Easy Chinese Signs To Learn Instantly

Red Chinese lantern and suspended greeting for Chinese New Year. Photo by Angela Lansury.

I stook looking at the sign hung over every doorway all around a large estate in Singapore. i thought I recognized the first sign of the two. The sign said big.

Big is pretty easy to remember and recognize. It looks like a person with their legs apart and arms outstretched.

I've been wondering for days, all through Chinese New Year, about how to recognize the Chinese words for happy new year. the signs will come up year after year. I also want to be sure that any signs I re-use say happy new year or the equivalent and not year of the - and last year's animal. that would be like saying happy 2019 for years afterwards.

I finally struck lucky, in Singapore, standing near a lantern which suspended a New Year greeting, standing near a neighbour who was not in a hurry.

I asked her, "Can you read Chinese?"


Chinese Flag

Mandarin is taught in schools in Singapore where the Chinese attend.

Singapore flag.

"Yes."

"Can you tell me what that sign under the lantern means?"


I recognized big, on the left, like a man with arms outstretched.

The sign on the right is a compound word, made up of two signs which are squashed thin to keep their height but reduce their width so they both fit inside an imaginary square for a word or idea.

The sign in the middle, left of the right hand sign, means day. The sign far right means king. I recognized that from the name of the MRT train station King Albert Park. Three horizontals with a line down the middle vertically is king. Big Day-king means (wishing you) much prosperity.

Wikipedia gives these common signs.

8 phono-semantic compounds with phonetic part 也 (yě)^[35]

Character	Semantic part	Phonetic part	pinyin	meaning
也	(originally a pictograph of a vagina)[36]	(none)	yě	grammatical particle; also
池	水（氵）water	也	chí	pool
驰 / 馳	马 / 馬 horse	也	chí	gallop
弛	弓 bow (bend)	也	chí	relaxation
施	㫃 flag	也	shī	application
地	土 earth	也	dì (de)	ground
他	人 （亻）person	也	tā	he
她	女 female	也	tā	she
拖 / 扡 (archaic form)	手 （扌）hand	也	tuō	drag

Comparisons of a sample of traditional Chinese characters, simplified Chinese characters, and simplified Japanese characters in their modern standardized forms

	Chinese		Japanese	Meaning
	Traditional	Simplified
Simplified in mainland China only, not Japan (Some radicals were simplified)	電	电	電	electricity
	買	买	買	buy
	車	车	車	car, vehicle
	紅	红	紅	red
	無	无	無	nothing
	東	东	東	east
	馬	马	馬	horse
	風	风	風	wind
	愛	爱	愛	love
	時	时	時	time
	鳥	鸟	鳥	bird
	島	岛	島	island
	語	语	語	language, word
	頭	头	頭	head
	魚	鱼	魚	fish
	園	园	園	garden
	長	长	長	long, grow
	紙	纸	紙	paper
	書	书	書	book, document
	見	见	見	watch, see
Simplified in Japan, not Mainland China (In some cases this represents the adoption of different variants as standard)	假	假	仮	false, day off, borrow
	佛	佛	仏	Buddha
	德	德	徳	moral, virtue
	拜	拜	拝	kowtow, pray to, worship
	黑	黑	黒	black
	冰	冰	氷	ice
	兔	兔	兎	rabbit
	妒	妒	妬	jealousy
	每	每	毎	every
	壤	壤	壌	soil
	步	步	歩	step
	巢	巢	巣	nest
	惠	惠	恵	grace
	莓	莓	苺	strawberry
Simplified differently in Mainland China and Japan	圓	圆	円	circle
	聽	听	聴	listen
	實	实	実	real
	證	证	証	certificate, proof
	龍	龙	竜	dragon
	賣	卖	売	sell
	龜	龟	亀	turtle, tortoise
	藝	艺	芸	art, arts
	戰	战	戦	fight, war
	繩	绳	縄	rope, criterion
	繪	绘	絵	picture, painting
	鐵	铁	鉄	iron, metal
	圖	图	図	picture, diagram
	團	团	団	group, regiment
	轉	转	転	turn
	廣	广	広	wide, broad
	惡	恶	悪	bad, evil, hate
	豐	丰	豊	abundant
	腦	脑	脳	brain
	雜	杂	雑	miscellaneous
	壓	压	圧	pressure, compression
	雞 鷄	鸡	鶏	chicken
	總	总	総	overall
	價	价	価	price
	樂	乐	楽	fun, music
	歸	归	帰	return, revert
	氣	气	気	air
	廳	厅	庁	hall, office
	發	发	発	emit, send
	勞	劳	労	labor
	劍	剑	剣	sword
	歲	岁	歳	age, years
	權	权	権	authority, right
	燒	烧	焼	burn
	贊	赞	賛	praise
	兩	两	両	two, both
	譯	译	訳	translate
	觀	观	観	look, watch
	營	营	営	camp, battalion
	處	处	処	processing
	齒	齿	歯	teeth
	驛	驿	駅	station
	櫻	樱	桜	cherry
	產	产	産	production
	藥	药	薬	medicine
	讀	读	読	read
	顏	颜	顔	face
Simplified (almost) identically in Mainland China and Japan	畫	画	画	picture
	聲	声	声	sound, voice
	學	学	学	learn
	體	体	体	body
	點	点	点	dot, point
	麥	麦	麦	wheat
	蟲	虫	虫	insect
	舊	旧	旧	old, bygone, past
	會	会	会	be able to, meeting
	萬	万	万	ten-thousand
	盜	盗	盗	thief, steal
	寶	宝	宝	treasure
	國	国	国	country

Chineasy, picture from Wikipedia. You can identify the moon, second from left in the top row.

