Writing Advises from Online Friends

Writing Advises Collection

Writing Consistency

1. Avoiding repeated words one-after-another
2. Some vocabulary like “remain” should be avoid in a present tense
3. Paste tense for Tailing a story
4. Make sure the connection is strong between two sentences where you try to use “on the other hand”
   @ 远绍 from HelloTalk

Vocabulary and clauses

1. “add … to the center”. To the center suggestes a manipulation, and sounds more antural
2. “While” clause works best when fully in a list or in a difference clause. Exp: His favoriate is Beef, while I often enjoy Pork.
3. ‘Living in it’ is a weak-sounding construction.
   @ 远绍 from HelloTalk

Expression Difference in Culture shock

1. It’s somewhat unnatural to speak about an entire gender like: women are as beauty as moon. Singular form is better
2. Sometimes, ‘where’ could replace the ‘which’: Yesterday I read a story which/where a couple fell in love.
   @ 远绍 from HelloTalk

Posts and Corrections

why China has so many Chinese characters

I think it’s good to know the origin story of Chinese character before you learn it.

Though, there are more than ten thousand, or even 100 thousand of Chinese character, they can all be classified into six types. Pictograms (象形), Simple ideograms (指事), Compound ideographs(会意), Rebus characters(假借), Phono-semantic compound characters (形声), and Derivative cognates(转注);

Six days to know all types of Chinese character!
Day 1: Pictograms

Pictograms is the easiest one. As a pictograms, the character was looks like a photo draw by kids.
马(馬) is one of my favorite characters because it just looks like a horse. You can find the horse’s head, horsehair, four lags, and pony tail (If you can’t image that, please look the 1st photo). Other pictograms: 日月山川水火心牛羊鸟马犬虎彘象人田禾子女刀舌

Day 2: Simple ideograms
Simple ideograms: They are a group of characters which were simply decorated pictograms. For example, “甘” is a dot or dash on the center of a tongue which means sweat. With the dot, the word had a new related meanings which became a new character. Similar character is “刃”, a dash on a knife, which means the edge of the knife.
Other Simple ideograms: 一、二、三、四、末、亦 、本.

Six days to know all types of Chinese characters!
Day 3: Phono-semantic compound characters

Phono-semantic compound characters (PCC, 形声字). PCC is a great invention because it greatly expended the variety of characters without complicating them. For example, “气” is gas. You can still guess that 氢, 氦, 氧, 氩 is some kind of gas because they looks like a gas. One of another key element is another part plays a role of phonetic symbol. 巠(jin) in 氢(qing), 亥(hai) in 氦(hai), 羊(yang) in 氧(yang), 亚(ya) in 氩(ya).

As a result, you can figure out all the normal form of element in Periodic Table of Element. All characters with 气 is gas, characters with 金(钅, metal) is metal, characters with 石 (stone) is none-metal solid compound. For more examepels:

艹(草) for plants: 早(zao) in 草 (cao, grass, ), 化(hua) in 花 (hua, flower), 何 in 荷 (he, water lily)
木 for woods: 对(dui) in 树 (shui, tree), 象(xiang) in 橡(xiang, oak), 公(gong) in 松 (song, pine),
氵(水) for water: 可(ke) in 河(he,river),每(mei) in 海(hai, sea),胡(hu) in 湖 (hu, pound)
口 for sound: 啊(a), 嘎(ga), 咔(ka), 哈(ha), 啪(pa), 吧(ba), 嗒(ta), 哒(da)

Six days to know all types of Chinese characters!
Day 4: compound characters

Like the Phono-semantic compound character, compound ideographs has more than two components, too. But not like phono-semantic compound characters, all elements in this word are directly contributed to the meaning of the character. For example, what a 人(man) 言(said) is 信 (worthy to be trusted), 人(people) line a 木(tree) is for 休(rest). two 木(trees) is 林(a small woods), three 木(trees) is 森(forest), two (人)men is 从 (follow), three (人)men is 众(lots of man).

Six days to know all types of Chinese characters!
Day 5: Rebus characters (RC)
After you learned Phono-semantic compound characters (PCC) you can easily remember the pronunciation PCC words like 证(zheng), 抖(dou), and 城(cheng) if you know 正(zheng), 斗(dou), and 成(cheng). But that not means some characters like 说(shuo), 脱(tuo), 悦(yue) pronounce as 兑(tui). The origin of this group of characters is more complicated than the previous. The story goes like, sometimes you have to describe the thing out of your dictionary but you can’t create a character sine others would seem it as a mistake. As a result, you choose to use an existing word to represent it. Sometimes it is hard to distinguish RC from PCC and even a Chinese would make mistakes. For example, I was spell 谙(an) as 音(yin) for a while until I can’t find it when I want to type it.

