Newer
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Not worth it:
* Chez Chili
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1050B rue Clark
== Chinese television 中国电视
Modern themed television is generally crap due to <<censorship>>, but this leads to a big focus on ancient stuff, and some of it is amazing.
* 1994 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romance_of_the_Three_Kingdoms_(TV_series) | https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/三国演义_(电视剧) The best https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Kingdoms[Three Kingdoms 三国] adaptation of all time? Mind blowing. There seems to exist a version with full Chinese + English subtitles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_r3eWfTMDs&list=PLdAMXqGeRsOkXzuocRkBPhe5RhZ6RotGH&index=2
[[learn-chinese]]
== Tips to learn Chinese 学习中文方法建议
To read on the net, https://www.perapera.org/[Perapera] obviously, see also: <<does-ciro-santilli-speak-chinese>>.
To overhear people and learn characters/new words Pleco: https://www.pleco.com/
It really hurts that there is no online Pleco, you have to go back and forth from cell phone to computer, is there anything as good online?
* https://www.yellowbridge.com/chinese/dictionary.php extremelly annoyng ads and limited list sizes, but good otherwise
* https://dict.naver.com/linedict/zhendict/#/cnen/home LINE dict, has many web scraped examples, but no sources back to those examples. Works, but a bit clunky.
Maybe some day something will be extracted from: https://github.com/skishore/makemeahanzi which jas a huge JSON of character data.
When you want to learn "how to say something in Chinese", the only valid routes are:
* does it have a Wikipedia page? Go on the English one then change language
* put an English sentence on https://translate.google.com/[Google Translate], then Google for it.
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If it is a common word, it will give useless dictionary results, so search instead with `site:bbc.com` or `site:zhihu.com`.
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Then find a sentence that contains the word written by a native Chinese, and understand the full sentence to confirm that it means what you want it to mean in a similar context.
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Just using the Google translate directly will lead 70% to a weird/wrong/incomprehensible translation that no Chinese person would ever say.
* 几分钟看完: illegal 10 minute summaries of movies with clips from the movies and a narrator speaking quickly instead of movie sounds.
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Some have Chinese subtitles, e.g.: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFSMvtS6SYQ and it is great content to learn from, because it is someone telling a not too boring story in a natural and clear way, with supporting images to help with context.
=== Chinese character sentence component mnemonic systems
Associate one word to each character/character component.
One good way to find mnemonics is to just Google for whatever random words you want to fit into a sentence. You end up learning fun things this way, and those make the best mnemonics.
Then to learn a new character, break it down into components, and create a sentence or short story that includes all the component words.
* http://rtega.be/chmn/ CC-BY-NO-SA but not clear way to contribute to it
* Proprietary books
** https://www.amazon.com/dp/0824833236 "Remembering Simplified Hanzi" by James W. Heisig and Timothy W. Richardson from 2008. This is the classic.
** https://www.amazon.com/dp/9881919339 STICK by Dr. Melanie Schmidt ed.
** https://www.amazon.com/dp/109565960X "Learn Chinese Characters: Easy Mnemonics to Memorize Hanzi: 400+ Characters, 700+ Vocabulary, 1300+ Practice Questions with Solutions" by L Castelluzzo
Japanese Kanji:
* proprietary:
** https://www.tofugu.com/japanese/kanji-radicals-mnemonic-method/
** https://www.wanikani.com/
=== Lists of the most common characters and words
This is a good approach to tick off high frequency stuff you don't know you don't know:
* HSK word lists
** http://web.archive.org/web/20180211123634/http://www.hskhsk.com/word-lists.html go in the "(frequency order)" links
* Official character lists learned by native Chinese students per age group. TODO find exact lists.
** https://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/6000/how-many-characters-do-chinese-pupils-know-at-different-ages
Single author open source Pleco + "Remembering Simplified Hanzi" in a single .adoc file? Let's go.
We'd use http://rtega.be/chmn/ as basis if it weren't for the NO in CC-BY-NO-SA? But that NO is evil, what the heck does it even mean to gain money from something? Too restrictive.