The sun is in the middle in the bottom row.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chineasy

Useful Websites
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chineasy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_characters

Duolingo.com


About the Author
Angela Lansbury is a travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Please share links to your favourite websites.

Another 20 words of Spanish you already know

Spanish

Let's start with the easy ones which we will remember easily.

Animals
1 animal - animal
2 los - the (plural)
3 los animales - the animals
4 los angeles - the angels
5 el gato - the cat
6 el hamster - the hamster

Fruit

7 la banana - the banana
8 el kiwi - kiwi
9 la lima - lime
10 el mango - mango

11 la pera - pear
12 la lichi - lychee
13 la oliva - olive
14 la tangerina - tangerine
15 el tomate - tomato

16 la ensalada de frutas - fruit salad
17 bola - ball
18 poni - pony
19 el coco - a coconut
20 la papaya - the papaya



Useful Websites
https://www.thoughtco.com/fruits-in-spanish-3079956

Learn Easy Words In Portuguese

If you already know either French or Latin you have a head start in learning Spanish, Italian or Portuguese. I started by learning Spanish which I thought was more useful and easier. Then I took a trip to Umbria in Italy and switched to Italian. Now I have a trip planned to Madeira so I am looking at learning Portuguese using Duolingo and Duolingo's tiny cards.

When I read the back of packets of cereals and chocolate bars I find it easy to switch from the English to the Spanish, Italian and Portuguese and can recognize about half the words. However, when doing a course, you have to pick up all the words, not just half of them. So I am noting down how I remember the words and sharing my memory aids with you.

Problem
How do I remember Portuguese words?

Answer
Find a related word in English as a reminder. Look for a word with similar spelling. Even a similar initial letter is sometimes a sufficient trigger.

Portuguese - English
(a) abelha - the bee (notice the letters be in abelha)
a água (the) - water (the accent on the á goes up, like the first accent on the French word élève meaning secondary school child - the meaning is like the English words elevated or elevator)
(o) animal - (the) animal
(os) animais (the animals)
(o) cavalho - (the) horse (reminds you or cavalry - ho!)
(uma) formiga - (an) ant (reminder - when I see that form I fumigate)
gato - cat (c and g sound similar - cat- oh! in my gateaux!)
o påssaro - the bird (should be a dot above the a but my font options don't include that; memory aid pass-arrow)
o pão - bread (the letter b turned upside down and two vowels, like the word bread, with a wavy line above the a, like a piece of flat bread)

English - Portuguese
(the) animal - o animal
the animals - os animais (add an s for the plural like in English; note that the l turns into i for the plural, which might not be clear if you are looking at small text on a small screen)
an ant - uma formiga
the bee - a abelha
(the) bird - o passaro
the bread - o pão (the p looks like an upsaide down b, and is like the French word pain; also the Indian bread parata which is fried and flat and puri which is a crisp shell)
cat - gato
(the) horse - (o) cavalho
(the) water - (a) água

First I look at each word at least three times (which you have to do to answer the multiple choice questions on Duolingo). After that, when I am standing around doing nothing, such as waiting for a train, I mentally go through the words saying the reminders in my head. (Gato is cat. Cat is gato.) So even though I don't have my course in front of my eyes, I am using my time and setting the words in my brain, a bit like letting bread rise.

bread - pão

Angela Lansbury
Travel writer and photographer, author, learner and teacher of languages. Please bookmark and share links to your favourite posts.

More Welsh Animals, from a cranky crab to a dog with a key

Problem
How do I remember Welsh words for animals?

Answers
Make unusual mental pictures.

Welsh - English
anifail - animal (both start with ANI but the Welsh animal fails to be human or English)
cranc - crab (think of a cranky crab; both words start with CRA; the letter c follows b)
ci - dog (imagine a dog carrying a key)
llew - lion (both start with the letter l, think of Leo the lion; vowels aE IOu - l l e w)

English - Welsh
animal - anifail
crab - cranc
dog - ci
lion - llew

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker, teacher of English and other languages. Please share links to your favourite posts. 

German words you'll find easy, and German words you'll find confusing

Problem
How do you learn German?

Answer
I am using D u o l i n g o free online course. Today I was learning animals, birds and insects. Some of them were easy, almost the same in both languages.

German - English
Eine Biene - a bee
die Fliege - the fly (looks like an English command, "Die, fly!" but it's pronounced dee
Ein Insekt - an insect
Die Spinner - (a spider is a spinner of a spider's web)
Haustier - pet (Haus is German for house - it sounds the same, tier is german for animal, so a house animal is a pet)

English - German
a bee - eine Biene (remember that nouns start with capital letters in German)
the fly - die Fliege
an insect - ein Insekt
a spider - die Spinner

Angela Lansbury, learner and teacher of languages.

Dropping more ideas on droppings

Problems
What is it? (Black dots. Live or dead/ Animal or insect dropping? From what?

Answers
A Singaporean told me: If it's on the floor, it's probably cockroaches. But if it's on the walls, it's more likely geckos.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer. Books on Amazon.com and Lulu.com