I am learnin Chinese. It is slow progress. Yesterday I spoke to my friend Shan-Shan (which means mountains - you double for plurals in Chinese and Malay). I asked her to translate a saying which sombody muttered to her in Chinese. She asked, "Are you learning Chinese?
I replied - I told her, "Yes. I'm learning Chinese. I should be fluent to the year 3000!"
However, I get a great sense of achievement from learning a new word, or finding that a word which seemed hard and impossible to remember a year ago has at last become clear and memorable. i remember my delight on seeing the numbers one to three written in Chinese, horizontal lines, so easy to remember.
Chinese numerals from Wikipedia. The Arabic numerals zero to nine are the top line. We use one and zero for ten.
The Roman numerals one to ten are third.
The Chinese numerals zero to nine are last.
Chinese Numbers
The symbols for one, two and three are easy.
One horizontal line is one.
Two horizontal lines means two. Note that the lines are a smaller one on top of a larger one.
Number three is three horizontal lines. Looks like a sandwich. The base line is biggest. The top line is smaller. The filling is smallest.
Four is easy. A square, Likes a window with curtains making two little boxes top right and left.
Five looks a bit like a running five. The hat is blowing back in the wind. So are all three horizontals. As usual, a big base line, with the winkle picker shoe pointing forward, goes right across under the drawing.
Six. Think of the upright neck and two arms as three. underneath the two legs seaprated divide the lower area into three. That makes six.
Seven looks like a continental 7 with a central line to distinguish it fron one, turned upside down.
Eight is two circles written in a hurry. Just the legs of the upper half.
Nine is like ten but it hasn't made ten, it is running towards ten. the upright slopes backwards. the front is like a running foot, sticking up.
Ten is the plus sign, solid, very pleased with itself.
Children in schools learn the signs by learning to write them and copying them many times. They have to draw each sign within a square. I learned that from the book Chineasy. Drawing makes you notice whether the lines are straight or curved, left or right, short or long.
Where will you see these numbers?
Chinese restaurants.
In Chinatowns in the UK in London, Manchester and almost every high street in Britain.
In the USA in Chinatown in New York and San Francisco and many major cities.
In China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Chinese restaurants in Malaysia, Chinese areas of most Asian major cities and in airport hotels and upmarket hotels.
Take away Chinese shops. Chinese goods in supermarkets.
CHINESE calendars.
Chinese Flag
China
China introduced revised and simpler characters.
Hong Kong.
Taiwan.
Singapore.
Japan
Japan uses the same signs as China, like 'no smoking signs' in Europe. What you say is different in each country, but the signs are the same.
Japanese flag.
Useful Websites
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_numerals
http://www.alfabetos.net/japanese/japanese-numbers/learn-japanese-numbers-ordinals.php
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chineasy
About the author. Angela Lansbury is a teacher, trainer and author. Please share links to your favourite posts..
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