#remember the hanzi

[rigelmejo]

Fun small bit of progress! I'm reading 撒野 using this free app called Smart Books because it has TTS and parallel sentence translation and click word translation if I want it (although Readibu, Pleco, Zhongwen chrome extension, and the built in mobile web browser and various Reader app click translation tools also work fine for any reader who'd like translations when needed).

And as expected, I know most words in this novel since it's roughly around my reading level. The sentence translation tool I've used a bit to help clarify when I'm not sure how to interpret the use of a particular word or some long sentence I couldn't clearly figure out.

Anyway the progress: I've been reading aloud to myself. What's surprising is I took a few months off of studying Chinese (although I'm sure I see at least a tiny bit of Chinese at least weekly but that's not a big dense amount of input it just may help me not forget what I've learned), and I'm still able to read to myself aloud. I knew I could get myself to recall word meanings of words I'd learned if I just read for a few hours. Word meanings come back even if they're "rusty" given enough time to get used to Chinese again. But being able to pronounce the words I'm seeing? I was surprised, because I've been doing more japanese the past few months and feared as I learned Kanji pronunciations and words that used similar characters to Chinese, I'd start accidentally seeing Chinese and only having Japanese Kanji pronunciations come to mind. But thankfully that hasn't happened!

I'm also happy I must've learned common words better than the last time I took a break from Chinese. Because last break I took, I did forget a fee hundred hanzi pronunciations (out of 2000). Now that I'm getting back into it, the 2500-3000ish hanzi I know, I'm recalling the pronunciations of easily (except for a few very specific ones I always confuse for a particular other pronunciation which I mess up even when I haven't taken a break).

So yeah! I'm very hype about it!

I'm a little worried this means my japanese reading To Recognizing pronunciation of Kanji is still very weak. But hey, I expected less strong remembering for that at least.

[sunriseverse]

got through everyone listed on the novel wiki page (that i could find names for. there’s still two people i can’t track down names for, and the raws are locked behind vip so—), took one look at the general/show character list, and let out a pitiful groan. so. i think it’s time to be done with this project for the day.

[olderthannetfic]

Now I'm wondering how countries like Japan and China teach literacy.

Since kanji / hanzi don't really have that much in the way of phonetic elements, they kinda have to teach them by memorization and I don't think they have many reading comprehension problems over there.

(Although both countries do have supplementary phonetic writing systems in the form of bopomofo and pinyin for China, and the kanas for Japan)

--

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It's a little closer to teaching vocabulary than spelling, but the same kinds of principles apply: You teach the building blocks, like the traditional radicals, which aren't so different from teaching Latin and Greek roots in an English class for English speakers.

And, as a matter of fact, lots of those radicals do predict pronunciation, just not in every single case. They can also be clues to meaning, but again, not absolutely consistently. Many characters have a sound-cueing radical on one side and a meaning-cueing radical on the other. It's just that only some are still useful in the modern day, while others are more like the English word 'plumbing' where knowledge of Roman lead pipes explains why this word comes from the one for lead, but the root probably wouldn't help a kid learn the word in the first place.

One similarity to teaching phonics would be teaching students to tell very complicated and similar characters apart: you want to help a student spot all the little building blocks of the character and then spot the ones that are different, not just glance at the whole character and get a general overall vibe. If you do a whole look-based approach, too many characters are too easy to mistake for one another.

Remembering a bajillion Chinese characters is hard if you're trying to memorize them in a year and not all of elementary school, but I think people who don't read them underestimate how many component parts there are and how approachable they can be if you start by learning fundamentals, not just memorizing a few individual characters as though they have no relation to anything else.

They're actually pretty systematic, just in the way that English spelling is with its overlapping systems and historical artifacts, not in the way that highly regular Spanish spelling is.

Having taken a lot of Japanese classes, I will say that Japanese as a foreign language textbooks often do a piss poor job of this and totally do teach kanji in a sight words-y way... But my Mandarin class started with important foundational concepts that served me well in Japanese later even if I bombed out of Chinese class at the time.

Can you tell how irritated I am by all the foreign language learners who think characters are sooooo hard when, really, it's just their crappy textbook? Haha.

