我最喜欢的汉字
MY FAVOURITE CHINESE CHARACTERS
译文简介
如果你不会写汉字，你就不能说你懂中文。
正文翻译
MY FAVOURITE CHINESE CHARACTERS
1.我最喜欢的汉字
1.我最喜欢的汉字
Most people think learning Chinese is difficult. Every time I’m back in Spain and I tell someone I can speak Chinese, they invariably reply with a: “Wow! Isn’t it super complicated?”. Some (weird) people claim that it is in fact very easy, though normally these people are just trying to sell you their “learn Chinese in 3 months” courses. I agree that the grammar is in general not very difficult, although remembering the correct classifier for each noun can be difficult at times, and I remember I had a very hard time grasping how some verbal constructions work. Some people say they learned to speak fluent Chinese in the street and I’m happy for them but I’m not so language-gifted (6 years in Suzhou and the local dialect still sounds like Japanese to me). There’s one thing I know for sure, though: in my opinion, if you can’t write the characters, you can’t really say you know Chinese.
大多数人认为学习中文是很困难的。每次我回到西班牙，告诉别人我会说中文，他们总是回答:“哇！它难道不是超级复杂吗？”一些(奇怪的)人声称学习中文实际上很简单，虽然通常这些人只是想向你推销他们的“三个月学中文”课程。我同意语法通常不是很难，但记住每个名词的正确分类有时会很困难，而且我记得我很难理解一些动词结构是如何运用的。有些人说他们在街上学会了说一口流利的中文，我为他们感到高兴，但我不是那么有语言天赋(在苏州呆了6年，当地方言对我来说仍然听起来像日语)。但有一件事我可以肯定:在我看来，如果你不会写汉字，你就不能说你懂中文。
When I was studying Chinese, we had to learn to write all the characters by hand. I guess it’s still like this. If you don’t practise writing each new character 20 times, it’s practically impossible to remember all the strokes. Nowadays writing by hand is not really that important, as everybody uses pinyin or wubihua to type on computers and phones and no one really writes by hand much (except students, of course) but I am really glad I got to learn how to write lots of characters. At the beginning you are taught the easier ones, the ones that used to represent graphically a tangible thing, like moon or sun, and you think: “Hey! This is very easy and fun!”. Then things start becoming complicated and it is not fun anymore when you have to spend 6 hours practising new characters (i.e. me when I had just arrived to Beijing).
当我学中文的时候，我们必须学会用手写所有的汉字。我想现在还是这样。如果你不练习把每个新字写20遍，你几乎不可能记住所有的笔画。现在手写已经不那么重要了，因为每个人都用拼音或者五笔在电脑和手机上打字，没有人真正用手写字(当然，学生除外)，但是我真的很高兴我学会了如何写很多字。一开始，你被教授了一些比较简单的东西，用图形化的方式表示一个有形的东西，比如月亮或者太阳，你会想:“嘿！这很简单，也很有趣！”然后事情开始变得复杂，当你不得不花6个小时练习新的汉字时(也就是我刚到北京的时候)，这就不再有趣了。
当我学中文的时候，我们必须学会用手写所有的汉字。我想现在还是这样。如果你不练习把每个新字写20遍，你几乎不可能记住所有的笔画。现在手写已经不那么重要了，因为每个人都用拼音或者五笔在电脑和手机上打字，没有人真正用手写字(当然，学生除外)，但是我真的很高兴我学会了如何写很多字。一开始，你被教授了一些比较简单的东西，用图形化的方式表示一个有形的东西，比如月亮或者太阳，你会想:“嘿！这很简单，也很有趣！”然后事情开始变得复杂，当你不得不花6个小时练习新的汉字时(也就是我刚到北京的时候)，这就不再有趣了。
The title of the most difficult character in simplified Chinese is usually given to biang, a type of noodle dish. Luckily it is not commonly used and the only ones who would have to write it would be the waiters or owners of restaurants serving these noodles. However, it is so complicated that they sometimes write the pinyin instead because, really, why would anyone bother to write this?