2021/04/22: 行

S1: “A: 你行不行? B:不行! A:不行也要行!! B: 真不行！难道你行? A: 当然行! B: 真行? A:真行! B:你真行!那行吧！”
S2: “人要是行干一行行一行一行行行行行要是不行干一行不行一行一行不行行行不行”

Correction contributor: 远绍 from HelloTalk

We have a complicated character for today, which is 行. The writing is easy, but the meanings are varied since it has so many pronunciations: háng, hàng, héng, xíng, xìng. Two main of them which frequently appear on the daily are xíng and háng. Again, it is a hieroglyph word.

As you can see in the photo below, it was originally an illustration of a crossroad and its roads (noun). But 2,000 years ago, a man changed the shape of this word and made it not look like a crossroad anymore. With further illustration and evolution, it also played the role of a verb, which greatly complicated this character.

Because the character was derived from roads, it could mean a lot that directly or indirectly relates to roads. For example:
The most common vocabularies you can see:

Click to Show Chinese Translation

xíng: 1. 行: Ok; 2. 不行: NO; 3. 行不行: Is it ok? 4. 你真行: You did a great job! (ironically, most of the time) 5. 行医: Doing medicine jobs. 6. 行为: behaviors 7. 五行: 金, 木, 水, 火, 土, five basic elements which composed the universe. 8. 步行: by walk

háng:

1. 银行: bank (a place doing specific activities focused on money is bank)
2. 多行: multiple lines; (量词)
3. 行业: jobs, areas
4. 行家: A master of something

héng:

1. 道行: abilities, kunfu, etc.

我们今天有一个复杂的汉字: 行。它写起来很容易，但因为它有很多的发音:háng, hàng, héng, xíng, xìng, 所以含义非常复杂。其中两个主要日常用的是xíng和háng。另外，它是一个象形文字。

正如你在下面的图片中所看到的，它原本是一个十字路模样的一个名词。但是2000年前，一个人改变了这个字的写法，使它看起来不再像一个十字路口。随着进一步的使用和演变，它又有了动词的功能，这使这个字变得更加的复杂了。

因为这个字来源于道路，所以它可以直接或间接的意味着很多和路相关的东西。例如:
最常见的词汇:

Rewrite contributor: 远绍 from HelloTalk
We have a complicated character today, which is 行. The writing is easy, but the meaning are varied since it has so many pronunciations: háng, hàng, héng, xíng, xìng.The two pronunciations that you find on the daily are xíng and háng.

As you can see in the photo below, it was originally an illustration of a roads and its crossroads, but 2,000 years ago, a man changed the shape if the symbol to make it not look like a crossroad anymore. With further illustration and evolution, 行 also morphed into a verb, which greatly complicated its usage.

Because the character was derived from a picture of roads, it often possesses meanings that directly or indirectly related to roads, walking, movement, and so on. For example: The most common vocabularies you can see are:

2021/04/20: 山

<ATTENTION: THE CHINESE VERSION ON THE BACK IS REALLY TOUGH>

Correction contributor: 远绍 from HelloTalk

山 is a hieroglyph. As you can see, it has three heels or mountains.
It is a very simple character and easy to remember or to write.

In Chinese culture, we revere the mountains because, on the one hand, the mountain is huge and unshakable. On the other hand, ancient people believe that every creature and even plants have less or moresome kind of divine powers. Mountains play a role to nurture and habit all kinds of living things. As a result, mountains support a huge quantity of psychic power.
Last but not least, our ancestors believe that the mountain is where the immortals and low-ranking divines live. They avoid the contaminated secular world and absorb the pure psychic power from the surroundings to helping them finally evolve into gods. The larger the mountain it is, the largerhigher chance you can meet one.

Vocabulary related 山:
爬山: (Hiking on a mountain)
Exp: 昨天我们去爬山了山庄: (A house or small village in the mountain)
Exp: 这个小山庄还挺难找的病来如山倒: (crashed like a mountain when you get sick)
Exp: 明明那么健硕的小伙子, 生了一场病后, 变得骨瘦如柴了. 真是病来如山倒呀!

Click to Show Chinese Translation

山是一个象形文字. 如你所见, 他有三个小山丘. 这是一个非常简单且易记, 易书写的文字.

在中华文化中, 我们非常敬畏山. 因为山很大且不可撼动. 另外, 古人相信所有的生物, 包括植物都或多或少的有一些灵力. 正是大山养育并庇护了他们, 所以大山蕴藏着巨大的灵力.
最后, 我们的祖先相信很多小神或半仙隐居在山中. 他们避开被玷污的尘世, 在此汲取天地之精华, 来达到最终得道飞升的目的. 越大的山中, 你将越有可能偶遇他们.

