You’ve Been Learning Chinese Radicals WRONG
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- čas přidán 8. 05. 2024
- They call it “learning”. We say it’s “Fun”.
Welcome to "Fun Mandarin 玩中文"!
In our first episode ( • STOP Writing!!! 2 Hack... ) of the “Crack Chinese Characters" series, we gave an overview of tricks and techniques for practicing Chinese characters, going beyond just writing them repeatedly.
In the second episode, we will introduce the most powerful radicals that every learner should prioritize, ranking them based on three criteria. Make sure you stick around to the end so you can get a thorough understanding of the Chinese writing system, which will undoubtedly enhance your Chinese proficiency to the next level!
#MagicalRadical
📌Chapters
00:00 Intro
00:50 What is 字?
01:40 What is the concept of "Word" in Chinese?
02:35 Ranking Chinese Radicals: Criteria 1
02:47 Ranking Chinese Radicals: Criteria 2
03:16 Ranking Chinese Radicals: Criteria 3
03:33 Tier list explained
04:09 Chinese radicals in S-tier
04:41 S-Tier: Category 1
05:04 Radical Variant explained
05:33 S-Tier: Category 2
06:46 S-Tier: Category 3
07:05 S-Tier: Category 4
07:44 S-Tier: Category 5
08:18 💡Bonus Tips
09:22 Today's Challenge - Practice for beginners
09:44 Level-up practice
10:23 Spoiler Alert
🙏 Acknowledgment: This video is highly inspired by the work of Professor Huang from National Taiwan University.
Huang, P. (2009). 漢字教學的理論與實踐 [Theory and Practice in Chinese Character Pedagogy]. Le Xue.
❗ Disclaimer:
The tier list of Chinese radicals provided in this video offers guidance for Mandarin learners seeking to enhance their character acquisition process. While it's acknowledged that achieving absolute objectivity in the evaluation is challenging, the insights drawn from Professor Huang's work remain invaluable. By following the ranked tiers, learners can navigate their learning journey more efficiently and effectively, ultimately leading to greater proficiency in Chinese language skills.
👍 Useful website for reading practice
早报校园
www.zbschools.sg/
📝 Notes:
1. Traditional characters are highlighted in blue, while simplified ones are in green.
2. If not highlighted, it means they are the same in both traditional and simplified forms.
3. Radical Variants are shown in brackets.
It took a lot of time to put together this episode, but it's definitely a labor of love ❤ I really hope you find it valuable and enjoyable. I'd love to hear how many radicals from the S-Tier you already know and about your experience learning and using radicals. Share your thoughts with the hashtag #MagicalRadical. And if you liked the video, please give it a thumbs-up to show your support-it'll keep me motivated to create more! :)
This is great, especially the context at the start if the video. Knowing that most chinese words are multiple character compounds is vital for beginners learning chinese.
Thank you for watching and for your comments! I'm so pleased that you appreciate the structure of the video. I sincerely hope viewers will have the patience to go through each stage of this video so they can grasp the complete picture and details of Chinese radicals 😄
This is a very good way to explain hanzi to students, I might use a tier list as explanation myself.... sounds fun and more playful approach for the students :)
I teach japanese, and started learning chinese a few monts ago, and I an so grateful I know chinese characters already, it really makes learning vocab so much easier :D
こんにちは先生！It's wonderful to read your comments and discover that you're both a teacher and a learner! I've always believed that the best language teachers are those who continue to learn other foreign languages themselves. It allows them to better understand and empathize with their students' learning journeys👍
I'm curious to know which grade level you teach. If I were teaching students in grades 7 to 8 (or even younger), I'd definitely incorporate Pokémon to connect with Kenji (or Chinese characters) in the tier list. I think it would add an extra layer of fun, especially considering how relevant Pokémon is to Japanese culture!
I didn't include Marvel or Pokémon in this video because I was unsure if viewers of different ages and cultures would appreciate it. Additionally, it might complicate things in a ten-minute video, as I can't approach it the same way I do in a classroom setting 😅
Best of luck on your Mandarin journey! 🤞🤞🤞I am confident that your Japanese skills will greatly benefit you in picking up Chinese characters!
Thank you very much! I can see clearly that this was made with many effort and love~
The graphics and drawings helped me to maintain focused, but sometimes the screen-time was too quick and barely could read it. I would recommend showing at least for 4 sec. so the viewer have time to process and digest the info.