Format will be very constant, database like. Would therefore be cool to parse it from the Asciidoctor into a proper database as a way to verify and allow third party usage.
Base mnemonic components can come more or less directly from the 214 Kangxi radicals: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kangxi_radical
One key principle is that characters and words often don't have a well translatable meaning: the minimal always translatable unit is a sentence: <<sentences>>!
You can't fully learn a language by learning words and characters alone, you must learn sentences.
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[[<character>]]
=== <character> (<pinyin>, <mnemonic name>)
* <chinese-word-containing>
* <chinese-word-containing>
* <character-containing>
* <character-containing>
Translations:
* <<english-word>>
** <<chinese-sentence-containing>>
Notes:
* `Translations` is only used when it is a single character word, if it goes inside a word, only the word will contain the sentence
Mnemonic: Can't find the freaking Unicode. It looks like a **pistol**.
Characters:
* 每 TODO each
[[top-part-of-存]]
==== Top part of 存 (, market stall)
Mnemonic: looks like one.
Characters:
* <<存>>
Mnemonic: the dot indicates something that stays on top of the head of a king (<<王>>)
Notes: there is no "proper" Chinese name for this, it is just known as "the top part of <<青>>" (青字頭) https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/龶
Characters:
* <<青>>
Characters:
* <<爬>>
Words:
* <<巴西>>
[[八]]
==== 八 (ba1, eight)
Short forms: 丷
Characters:
* <<单>>
[[白]]
==== 白 (bai2, white)
Mnemonic: the **sun** (<<日>>) is so bright on that **one** (<<一>>) day, that it was almost **white**
Characters:
* <<的>>
[[勹]]
==== 勹 (bao1, plastic wrap)
Mnemonic: Kangxi 20 is "wrap". So we choose plastic wrap as a specific type of wrapping that will give good mnemonics.
Characters:
* <<勺>>
[[本]]
==== 本 (ben3, potato)
Mnemonic: **one** (<<一>>) thing is always beloow a **tree** (<<本>>): **potato** roots
Characters:
* <<体>>
[[匕]]
==== 匕 (bi3, spoon)
Mnemonic: an ancient spoon, looks like this: https://read01.com/aAEn50x.html#.XnfZDN_niV4 "古人吃饭最早不用筷子，用的是“匕”，那“匕”是什么？
Mnemonic: imagine a soldier wearing **green** (<<龶>>) camouflage **clothes** (<<衣>>), and checking his **watch** to know if it is time to attack
Mnemonic: the kangxi description is "divination". Since this is completely unrelated to common contexts of modern people, we select a wand use a magic-related object that can be easily put into fun stories: a magic wand.
[[不]]
==== 不 (bu4, not)
Mnemonic: unclear, possibly **magic wand** <<卜>>
Words:
* <<不幸>>
Mnemonic: every **dawn** <<旦>>, men have to **check** if their penises are hard as **wood** <<木>>, and if so they have to stay in bed for a while longer because it is too embarrassing to walk out like that, see also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morning_wood
[[车]]
==== 车 (che1, car)
Characters:
* <<轮>>
[[臣]]
==== 臣 (chen2, minister)
Characters:
* <<临>>
[[彳]]
==== 彳 (chi4, step)
Mnemonic: Kangxi 60.
Characters:
* <<很>>
[[辵]]
==== 辵 (chuo4, walk)
Short forms: ⻌,⻍,⻎
Characters:
* <<运>>
[[存]]
==== 存 (cun2, survive)
Mnemonic: the Jewish **child** (<<子>>) **survived** from the Nazis by hidding under a **market stall** (<<top-part-of-存>>)
Words:
* <<幸存>>
[[寸]]
==== 寸 (cun4, inch)
Characters:
* <<讨>>
[[大]]
==== 大 (da4, big)
Characters:
* <<犬>>
Mnemonic: that **evening** (<<夕>>), **one** (<<一>>) **supervillain** attacked us!