简体中文中最难的汉字通常被称为biang，是一种面食。幸运的是，这个词并不常用，只有服务员或餐馆老板才会写这个词。然而，它是如此的复杂，以至于他们有时会用拼音来代替，因为是的，为什么会有人费心去写这个字呢？
简体中文中最难的汉字通常被称为biang，是一种面食。幸运的是，这个词并不常用，只有服务员或餐馆老板才会写这个词。然而，它是如此的复杂，以至于他们有时会用拼音来代替，因为是的，为什么会有人费心去写这个字呢？
This is not a joke, it’s a real character! And the traditional version is even worse…
这不是玩笑，这是一个真实的汉字！而且传统的版本更复杂...
I prefer simpler characters. My absolute favourite is undoubtedly this one:
我更喜欢简单的汉字，毫无疑问，我最喜欢的就是这个:
我更喜欢简单的汉字，毫无疑问，我最喜欢的就是这个:
Can you guess what it means? It is very easy: skewer! Isn’t it great? You don’t need to know Chinese to understand it because it’s super clear! It is pronounced chuan and if you are in the north of China you will need to add many r behind it to be understood: chuanrrrrrr.
你能猜出这是什么意思吗？很简单：串！是不是很棒？你不需要知道中文就能理解它，因为它表述得非常清楚！如果你在中国的北方，你需要在它后面加上许多r才能理解:串儿~~~。
Another character that I like is san:
我喜欢的另一个汉字是伞:
我喜欢的另一个汉字是伞:
Do you know what it is? It’s also very obvious: umbrella!
你知道它是什么意思吗？它也很明显：雨伞！
Another one that I like is a combination of two characters:
另一个我喜欢的字是两个部分的组合:
原创翻译：龙腾网 http://www.ltaaa.cn 转载请注明出处
另一个我喜欢的字是两个部分的组合:
原创翻译：龙腾网 http://www.ltaaa.cn 转载请注明出处
Mu means tree or wood. It looks a bit like a tree, right? The horizontal line is the ground and the three strokes below are the roots.
木的意思是树或者木头。它看起来有点像一棵树，对吧？水平线是地面，下面的三个笔画是根。
Lin is a surname and it also means wood, as it’s two trees.
林是一个姓氏，也意味着木头，因为它是两棵树。
Senlin… five trees. Well… it’s decidedly a forest!
森林......五棵树。嗯......这绝对是一片森林！
I wish all the characters were this easy! Then I would never forget how to write them by hand…
我希望所有的字都能这么简单！这样我就永远不会忘记如何手写了...
我希望所有的字都能这么简单！这样我就永远不会忘记如何手写了...
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PROTECTION AGAINST EVIL SPIRITS
2.保护我们免受恶灵的侵扰
PROTECTION AGAINST EVIL SPIRITS
2.保护我们免受恶灵的侵扰
And for the second time this month I’m saying that Chinese people are very superstitious. The other day C. came home with a branch of some plant that someone gave him. I had already seen that branch hanging beside the door of several neighbours and it reminded me of when Spanish people hang palm branches from their balconies in Easter. But it seems this branch has a totally different meaning…
这个月我第二次说中国人非常迷信了。有一天，C带着某人送给他的某种植物的一根枝条回家。我已经见过几个邻居家门口挂着的那根树枝，它让我想起了西班牙人在复活节时在自家阳台上挂棕榈枝的情景。但是这根树枝似乎有着完全不同的含义..
原创翻译：龙腾网 http://www.ltaaa.cn 转载请注明出处
At first I understood this plant was effective against mosquitoes, so I told C. to put it inside the house. We have SO MANY mosquitoes, even though we live in the 10th floor. I’m starting to think we have a mosquito breeding center somewhere. But he told me that no, this branch has to be hanged outside, because it has another function: to offer protection against evil spirits. As you can see, there is also a garlic head there…
起初我知道这种植物对蚊子很有效，所以我让C把它放在房子里。尽管我们住在10楼，我们还是有很多蚊子。我开始觉得也许在什么地方有个蚊子窝。但是他告诉我，不行，这根树枝必须挂在外面，因为它还有另外一个功能：保护人们免受恶灵的侵扰。正如你所看到的，那里还有一个大蒜头...
