Learn 4 Chinese Symbols At The Bus Station in Singapore

Singapore flag.

Singapore is a great place for learning Chinese (Mandarin). As I walked from the Yio Chu Kang bus station towards the Grassroots Community Club Building, I passed a sign which said in English, For Alighting Only. So you could get off the bus, but not onto it.

I passed a second sign which said the same thing. This time I felt compelled to stop. Only four symbols in Chinese. One was a sign I often saw.  It looked like the number four. I had been recognizing the sign for weeks, wondering what it means.

I saw the four Chinese symbols underneath and wondered what they were. How did they tie in with the English words?

I stopped a passer-by, a young man, and asked him if he spoke Mandarin and understood the symbols.

"Which one is which?" I asked.



The last of the four signs looks like a letter 4 with other lines around it. It means car or carriage, in this context bus.

To the left was a sign like half a T with two tiny downstrokes like drops of rain dropping off an umbrella. That means down, descend, get off (a bus).

The other two words mean 'only' (first on the left) and second from the left is 'allowed' or 'permitted'.

I felt very satisfied. I was pleased with myself for translating four signs.

Afterwards I went back and checked another sign which looks like the number 4.

On the MRT map you will see
Legend
East West Line (green)
North South Line  (red)
North East (purple)

The Chinese sign East-West is in the same order.

However, two other signs are in a different order. East North. South North.

Let us go back to East West. The sign for East has only one horizontal line above the four. The downward line of the four curves like a J. Two samll lines diagonally and separate at lower sides of the J point in different directions like a boat rowing to the East thought the many islands of Indonesia and to the island of Singapore.

The one which looks like it incorporates the number 4 means East.
What's the difference between the two signs continaing what looks like 4?.

The 4 above meaning car or carriage has two parallel lines the same as the bar on the four, one above and one below. Like the roof and floor of the railway carriage or car or bus.

The sign for East



Useful Websites

You can learn Chinese (Mandarin) on Duolingo.
Duolingo
duolingo.com

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.