Learn Square Words

Let’s learn Chinese "Square words" with pictures!

Hey there, language learner. 👋 Imagine that one day, you move to a place where people don't use English, but Chinese. How do you survive without knowing Mandarin? Even basic reading requires at least a simple understanding of Chinese characters. And if you do learn them, how do you keep it stored in your memory?

But when I realized that there was a way to help my students to learn by using their imagination, suddenly it became easy, instead of a struggle. This is because of one simple thing: the fact that all complex Chinese characters include diagrams, sounds, and meaning. ( 形、音、義 )

形 are Chinese characters that were based off real things. (aka pictographs). For example, the character 口 looks like an open mouth. Pictographs are usually radicals.

音 are the phonetic components of a character. Components usually contribute to the pronunciation, so they are '音'.

義 is the meaning of the word. Some words can have a deeper meaning though.

This method works with words you already know, but what about words you don't?

The Radical+Component Way

The Radical+Component way is a simple method to be able to guess the meaning of any word. You can pair the components you already know with the radicals you already know, so if you stumble on a word you don't know, you can guess the pronunciation of the word. This means you only need to learn a little to be able to guess hard Chinese characters. This will give you a boost when trying to learn the harded, more complex words.

Here's the method: Typically the radical refers to the meaning and the component refers to the pronunciation. If you're wondering what components and radicals are, see this page.

For example, here is “eat”, or“吃 (chi)”, in Chinese. When you decompose the word, it has the mouth (“口 (kǒu)”) radical, and the component (“乞 (qǐ)”). 口 contributes to the meaning (you use your mouth to eat) and 乞 contributes to the pronunciation.

There are more examples here.

In another verb, 喝 (pro. he), which means drink, we can decompose it into the mouth radical (口) and the component, he. He contributes to the pronunciation, and 口 contributes to the meaning.

The 'Make A Story To Memorize' Way

For example, I think of 喝 as a person(人) taking shelter when the sun(日) is above him. See how I correlated the word to a story to make it easier to memorize.

Radical + component is the best way to memorize lots of Chinese characters at once, but if you're prioritizing quality over quantity, I've got you covered! Creating a story is a great way to really bake new vocabulary into your memory. I recommend this especially if you're having trouble memorizing a specific group of words.

Doing it this way can help make learning Chinese easier, and more fun too!

Both ways of memorization, radical+component and making a story, start by breaking down the original word. This is the secret of Chinese characters.

This picture above, was something that came to my mind after I discovered the secret of Chinese characters.

Whether you want to memorize words the radical+component way or the make a story way, decomposing complex Chinese characters is the easiest way to remember them.

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