起初我知道这种植物对蚊子很有效，所以我让C把它放在房子里。尽管我们住在10楼，我们还是有很多蚊子。我开始觉得也许在什么地方有个蚊子窝。但是他告诉我，不行，这根树枝必须挂在外面，因为它还有另外一个功能：保护人们免受恶灵的侵扰。正如你所看到的，那里还有一个大蒜头...
I don’t know where this tradition comes from as I don’t remember seeing this branch on previous years, and for sure we never had it before. Maybe it’s some old custom that has been revived? I also have no idea what the plant is…
我不知道这个传统从何而来，因为我不记得前几年看到过这根树枝，而且可以肯定的是，我们以前从未挂过这根树枝。也许是某种旧习俗又复活了？我也不知道这植物是什么...
我不知道这个传统从何而来，因为我不记得前几年看到过这根树枝，而且可以肯定的是，我们以前从未挂过这根树枝。也许是某种旧习俗又复活了？我也不知道这植物是什么...
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This was a fantastic post! I love learning about the characters and find it amazing that you were willing to learn Chinese. As you mentioned, everyone says it is so difficult, so young people shy away from learning it, but I think it is fascinating the the characters look like art strokes!
As you have your child and start showing him/her Chinese / Spanish books it will be interesting to see how they learn. I was just at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair and China was the guest of honor. They were saying that Chinese children’s books are all about “effort” in life, while American books are about “happiness.” I wonder what Spanish books are mainly about. An Italian woman laughed and said that Italian books are about “fantasy.” :)
这是一个非常棒的帖子！我喜欢学习汉字，发现你愿意学习汉语真是令人惊讶。正如你提到的，每个人都说这是如此困难，所以年轻人害怕学习它，但我认为这是迷人的汉字，看起来像艺术画！
当你有了孩子，并开始给他/她看中文/西班牙文书籍时，看看他们是如何学习的会很有趣。我刚刚参加了博洛尼亚儿童书展，中国是主宾国。他们说中国的儿童书籍都是关于生活中的“努力”，而美国的书籍则都是关于“幸福”的。我想知道西班牙语书籍主要是讲什么的。一位意大利妇女笑着说，意大利的书都是关于“幻想”的:)
In Spain there are many people learning Chinese now! But I don’t know which percentage manages to get a good level. I think it’s very hard to achieve if you are not immersed in the language 24/7.
I haven’t read any Chinese children books I think. I would have thought they would also deal with “obey your parents at all times” hahaha. In Spain, I’d say many children books are about friendship.
在西班牙，现在有很多人在学中文！但是我不知道有多少人能达到一个比较好的水平。我认为如果你没有全天候的沉浸在这个语言中，这是很难实现的。
我想我没有读过任何中国儿童书籍。我还以为他们的儿童书籍都是关于“时刻听父母的话”的内容呢，哈哈。在西班牙，许多儿童书籍都是关于友谊的。
I swear, Chinese is so hard to learn. My mother tongue is Cantonese but my Chinese level is that of a foreigner’s. That biang character is the reason why I’ll probably never be able to even master the basics, haha!
我发誓，中文太难学了。我的母语是粤语，但我的中文水平是外国人的水平。这个biang字就是为什么我可能永远都不能掌握的原因，哈哈！
Oh, I thought you were native in Cantonese! The biang character is an exaggeration, usually the characters are not THAT bad xD
哦，我还以为你是广东人呢！Biang是一个很夸张的字，常见的字没那么夸张的，哈哈
原创翻译：龙腾网 http://www.ltaaa.cn 转载请注明出处
Biang is such a crazy character, ha. I saw it when I went to Xian and even ate the noodles too. Weirdly enough, I have heard Chinese talking and at first I thought they were speaking Japanese but then I heard a bit of Mandarin and realized they were actually Chinese. I thought they were from Shanghai but from what you said, maybe they were from Suzhou.
Biang这个字真是太疯狂了，哈哈。我去西安的时候看到的，甚至还在那里吃了面条。奇怪的是，我听到中国人说话，起初我以为他们说的是日语，但后来我听到一点普通话，我意识到他们实际上是中国人。我以为他们来自上海，但是从你说的信息来看，他们可能来自苏州。
Well, Shanghai and Suzhou dialects are similar, part of the Wu language family.I also thought it sounds similar to Japanese at first!
