{"id":3043,"date":"2023-01-23T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-01-23T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/troubadourworks.com\/tiandi\/meotw\/?p=3043"},"modified":"2024-10-27T07:49:40","modified_gmt":"2024-10-27T14:49:40","slug":"tibi%e2%80%90wang%e2%80%90zi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/troubadourworks.com\/tiandi\/meotw\/2023\/01\/23\/tibi%e2%80%90wang%e2%80%90zi\/","title":{"rendered":"t\u00edb\u01d0\u2010w\u00e0ng\u2010z\u00ec"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\n\t\t\tt\u00edb\u01d0<\/span>\n(t\u00ed\u00b7b\u01d0\n{carry (hanging down from the hand) \u2192 [raise; lift]} \u00b7 pen; pencil; {writing brush} [\u2192 [start writing; write]]<\/span>\n\u63d0\u7b14\n\u63d0\u7b46<\/span>)<\/span>\u2010w\u00e0ng<\/span>\n(forget<\/span>\n\u5fd8)<\/span>\u2010z\u00ec<\/span>\n(character<\/span>\n\u5b57)<\/span>\n\n \u2190 Tap\/click to show\/hide the \u201cflashcard\u201d<\/span><\/h3>\n\n

This week\u2019s MEotW, \u201ct\u00edb\u01d0<\/i><\/span>\n(t\u00ed\u00b7b\u01d0\n{carry (hanging down from the hand) \u2192 [raise; lift]} \u00b7 pen; pencil; {writing brush} [\u2192 [start writing; write]]<\/span>\n\u63d0\u7b14\n\u63d0\u7b46<\/span>)<\/span>\u2010w\u00e0ng<\/i><\/span>\n(forget<\/span>\n\u5fd8)<\/span>\u2010z\u00ec<\/i><\/span>\n(character<\/span>\n\u5b57)<\/span>\u201d, is generally translated as \u201ccharacter amnesia<\/a>\u201d. Its literal meaning well describes what it\u2019s like to experience it\u2014you pick up your pen, pencil, brush, etc. to write a certain Chinese character and you\u2026just\u2026can\u2019t\u2026remember how to write it. This can happen with complex, rarely used characters, but it can also happen with fairly commonly used characters, and even with characters you\u2019re sure you once knew well.<\/p>\n

It occurs to me that while \u201ct\u00edb\u01d0<\/i><\/span>\n(t\u00ed\u00b7b\u01d0\n{carry (hanging down from the hand) \u2192 [raise; lift]} \u00b7 pen; pencil; {writing brush} [\u2192 [start writing; write]]<\/span>\n\u63d0\u7b14\n\u63d0\u7b46<\/span>)<\/span>\u2010w\u00e0ng<\/i><\/span>\n(forget<\/span>\n\u5fd8)<\/span>\u2010z\u00ec<\/i><\/span>\n(character<\/span>\n\u5b57)<\/span>\u201d literally refers to forgetting a character while trying to write<\/em> it by hand, and while \u201ccharacter amnesia\u201d is similarly defined<\/a> as forgetting how to write<\/em> certain characters, people also often forget characters\u2014and thus fail to recognize them\u2014when they are just reading<\/em>. There doesn\u2019t seem to be a corresponding common Mandarin expression for this, though, probably because it is generally harder to write than it is to read, and so forgetting a character while engaged in the harder task of writing is generally a more significant emotional event compared to forgetting a character when reading.<\/p>\n

It Happens to Chinese People Too<\/h4>\n

It\u2019s also worth noting that \u201ct\u00edb\u01d0<\/i><\/span>\n(t\u00ed\u00b7b\u01d0\n{carry (hanging down from the hand) \u2192 [raise; lift]} \u00b7 pen; pencil; {writing brush} [\u2192 [start writing; write]]<\/span>\n\u63d0\u7b14\n\u63d0\u7b46<\/span>)<\/span>\u2010w\u00e0ng<\/i><\/span>\n(forget<\/span>\n\u5fd8)<\/span>\u2010z\u00ec<\/i><\/span>\n(character<\/span>\n\u5b57)<\/span>\u201d is an expression that Chinese people do apply to themselves<\/em>\u2014it doesn\u2019t just describe a problem that only other people experience while learning a language typically written with Chinese characters. Chinese people are also only human, so it is ultimately practically impossible for them too<\/em> to learn and continue to remember how to write (or even \u201cjust\u201d read) all the over 100,000<\/a> existing Chinese characters as well as the theoretically unlimited number<\/a> of Chinese characters that could be invented in the future, even if they have spent, and are continuing to spend, their entire lives trying to do so.<\/p>\n