They're moderately hard in the way that learning a full adult spectrum of vocabulary is hard, but people do that for foreign languages all the time. The countries that use characters do tend to make sets that are smaller for certain kinds of applications, same as we have things like simple English wikipedia, but a literate adult will always know lots more, whether it's from their career in engineering or their predilection for historical romance novels.

Uh... anyway, the answer is "Bit by bit in elementary school, just like in any other country".

[marilearnsmandarin]

These are the apps and links I currently have on my phone to study Chinese:

SuperChinese: my main study resource. There are currently 7 levels, level 7 (still incomplete, they are still slowly adding lessons to it) being HSK 5 stuff. Each lesson has vocabulary, grammar and a short dialogue where those are used in context (I love context). It has a few free lessons in the lower levels but after that you have to buy a subscription. There are many sales though. When I was a beginner I used HelloChinese instead, which has more free content, and switched to SuperChinese when I finished all the free content there. It also has social network features and chat rooms I don't use.

TofuLearn is like a flashcard app with many pre-made decks (you can also create your own on their website and import decks from Anki) and the option to practice writing hanzi. Anki didn't work for me, but I find Tofu very helpful. Practicing writing helps me with character recognition, and it also helps me remember the tones thanks to the audio in the pre-made HSK decks.

Dot is a reading app with new texts being added every day. It used to be completely free, which actually seemed too good to be true, and then they put practically everything behind a paywall and very strict limits for free users. After a couple of months they made it a little less restricted though - we still can't choose the articles but we can read as many as we want as long as we do the vocabulary exercises after each article (plus, during the Spring Festival, they made all articles available for free for 3 days and we could save the ones we were interested in to read later). It follows the new, not-yet-implemented (and harder) HSK levels, so you should start one or two levels below yours and if the texts are too easy move up.

Google Translator: not the best but helpful when I need to translate whole sentences, plus I can point my camera or open an image and it translates writing.

Pleco: best Chinese to English dictionary.

Stroke Order: not an app but a website, does what it says in the tin: shows stroke order for a specific character.

YouGlish: also a website, you can put a word or phrase and it shows videos where people say that word/phrase. Very cool.

Todaii is a graded news app that has only two levels: easy and hard. I'm around level HSK4 and the "easy" level is quite hard though (but I admit reading is my nemesis).

I also use YouTube and Spotify a lot.

[spocks-kaathyra]

thoughts about the Cardassian writing system

I've thinking about the Cardassian script as shown on screen and in beta canon and such and like. Is it just me or would it be very difficult to write by hand?? Like.

I traced some of this image for a recent drawing I did and like. The varying line thicknesses?? The little rectangular holes?? It's not at all intuitive to write by hand. Even if you imagine, like, a different writing implement—I suppose a chisel-tip pen would work better—it still seems like it wasn't meant to be handwritten. Which has a few possible explanations.

Like, maybe it's just a fancy font for computers, and handwritten text looks a little different. Times New Roman isn't very easily written by hand either, right? Maybe the line thickness differences are just decorative, and it's totally possible to convey the same orthographic information with the two line thicknesses of a chisel-tip pen, or with no variation in line thickness at all.

A more interesting explanation, though, and the one I thought of first, is that this writing system was never designed to be handwritten. This is a writing system developed in Cardassia's digital age. Maybe the original Cardassian script didn’t digitize well, so they invented a new one specifically for digital use? Like, when they invented coding, they realized that their writing system didn’t work very well for that purpose. I know next to nothing about coding, but I cannot imagine doing it using Chinese characters. So maybe they came up with a new writing system that worked well for that purpose, and when computer use became widespread, they stuck with it. 

Or maybe the script was invented for political reasons! Maybe Cardassia was already fairly technologically advanced when the Cardassian Union was formed, and, to reinforce a cohesive national identity, they developed a new standardized national writing system. Like, y'know, the First Emperor of Qin standardizing hanzi when he unified China, or that Korean king inventing hangul. Except that at this point in Cardassian history, all official records were digital and typing was a lot more common than handwriting, so the new script was designed to be typed and not written. Of course, this reform would be slower to reach the more rural parts of Cardassia, and even in a technologically advanced society, there are people who don't have access to that technology. But I imagine the government would be big on infrastructure and education, and would make sure all good Cardassian citizens become literate. And old regional scripts would stop being taught in schools and be phased out of digital use and all the kids would grow up learning the digital script.

