208! (or 39792 to go. Humpf!)

I am slowly improving my Putoungua (Mandarin language). I have learned 208 characters so far. I counted. Sounds great, isn't it? Well, I still need to learn 3792 more to be able to read the newspapers. Or another 39 792 to really master the language. Put that way, it can be a bit demoralizing. I mostly try to avoid the idea, and I rather spend my time staring out the cab window, trying to recognized those scribbles I am supposed to know.

There are many things about this language that are puzzling me. First, its sounds and tones. For those who are not familiar with the language, Mandarin is a tonal language. It means that you can say exactly the same sound (for example, "ma") in 4 different manners, and you will get 4 different words and meanings. The first tone is like a stretched out "maaaa". The second one is more like a ascending question "Maa?" The third tone stretches the syllable on two notes, a descending and then ascending one, "maaa-aaa?" And the fourth one is a rather sharp, descending tone, like if saying in a short breath "ma". This tone is the easiest to recognize. Of course to simplify the exercise, those four tonal "ma" have each a different meaning and their respective character.

From the limited vocabulary that I have already acquired, there are already 10 versions of the sound "shi" (and their associated 10 characters), in various tones (with only 4 tones, at least a few are pronounced exactly the same way.) I find this really bizarre. Why would you keep on using the same sounds? Why would you not try to use your tongue and mouth in a different way?

I also am really puzzled by the fact that they only use mono-syllables. In fact each character is one word, one sound, and at least one meaning. Of course, for certain objects you can combine a few characters and you get a new meaning, related to the combination of characters. I find the exercise an interesting way to expand my understanding of their world. For example, television is 电视 (DianShi), a combination of Electric电 (Dian) and Vision 视 (Shi). 

Of course it is not always that simple. (C'est du chinois quand même!) When looking into this very useful Chinese-English online dictionary (to copy the characters in this blog), I realised that there are about 9 other completely different character combination for the same (approximate) pronunciation (if you are tone deaf like me). 9 different DianShi! Amazing!

Also yesterday, during my lesson, I came across a character that is pronounced in a completely different way, depending on its context. 乐 means Happy and is pronounced Le. But it is also meaning Music and is pronounced Yué. I can tell you how much I felt cheated. I really thought that once you know how it is said, at least you are sure of what you read, even if there are slight changes in meaning. Nope. Not really. 

Pfffff.

Of course I have not even yet tried to explain the complexity of the characters themselves! But I will leave this topic for another post, as I am afraid to bore you here...