How Chinese Characters Work
Video Overview & Insights
Go here to learn Chinese for free: https://go.mandarinblueprint.com/yt=NryURgnLdlw
Go here to learn Chinese for free: https://go.mandarinblueprint.com/yt=NryURgnLdlw
If you’re new to our channel, we are Luke Neale and Phil Crimmins, the co-founders and co-CEOs of Mandarin Blueprint. Our company is focused on one mission: To make learning Chinese simple and rewarding. We do this by creating ground-breaking courses, services, and community for Mandarin learners like you.
How we got here:
I feel happy that i did not have to go through this ....i never knew how terrible the writing was. The guy who invented this was not serious. This does not make sense at all. Lucky us we have a better way of writing
2013:
We both started learning Chinese in Chengdu, Sichuan province (China). Phil got a degree in Chinese from Sichuan University. Luke went the self-study route.
我用你的视频学习英语
I use your video to study English （chinlish )
I study English using your video
We both struggled a lot for the first year, wasting thousands of hours and thousands of dollars getting nowhere.
2014:
Precision of the Chinese words: Using less than two words, they literally tell you the uncle, aunt, cousin and so forth is from your father's, grandfather's or your mother's or grandmother's side. It also tells you the person described is your elder or your younger!
We both almost quit, until we discovered the magic of ‘comprehensible input’. We used proven memory techniques to achieve advanced literacy in a few months, and began immersing in Chinese TV, movies, books, comics, and podcasts.
2015:
Simplified Chinese had been around since 2000 years ago but used in unofficial way.
Within a year, we went from failures, to passing the highest level Chinese exam at the time (the HSK 6), and achieved B2 spoken fluency. We did this learning part time, while it should take a FULL TIME learner at least twice as long (that works out to at least 4x faster).
We became tired of everyone we knew falling into the same traps we did, struggling needlessly. We decided to share what we knew with the local community in Chengdu.
一开始，死记硬背。积累几千个字以后，一切都联系在一起了。读书百遍，其义自现
2016-2018:
We started Mandarin Blueprint. We spent 100s of hours teaching what we knew in live and online seminars, gradually developing our own curriculum.
Better not be click bait
2019-2024: We officially launched our online video curriculum, and continually improved and perfected the content, community, and various supplementary courses.
TODAY: Our paid membership Mandarin Blueprint Pro is taking the Mandarin-learning world by storm, making Chinese simple and rewarding for thousands of learners.
I’m blown away — never have I seen a foreigner break down Chinese architecture so clearly.
To our fellow Mandarin enthusiasts! Whether you’re learning this language to...
Connect more with a friend or family member,
Ybuagtms,
Improve your career prospects,
Travel the world,
You are a great teach
Massively raise your status as a human being
OR purely for fun, the challenge, or sheer love of the process…
家 is easy to write
…you are on a highly worthwhile mission. Chinese is NOT “hard”. It is MADE hard by methods that SUCK.
Our method does NOT suck.
I can remember it in 1 minute
Try it for free right here: https://go.mandarinblueprint.com/yt=NryURgnLdlw
Reach out to our team anytime: contact@mandarinblueprint.com
As a new student to Japanese kanji I thank you for explaining how many Chinese characters had a meaning AND a pronunciation component. I wondered why there seemed to be random components!
(We’ll get back to you within a few hours)
保重 (take care)
Sir, you truly are a master. Thank you so much ❤
Luke & Phil
This is crazy, you're an incredible teacher. When I was on your pronunciation video I was thinking I'll just look at the characters and your mouth and ignore the romanized stuff. Something about the characters and wandering felt like they guided my mouth positions when I need to move my tongue to the next fixed point and I wouldn't get tongue tied or confused like trying to read the romanized stuff and using my English vocalizations. Even the things you said were the most difficult tone combos seemed no more difficult to say at your pace and harmonize with you. But if I read the romanized stuff man fighting the English phonetics wanting to move my mouth was rough and I would have to go syllable by syllable pausing the video.
The pronunciation video blew my mind too, broke down the wall thinking I couldn't learn and opened my mind to how the Chinese tongue travels the mouth.
More User Perspectives
幼儿时期是学习母语的关键时间。我儿子在上小学之前基本认识到了1500个字，虽然也不会写。因此欢迎各位到中国生孩子😄
@wsl-yn8ie象 形 字, I looked up each character and found "Elephant Shaped Words" 😁
@87jelloEssa dublagem em português está muito fajuta. O dublador está chamando a transliteração fonética de pinyão e Hong Kong de Hongue Kongue!! 😅
@josevicentelessa2080Your video is amazing, it's fun to learn new language, thank you.
