I thought I would take a few words I wanted to recognize, such as big and central which I often saw on signs. Big is like the curved A shape without the central bar which is like a simplified walking or running person. the wide oblong with the vertical (upright) sign means centre.
The Sign For Person
First I tried China and Chinese and Singapore and Singaporean to see what was the difference. If you add the sign for person on the end you get Chinese or Singaporean.
So now I can understand the signs at an airport and the road signs. The road sign (signpost) without the person sign means the country.
At the airport a sign with the person sign on the end is telling nationals of that country that here is where to queue. (For the British word queue, Americans say line up).
1
one
Singapore
Singaporean
1
一
2
two
lion
city
...........................................................
3
three
central
city
4
four
in
heart
5
five
buy
thing
....................................................
6
six
shopping
shopping center
...................................
7
seven
pedestrian
pedestrians
When you translate pedestrian and pedestrians you get the same word. No wonder I used to see signs in Singapore saying Pedestrian this way. When they looked up pedestrian or pedestrians in Chinese they always got singular pedestrians in English.
Now I know what the Chinese find hard to get right in English and why. It is not that they are half-witted or forgetful. Their language works differently. Think of the word man in English. We would add a man to mean one man. In Chinese you would add one to specify only one. That is how English and French probably started years, centuries ago.
8
eight
China
Chinese people
...........................................
9
nine
new
year
..........................................
10
ten
Quickly
pleasure
of
grand
exhibition
A kind
in
About the Author
Angela Lansbury teacher of English (advanced and English as a Second Language or English as a Foreign Language), French and other languages, aspiring polyglot.
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