[[旦]]
==== 旦 (dan4, dawn)
Mnemonic: **dawn** is when the **sun** (<<日>>) is raising over the horizon (<<一>>)
Characters:
* <<但>>
Words:
* <<元旦>>
[[但]]
==== 但 (dan4, but)
Mnemonic: I saw a **person** (<<人>>) walking at **dawn** (<<旦>>). It was beautiful, **but** why wouldn't they be sleeping instead?
[[多]]
==== 多 (duo1, many)
Mnemonic: one **wrap sandwitch** (<<勺>>) is fine for lunch, but two on too **many**
[[的]]
==== 的 (de, my)
Mnemonic: **my** penis looks like a **white** (<<白>>) **wrap sandwitch** (<<勺>>)
Mnemonic: his **superpower** (<<力>>) is to **move** fart **clouds** (<<云>>) with his mind
[[单]]
==== 单 (dan1, bill)
Mnemonic: that lunch **bill** cost as much as buying **eighty** (<<十>> <<八>>) rice **fields** (<<田>>)!
Words:
* TODO 买单
[[对]]
==== 对 (dui4, correct)
Mnemonic: to progress slowly, adding **inch** (<<寸>>) by inch, **again** (<<又>>) and again, is the **correct** way to progress
Characters:
* <<树>>
[[儿]]
==== 儿 (er2, son)
Characters:
* <<元>>
[[尔]]
==== 尔 (er3, you)
Mnemonic: I'll stab **you** with a **small** (<<小>>) knife (<<刀>>)
Characters:
* <<你>>
[[二]]
==== 二 (er4, two)
Characters:
* 元
Mnemonic: he didn't have two **lungs**, but rather one **moon** (<<月>>) and one **lung** (<<巿>>)
Words:
* <<肺炎>>
[[巿]]
==== 巿 (fu2, lung)
Mnemonic: due to an infection, doctors had to dry up **one** (<<一>>) of his **lung** with a **towel** (<<巾>>)
Characters:
* <<肺>>
[[干]]
==== 干 (gan1, dry)
Characters:
* <<幸>>
[[根]]
==== 根 (gen1, roots)
Mnemonic: **roots** one **root** (<<艮>>) plus one root and lots of **wood** (<<木>>)
Notes: this is a Kangxi radical, but its English name "stopping" is just too close to the more important "stop" <<止>> and would cause confusion. So we just use the common phonetic compound **roots** (<<根>>) as the mnemonic. It was tempting to leave "root" for <<本>>, which looks perfectly like a root, but we did character first, and "potato" makes for even better mnemonics.
[[冠]]
==== 冠 (guan1, corona)
Mnemonic: when Queen Elizabeth was crowned, the **first** (<<元>>) thing they put a one **inch** (<<寸>>) **hajib** <<冖>> on her head, and then the **corona** of a Christian saint saint appeared on her head
Notes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corona
Mnemonic: imagine **one** <<一>> **grain** of rice coming out of **wood** (<<木>>)
Characters:
* <<私>>
* <<和>>
[[和]]
==== 和 (he2, harmonious)
Mnemonic: nothing is more **harmonious** than putting some **grains** <<禾>> in your **mouth** <<口>>
Characters:
* <<私>>
* <<和>>
Mnemonic: **stepping** (<<彳>>) on a tree **root** (<<艮>>) is a **very** bad idea, it might be a tree spirit that gets angry and eats you!
[[火]]
==== 火 (huo3, fire)
Short forms: 灬
Characters:
* <<炎>>
[[巾]]
==== 巾 (jin1, towel)
Mnemonic: person carrying bath towel over shoulders.