@willsonluu5715please help propagate this shit - chinese cognate:
new-born birds need to be feeded
幼雀需要餵飼
幼稚需要餵飼
雀稚飼
extension meanings
new-born bird → start beginning
幼雛 → 初
meaning shifting
expose曝 to sunlight
exposure曝 to sunlight
曝露 曝晒 一曝十寒
exposure暴露 to otherthings
just share the same pronouciation with another word 「violent暴力」
Like subscribe bell
@NothingBetterThanMountainsNow I finally have hope to speak and understand Chinese 🇨🇳🔥 Any good resources for a total beginner (zero level → intermediate)? Please reply here and give me hope 🙏 Appreciate it!, thank you!
@besu_311Okay I haven't watched the video yet but I'm pretty sure that the character on the top left in the thumbnail means infinity or eternity!!! I recognized it UNCHANGED from japanese, Ado's song "Eien No Akuruhi" (永遠のあくる日).. right?
@the_scarletmoonAfter watching this video it seems almost impossible to learn chinese, unless i don't have years of time to study
@aldiliidl6232汉字很神奇，只要你认识汉字，你就能认识2000多年前中国古人的留下的文字记录。
@dongge1204What is that dictionary tool for drawing the characters to search them? That was really cool
@Cyberpunk_Radio_PBSI'm not necessarily interested in completely learning the language, but I'm DEFINITELY interested in learning how it works.
Multiple parts of my worldbuilding are meant to operate on a similar "a small change can completely alter the meaning" structure, so understanding a real world example is a huge help
Idk if it's just me, but after trying to learn the absolute clusterf*** that the japanese writing system is Chinese characters feel so chill and logical.
@theaninovaGreat job sir ❤
@umargul5644This video is such a good breakdown on Chinese characters, great resource for all learning levels!
@Verbacard沙嗲牛肉面，是真美味的！
@JayLau-b9uSie sind ein guter Lehrer.
@jochenrammer1527My favorite is definitely wo.
Not only because its common and its strokes are nice for me but more intriguing is its individual components wherein somehow it involves a spear 😂
This was massively helpful. I started studying Chinese in Grad School in 1986...I loved it. I continued studying it for a couple of years, but without a lot of opportunity to use it, I studied less and less, but still remembered quite a bit. Flash forward 40 years. I'm now retired, and I've taken up my study again and it's coming back very quickly. The only problem is, my brain is now 40 years older, so I don't remember characters as easily as I did before. I'm definitely going to check out Mandarin Blueprint because rote learning is just not working anymore.
@chrisb7142面
@AByrd27:55 - which dictionary is this?
@jameswest9394My Collins Mandarin Chinese dictionary has 4963 characters in the radical index.
@jameswest9394Chinese Characters can be further evolved as planned, see the following article.
再談「施氏食獅史」:
清末學人們用「漢字解剖」出來的符號，創註音「字母」，要作為「拼音文字」來代替「方塊」漢字，有很多學人響應; 但趙元任，用漢字寫了以上的這個「史」(故事)，用拼音文字從頭「ㄕ」到尾，來說明「純」註音的文字系統來代替「方塊」漢字是行不通的，成為美談。這當然證明「純」拼音字母是無法用來「代替」漢字的。因此共黨把漢語拼音改用漢字「簡化」成通用的「簡体字」; 國黨把國語註音「字母」改為「符號」, 用漢字「正」體字為臺灣專用的「繁體字」。
人類約有7000種不同的語言，但只有70多種(~1%)文字，幾乎都是「字母」文字，只有漢字是「抽像化」的圖形文字！其實漢字也可以「拼式化」 (spelling), 非只拼「音」(not phonetic），用「少數、簡單」的符號來書寫！「施氏食獅史」只要「加拼部首」成(國語的) 「拼式文字」；
「方ㄕ 人ㄕˋ 食 犭ㄕ 口ㄕˊ」。
(註: 「氏」是指事字，由「草根九(字)像形」來指(事)家族的來原。 應該是「人」部，只有人類有姓氏。）
這「同音字」的問題可以用「漢字造字」(中的形聲字)原理來解決，即在音標上加拼「部首」。我們臺灣有「臺、中、客、原(住民)」四種語言.可以共用這種「拼式文字」。在民主自由的社會，都要同等尊重的，但也要有「尊重大多數」人的台語文字的民主觀念的語文政策！
我們的臺語可以很快，建立一個可共用的「臺語文字系統」, 如臺語的「美=ㄙㄨㄧ忄ˋ」，不必要去找（造?!）那些「臺語難字」了。這「臺語的文藝復興」可以像英文的Renaissance 只30、50 years的時間;當時英國的最有名的作家「莎翁」好像「沒有什麼大學問」，就有很多的千古之作；我們今天臺灣教育很發達，有很多的學人、專家，用自己的「母語」寫作應該會很容易、很快的就有同樣的結果吧！不必像現在的台語文字，已花了近500年，還沒有一個共用的文字系統！台語有「文言」及「白話」兩種不同的語文，原則上前者是官方及學者的語文、後者是ㄧ搬人民用的，兩種不但用字不同、語（文）法也不太相同,要有一個共用的文字系統，這是「臺語的文藝復興」!
