The first line is the Arabic notation which we use in English, starting with zero. Ten is one followed by zero.
Roman numerals are third row down. Four is the V for five, with the prefix of one on the left, for subtract one. Five is a V. For six you have five and one. Nine is ten minus one. Ten is X (pronounced ex).
The Chinese are the seventh or last row, starting with zero.
Problems
1 REMEMBERING SAYING NUMBERS
I can't remember the numbers one to ten in Chinese (Mandarin).
2 WHICH TONES ?
I don't know the Chinese tones.
3 FOUR OR TEN?
When taxi drivers or others tell me the numbers I can't tell the difference between four (si) and ten (si)/shi which sounds like see or sir or she sher both times - and, even if I can tell, I afterwards forget which is which!
4 RECOGNIZING SYMBOLS
NUMBERS 1-3
I can easily recognise the numbers one to three when I see them. They look like Roman numerals turned sideways. However, I forget all the others, four to ten.
Answers
Today for the first time I looked at the accents on the numbers, as well as listening, and thought, I can tackle this, so long as I do it slowly and methodically. Not only that, I will have other skills.
1 TONES
I will find it easy to remember and reproduce at least three of the Chinese tones! Just think of the numbers one to ten to get the tones right.
Listen to the sounds and look at the accents on the words.
2 RECOGNIZING SYMBOLS - CALENDARS
The numbers are also used for days of the week. So I will be able to recognize days of the week on calendars. If I keep looking at calendars, I can remind myself of the numbers.
Wikipedia is very enlightening. It told me that
3 CHINES FOUR SYMBOL IS CURTAINS, DEATH
Americans often refer to 9/11, for September 11th (attack on twin towers, New York). The Chinese refer to 6/4, June 4, also month then day, for the Tianmen Square event in Beijing.
Looking at the symbol for four, in 6/4, it's easy to remember the four-sided square window and the curtains, curtains being a metaphor for death, and death sounding like four in Chinese, which makes four an unlucky or inauspicious number.
Let's start with remembering the symbols for each of the numbers one to ten.
Again, Wikipedia is very enlightening.
In an old 'rod' symbolism for numbers, sometimes used on boards in markets in places such as Hong Kong, the symbol T is used for five/six?, and Roman verticals would be 11, 12, 13 and so on. So watch out for that. Before paying, be sure whether you are being asked for 3 or 13.
5-10
FIVE The Chinese symbol for five looks like our five (English from Arabic) in line one of the chart, but squared off with a flat line at the top, a slight angle coming down, and a line at the base. Alternatively, think of it as a T and a B; say 'great to be five'.
SIX (Sign on Sixth Avenue on Downtown line, Singapore; six men strolling down sixth avenue)
SEVEN - Easy the Chinese for seven looks like an upside down seven symbol.
EIGHT ('Ba ba black sheep,' as the nurserty rhyme says, looks like a frowning sheep with half an eyebrow on the right eye.)
NINE
TEN (Looks like a plus sign or a Roman ten which is an x rotated)
TONES
(From Simple Wikipedia. For clarity, I have inserted spaces and repeated some words.)
In Mandarin, the sentence ma ma ma ma (麻媽罵馬) includes four different words. If numbers identify the tones, they can be written ma2 ma1 ma4 ma3, which means
"the hemp's
mother
scolds
(the) horse."
Some ways of romanization write each tone with a different spelling; ma2 ma1 ma4 ma3 in Pinyin would be written ma mha mah maa in Gwoyeu Romatzyh romanization. Most use numbers or accent marks
(mā má mǎ mà in Pinyin).
mā
má
mǎ
mà
There is a poem called Lion-Eating Poet in the Stone Den (施氏食獅史). It has 92 characters; all read the same way in Mandarin ("shi") but with different tones.
Mandarin does not have many syllables: the words for "mother," "hemp," "horse," "scold," and a word put at the end of sentences to make it a question are all pronounced "ma:"
- "Mother" is "ma" that is high and level.
- "Hemp" is "ma" that starts low and ends high.
- "Horse" is "ma" that starts fairly high, dips very low, and then goes back up again.
- "Scold" is "ma" that starts high and ends low.
- To make a question, "ma" is added at the end, but it is kept very soft and short and about the same level.
Mandarin has "first tone," "second tone," "third tone," "fourth tone," and "neutral tone." Other Chinese dialects have more tones, some as many as 12.
More later. I shall be adding to this as time permits.
Useful Websites:
You tube video on numbers 1-10, by a jolly Chinese girl.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOAvfeu6APE
The same girl teaches you to say: I speak a little Chinese.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2A-le2mGfco
To travel to a place with Chinese speakers:
UK
Many Chinese restaurants, one in every city, one or two in most high streets. They might speak Cantonese (from Hong Kong) but the symbols on the menu and prices are likely to be the same.
Chinatowns in London and Manchester.
Also Japanese restaurants in London using the same symbols.
visitbritain.org
visitengland.com
visitlondon.com
USA
Chinatowns in major cities.
visittheusa.co.uk
CANADA
Large Chinatowns in major cities including Vancouver.
SINGAPORE
Mandarin is one of the four main languages and taught in schools. Many people speak Singlish, or might speak other dialects at home, Cantonese or another from southern China.
visitsingapore.com
singaporeair.com
CHINA - Beijing, and officially everywhere Mandarin taught in schools. Chinese symbols.
TAIWAN - Taiwanese.
JAPAN - Uses the same written language (symbols) as Chinese.
https://us.jnto.go.jp/
seejapan.co.uk
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
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