Are Chinese words Really Difficult to “Write?”

By Carl Chang

Don’t answer the question now; look at the following examples first.

Now suppose you were a linguist to create your own numbers.

What would your first three numbers be? Now compare your numbers with the Chinese numb

ers, which are: 一 二 三 Yes, they are so simple, just one line, two and three l

ines, respectively. Now ask yourself : “Which one is easier?” Yours or C

hinese? Chinese or English?

What more can you easily get What more can you easily get out of these three numbers?out of these three numbers?

• 一一十 廾 千 丁 寸 才 木 本 十 廾 千 丁 寸 才 木 本

• 二二工 干 士 土 于 未 末 井工 干 士 土 于 未 末 井

• 三三王 主 玉 生 壬王 主 玉 生 壬

Connections—Learning languages provides

connections to additional bodies of knowledge that may be

unavailable to the monolingual English speaker.

Standard 3.1: students reinforce and further their knowledge of other disciplines through the

foreign language.Standard 3.2: Students acquire information and recognize the

distinctive viewpoints that are only available through the foreign

language and its cultures.

Now, look what vertical lines can do. One line

丫Does it look like the English letter “Y”?卜中串沖

Two lines 廾

刈

Three lines川卅州洲

Comparisons—Through comparisons and contrasts with the language being studied, students develop insight into the nature of language and the concept of culture and realize that there are multiple ways of viewing the world.Standard 4.1: Students demonstrate understanding of the nature of language through comparisons of the language studied and their own.Standard 4.2: Students demonstrate understanding of the concept of culture through comparisons of the cultures studied and their own.

After horizontal and vertical lines, let’s look atoblique lines

• 八• 人• 入• 乂• 父• 爻

You think that’s all?You think that’s all?

• Come on! Fun is not over yet!Come on! Fun is not over yet!

• How about combinations?How about combinations?

• How about the combination of a How about the combination of a horizontal line and two oblique lines? See horizontal line and two oblique lines? See the magic in the next slide.the magic in the next slide.

Combination of 一 and 人Does the dog’s tail look like the upper right dot of the

3rd word? And the pink body?

大丈犬太

＝

Combination of Combination of 二 二 and and 人人Does the arrows look like the last worDoes the arrows look like the last wor

d?d?

•天天•夫夫•矢矢•失失

And the story goes on…And the story goes on… Start your journey to the charm of Chinese words with Start your journey to the charm of Chinese words with 三 三 plus plus 人人 ; how abou; how abou

t that?t that? Or, you can try to start another combination like a horizontal line Or, you can try to start another combination like a horizontal line 一 一 combinecombine

d with a vertical lined with a vertical line ｜｜ and you getand you get

Now you can chant “Tonight I Can Write,” not the saddest lines as Neruda NNow you can chant “Tonight I Can Write,” not the saddest lines as Neruda Neruda did but the happiest lines of Chinese words as you just saw.eruda did but the happiest lines of Chinese words as you just saw.

And, please answer this question again before the curtain falls:And, please answer this question again before the curtain falls: Are Chinese words really that hard to write?Are Chinese words really that hard to write?