Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
doesn't always seem to be logical, especially when you're first starting out, and if you don't
know the tones, many words can sound exactly the same. The language is also often filled
with idioms, set phrases, and what are called
chéngy
ǔ
,
four-word phrases that usually have
an interesting story behind them but, without explanation, mean nothing. Basically, imagine
a language where people, young and old, routinely spout sentences padded by expressions
like “a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush” or “never look a gift horse in the mouth.”
Many expats shy away from written Chinese,
hànzì
(
汉字
), understandably arguing that
they first need to be able to speak before they tackle writing. A little bit of study in this
area, however, can really go a long way, even just in helping you learn how to recognize
characters on addresses or to copy them for your taxi driver.
There is a system to it—each character isn't just a unique hodgepodge of strokes. Rather,
characters are made up by varying combinations of set components. Many are pictographic,
so the meaning jumps out at you without too much mental exhaustion, and most are sys-
tematically arranged to suggest sound and meaning. Once you familiarize yourself with the
rule system behind characters and become familiar with the components, they don't seem
so scary.
Written Chinese comes in two forms—simplified (
ji
ǎ
nt
ǐ
zì,
简体字
) and traditional
(
fánt
ǐ
zì,
繁體字
). Simplified Chinese came into practice in the 1950s and 1960s when Mao
made efforts to improve the general levels of literacy in the country. In simplified Chinese,
several strokes from the original traditional character were condensed into a single stroke.
For example the traditional form of
ni
ǎ
o
(bird) is written as
鳥，
but simplified it is
鸟
.
And if you look carefully, it does actually look somewhat like a bird. Traditional charac-
ters are still used in Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan, as well as in many subtitled Chinese
films, but simplified Chinese is what is used in mainland China, Singapore, and Malaysia.