Which is good for the totalitarian government! Imagine you can only write digitally. On computers. That the government can monitor. If you, like, write a physical letter and send it to someone, then it's possible for the contents to stay totally private. But if you send an email, it can be very easily intercepted. Especially if the government is controlling which computers can be manufactured and sold, and what software is in widespread use, etc. 

AND. Historical documents are now only readable for scholars. Remember that Korean king that invented hangul? Before him, Korea used to use Chinese characters too. And don't get me wrong, hangul is a genius writing system! It fits the Korean language so much better than Chinese characters did! It increased literacy at incredible rates! But by switching writing systems, they broke that historical link. The average literate Chinese person can read texts that are thousands of years old. The average literate Korean person can't. They'd have to specifically study that field, learn a whole new writing system. So with the new generation of Cardassian youths unable to read historical texts, it's much easier for the government to revise history. The primary source documents are in a script that most people can't read. You just trust the translation they teach you in school. In ASIT it's literally a crucial plot point that the Cardassian government revised history! Wouldn't it make it soooo much easier for them if only very few people can actually read the historical accounts of what happened.

I guess I am thinking of this like Chinese characters. Like, all the different Chinese "dialects" being written with hanzi, even though otherwise they could barely be considered the same language. And even non-Sinitic languages that historically adopted hanzi, like Japanese and Korean and Vietnamese. Which worked because hanzi is a logography—it encodes meaning, not sound, so the same word in different languages can be written the same. It didn’t work well! Nowadays, Japanese has made significant modifications and Korean has invented a new writing system entirely and Vietnamese has adapted a different foreign writing system, because while hanzi could write their languages, it didn’t do a very good job at it. But the Cardassian government probably cares more about assimilation and national unity than making things easier for speakers of minority languages. So, Cardassia used to have different cultures with different languages, like the Hebitians, and maybe instead of the Union forcing everyone to start speaking the same language, they just made everyone use the same writing system. Though that does seem less likely than them enforcing a standard language like the Federation does. Maybe they enforce a standard language, and invent the new writing system to increase literacy for people who are newly learning it.

And I can imagine it being a kind of purely digital language for some people? Like if you’re living on a colonized planet lightyears away from Cardassia Prime and you never have to speak Cardassian, but your computer’s interface is in Cardassian and if you go online then everyone there uses Cardassian. Like people irl who participate in the anglophone internet but don’t really use English in person because they don’t live in an anglophone country. Except if English were a logographic writing system that you could use to write your own language. And you can’t handwrite it, if for whatever reason you wanted to. Almost a similar idea to a liturgical language? Like, it’s only used in specific contexts and not really in daily life. In daily life you’d still speak your own language, and maybe even handwrite it when needed. I think old writing systems would survive even closer to the imperial core (does it make sense to call it that?), though the government would discourage it. I imagine there’d be a revival movement after the Fire, not only because of the cultural shift away from the old totalitarian Cardassia, but because people realize the importance of having a written communication system that doesn’t rely on everyone having a padd and electricity and wifi.

[dkniade]

(Conversations with a fan about the possible origins of fandom nicknames for Furina and (mostly) Neuvillette in English and Chinese.)

Fans calling Neuvillette nicknames like Neuvi or Neuv is even funnier when you remember Neuvillette is his last name (as he says in his “Hello” voice-over.) We’re not actually sure what his first name is, right …? (At least according to his Character Story.) Imagine people making a cute nickname from your last name; that must be an interesting feeling

In-universe he’s referred as Monsieur Neuvillette by most Melusines I think? It’s kind of equivalent to Yun Jin’s (CN) title of Yun-xiansheng by the Liyue opera fans. So the fandom calling Neuvillette “Neuvi” is like calling Yun Jin “Yunyun”, haha

(The fan mention in the Chinese fandom, nicknames for Neuvillette and Furina are Vivi and Fufu)

Ah! I’ve seen CN fandom call Furina (芙宁娜 Fúníngnà) —> Fufu (芙芙 Fúfú). It’s the first hanzi character repeated. Reduplication is a common way to make nicknames in Mandarin!

