Book Review: Simple Strokes (Song Liwen)

  

I did a book review about the history of the Chinese language before and now it's going to be about the origin of Chinese characters. My former mandarin teacher explained to us a brief history of the Chinese characters that every character has its own story. She gave an example on the board. First, she drew a door. My classmates' reaction was it doesn't look like a door. I imagined the character looks like a door in a western movie, a swinging door. Next she drew an eye. I can't really understand how the character looks like an eye, maybe a single eye. I find the characters to be complex. 

The Chinese characters has really an interesting historical background. From the book, it says that, "In the history of civilization, many nations have recorded their native ideographic languages, but those have long been lost. Many people believed that Chinese characters were doomed to extinction. Chinese characters demonstrate  superiority over romanized language."

    Description from the back cover of the book. Do you know that every stroke in a Chinese character represents an idea or symbol that each Chinese character tells a story? Simple Strokes demystifies the Chinese language as it traces the history of each Chinese character and explains why the Chinese script is written that way.  With pictorial symbols to help readers especially first-time learners of the Chinese language. Simple Strokes is the fun way to learn and memorize complex strokes and their usage, and more importantly, how they put together a meaningful sentence. 

    As you can see from the photo that I posted here, there's a translation of the Chinese character. There is also a drawing on how the character evolved, past up to the present Chinese character. A description of its history in English, and also in Chinese. How to write it, order of the strokes, and usage of the character. The author of the book is Song Liwen, a graduate from Capital Normal University with a degree in Chinese language and literature. He is now an editor in the Department of Chinese and Linguistics at Peking University Press.

    I recommend this book to those who are interested in studying the Chinese language. Especially to Chinese studies enthusiasts like me. Looking beyond the art of Chinese writing. It will help you even more appreciate the beauty and uniqueness of the Chinese way of writing.

Studying Chinese at Confucius Institute in Ateneo de Manila University

"If Spain has their Instituto Cervantes and Germany has their Goethe Institut, and France has their Alliance Francaise, China has Confucius Institute."

    I just finished my Basic Chinese 2 course at Confucius Institute in Ateneo de Manila University last week, June 14, 2014. It was my first time to take HSK test, it stands for Hanyu  Shuiping Kaoshi or Chinese Proficiency test for non-native speakers. I just got a fair score in this exam. My score is 31/40. My classmates got a high score, and some even got a near perfect score, only one mistake. I was heartbroken because I scored low, but that's not a reason for me to give up. Anyway, I'm glad that I was able to finish the course and get another certificate in Chinese language study. My first certificate was when I studied Basic Chinese at Languages Internationale in Katipunan, Quezon City during my college days. 

    I was a former ESL (English as Second Language) teacher to Koreans. Compared with the Korean language, Chinese language is not that easy to learn, it can be in fact quite challenging. Mandarin has four tones and from what I read Chinese characters are over 80,000 but not all of them are used today. In the year 2000 that was my first attempt to study Chinese. Even if my family/relatives think its useless to study Chinese I was really persistent. When I was in my junior and senior year in college, I took Basic Mandarin I and Basic Mandarin II as my foreign language. After 14 years, finally I finished another Chinese language course in Confucius Institute based in Ateneo de Manila University.

   Confucius Institute has three headquarters or branches here in the Philippines. Aside from Ateneo de Manila, it is also found in Angeles University Foundation and Bulacan State University. Confucius Institute has helped a lot of people from all over the world who wants to study Chinese, as well as learning more about Chinese language and culture. As you can see, Confucius Institute was named after the great Chinese philosopher, Kong Fu Zi (Master Kong). My blog 'quotes', one of Confucius famous saying about learning and teaching. The mission of Confucius Institute is to promote and teach Chinese culture and language all over the globe. This is also one way to promote harmonious relationship with the two countries. 

    It is really surprising that Chinese language enthusiasts have increased in number now. When I was in college Chinese studies was seen as unimportant by some of my classmates. I was amazed at the foresight of my former college university (Centro Escolar University) to replace their Foreign Language which was Spanish, to Mandarin. They say that in the coming years China will be a real super power and studying the Chinese language has really its advantage. I think, if Spain has their Instituto Cervantes and Germany has their Goethe Institut, and France has their Alliance Francaise, China has Confucius Institute! I'm proud to have studied in this institute.

  So to all Chinese studies language and enthusiasts like me, if you want to study Chinese as a hobby or to further develop your skill and knowledge with regards to Chinese culture then check out Confucius Institute at Ateneo de Manila, (they also have a Makati branch) and if your are in the province (Pampanga and Bulacan), check out the other two universities offering Chinese language. Like what my former Chinese teacher always says to me 加油 jia you! (cheer or encouragement in Chinese mandarin) it means go!go!go! or go for it!