現在的漢字都用「部首」來分類，查字典時就依「部首+筆劃數」就可以找到那個字。這是漢字文化的分類法，像圖書館書籍的分類一樣、漢字的「金木水火土、蟲魚鳥獸、⋯」等的分類是漢字文化的一部分！通用東方文化圈的部分。也可以來解決日、韓、越等國文字的「同音異義」問題。漢字由甲骨文、簡体字、到「形、音」拼式文字（非純拼音）應該是自然的演進！，部首由「說文解字」450、經「康熙、正中⋯」字典濃縮到約120個，但還可以繼續改良，如用「犭」來代表所有的動物、刪掉「龍」等，到五拾、一百內。
用這種「部首+註音字母」的文字系統，小學生們只要學這一組「文字」就可以了，其他的時間可以去「胡思亂想」了不必「「十年寒窗」學那幾千幾萬的「四角」漢字了，而用一種臺灣共用的(漢字) 「字母」。這個註音字母也是由「漢字解剖」出來的「符號」，所以可以說「這個文字」是漢字由甲骨文、⋯、繁體字、簡体字、到這「形、音」拼式（非純拼音）文字，這應該是自然的演進的結果！
北京話(音+調)約有一千多個不同的「發音」，但國語字典有7、8千字到「康熙」字典的4萬多字，所以純漢語每個「拼音」平均會有7 ~ 40個以上的「同音異義」字，這是漢字「同音氾濫」的問題。這個「同音」的問題可以用「漢字造字」中的形聲字原理來解決，即在音標上加拼「部首」，查字典時就依「部首+筆劃數」就可以找到那個字。這漢文化的分類法, (是像圖書館書籍的分類一樣)分「金木水火土、蟲魚鳥獸、⋯」等！。漢字文化的分類是漢字文化的一部分, 也可通用東方文化圈的部分來解決日、韓、越等國的文字「同音異義」問題。
台語有「文言」及「白話」兩種不同的語文，原則上台語的文字系統會比國語較覆雜些，國語的是以一個個「拼式漢字」為主, 如
1.颱風=气ㄊㄞˊ 气ㄏㄥ ，
2.灑嬌=氵ㄕㄚˇ 女ㄐㄧㄠ.
但台語以「拼式 spelling 漢字」+（像英文的）「單字 word」如,
1.ㄏㄥ^ㄊㄞ^ = 風颱 (=颱風) ，
2.ㄙㄞ^ㄋㄞ^ = (思奶?) (=灑嬌).
這是「漢字的文藝復興」。共勉之!
3000 years ago the Chinese script was carved on shells and bones, only for fortune telling, as they were put afire to interpret the cracks. The usual media to write the script were clothes and leaves, certainly not the bones.
@irfankhanjnuSplendid video learned a lot thanks!
@MichaelLodaGreat explanatioins but it is still extremely challenging.
@topquark22It's good to learn from native Chinese people, but this channel show us the way to learn from the perspective of a student.
@kennethhazielreconcocanahu1287Waves look a bit like the fleece of sheep, so I understand where they got ocean from.
@AmaiaAgardI love chinese,Japanese and Korean 💜 also check out sumtv and 3abn
@Rebekah7777Very good breakdown of the different concepts that comprise the Chinese character set.
@safelton你们说中文很难，我们说英语很难，好笑吗？
@浅-w7hGood...xie xie😂😂
@aguswibisono4053This is what youtube is about
@charlesahweyevuur jawline is crazy
in the start of the vid
im 15 and i been in love with mandarin for the past days, but i dont know if u can lear it from the start at home :(
@Hypnotic_State