Mm— Neuvillette’s name in Chinese is 那维莱特 (Nàwéiláitè). I guess you could have a nickname be 维维 (Wéiwéi), but technically speaking the /v/ sound doesn’t exist in Mandarin (I think).

Oh but Neuvillette is also the name of multiple real-life communes in France. Those communes are known as 讷维莱特 (Nèwéiláitè) in Chinese. The first syllable Nè is actually closer to how the name is pronounced in French. Not sure why Genshin didn’t use that transcription instead,,

(Thinking about it now—let’s use pinyin—I guess the first vowel in the French commune’s Chinese name “Nèwéiláitè” is /ɤ/ and the first vowel in a French reading of “Neuvillette” is /ø/ and they’re both close-mid vowels which means they have the same height, which makes them sound more similar… compared to the first vowel /a/ used in the in-game Chinese transcription “Nàwéiláitè”…)

Though, since it’s a Chinese transcription of a French name, I wonder if… the reference (?) pronunciation is of a different French dialect or something?

(The fan tells me that a French-speaker told them, since Neuvillette is a very French surname, possible nicknames could be Vivi or Neuvi. But Neuneu means “dumb dumb” in French so that wouldn’t be a good nickname haha)

[meichenxi]

Hanzi update (+accidental trauma talk)

tw illness, trauma, vomiting, weight loss, recovery. I didn't plan to write about this but because of what happened in the last year I can't really write about how I studied Chinese without talking about it. so. but it's mainly about hanzi lol

I've been learning how to write traditional characters with the vague idea that I'd go and study in Taiwan, and also that if I want to write Classical Chinese or Japanese they're far more useful - but the program I want to go to Taiwan for requires HSK7, which I DO not think I can achieve and have the results of before March. Who knows! Perhaps within me lies untold brilliance and dedication!!

...well, I wouldn't rely on it. (I am also busy with a job, a partner, studying an A-level course to begin tutoring it in September, and writing the second draft of my novel.)

And even if I ended up going to Taiwan with my absolutely fantastic HSK7, there's no way I could handwrite all of those words within a year. If I learn 10 characters a day, that's like 3650 characters in a year, but realistically that will never happen - and you still have to actually remember them.

I also know from my last experience where I learnt a stupid amount of characters very quickly (about 800 in two weeks) that I can technically do it, I have a very large swollen brain, but then the brain, being very large and very swollen, promptly burns out. And leaves me to not do any Chinese again for like two months. So basically - completely pointless, because after those two months of rest I had forgotten most of them anyway. I will not be doing that again.

This time around I have been slowly, very slowly, learning things on Skritter. I have about 400 characters so far. I'm not doing words but doing characters, which is a bit slower, but I figure it'll be more useful in the long run. After I have the first 1000, I'm planning to then systematically go through the HSK and TOCFL lists and check I know how to put characters together and which 'jing' is used in 'yijing' etc.

This approach is only really going to work because I know a lot of vocabulary and can read a lot of stuff already - otherwise I wouldn't recommend to anybody without that backbone of vocabulary to just learn random isolated characters, unless you're masochistic or much harder-core than I am.

As I have said in a lot of posts before, I had a very difficult experience in China last August and have basically taken an entire year off studying because in all honesty I just couldn't bring myself to face the language again. Every time I tried I had this crazy grief and nightmares and stress response. What I went through was so stressful that during those two months in China that I lost seven kilograms, as I couldn't eat much without vomiting it back up due to stress and fear, didn't sleep, and ended up having to leave for Thailand pretty severely malnutritioned - which then made me susceptible to illnesses there and I spent the next two months after with awful health, vomiting and weak and generally sick. Luckily I was with friends and I gained the weight again and my period and digestive system sorted itself out.

