How to Memorize Chinese Characters
So you're learning or planning to learn Chinese,right? Then we are in the same boat! As you try your hand at Chinese, you might realise that it's so difficult to memorise these characters They are so different!A myriad of strokes, shapes and tiny elements.
and only to realise that two equally complexcharacters are pronounced in the same way! Well there is a solution! And the solution is called memory palaces, arguably the most effective memory technique in history, which I mentioned in a couple of my previous videos by the way, so be sure to check them out.
Let's take an example: recently I had to learnthe Chinese family tree.
And just so you know, it's as complex as it gets.
In fact, one wouldrather opt for a smaller family, because every family member has his specific term!Grandparents are different depending on whether it's on your mother's or father's side.
Allof your siblings have different terms depending on age and gender, and their children havesubsequently different nephew terms, just like their spouses!And don't get me started with your own children and grandchildren.
And now, let's take an example and memorise these! This time, we're going to learn Yeye: Father's father What we're going to do now is find associationsfor the character and its pronunciation, and then place this association into a palace,hence ensuring that we remember it.
But first the association.
How do we remember Yeye? A couple of different approaches exist, what I do is this: I take the word, and split it intosyllables: Ye-Ye Now I choose a word, of which the first syllablecorresponds to the Chinese character.
So Ye-Ye could be split into YEti and YEtiIn fact, I would simplify the task by remembering only one YEti, because all family member notionshave 2 or more syllables, and when you see the character itself, you notice thatthe character consists of 2 identical components, hence it's most probably a word made out of 2 identical sounds, which is YE.
Now, the most difficult part: the character.
What many do not realise, is that characters are made up of much simpler characters, whichare easy to link to an association.
Let's zoom this in: Tell me, what do you see? I see a basic characterhere, which reminds me of 2 crossed hammers, and bellow I see a T and a hookYour job now is to create an association out of it.
Now, I imagine a rather bizarre battle, between Mr.
T wielding a big hook against a guy yielding 2 giant hammers.
The guy winsand Mr.
T is utterly defeated.
Well that was a funny association, wasn't it? That is exactly the point! Funny things are easily remembered, which is why the association has to beas entertaining and bizarre as possible.
Note: the best thing to do is to take the basic characters (there are about a hundred) and create associations (or even 2) for each of them.
This way, you are always ready to memorise a more difficult character like the one mentionedbefore.
Now that we have associations for the pronunciation and the character, it's time to put them somewhere.
Well, Yeye means Father's Father.
If you haveever been to your Grandad's house, just put the associations there! Say, the pronunciation image (Yeti) on his porch, jumping around or trying to get into the house, and the bizarre battle in the living room.
If you haven't been to your grandad's house, try to pick your own house and create a memory palace within it.
Say: the basement is the location for your grandparents, since they are the roots of your family, so put Yeye into one of the corresponding rooms.
To avoid confusion, imagine your dad's dad chilling on a rocking chair just in frontof the door, so that you know what the association within stands for.
Now, I know this sounds completely weird and new, but it works like a Swiss clock if you pick the right association! Do the samewith each family member and any other thing, and perhaps you and me will learn Chinesein a much faster and enjoyable manner than the rest Alrightie! I hope this video was useful.
If you wish tofind out more about memorizing names, dates, vocabulary, numbers etc.
be sure to subscribeto our social platforms: We're going to post new stuff very soonAlrightie, thanks for watching, and see you next time!.
Source: Youtube
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