Rewrite contributor: 远绍 from HelloTalk

This is the hieroglyph Shan: 山
As you can see, it has three little heels or mountains, which makes it a very easy character to write and remember. In Chinese culture, we revere mountain because one hand, they are huge and unshakable. On the other hand, mountains also possess a mystical element. Ancient people believed that all creatures and even plants had some kind of divine power. Because they nurture and give a home to all kinds of these natural creatures, mountains were believed to support an intense web of psychic and magical energy. Finally, our ancestors believed that the tops of mountains are where the immortals and low-ranking divines lived. These divine avoided the contaminated secular world and slowly absorbed the powers from their surroundings to aid in their goal of godhood. It is said that the larger the mountain, the higher chance you have of meeting a divine.

2021/04/19: 月

Correction contributor: 远绍 from HelloTalk

月 is the moon, a hieroglyph. Like the Ssun(日), there is a dash at the center of it.
In myth, a diving three-feet frog was living in its surface (Why it’s three feet again? ). There is another romantic story about the moon, which /where was a couple that became the goddivine and ran away tointo the moon forever. The woman had a rabbit with her. Because the light of the moon is as gentle and cold as a jade, ancient people also called the moon as the jade-frog (玉蟾), Ice-frog (冰蟾), or the jade-rabbit (玉兔). It also has another romantic name, Chan Juan (婵娟), which means gorgeous (娟) beauty(婵). So, you can use it to compliment the beauty of a womanwomen(美若婵娟).

On the other hand, the Chinese calendar is based on the phases of the sun and the moon. The phase of the moon from one new moon to the next is a month. That’s why we have a full moon on the 15th of each month. WeBecuase of that, we also call a month as ‘one moon’(一个月).

Some vocabulary of the moon:
月亮: Moon, 今晚的月亮很大. The moon is large tonight.
月色: the scenery of moonlight, 今晚月色不错. The moonlight (scenery) of tonight is good.
满月: Full moon. 残月: waxing crescent/ waning crescent.

Click to Show Chinese Translation

月是月亮, 一个象形文字. 像日字一样, 它中间有一横.

在神话中, 月亮中间住了一只三足金蟾 (为什么又是三条腿?). 除此之外, 我们还有一个浪漫的关于月亮的故事. 一对恩爱的情侣变成了神仙永远的奔向了月亮. 其中的女神仙带着一只兔子. 又因为月光入玉般的温润阴寒, 所以人们又称它, 玉蟾, 冰蟾, 或者玉兔. 此外, 它还有一个美丽的名称: 婵娟. 婵娟是漂亮的美女的意思. 因此, 你可以形容一个女生美若婵娟.
另外, 中国的日历是基于太阳和月亮的相对位置来计算的. 一个新月到下一个新月的时间为一个月. 所以每月15的时候, 月亮都很圆. 我们称一个月(month)为一个月(moon)

2021/04/16: 日

Correction contributor: 远绍 from HelloTalk

日 is a hieroglyph. In the beginning, it was a single circle. After that, people added a dot or a dash to it.

There are a few theories and explanations about why people added a dot or a dash atto the center.

Some people believe that they just wanted to distinguish it from the ring shape cause the sun is a global or plate. Others thought that they had done this to prevent a mixture with other similar characters like mouth, which was a circle, too. While mMy favorite theory is that people believed there was a god living and ruling the sun. Because traditional Chinese myth illustrated that the sun was settled by a dark crow with 3 feet.

reference and picture:

2021/04/15: 龟

Correction contributor: 远绍 from HelloTalk

龟 is one of the most ancient characters. It is a classical hierographical character. It still remains potrays the features of the turtle: you can find a head, a turtle shell, and a tail in this characterpicture.

Back in ancient times, people believed that turtles had some kind of mysterious power. So, instead of a Crystal GlobeBall, ancient Chinese shamans usding the bones of the turtle to make an augury. The events were also recorded and carved on the bone, which became one of the oldest (about 3000 years ago) evidenced written systems of China.

Since turtles could hide on its shell to protect themselves, people will call men turtles if they feared to stand out and face problems or challenges.

Any Words help, so, Please Correct me, Thx.

Click to Show Chinese Translation

"龟"是一最古老的文字之一. 它是一个典型的象形文字. 它任然保留着乌龟的特征: 你在这个字上, 找到头, 龟壳, 和尾巴.

很久以前, 人们认为乌龟有某种灵力. 所以古代的中国祭祀用龟甲而不是水晶球占卜. 占卜的事件会被镌刻记录在这个龟甲上. 这些文字, 是最早的可考系统性的书写系统之一.

因为乌龟可以躲在自己壳里来保护自己, 所以人们会称那些选择逃避而不是面对问题和挑战的人为(缩头)乌龟.