And I never expected that a language itself could carry trauma? Like. Nobody died, it wasn't like that, I wasn't abused or assaulted or anything but still...for just under a year, every time I spoke or heard or read Chinese I couldn't help thinking of those two months. Even now it's still hard. I'm finding my way back to it but, to be honest, I didn't expect how hard it would be. I thought I could just - move past it, because I'd already had so many great experiences in China and Taiwan and with Chinese, that they would cancel each other out or at least be aided by the huge amounts of love that the language has shown me. Alas, it was not the case.

Anyway. All of that to say - I have only managed to do about 400 characters in a year, because I essentially gave up studying completely.

Now I've just finished reviewing and re-remembering those 400 characters on Skritter, so I'm ready to start again! I don't know what's changed, I guess just time - I feel more positive, I feel curious and interested about the language again. I don't know. I'm not going to question it too deeply. But for these past two weeks, I've been having a lot of fun :)

I'll update everyone on my progress as I go! Next post - 500.

[sidecharactersdomatter]

Thoughts I had during TGCF S2 Ep 8

Starting this week, I’ll be finishing my TGCF S2 Reactions!

Now here we go!

Previously on TGCF…

-That’s a lot of Orcs

-Man, I’m surprised none of Qi Rong’s lackeys are noticing disguised!Xie Lian and Hua Cheng and are like, “What?  I don’t remember the boss hiring ghosts more eye catching than we are.”

-“Oh?  Would you like me to do that?”  That delivery was awesome and it got Xie Lian adorably flustered!

-They have fangs!

-XL, you stopped two guys in a sword fight in Ep 5 you’ll still come out on top

-That’s the only quality he respects

-They’re still blending in

-That’s a lot of humans

-Baby Guzi!!!

-A new disguise!!!

-He’s returned

-Xie Lian looks great as a mortal in disguise

-There’s like 20 of them

-I’m surprised another lackey is noticing disguised Xie Lian and San Lang at the end of line and says, “Hey, I don’t remember capturing those last two.  Shouldn’t we tie ‘em up with the other humans?” And then the other ghost just goes “Nah, our king we’ll be pleased with two more for his feast.”

-That creepy odd flute music

-Aw baby Guzi

-Whoever did this track, props

-He touched his hand!!!

-He’s writing hanzi!

-San Lang understood! 

-San Lang’s still savoring the touch!

-Now San Lang has a message too!

-In other words he just wrote, “Heads up”

-*Content Warning for Accidental and unintentional Cannibalism*

-Gross

-That ain’t meat jerky

-Thank you San Lang

-That music keeps getting creepier as they travel deeper

-His throne room

-Ugh that ain’t chili

-San Lang’s enraged!

-That Xie Lian statue

-Oh no that statue was beaten in the past!

-They took their anger out on a young man who tried to help

-And here he is!

-He knows him

-That green oni mask

-Thank you Hua Cheng and E Ming!

-Aand there’s a backup chorus

-I think ‘Murderize’ disappointed every English Major watching this Episode

-Thank you Pei Xiu!

-I think he just wanted to be left in peace

-My eyes widened as Qi Rong swore like a really bad sailor

-Gross Qi Rong, that’s disgusting this guy’s officially worse than Koh the face stealer

-Man, I don’t think we’ve heard Feng Xin swear a lot until the previous episode 

-San Lang’s controlling his anger

-I wouldn’t want to be massaged by ancient Chinese orcs

-Xuan Ji got mentioned

-It’s official, Qi Rong supports Women’s wrongs

-RIP Xiao Ying, Pengtou not so much

-Qi Rong roasted the heck outta almost every Heavenly Official shown so far in the series

-I think Hua Cheng’s already better than Qi Rong

-He’s trying to cause drama between the martial gods

-His legs are propped up on Stone!XL’s bowing head

-The Dragon floor relief

-‘Pei Fling’’s an accurate nickname

-That one orc selecting a new human: Eenie, meanie, meinie, That guy

-Oh no Baby Guzi!

-Nyoom! Gotta go fast! - Basically Hua Cheng

-Literally the lackey that focused on XL and HC: I told you we should’ve tied those two guys back with the others! (This quote was inspired by one of Catwoman’s Henchmen in a cold opening of an episode in Batman: The Brave and the Bold and that same henchman said, “I told you we should’ve taken his utility belt!”)