Characters:
* <<巿>>
[[几]]
==== 几 (ji3, side table)
Characters:
* <<殳>>
[[口]]
==== 口 (kou3, mouth)
Chars:
* <<台>>
* <<和>>
[[里]]
==== 里 (li3, mile)
Mnemonic: his **field** (<<田>>) streched over one **mile** (<<里>>), but it consisted of barren **soil** (<<土>>) without any plants
Characters:
* <<重>>
* <<理>>
[[理]]
==== 理 (li3, science)
Mnemonic: the **king** (<<王>>) Louis XIV was a big patron of the mectric system, which intends to improve **science** by removing useless units like the **mile** (<<里>>)
Words:
* <<物理>>
* <<理论>>
[[力]]
==== 力 (li4, superpower)
Characters:
* <<动>>
Mnemonic: there must exist a **list** of **supervillains** (<<歹>>) with **knives** (<<刀>>) on the web? A knife-yielding supervillain **list**! https://techland.time.com/2010/09/03/top-ten-heroes-and-villians-with-big-knives/
[[临]]
==== 临 (lin2, temporary)
Mnemonic: the simplified character was completely mutilated into a bunch of senseless traces unmemorizable traces. The traditional 臨 can be broken into: the **Prime minister** (<<臣>>) temporarily decided to increase production of an important **product** (<<品>>): **pistols** (<<top-part-of-每>>), until the zombie apocalypse would be over.
Words:
* <<临时>>
[[仑]]
==== 仑 (lun2, logic)
Mnemonic: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spoon_theory[spoon theory] is very logical and explains how using **spoons** (<<匕>>) is a good metaphor for a **person**'s (<<人>>) energy consumption
Characters:
* <<论>>
Mnemonic: "**rationale**" the fancy way that engineers **say** (<<言>>) "**logic**" (<<仑>>)
Mnemonic: it is pretty **logical** (<<仑>>) that a **car** (<<车>>) needs **wheels**
[[没]]
==== 没 (mei2, not have)
Mnemonic: if you **do not have** any **water** (<<水>>) for your **coffee** (<<殳>>), it won't be very good
[[冖]]
==== 冖 (mi4, hajib [Muslim female head scarf])
Notes: the Wikipedia Kangxi is "cloth cover". Ciro guesses this was originally something to do with food covering. But let's just go with hajib which will allow for easy politically incorrect mnemonics. "Crown" from <<冠>> would also be another good one, but we had already used crown for <<龶>>.
Characters:
* <<冠>>
[[宀]]
==== 宀 (mian2, roof)
Characters:
* <<审>>
Characters:
* <<根>>
Words:
* <<木头>>
[[疒]]
==== 疒 (ne4, sick)
Mnemonic: Kangxi 104.
Characters:
* <<疫>>
[[你]]
==== 你 (ni3, thou)
Mnemonic: **person** (<<人>>) **you** (<<尔>>)
[[牛]]
==== 牛 (niu2, cow)
Short forms: 牜,⺧
Characters:
* <<理>>
Mnemonic: you need **claws** (<<爪>>) to **climb** (爬) **Brazil**'s (<<巴>>) tallest mountain: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pico_da_Neblina[Pico da Neblina]
[[品]]
==== 品 (pin3, product)
Mnemonic: you need a lot of food **products** to feed the three **mouths** (<<口>>) of three children!
Words:
* 食品 TODO
Characters:
* <<临>>
[[攴]]
==== 攴 (pu1, to tap)
Short forms: 攵
Mnemonic: to transform a frog into a princess, you have to **tap** your **magic wand** (<<卜>>) **again and again** (<<又>>) on it
Characters:
* <<政>>
[[千]]
==== 千 (qian2, thousand)
Mnemonic: a super powerful <<十>> with an extra trace
[[丬]]
==== 丬 (qiang2, split wood)
Characters: <<状>>
Mnemonic: the **crown** (<<龶>>) of the king was **blue** and **moon-shaped** (<<月>>)
Notes: it is more like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyan[green-blue/Cyan], see also https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/青色 but let's call it blue because it will be used in many constructs.
Mnemonic: imagine a Caribbean sea **water** (<<水>>) was is **blue** (<<青>>) and **clear**
Notes: clear in the sense of "not dirty" and "a clear explanation". "Clear colors" use TODO 浅 as in 浅蓝.
[[情]]
==== 情 (qing2, lust)
Mnemonic: in his **heart** (<<心>>), the greatest **lust** was that of **blue** (<<青>>) underwear
Words:
* <<疫情>>
Mnemonic: imagine one **big** (<<大>>) **dog** wagging its tail, the extra dot is the tail
[[日]]
==== 日 (ri4, sun)
Characters:
* <<旦>>
[[勺]]
==== 勺 (shao2, wrap sandwitch)
Mnemonic: it is something that you would put inside **plastic wrap** (<<勹>>)
Notes: this is one of the main words for spoon, but that mnemonic is already taken by the Kangxi <<匕>>, so we had to go for something else.
