eHow launches Android app: Get the best of eHow on the go.
Summary: Find out how to write the Chinese radical for "grass" and use it to create other Chinese symbols with tips from a Chinese language specialist in this free video on Chinese words and phrases.
Esther-Xiaohua Liu is a graduate student and teaching assistant with a major in Chinese Literature and Languages at The University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She has taught Chinese at...read more
In Chinese writing, a character, or symbol is used to represent each individual syllable. There are over 47,00 Chinese characters in total. However, many of these are rarely used, and the average person would need to know only about four thousand characters to be literate. Most modern Chinese words contain more than one syllable and therefore require multiple characters to write out. However, a person knowing the meanings of individual characters can often infer the general meaning of a word. In this free video series, learn how to write some basic Chinese symbols. Esther-Xiaohua Liu is an instructor of Chinese literature, and she has even published poems in Chinese. Esther-Xiaohua Liu demonstrates how to write a variety of different Chinese characters and symbols. Master the Chinese radical of grass, and use it to create many Chinese symbols. Find out how to write food in Chinese, such as celery, spinach and beans. Explore the natural world by learning to write about grass, waterlilies and fireflies. Liu teaches all kinds of Chinese characters and symbols. So, watch this free video series on Chinese writing lessons today!
"Chinese writing is very different from most other languages in the world. In the Chinese writing system, Chinese symbols represent each character which corresponds to a single spoken syllable. A majority of words in all modern varieties of Chinese require two or more characters to write. Many Chinese characters were adopted according to their meaning by the Japanese and Korean languages to represent native words, disregarding pronunciation altogether. Chinese characters are also considered to be the world's longest continuously used writing system."