-He caught the statue!

-And the statue’s gently placed on the ground

-Doll!Qianqiu moved!

-They’ve got more cave trolls!

-His eyes glowed

-Gotta go fast again!

-His head’s in an iron grip!

-Dang, literally 0 seconds after Qi Rong asked for help and got faceplanted into the ground by Hua Cheng sent all of his armed lackeys fleeing into the cave.  Dude really has the dumbest henchmen in the series

-Guzi’s Dad’s last action of selflessness was protecting his own son

-XL saved Baby Guzi!

-You gotta love Bad Cop!Hua Cheng

-Parental Xie Lian!

-Dude if I were you I’d keep the kid with me at all times, not that I want to be parent whatsoever

-Move over MCU Loki

-Qi Rong low key has the same pathetic energy as Prince John did in Disney’s Robin Hood

-“And then there’s me.  Smiling, as I end your damn life!” Preach Hua Cheng

-Right in front of his own statue

-There goes the Oni Mask

-Ugh purple lipstick and Xie Lian had better cosmetics in S1 EPs 1-3

8 down! 4 Eps left to go!

[ritz-writes]

What the magic circles say in Lego Monkie Kid

(U can skip to the end for the tl;dr)

My fiance (skittle) is very good at languages. so last night, they stayed up while i was asleep and decided to rewatch monkie kid (as one does). well, they got to the clone episode and they wanted to know what the magic circle says. this one specifically

they arent an expert, nor are they fluent, but let me walk you through their process.

Skittle has an apple pencil and an ipad, which means they can write things and the ipad will turn it into text. so at first they tried drawing it onto google search, but it wasnt working. they assumed the area wasnt big enough for the ipad to properly read the Hanzi (the symbol), so they opened their translate app and tried there. each time it kept putting a diferent Hanzi instead.

Skittle wrote it over and over multiple times but never got the same one (for over an hour. they got very upset lmao). so they looked at the spell again and noticed something a bit off about it. if you look back up to the circle, you can see the L shapes in the top left, which isnt something you normally see in handwritten chinese. it looked more 'computer friendly' like a font. so they decided to do everything the same, but change those two marks to diagonal lines (going in the same direction). and they got this!

So the spell MK uses in episode 2 translates to "Disappear"

Then skittle remembered the spell Wukong used to seal some of MK's powers. this one

this one was not as easy to figure out

So they followed the steps again, and got this

they were obviously confused. because that IS the right Hanzi, but that translation makes no sense, right? so they went to google translate and put in 'confer a title upon' and got this

not the same thing at all. It made more sense, seeing as it was multiple words, but then what was the app talking about? so they decided to try putting what would make the most sense for the Hanzi to mean, which was 'seal up'

it was still longer, but the first hanzi was correct. so they pasted it back into google translate and got this!

then out of pure curiosity (and because they were half asleep) they pasted it twice into the translator app to see if anything changed

Which it did!

So the spell that Wukong used on MK in episode one roughly translates to 'Seal up.'

Chinese is a very hard language to translate, so im very proud of my fiance <3

(tl;dr the magic circle Wukong uses in episode one roughly translates to "Seal up", and the one MK uses in episode two translates to "Dissappear.")

[mejomonster]

How did you learn Chinese, like did you use a specific program like Duolingo or did you take classes? How hard was it to read Priest's novels with where you were at in your language learning journey? I want to get back into learning (been wanting to since I watched The Untamed,) but I gave up about 8 months ago 😭

Hey ovo)/ so uh. That's a big question. I have a studyblr @rigelmejo so if you really want the full on journey lol its on there, steps i took and what I studied and progress and study tools I found and used and stuff I've linked for people.

