards – back to the symbol you write or speak to express any meaning on the tree – 天.
8. The true identity of the “天” in “昨天”(yesterday).
天 = Sky -> sky changes -> sky signals time -> one sky = one day
天 meant “day” all along – but now you know why, plus you have a structure that connects all the meanings back into the one symbol/sound, plus you know how they fit together. Believe me, this will come in handy.
天 will appear 17 times in your Chinese language course: as part of 3 words at the beginner level; 2 words at the intermediate level; and 12 words in upper-intermediate and advanced Chinese.
Now you don’t have to second guess yourself every time you see a 天 on the page or hear a “tiān” spoken. You’re welcome.
9. …Weren’t we talking about “yesterday”?
Follow me – i’ll show you how 天 and 昨 turn into “yesterday”.
How the “天" (sky) tree becomes words containing “天”
10. how to put Chinese characters together into words.
(hint: don’t trust English – it makes you think you’ve understood things when you haven’t)
How do we make a word from two characters in Chinese? Let’s see if we can make 昨天(yesterday). Here’ s how it starts:
天 = sky - the sky tree
天, like we discussed, is a tree of meaning. Its trunk is “sky”, and this is the non-specific default meaning that the word will default back to without context. But when we give it context (by adding another character to its left, or right) the branches of meaning start to grow.
昨= “yester-“ (but we can do slightly better)
Good news: 昨 isn’t a polysemous character.
It just has one meaning – roughly the same as the “yester-” in “yesterday”. Got it? Good. But it’s best practice to increase the clarity on vocabulary wherever possible. Let’s do so.
From words like “yesterday” and “yester-year”, it seems like “yester-” means “of the past” / “previous in time”. Thus we get:
昨= “yester-“ -> “of the past” / “previous in time”
Now, we can combine the two parts:
昨+天
“of the past” / “previous in time” + the 天(sky) tree
The character 昨 is telling us what specific 天 is being talked about – what branch of 天 we have to follow to find the right meaning.
So, what's the right meaning? Trace the branches using 昨's meaning as your guide.
“Of the past” / “previous in time” narrows down the logical possibilities of 天.
We know from 昨 that we’re not talking about the “above” branch of 天 – so we follow the “changes” branch. We know that we’re talking about time and not weather – so we follow the time branch…
Day or Season? We already know we’re looking or the second part of a word that is roughly equal to “yesterday” in English – so naturally we go to the “day” branch.
昨 = “yester-“ -> “of the past” / “previous in time”
+
天 <- sky changes <- sky signals time <- one sky = day
=
Yesterday
I'm posting this because i'm interested in seeing if anyone's interested in learning more about this system of learning Chinese. In my experience, Chinese foreign language education needs a change.
Leave a comment, a like, share on social or contact me.
I'll be here.
Comments