Last week my dad gave me a book for learning Chinese. It's about the history and meaning of Chinese characters, and it's really interesting. It's a great way to learn Chinese too, because you learn by associating the words and the meanings.
For example, I learned that 田 (tian) means field, because it looked like paddy fields. And (si) (I can't find the Chinese symbol for it on my Chinese program) means silk. And 累 (lei) which means tired, is a combination of these two symbols because in the olden days, the men mostly worked in the fields and the women mostly worked with silk. So putting the two symbols together meant 'everybody's work' which makes them 'tired'.
The Chinese fonts are ridiculously small, so I'll enlarge them to get a better look:
累 = 田 + (si)
There! Much better. The top part is field, and the bottom, which I don't have on my program, I don't know why, is silk. =)
There are a lot more other interesting characters, but I've only just started studying the book, so I've barely scratched the surface.
But this is so fun... I love stories! And what better way for me to learn Chinese than with stories! =)
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