嗯，上海方言和苏州方言是很相似的，都属于吴语系。一开始我也觉得它听起来和日语很像！
Yeah, the Yangtze Delta sure has a lot of dialects. The interesting thing is they don’t sound like Mandarin or Cantonese or Minnanese.
是啊，长江三角洲的方言真多。有趣的是，它们听起来不像普通话、广东话或闽南语。
I’ve always loved how the fact that Chinese characters are logographic lends itself to so many fun creations.
For example in Toronto we have a ramen place that has as part of its logo a seal containing a character made up of 麦,骨, and 豕, meaning “wheat”, “bones”, and “pork” respectively. Basically it’s a perfect descxtion of ramen, which the character itself embodies. Very creative
我一直都很喜欢汉字是图形文字的这一事实，因为它能给很多创作带来很多乐趣。
例如，在多伦多，我们有一家拉面店，其商标的一部分是一个印章，其中包含一个由麦、骨和豕组成的字符，分别表示“小麦”、“骨头”和“猪肉”。基本上这是一个对拉面的完美描述，这个商标非常形象，非常有创意。
Yes! They allow for a lot of creativity, haha. That’s a very good example.
是的！他们允许你发挥很多的创造力，哈哈。这是一个很好的例子。
Are you kidding me with that biang character?! Seems torturous.
你在逗我，那个biang字看起来很折磨人。
Maybe they use it to punish badly behaved children in school. “Now, write the character biang 500 times!”.
也许他们可以用它来惩罚在学校表现不好的孩子。“现在，把这个字写500遍！”。
they would never misbehave again.
所以他们再也不敢做坏事了。
Hi Marta, I do (did) love learning Characters and writing them – its the history of the character I love. I have forgotten most of them now as dont use them…such a shame. But Oh My Goodness I have never seen that first character let alone tried to write it…incredibly difficult.
玛塔，你好，我确实很喜欢学习和书写汉字——因为我喜欢汉字的历史。我现在已经忘记了大部分汉字，因为我不再使用它们了......真遗憾。但是，哦，我的上帝，我从来没有看到过第一个字，更不用说尝试写它了...太困难了，难以置信。
The history of characters is fascinating, I love etymology in all languages! But I don’t really know the history of most characters, I only had an elective class that mentioned that.
汉字的历史是迷人的，我喜欢所有语言的词源学！但是我真的不知道大多数汉字的历史，只有一个选修课提到过这一点。
I was very fortunate Marta my teacher in Australia taught me the background of each character I learnt. I wish I could study full time and probably wish I was younger to do it.
我很幸运，我在澳大利亚的老师教了我所学的每一个汉字的背景知识。我希望我可以全职学习汉字，也许我希望我能更年轻一些。
原创翻译：龙腾网 http://www.ltaaa.cn 转载请注明出处
We were contemplating moving to China, we were learning Chinese, because we knew having some basics under our belt was hella important, as was being able to read some signs like bathroom, restaurant, hotel, etc.
And I must say, it was fun. I would say Chinese has been the funnest language to learn on my own, so I can only imagine how it would be to get proper instruction.
Good for you Marta! I say learning another language and being functional in your expat country can be rewarding and worth it!
我们正在考虑搬到中国，我们正在学习中文，因为我们知道能掌握一些基本的东西是非常重要的，就像能够看懂一些标志，如浴室，餐厅，酒店等。
我必须说，这很有趣。我会说中文是我自学过的最有趣的语言，所以我只能想象得到适当的指导会是什么样子。
玛塔，这对你有好处！我认为学习另一种语言并且在外国生活是值得的！
Well, I wouldn’t call proper instruction exactly fun, but it greatly depends on the teacher. In China, the method is based on repeating everything a thousand times so not really fun at all, haha. But when you start thinking about the parts that compose the characters, why they are like that, etc, it’s very interesting.
我不认为正确的教学是有趣的，但这在很大程度上取决于老师。在中国，这种教学方法是基于一件事情重复一千遍，所以一点都不好玩，哈哈。但是当你开始思考组成汉字的各个部分，以为为什么他们是那样组合的，等等，这将是非常有趣的。
You know more Chinese. I struggle to remember first, middle and last name. I know 1-7 in Chinese.. Man, woman, horse.