And the Sound-Fx volume was higher than your voice, test it with 70% vol. to see how it looks
again, thank u very much for ur work! ~~
Your appreciation truly brightened my day! Also, thank you for sharing your valuable feedback on the screen time and Sound-FX volume 😇 I'll adjust them accordingly in the next video. Hope you enjoy the other videos on this channel just as much!
Thank you so much. This lesson is really helpful for my learning and looking forward to your next lesson soon. Greatly appreciate your efforts and sharing ❤
What a lovely message! Thanks for taking the time to let me know you enjoyed this episode. All the hard work has definitely paid off 😇I hope you will enjoy the upcoming videos too😄
辛苦了，非常感谢您 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻
希望对你有帮助:) 谢谢观看 😇
谢谢老师。很有意思❤
很高兴你喜欢，希望对你有帮助😇
This is so helpful and it clears up many things for me. Thank you so much. Will you do all the radicals gradually?
I'm very pleased to know it's helpful to you :) My plan for the next video in the 'Crack Chinese Characters' series is to demonstrate how to use the radicals in the S-Tier to form new characters and words.
After that, we will definitely introduce the radicals in the A and B tiers, which can help expand vocabulary to the next level. The publish date is not confirmed yet as I have other topics on the list. I would also like to see more feedback from the viewers (Hopefully more positive ones!🤭) so I can also try to integrate their needs in the next ones. Thanks very much again for your positive feedback - it's very encouraging and motivating for me to create more videos 😊
thank you for the help
It's been a pleasure creating this video, even though it demands a lot of time and effort. Hearing that it's helpful makes me especially happy!😇😇😇 Thanks for watching and for your kind words.
The simplification makes Chinese easy to learn and does have its modern radical rules. It will not prevent you from learning classical radicals and characters, and vice versa. It becomes your problem if you're not open minded. 😂
The only choice to be made is on the handwriting, but that's all about the reader's preferences
Thank you
Thanks for watching :) Hope you find it useful 😇
in Pleco APP, 五行 is marked as “wu3 hang2”. I think it is an app mistake but got curious why
〈 Edit: Pleco was making use of my phone' TTS, that must explain why it sounded weird hhhh 〉
Thanks for the great question! I just checked my Pleco, and it shows "wǔ xíng" correctly. I'm not sure why there's an error on your phone, but I understand your confusion. The character 行 is a typical example of a Chinese character with multiple pronunciations. It can be pronounced as "xíng," as in 五行 (five elements), 旅行 (lǚ xíng; to travel), and 行人 (xíng rén; pedestrian). However, it can also be pronounced as "háng" when it means "row" or "line," as in 第一行 (dì yī háng; the first line). Additionally, it is pronounced as "háng" in 銀行/银行 (yín háng; bank).
The character 好 is another good example with multiple pronunciations. It is pronounced as hǎo in 你好 and 好玩 (hǎo wán; fun). However, it is pronounced as hào in 愛好/爱好 (ài hào; hobby) and 好奇 (hào qí; curious).
I hope it clarifies your confusion :) Let me know if you have any more questions!
p.s. Your question actually inspires me to make a video on this topic! It might help other learners to understand the pronunciation better. Thank you 😇
great video - just wondering how to tell the difference between rou as a radical (shown @8:14) and yue? they look so similar. thanks again for the helpful info
Good question!
In simplified Chinese, "月" (yuè) is borrowed as the radical variant for "肉", as you can see in "胖" shorturl.at/hAHQ5
While there is one less radical for simplified Chinese learners to memorize since the variant form of 肉 in simplified Chinese is the same as 月, it somehow loses the original meaning the radical actually can carry for characters relevant to 'flesh' and 'meat'. So, in my humble opinion, it's important to be aware of how the variant form of "肉" is written in traditional Chinese. The middle part is like "冫", instead of two short horizontal strokes in "月" .
