This is such a rare character that 99 percent of Chinese native speakers/readers would struggle to tell you what it is, never mind how to pronounce it.” On her Facebook page, Hsueh writes, “I promise you, this is a character that will impress your Chinese friends. Write two suns (日) side by side and you get the character for “bright”: 昍.Hsueh shows us that the character for big (大) looks like a person (人) with her arms outstretched, as if to say, “Sooooo big!” Combine those two, and you get adult (大人):’.What happens when we add a mouth (口) to a volcano? Think about it: the mouth of a volcano is … a crater! In her talk, Hsueh shows us how combining fire (火) and mountain (山) gives us a volcano (火山).Multiply by two, and you’ve got the character for everyone: In her talk, Hsueh shows the Chinese character for person, 人, which looks like a person strolling along.In this talk, Hsueh takes us through almost 30 characters here, some more examples based on those foundational eight. Using Chineasy’s simple, beautiful illustrations, it’s just a hop, skip and a jump to many other words and phrases. ![]() These eight characters “are the building blocks for you to create lots more characters,” Hsueh explains. Hsueh also takes us through tree (木), mountain (山), sun (日), moon (月), and door (門), which “looks like a pair of saloon doors in the Wild West.” Fire is the character for person with what look like two arms waving, as if the person is engulfed in flames and yelling, “Help!”: 火. Hsueh shows a graphic her team has designed of a person going for a walk, based on the character for person: 人. ![]() Are you doing it? Voila, the character for mouth: 口. “Open your mouth as wide as possible until it’s square,” she says. ![]() In her talk, Hsueh moves through eight foundational characters, describing mnemonic devices and showing artful depictions. Chineasy involves pairing characters with facial expressions, body movements and images that conjure up words in English. Her solution? A method she calls “ Chineasy.” To achieve basic literacy, Hsueh says, you need only know 1,000 characters, and the top 200 allow you to comprehend 40 percent of basic literature. Hsueh’s mission over the past few years has been to break down that barrier, making reading and writing in Chinese accessible to people who didn’t grow up doing it. To an outsider, the Chinese language “seems to be as impenetrable as the Great Wall of China,” says ShaoLan Hsueh in today’s talk, given at TED2013.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |