Entries about language

While I have been living here in Xiamen I have been trying to learn Chinese in my spare time. Chinese is such a logical language, I really love it. The grammar is so much more simple than English grammar, and I sometimes find myself almost apologising to my students for the illogical random nature of the English language.

Here are a few words I have learnt in Chinese that I really like, because the expression is simply so logical:
(The images are from the ingenuity of ShaoLan's www.Chineasy.org)

1. The character for 'tomorrow' (明天 Míngtiān) is the combination of 'moon' and 'sun', as in 'a sun and a moon away'.

2. The expression 'to understand' (明白 Míngbái) is 'bright' and 'white' together, as in 'it's crystal clear'.

3. The word for 'space' or 'room' (间 Jiān) is a picture of the sun indoors

4. The character with a moon indoors (闲 Xián) means 'leisure', 'calm' or 'idle' like a household at night.

5. The character for 'argument' （奻 Nuán ）is comprised of two characters for 'woman' together: i.e. where there are two women together there is bound to be an argument...!