Speak and Read Chinese: Fun Mnemonic Devices for Remembering Chinese Words and Their Tones

Fun Mnemonic Devices for Remembering Chinese Words and Their Tones

Larry Herzberg

Stone Bridge Press • Berkeley, California

Published by

Stone Bridge Press

P. O. Box 8208, Berkeley, CA 94707

TEL 510-524-8732 • [email protected] • www.stonebridge.com

©2016 Larry Herzberg

First printing., 2016.

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher.

Printed in the United States of America.

p-ISBN 978-1-61172-031-0

e-ISBN 978-1-61172-921-4

CONTENTS

Preface

Traditional and simplified versions of the Chinese characters

Radicals and phonetics

Common Chinese Words

Index

PREFACE

In studying eight foreign languages over many decades, I discovered that the best way for me to learn new vocabulary in those language was to think of mnemonic devices, i.e., memory hooks, for each word. I discovered that if I could relate the sound or meaning of a word I was trying to learn to a word in English, I stood a much better chance of cementing that word in my memory.

Using mnemonic devices to learn new vocabulary is not so crucial for an English speaker trying to learn a Romance language, given that 60% of words in French, Spanish, and Italian have English-language cognates. However, in a language as different from English as Chinese, it is most helpful to have clever ways at your disposal to jog your memory when trying to learn new vocabulary.

When I was first learning words like piányi (inexpensive), it helped to think about how clothing at J.C. Penney is inexpensive. It was also easy to remember the word chē (car), since the ch sounded like a car chugging along the highway. And the Chinese word mǎi (to buy) was much easier to recall if I thought about going into a store and thinking, My, oh my, the high prices of things I want to buy!

I don’t have particularly catchy memory hooks for every single word in Chinese. And even if I did, I could never fit them all into this book. What I have done instead is to give mnemonic devices for approximately 300 commonly used Chinese words that all students learn in the first year or two of studying Chinese. I hope that these will encourage you to think of your own mnemonic devices for the words I do not include.

I have been teaching Chinese at the college level for thirty-seven years. When some years ago I anonymously surveyed nearly a hundred of my Chinese-language students as to how helpful they thought my mnemonic devices were, nearly 100% of them answered that they found them either very helpful or somewhat helpful. Only one student responded that he/she found them slightly annoying. I have, therefore, continued to use them in my teaching and hope to share them with a wider audience.

I do want to share a few words of caution about using mnemonics to remember vocabulary. First, these are just whimsical creations that have absolutely no etymological basis. Second, mnemonic devices, or demonic devices as some of my students have called them, cannot be relied upon for exact pronunciation. For that you have to try to mimic your Chinese teacher, your Chinese friends, and the native speakers in the listening exercises that you do for your class. My encouraging you to remember the word for Japan, Rìběn, by thinking of Japan as an urban country, might help you learn the word. But urban is hardly an exact guide to proper Chinese pronunciation.

I have yet to encounter another Chinese teacher who uses mnemonic devices to help students remember Chinese words. Most likely that is because most Chinese language teachers are native speakers of the language. They have been listening to and speaking in Chinese from the time they were infants and see no reason why anyone would need tricks to learn words that they acquired with their mother’s milk. A non-native speaker like me who learned the Chinese language as an adult, however, understands well the difficulty of remembering words in a language that is so incredibly different from English.

Not only am I aware of no other teachers or textbooks that provide mnemonic devices for learning new vocabulary in Chinese, likewise I do not know of any resources that give clues as to how to remember the tones. In many Chinese-language classrooms students are simply expected to repeat words with the correct tones over and over until they have memorized them. This is, of course, important to do. The more you hear Chinese words spoken by native speakers with the correct tones, the easier it will be for you to remember them. Eventually, like native speakers of Chinese who do not have to think whether a word is first, second, third, or fourth tone, teachers hope you too will say words with correct tones as second nature.

For non-native speakers, however, learning the correct tone for every word is not an easy matter. I have, therefore, attempted to give helpful hints as to how you might remember the tones for the approximately 300 words included in this book. But remember, we can’t consult early Chinese dynasties to discover why Chinese say each word with a particular intonation. These are just tricks to help you remember. For instance, the fact that the word for high or tall, gāo, is said with a high, level tone (first tone) makes complete sense. Similarly, the fact that diào, to drop, and guà, to hang, are both said with the falling tone (fourth tone) is also very understandable. That words for things like horse (mǎ), and chair (yǐ) are said with the low rising tone (third tone) is logical, since a horse and a chair are things that you sit down on. It is also not surprising that almost all question words in Chinese, such as shénme (what?), shéi (who?), zěnme (how?), and nǎr/nǎlǐ (where?) are all said with a tone that rises, namely either the second or third tone, since this is the same questioning intonation we use in English.

