Today I am quite proud to say that I have tried what is known as Chinese Calligraphy. I decided to draw with a marker the symbols for the numbers one to ten in Mandarin symbols. After doing my research, I discovered that drawing these symbols were one of the simplest symbols I could draw. Many have asked me on the various forms of social media what is up with my deep unwavering interest in not only Mandarin but all things Chinese. My simple response would be that it is an extremely fascinating culture that if you should choose to research it, you would never be bored.
I must admit that my journey started out a bit rough since certain things in the Mandarin language was indeed a challenge to grasp at first. The four tones took a bit to get accustomed to. There are four tones in Mandarin which are used to differentiate words from each other mainly because too many characters have the same sound. The first tone is considered to be a high level tone while the second tone is said to be rising. The third tone is a somewhat two part tone with the first part of the word rising and the latter falling and the fourth tone is falling. I will be able to explain clearly in a subsequent video blog hopefully soon.
So far, I have learned a lot of the basics in Mandarin. I have learned the alphabet, the numbers one to twenty, basic introductions and greetings, family members, some fruits and food and other everyday vocabulary. So far my favourite words in Mandarin are "Xie Xie" which means "Thank You" and "Zaijian" which means "Goodbye". There are two things which makes it much easier for me to learn this language. Using music to learn certain aspects have certainly helped as well as making this a fun project by getting others involved in one way or the other. Although Mandarin is considered to be one of the hardest languages to learn, I have absolutely no regrets!
Man zou he hui tou jian! This means "Take Care & See You Later!"
Tzai Jien!
2 comments:
I absolutely love Calligraphy, the Confucius Institute had a Chinese Calligraphy and painting exhibition at NALIS last month for an entire week. They even offered a free Calligraphy and Painting masterclass , which is totally up your alley! I'm sorry you missed it, it would have been extremely helpful.
Thanks for the information however I had already heard about it on the last day but it was still too late... I'm not making that a problem at all since I love to learn new things on my own, I tend to learn best that way.
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