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 numbers, which are: 一 二 三 Yes, they are so simple, just one line, two and three lines, respectively. Now ask yourself : “Which one is easier?” Yours or Chinese? Chinese or English?

What more can you easily get out of these three numbers? 一 十 廾 千 丁 寸 才 木 本 二 工 干 士 土 于 未 末 井 三 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 at oblique lines 八 人 入 乂 父 爻

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 horizontal line and two oblique lines? See the magic in the next slide.How about the combination of a horizontal line and two oblique lines? See 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大 丈丈 犬犬 太太 ＝

Combination of 二 and 人 Does the arrows look like the last word? 天 夫 矢 失

And the story goes on … Start your journey to the charm of Chinese words with 三 plus 人 ; how about that? Start your journey to the charm of Chinese words with 三 plus 人 ; how about that? Or, you can try to start another combination like a horizontal line 一 combined with a vertical line ｜ and you get Or, you can try to start another combination like a horizontal line 一 combined with a vertical line ｜ and you get Now 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. Now 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. 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?