Questions about the Chinese characters, called Hanzi, about their characteristics and everything that relates to them.
4
votes
1answer
102 views
Do you write every character? [closed]
I have been studying Chinese for a few months now. I am using some software to test my knowledge of the characters. Sometimes I do not recognize every character of a word but I can still derive the ...
5
votes
3answers
141 views
How are the terms for “male/female” and “man/woman” divided exactly?
I know that daughter in Chinese is 女儿, and son is 儿子. A little side-question: Why isn't "son" 男儿?
My main question is this one though: apart from son and daughter stated above, what are the ...
8
votes
3answers
214 views
When and why is right to left writing used?
I have encountered horizontal right to left characters on signs (at the top of a gate) and on vehicles.
When is this used and why? Was this more common in the past?
Are the individuals characters ...
17
votes
3answers
513 views
How many characters do I need to learn?
How many Chinese characters would I generally need to learn to be able to handle most text in typical every day circumstances?
How many would be required to be considered fluent?
Are there any good ...
10
votes
2answers
203 views
Reading handwriting
How can I get better at reading handwriting? Are there fonts that look like it, or web sites with examples for practice? Are there some common shortcuts that people take when writing by hand?
2
votes
2answers
276 views
Etymology of 奴隶 (Slave)
I vaguely remember hearing somebody make observations about the word 奴隶 (slave). I would like to verify the impressions of the person who was speaking as being factual or just his impressions
What is ...
6
votes
1answer
86 views
General guidelines for learning stroke order
A friend asked me for a brief description of the general guidelines for writing Chinese characters. What's the simplest way to describe those "rules" that apply across most characters?
