Learn to read Chinese ... with ease ShaoLan

[Music]

growing up in Taiwan as a daughter

calligrapher one of my most treasured

memories was my mother showing me the

beauty the shape and the form of Chinese

characters ever since then I was

fascinated by this incredible language

but to an outsider it seems to be as

impenetrable as a Great Wall of China

over the past few years I’ve been

wondering if I can break down this wall

so anyone who wants to understand and

appreciate the beauty of this

sophisticated language to do so I

started thinking about how a new fast

method of learning Chinese might be

useful since the age of five I started

to learn how to draw every single stroke

for each character at correct sequence

II I learn new characters every day

during the course of the next 15 years

since we only have five minutes is

better that we have a fast and simple

away a Chinese scholar would understand

20,000 characters

you only need 1,000 to understand the

basic literacy the top 200 will allow

you to comprehend 40% of basic

literature enough to redraw sign

restaurant menu to understand the basic

idea of the web pages or the newspapers

today I’m going to start with 8 to show

you how the method works you’re ready

open your mouth as wide as possible

until is square you get a mouse this is

a person going for a walk person if the

shape of the fire is a person with two

arms and both sides as if she was

yelling frantically help about fire the

simple actions originally found the

shape of the flame but I like to think

that way whichever works for you this is

a tree

three this is the mountain the son

the moon

the symbol of the door looks like a pair

of southern door in the Wild West

I call this eight characters radicals

they are the building blocks for you to

create lots more characters a person if

someone walks behind that is to follow

as old saying goes to his company

three’s a crowd if a person stretch the

arms wide this person is saying it was

this big the person inside the mouse the

president strapped he’s a prisoner just

like Jonah inside the well what tree is

a tree two trees together we have the

woods three trees together we create the

forest put a plank underneath the tree

we have the foundation for the mouse on

the top of the tree

that’s idiot easy to remember

since the talking tree is pretty with

idiotic remember fire two files together

I get really hot three files together

that’s a lot of flames set the fire

underneath the two trees it’s burning

for us the Sun is the source prosperity

two sounds together prosperous three

together classical sparkles put a Sun

and the moon shining together it’s

brightness it’s also means tomorrow

after a day and a night the Sun is

coming up above the horizon sunrise the

door to the plank is at the door

we restored boat for the mouse inside a

door asking questions

knock-knock is anyone home this person

is leaking out of a door its gaping

evading on the Left we have a woman two

women together they have an argument

three women together the careful is

adultery so we have come through almost

30 characters by using this method the

first eight radicals will allow you to

filter tea to the next group of eight

characters we’ll build an extra 32 so

within very little effort you will be

able to learn a couple hundred

characters which is the same as a

Chinese eight-year-old so after we know

the characters we stop using phrases for

example the mountain and the fire

together we have Fire Mountain it’s a

volcano

we know Japan is land of Rising Sun this

is the Sun putting with the origin

because Japan lies in the east of China

so the Sun origin together we built

Japan a person behind Japan whatever got

Japanese person the character on the

left is two months tacked on the top

each other in ancient China that means

in exile because Chinese emperor they

put that political enemies in exile

beyond mountains nowadays exile has

turned into getting out a mouse which

tells you where to get out is an exit

this is a slide very might mean that I

should stop talking and get out of the

stage thank you

[Applause]

[Music]

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