The Maple Leaf Rag

I've been doing some research on Chinese writing. To almost every Westerner, the Chinese written language is very difficult to learn. You guys had an advantage when you learned it. You were young! I guess if I had started when I was five or six, it would have been easier. 

But, as it turns out, it's not just difficult for Westerners, it's difficult for Chinese people too. (I always add the word 'people' after Chinese but some people just say 'the Chinese'. I don't know which is correct.) It seems that with computers and keyboards and cell phones, many Chinese are forgetting how to write the characters. If you don't write on paper, only on a computer or cell phone, I think you would forget the characters over time and it seems that this is true. Remember that we only have 26 letters to learn. You have thousands!

Here are some questions that I have about your written language: 

If you forget how to write a character, how do you look it up? 

Do you have Chinese dictionaries? How are they ordered? I mean we have alphabetical. What do you have? 

What about encyclopedias? How do you look things up in a book? In a library?

Does each character represent a sound? When you are learning the characters, are you learning sounds at the same time? Is it easy to learn which sound is which character? I mean you already know how to speak Chinese when you start to learn the written language, right?

Did you know that the early Chinese symbols actually looked more like what they mean? The later ones are 'stylized' but the early ones, from what I learned, were very basic, almost like heiroglyphs.

When you put characters together, do they make a new sound, a combination of other sounds?

Ignoring grammar, do you use more characters than letters to say the same thing from English in Chinese? I know that the word order is different and that I can't put my English words in the same order as a Chinese translation but do you use more characters to say more or less the same thing?

Those are my questions for now. I will think of more, I'm sure. Part of the reason that I love China is because it is so damn old! Your culture, your language, your buildings and villages, everything. Chinese is the oldest written language and the basis for Japanese and, perhaps, Korean. It's pretty cool, I think.

Thanks for reading!

I was talking to a Chinese friend today. She told me that she had a problem with the words 'some time' 'sometime' and 'sometimes'. Here's how you would use them. 

Some time means an amount of time. If you want to learn English, you have to devote some time to study it every day. Learning English can take some time but it's worth it. When you have some time, call me and we will talk about English. 

Sometime means a point in the futre or in the past. Sometime in the future, there will be peace on earth. (Don't we all wish that?) Sometime back in the 15th century, castles were built. If you come over sometime, we can play that video game. (Sometime when you have some time...)

Sometimes means now and then. Sometimes I get sick of hearing Christmas music. Sometimes that teacher drives me up a wall. Sometimes my cat scratches the furniture. (Sometimes when I have some time I play the piano.)

I hope these few examples help you with thse confusing words. English is difficult to master but it's fun, too. Don't get discouraged. First comes communication and second comes mastering the language. Once you can communicate, even if it's badly, then you can relax. 

Thanks for reading!

My wife was away this week, off on a vacation in the Dominican Republic with her Dad and her sister. I was home with the cat and two of our kids, Kathleen and James. Kathleen is 23, James is 22. They're the best kids in the world, right? Well, I think they are but sometimes I need some help to realize that. 

We had planned a party for my wife when she comes home (tomorrow, Thursday Dec. 1st). She will get together with some of her friends on Saturday evening while the rest of us do something else. (Me? I'll go out for supper by myself and then do some photography or shopping at a Chinese supermarket. Want to join me? Just ask.)

Before the party, we had to get the house in order. I did the floors and some other chores. We have two kinds of floors. hardwood and carpet. I sanded the hardwood and then put a shiny coating on them. Then I rented a carpet cleaner and did the carpets in three rooms. After that, I did some fixing up here and there. The house has never looked better!

Kathleen and I grew closer together this week. She was working but we got together and worked out the jobs that we had to do. She is very mature, has a long-time boyfriend and, while we don't get along ALL the time, we did well this week. 

James and I? That's another story. We've been fighting for a few weeks. I wish I could figure out what's wrong but I can't. It will take time but I think we can work it out. We are a close family but we all have tempers. James and I are very much alike. That's not a good thing sometimes. I hope we can work out our differences before Christmas. 

That's me week. I've chatted with some of you and written a bit here and there. When I have a week like this, I don't get into the writing spirit like I usually do. I do so many things, I can't seem to keep them all separate. I need to multi-task! 

Thanks for reading!