For the shortest tip I can give you? Would be to check out the Heavenly Path site if you're interested in learning to read novels. You'll need to figure out your own way to study about 1000 common hanzi, basic grammar, and basic pronunciation (I link resources on rigelmejo), but after that point the Heavenly Path site has reading resources for graded reading, easier kids novels, easier manhua, webnovels by difficulty level, all the way up! So you can at that point just follow their recommendations and use reading tools they link (like Pleco and Readibu apps which I suggest you download asap - they include tools where you can click a chinese word when reading for translation and audio pronunciation and pinyin). So yeah at 1000 hanzi, just start reading from their suggestions! (Also consider downloading Bilibili Comics app as it has English and Chinese free manhua, so you can start reading manhua earlier, and youtube/viki.com learn mode and Any platforms with dual english/chinese subs and start trying to look up 1 word every 5 minutes or more as curious and practicing reading the chinese words in subs you've learned). I suggest you check out all pages on the Heavenly site, they link a ton of resources.

The short-ish version of what I did the first year I studied chinese? I fumbled a lot, read through an entire grammar guide summary in a few weeks here http://chinese-grammar.com/, watched some YouTube tone videos and went through a pronunciation guide here https://www.dong-chinese.com/learn/sounds/pinyin which took a week or two and I'd do it every few months, read through the book Learning Chinese Characters: (HSK Levels 1-3) A Revolutionary New Way to Learn the 800 Most Basic Chinese Characters by Tuttle publishing in about 2 months (I really liked their mnemonics to help me remember hanzi), started Ben Whatley memrise decks 1000 Chinese common words and 2000 common words (took about 2 weeks to finish one then I took a few months break then studied the other 1000, mainly focusing on studying new words and not reviewing until the last week if I had time - in retrospect I think learners would do better with the Chinese Spoonfed Anki deck but the memrise courses I used worked fine for me). I was watching cdramas as usual most weeks, English subs with the Chinese hardsubs on the video file like most youtube cdramas, with Google Translate app on my phone to look up a word every several minutes as curious. Once I was 3ish months in and learning the memrise Ben Whatley 2000 common chinese words, I read some Mandarin Companion graded readers in Pleco app then some more 300-600 word graded readers in Pleco. That gets me to like month 6ish. Then I started reading manhua and looking up words in pleco or Google translate when I needed to in order to grasp main idea overall (or was curious about a particular word). Kept reading graded readers in pleco.

Around month 8 I tried 天涯客 and 镇魂, both brutally hard. I was reading in Pleco in the Clipboard Reader (from websites) or the Reader tool (i bought it for like $20 dollars along with handwriting recognition, OCR, and expanded dictionaries). Mandarinspot.com has a good reading tool too that can add pinyin if you need it, and Readibu in some ways i prefer to Pleco depending on your particular reading needs on a given day. Tried a few easier webnovels, tried a pingxie fanfic 寒舍 which was hard but easier than priest novels (love that fanfic). I kept bouncing between webnovels then around month 10 天涯客 novels took about 1.5 hours to read through a chapter. At that point I brute force tried to read it or 寒舍 daily with 1 chapter a day, got 28 chapters in before i burned out with 天涯客 and 60ish chapters into 寒舍. It was about a year in. I cram studied 500 hanzi in some common hanzi deck with mnemonics I found on anki over a month, hoping if I improved vocab I'd read easier. I also was gradually trying to watch more cdrama with only chinese subs, around month 6 I finally watched Granting You a Dreamlike life full episodes with no eng subs (about 5-10 word lookups an episode), watched 15ish eps, then after that shows got less daunting to try watching.

A little over a year in Word of Honor came out and I watched it in chinese first because I was too impatient for eng subs. After that went decently I got braver about reading, tried Listening Reading Method (see @rigelmejo for those experiments), more stuff etc like extensive reading with no word lookups.

In retrospect I WISH I'd started with easier novels Heavenly Path recommended. However on the other hand? I've seen people who read their first cnovel with Pleco as early as 3-6 months in which blows my mind. So me picking hard novels to start isn't the Hardest thing in comparison lol. This past year (so at start of year 3 studying lol) I actually read like 10 things on Heavenly Paths easier recommendations and it helped immensely in filling in gaps in vocab and reading fluidity I had. So if you do pick a priest novel as your first novel and manage to chug through it without giving up, be aware "easier" novels may still have stuff you can learn later so don't rule them out as reading materials later on.