While the government of China considers someone who can recognize \u201cjust\u201d 2,000 characters to be literate, the truth is that even those who are considered literate by this standard can surprisingly often be unable to read or write relatively common characters that they once knew, never mind obscure characters that they never learned.<\/p>\n

One example of even relatively highly literate native Mandarin speakers having trouble remembering how to write a not terribly uncommon character is related in David Moser\u2019s well-known essay \u201cWhy Chinese Is So\u2026Hard<\/a>\u201d, which has a section devoted to character amnesia:<\/p>\n

\nthis phonetic aspect of the language doesn’t really become very useful until you’ve learned a few hundred characters, and even when you’ve learned two thousand, the feeble phoneticity of Chinese will never provide you with the constant memory prod that the phonetic quality of English does.<\/p>\n

Which means that often you just completely forget how to write a character. Period. If there is no obvious semantic clue in the radical, and no helpful phonetic component somewhere in the character, you’re just sunk. And you’re sunk whether your native language is Chinese or not; contrary to popular myth, Chinese people are not born with the ability to memorize arbitrary squiggles. In fact, one of the most gratifying experiences a foreign student of Chinese can have is to see a native speaker come up a complete blank when called upon to write the characters for some relatively common word. You feel an enormous sense of vindication and relief to see a native speaker experience the exact same difficulty you experience every day.<\/p>\n

This is such<\/em> a gratifying experience, in fact, that I have actually kept a list of characters that I have observed Chinese people forget how to write. (A sick, obsessive activity, I know.) I have seen highly literate Chinese people forget how to write certain characters in common words like “tin can”, “knee”, “screwdriver”, “snap” (as in “to snap one’s fingers”), “elbow”, “ginger”, “cushion”, “firecracker”, and so on. And when I say “forget”, I mean that they often cannot even put the first stroke down on the paper. Can you imagine a well-educated native English speaker totally forgetting how to write a word like “knee” or “tin can”? Or even a rarely-seen word like “scabbard” or “ragamuffin”? I was once at a luncheon with three Ph.D. students in the Chinese Department at Peking University, all native Chinese (one from Hong Kong). I happened to have a cold that day, and was trying to write a brief note to a friend canceling an appointment that day. I found that I couldn’t remember how to write the character \u5694, as in da penti<\/i> \u6253\u55b7\u5694 “to sneeze”. I asked my three friends how to write the character, and to my surprise, all three of them simply shrugged in sheepish embarrassment. Not one of them could correctly produce the character. Now, Peking University is usually considered the “Harvard of China”. Can you imagine three Ph.D. students in English at Harvard forgetting how to write the English word “sneeze”?? Yet this state of affairs is by no means uncommon in China.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Truly, the phenomenon of t\u00edb\u01d0<\/i><\/span>\n(t\u00ed\u00b7b\u01d0\n{carry (hanging down from the hand) \u2192 [raise; lift]} \u00b7 pen; pencil; {writing brush} [\u2192 [start writing; write]]<\/span>\n\u63d0\u7b14\n\u63d0\u7b46<\/span>)<\/span>\u2010w\u00e0ng<\/i><\/span>\n(forget<\/span>\n\u5fd8)<\/span>\u2010z\u00ec<\/i><\/span>\n(character<\/span>\n\u5b57)<\/span> is nothing to sneeze at! (Sorry, I couldn\u2019t help it \ud83d\ude1c.)<\/p>\n

Carrying on, this YouTube video from Asian Boss<\/a> shows how some people on the streets of Shanghai fared when asked to write some Chinese characters. (One of the interviewees uses \u201ct\u00edb\u01d0<\/i><\/span>\n(t\u00ed\u00b7b\u01d0\n{carry (hanging down from the hand) \u2192 [raise; lift]} \u00b7 pen; pencil; {writing brush} [\u2192 [start writing; write]]<\/span>\n\u63d0\u7b14\n\u63d0\u7b46<\/span>)<\/span>\u2010w\u00e0ng<\/i><\/span>\n(forget<\/span>\n\u5fd8)<\/span>\u2010z\u00ec<\/i><\/span>\n(character<\/span>\n\u5b57)<\/span>\u201d at around 7:10.)<\/p>\n