The reasons why certain words in Chinese are spoken with certain tones have been lost in the fog of ancient history. The mnemonic devices I have provided in this book to help you remember tones may sometimes appear to be a real stretch. However, I trust that at least some of them might help you as you struggle to learn the tones of the various words. Please remember that the most important way to remember them is to listen to native speakers and to repeat what they say to yourself as many times as you can. Also remember that if you don’t know the tone, you don’t know the word! There is an important difference between the words mǎi (to buy) and mài (to sell). Similarly there is a huge difference between wèn (to ask), wén (to sniff), and wěn (to kiss)!

In addition to the mnemonic devices I have provided for spoken words and their tones, I have also provided mnemonics for characters. There are books that give the actual etymology of a great number of Chinese characters. There are other books that give tricks for remembering characters in creative ways that have nothing to do with their actual origin. In this book I have tried to provide both the correct etymology, should that be known, as well as my own fun and hopefully helpful tricks for remembering how to read and write various characters.

Traditional and simplified versions of the Chinese characters

There are currently two different versions of many of the Chinese characters. Chinese in Taiwan, Hong Kong, as well as those in the U.S. and Canada continue to use the traditional form of the characters as they have been written for the past several millennia. However, in the 1950s the Chinese in Mainland China began using simplified forms of many of the characters in order to promote literacy. Most students of the Chinese language in the U.S. and Canada only learn the simplified versions of the characters, since those characters are used by the 1.35 billion people living in Mainland China.

This book, however, includes both forms of the characters, when there are both traditional and simplified versions. There are two reasons for this. One reason is that we wish to honor those students whose parents are from either Taiwan or Hong Kong, and who elect to study only the traditional forms. The other reason is that the traditional forms of the characters in many cases reveal how the simplified forms were created, which is often as a skeletal outline of the original. More importantly the traditional forms show more clearly the etymology of the characters, which gives us insight into Chinese thought and culture, and, because of their greater detail, are in fact sometimes easier to remember. For that reason we have listed the traditional characters first.

If you’re studying simplified characters, we suggest you still look at the traditional versions to help imprint in your memory the mnemonic devices we provide.

Radicals and phonetics

Every Chinese character contains at least one radical, which is a simple picture that helps to show the general meaning of that character. For example, the water radical, written as 水, usually abbreviated and placed on the left side of a character, is found in all words that are either bodies of water (河 river; 湖 lake), or that have something to do with water, such as the character for thirsty, written as 渴.

The tree radical is found in all characters that are either names of trees (松 pine; 李 plum tree) or words for things made of wood (床 bed; 椅 chair). The radical is often found on the left side of a character but sometimes appears on the right side, the top, or the bottom of a character. There are 214 radicals in all, 100 of which account for nearly 99% of all characters.

Approximately 90% of Chinese characters currently in use also contain another type of pictograph that gives a hint as to the pronunciation of the character. These are called phonetics. They are often characters by themselves, but are written as parts of more complex characters to help give the reader a clue to the pronunciation. For example, in the character for ocean, written as 洋, the water radical is on the left side, signifying that the character has to do with water. The right side has the character for sheep, written as 羊, as the phonetic, since the word for sheep, yáng, is pronounced the same as the word for ocean, yáng. This is an example of a perfect phonetic, which has the same pronunciation, including the same tone, as the entire character. Most likely all the phonetics were perfect when they were introduced into the language around 1,800 years ago, but over time the spoken language has continued to evolve, and many of the phonetics now only give us hints as to the pronunciation of the character as a whole.

Part of the brilliance of the Chinese written language is that phonetics often contribute to the meaning of a character, as well as give a clue as to pronunciation. For example, in the character 忘 wàng, to forget, the heart radical 心 is on the bottom of the character, indicating that the character has to do with emotions or thought. The top part has the character for death, 亡 wáng, as the phonetic. Beyond serving as a mere clue to pronunciation, this particular character was chosen as a phonetic because the intended metaphor is that to forget something is literally to have a thought die in the heart or mind.

* * *

I hope this slim volume will serve as a good supplement to whatever other resources you are using to learn Chinese. I also hope that you will continue to study a language so vital for Americans, Canadians, and other Westerners to learn. As China’s importance in the world increases, its relationship with Western countries will only grow.

Larry Herzberg

Professor of Chinese

Calvin College

Grand Rapids, Michigan

COMMON CHINESE WORDS

ài   愛/爱   love

Sometimes you eye somebody and fall in love with them and then ay, yay, yay the consequences!

ài is fourth tone/falling tone, since you fall in love with someone.

愛   The traditional character shows a hand on top reaching in for someone’s heart, the character 心, through a roof. This roof is the metaphoric barrier we all keep around our hearts for fear of getting hurt. The person whose love is being sought reciprocates by offering up their heart with both hands to the hand reaching in for love.

爱   In the simplified character, the heart and two hands under the roof are replaced by two hands locked in friendship.

ānpái   安排   to arrange

When you bake a pie and invite over guests, you have to arrange what you’re going to put on the pie. Ice cream or whipped cream?

ān is first tone/high level tone, since you arrange things by putting them flat on the table. pái is second tone/rising tone, since you ask your guests, with questioning intonation, would you like some pie?

安   This character shows