Please find an example 胖 in traditional Chinese here: shorturl.at/gqHLV
In short, when you encounter characters such as "肚", "肌", "肝", "肠" in simplified Chinese, we shall understand that the radical is not conveying the meaning of 'moon' (月) but 'flesh' or 'meat'. I hope this helps clarify your confusion 😄
Apologies for the disruption - The links to the examples weren't working, so I had to try reposting several times! 😅
Simplified Chinese does not follow Chinese radical rule well. Modern simplified Chinese has rid of many radicals from commonly used words for simplification purposes. I was not seriously exposed to simplified Chinese much until 2010, after my retirement so I know. I can guess the meaning of simplified Chinese with ease though as I have travelled in China since 1980. Differences between simplified and classical Chinese are galore. Learners beware. Simplified characters are easier to write manually but in term of data entry with the computer, it makes little difference. Simplification has created confusion in the process, in my opinion: 下麵給你吃 != 下面給你吃 in classical Chinese. The intent of simplifiied Chinese was only as a stop-gap measure before full romanization. Romanization failed, for various reasons, so we are left with a broken simplified system. For instance, the two simplified characters look too much alike: 农 and 衣. Classically: 農, 衣. The simplification process was not well-planned and was done as an after thought. Some are good. There were couple versions of simplifications too before they agreed to the current one. One thing that is bad for sure is that in order to use the modern Chinese dictionary, you must know the pronunciation the Chinese character in Beijing dialect. Taiwanese Mandarin won't do. I am capable of using the classical Chinese dictionary because I know the traditional radical well and the most recent version of classical Chinese obeys the radical system well, no need for Beijing dialect mastery. Knowing how to pronounce the word in any dialect is required. You cannot say that for the simplified system. The classical dictionary look-up system does not work for simplified Chinese any longer. The Xinhua Dictionary lookup system is not based on radicals but based on Beijing dialect pronunciations. Many Chinese characters have different pronunciations when used in different context. Here is where the pronunciation-driven dictionary lookup system breaks down. You are not aware of this when you look up a character based on sound. Hence, when you listen news broadcasts, you often discover mistakes. In classical Chinese dictionary lookup, all the different sounds associated with a given character are listed sequentially next to each other. Taiwan and HK use the classical lookup system based on radicals. This is proof that simplification has broken up the radical system. Knowing classical Chinese implies that you can read simplified Chinese with a few adjustments, almost transparent. Knowing simplified Chinese does not mean you know claasical Chinese at all. Intense studying of one week will transform a classical Chinese writer into a simplified Chinese writer. It is that easy. The purpose of this long-winded paragraph is that I want to point out to all the audience of this video that there is a fatal flaw in the current design of the simplified system: you cannot use dictionary as a beginner. You can use a classical dictionary if you know the radical system and stroke counts. The stroke counts of the simplified system no longer works. So, you are forced to use Xinhua Dictionary. If you do not know how to pronounce a character in the Beijing dialect, you are out of luck. Taiwanese Mandarin is not necessarily Beijing dialect so they would have a hard time. Hong Kongers do not speak Mandarin so they are out of luck too. Any ethnic minorities who do not speak Beijing dialect would be in the same boat. In any case, you are in a catch 22 situation.
Thanks for taking the time to share your insights and experience in this community. Growing up learning traditional Chinese characters myself, I completely understand the points you made here. As I also briefly mentioned in other comments in previous videos, although traditional characters are known for their complexity and greater number of strokes, making them daunting in the initial stages of learning, the system, e.g., radicals and components, is actually very effective for conveying meaning and memorizing new ones. As I emphasized in this video, 部首字, such as 金, 食, 言, are very useful as they can be used as standalone words as well as radicals to form new characters. Traditional character learners can simply use them to form new characters, for instance, 針, 飯, 說, which is very efficient as opposed to simplified characters; learners need to memorize different forms when they are used as radicals in characters, e.g., 针, 饭, 说. In other words, simplified Chinese saves time to write (due to fewer strokes) but requires more effort to memorize. Moreover, the example you gave was a good one to pinpoint the issue of substitution of characters, such as 面 for 麵, and 后 for 後, which will also need learners to make more effort to avoid confusion, even though they have fewer characters to remember.
Having said that, simplified Chinese does lose some of the original logic of written Chinese language, but radicals are still undoubtedly useful. With more guidance, learners will still be able to grasp it. In my humble opinion, as a teacher, in the classroom setting, when teaching simplified Chinese characters, having knowledge of traditional Chinese characters will be a great advantage in guiding learners to develop a strong grasp of writing. It will help increase learners' awareness and retention over a longer period. On this channel, we, therefore, provide both simplified and traditional characters for the key phrases in the dialogues. I believe this approach is very beneficial for learners as it allows them to see that both systems share quite a few similarities.
If more learners are interested, we may make a video to discuss the features of traditional and simplified characters in more detail in the future :)
I agree and also prefer traditional characters myself, but using a dictionary is not one of the reasons. Looking up words in a digital dictionary is far superior to using a paper dictionary, rendering learning radicals completely useless. I mean, they should still be learned, just not as radicals, but rather as components of characters, of which there are many more than just the radicals.