[[申]]
==== 申 (shen1, God)
Mnemonic: TODO
Characters:
* <<神>>
[[神]]
Mnemonic: **God** <<申>> **spirit** (<<示>>)
[[审]]
==== 审 (shen3, inspect)
Mnemonic: if you are going to **inspect** what's making those noises on the **roof** (<<宀>>), you will certainly find that it was **God** (<<申>>)
[[十]]
==== 十 (shi2, ten)
Characters:
* <<单>>
[[示]]
==== 示 (shi4, spirit)
Short forms: 礻
Mnemonic: imagine **two** <<二>> **small** <<小>> child **spirits** playing with one another, maybe they died during a nuclear explosion and never noticed what happened
[[水]]
==== 水 (shui3, water)
Short forms: 氵,氺
Chars:
* <<治>>
[[厶]]
==== 厶 (si1, private)
Chars:
* <<台>>
* <<私>>
[[私]]
==== 私 (si1, privacy)
Mnemonic: **privacy** is all about storing your precious **grain** (<<禾>>) in a **private** (<<厶>>) location
Mnemonic: his **coffee** keeps falling from the **side table** (<<几>>) on the floor **again** (<<又>>) and again
* <<疫>>
Note: this shows what a 殳 weapon actually was: http://wenzhengwenhua.com/article-2023-1.html
Mnemonic: it is **correct** (<<对>>) to say that **trees** (树) are made out of of **wood** (<<木>>)
Mnemonic: in their **discussions** (<<讨论>>), they always **talked** (<<言>>) about how his penis was only one **inch** <<寸>> long
[[台]]
==== 台 (tai2, platform)
Mnemonic: he was doing something **private** (<<厶>>) to her with his **mouth** (<<口>>) on the train **platform**
Characters:
* <<治>>
Words:
* <<台湾>>
[[田]]
==== 田 (tian1, field)
Characters:
* <<单>>
[[体]]
==== 体 (ti3, body)
Mnemonic: the Irish **people** <<人>> eat so much **potato** (<<本>>) that 90% of their **bodies** are made out of potato molecules
Words:
* <<体重>>
[[土]]
==== 土 (tu3, soil)
Notes: the normal Kangxi translation is "earth", but we are afraid that this could be ambiguous with the "Planet Earth", so choosing soil instead
Characters:
* <<幸>>
[[王]]
==== 王 (wang2, king)
Characters:
* <<龶>>
[[勿]]
==== 勿 (wu4, atom)
Mnemonic: atoms are part of **matter** <<物>>
[[物]]
==== 物 (wu4, matter [Physics])
Mnemonic: **cows** (<<牛>>) are made of **atoms** (<<勿>>), both of which are made of **matter**
Words:
* <<物理>>
[[心]]
==== 心 (xin1, heart)
Short forms: 忄,⺗
Mnemonic: Kangxi 42.
Characters:
* <<情>>
[[幸]]
==== 幸 (xing4, luck)
Mnemonic: you will have much better **luck** cycling when the **soil** (<<土>>) is **dry** (<<干>>)
Words:
* <<不幸>>
[[言]]
==== 言 (yan2, speak, say)
Short forms: 讠
Mnemonic: imagine **two** (<<二>>) flying **mouths** (<<口>>) trying to speak, but they can't because a plastic **lid** (<<亠>>) has been placed on them
[[炎]]
==== 炎 (yan2, inflammation)
Mnemonic: getting burnt by two **fires** (<<火>>) tends to cause skin inflammation
Words:
* <<肺炎>>
[[疫]]
==== 疫 (yi4, epidemic)
Mnemonic: the world's greatest **epidemic** which is making people **sick** (<<疫>>) is **coffee** (<<殳>>) drinking
Words:
* <<疫情>>