What did the lst ideogram mean? Yea that looks like a landscape painting in calligraphy. :)
你知道更多的中国汉字。我仍在努力记住名字、中间名和姓。我会说中文从1-7..男人，女人，还有马。
第一个汉字是什么意思？是的，它看起来像一幅山水画:)
A forest! Hehe. It’s literally a group of trees!
一片森林！呵呵，实际上是一堆树！
I knew mu looked sort of tree-like, but I never stopped to think about the fact that the bottom part was roots. Maybe that’s an American attitude, to think only of what’s above ground. Ha ha. When I studied Chinese (rather informally and not for nearly long enough), I did enjoy writing the characters. It was fun until they got too hard. My husband loved all the thought and history that went into the formation of the characters. He hated the simplified characters because he said too much of the meaning and history was lost. Of course, he grew up learning the traditional version.
我知道看起来有点像树，但是我从来没有停下来想过底部是树根这件事，也许这就是美国人的态度，只考虑地上面的东西，哈哈。当我学习汉语的时候(相当随意，而且时间也不够长)，我确实很喜欢写汉字。这很有趣，直到他们变得太难。我的丈夫喜欢这些汉字形成的所有历史。他讨厌简体字，因为他说太多的意义和历史丢失了。当然，他在成长过程中学习了繁体字。
I remember that when mu was explained to us the teacher said that, in a tree, the most important part is the roots. Yes, it’s a completely different way of looking at things!
Your husband was right, a big part of the meaning and history was lost. I hope it at least helped to improve the literacy rate in the past century.
我记得当老师解释给我们听的时候，老师说，在一棵树上，最重要的部分是根。是的，这是一种完全不同的看待事物的方式！
你丈夫是对的，很大一部分汉字的意义和历史已经丢失了。不过我希望这至少有助于提高识字率。
nice post! very helpful for those who wanted to learn chinese language. thanks for the post.
很棒的帖子！对那些想学中文的人来说很有帮助。谢谢你的帖子。
I commend you for learning chinese. Both my parents are chinese but I can only understand Cantonese as we only spoke English at home.
Now I’m trying to teach myself Cantonese and it’s a struggle
我对你学习中文表示称赞。我的父母都是中国人，但我只懂粤语，因为我们在家里只说英语。
现在我正在努力学习广东话，这是一件很困难的事情。
Very good post. I wish one day i learn chinese
非常好的帖子。我希望有一天我能学中文。
Gotta love Chinese superstitions! I’ve grown out of them now but growing up Chinese, I used to be so scared of the stories my grandmothers told me, haha!
我爱中国的迷信！我现在已经不再听这些故事了，但是在中国长大的过程中，我曾经非常害怕祖母给我讲这些故事，哈哈！
Superstitions are kind of funny everywhere. In Spain, opening an umbrella indoors or passing under a ladder brings bad luck. I wonder, is there an evil force field in the umbrella or under the ladder? xD
迷信在任何地方都是有趣的。在西班牙，在室内撑伞或从梯子下经过会带来厄运。我想知道，伞下或者梯子下是否有邪恶的力场？哈哈
原创翻译：龙腾网 http://www.ltaaa.cn 转载请注明出处
I’ve actually been trying to find a house flag that incorporates the requisite Chinese characters for good luck, etc. I thought that would be a nice melding of east and west
实际上，我一直在试图找到一个适合挂在房子上的旗帜，包括必要的象征好运的汉字等等。我认为这将是一个很好的东西方的融合。
Uhm, I looked it up on Taobao but house flags are not common here. However, there are many vendors who make custom flags
嗯，我在淘宝上查过，但是房子上的旗帜在这里不常见。然而，有很多供应商可以自定义旗帜。
Very interesting. I’ve never know about this superstition of hanging plants (is it scallion?) and garlic outside the door to protect against spirits. Don’t you find this similar to stories in the West about using garlic to protect against vampires, ha?
非常有趣。我从来不知道这种悬挂植物的迷信(是大葱吗？)和把大蒜放在门外，防止恶灵侵入。你不觉得这和西方用大蒜抵御吸血鬼的故事很相似吗？
Yes! So this proves garlic is effective against evil xD
是的！这就证明了大蒜对恶灵是有效的，哈哈