I've also seen people do literally no study except maybe some curious Google searches on hanzi or grammar or pronunciation, then brute force read novels in Readibu until they improved. A brutal way to do it but possible. (I really recommend at minimum learning hanzi are made of radicals though as it makes recognizing and remembering them so much easier).

I think the best thing I did for learning to read was just being Brave and Trying to read regularly. And it gradually got less hard.

[zhongrin]

story time about a (possibly) new hobby(?)

(it got kinda long, so feel free to skip hahah)

so. part of my this year's resolution was to learn an erhu... or any musical instrument, really. and i attended an introductory chinese instruments workshop recently.

it was super fun!! they let us try a few instruments, like...

the smiling frying pan (zhong)ruan, which is like a guitar, but round.

dizi ー although since it's a wind instrument they didn't let us actually play it, because. you know. hygiene reasons. kinda amazing to think that the instrument's life and blood is pretty much a small sheet of rice paper... the xiao was also kinda interesting!! such a low and unique sound ✨

pipa... it's a very cool and pretty-sounding instrument for sure, but i don't think i'll have the brainpower to remember and learn the finger techniques ;;;

erhu. while i only managed to make noises akin to killing chickens didn't really manage to make a decent sound on it, it's definitely an instrument i might want to learn more than the others!! we got to see a true expert play in person, and. man. it does sound so... idk how to describe it. soulful? but also, i might be biased bc zhongli's theme has an erhu in it hahahah also the way zhonghu sounds??? 💗

guzheng!!!! they sound soooo good in-person... especially the expensive one.... figures orz also i found this while doing my own research but did you know that guzheng has areas on its back called 'phoenix eyes' (to insert the strings), 'dragon cave' (sound hole 1), and 'heavenly pond' (sound hole 2)? plus, the hanzis for certain top parts also contains the dragon/phoenix/mountain characters and i think it's neat lol

i've tried piano and guitar in the past, but i never really felt attached to them. but... i fell in love with the guzheng. i wanna learn it so badly.

but the (decent) instrument is so expensive, it's incredibly massive (the travel-sized ones are even more expensive orz), and the maintenance seems like a nightmare???? (although i think musical instruments maintenance in general is a nightmare anyway?? idk)

anyway, i did book a trial guzheng lesson. and maybe if it really hooks me up i'll attend a few normal classes... and if my interest holds up, i might consider buying a secondhand one? on the other hand, it also feels like i should try to fully ride the waves while this excitement is going 📈🔺⏫.... hrhsldkjflsjd idk anymore ;;;;

[rigelmejo]

To counteract all the negativity:

Chinese is easy to learn. I believe in you. I think if you want to learn to do something in chinese, you will eventually be able to! And I hope you enjoy the process

加油！

[ephaporia]

What if Anime Characters (Especially Japanese) have Chinese, Korean, and English names – Owari no Seraph/Seraph of the End ver. (Part 1)

Those kanji names can be translated into Hanzi (Chinese) and Hangeul (Korean) based on en.wiktionary.org

Remember, this is only for Japanese characters, not Western (like Vampires) characters. Except for Mikaela since he has a Japanese surname even though his first name is Western (and I think it's common for some Hafu (half-Japanese half-foreigner people) like that. Also, their Chinese will be written with Chinese Simplified instead of Chinese Traditional to make it sound like in Mainland China.

1. Yuichiro Hyakuya (百夜 優一郎)

Etymology: Yuichiro's Kanji name (優一郎) = 優 means “excellence, superiority, gentleness” ; 一 means "one"; 郎 means " man, son ". Meanwhile, Yuichiro’s true last name, Amane (天音) means "heavenly sound."

Chinese Name: 百夜 优一郎 (Bǎiyè Yōuyīláng) → If he has a Chinese name, I'll name him 白优一郎 (Bái Yōuyīláng), because 白 (Bái) seems more common surname in China than 百 (Bǎi). That also applies to all the Hyakuya orphanage children. NB: There is a rare case of people with four syllables in their name in China and Korea.

Birth Chinese Name: 天音 优一郎 (Tiānyīn Yōuyīláng) → If he has a Chinese name, I'll name him 田优一郎 (Tián Yōuyīláng), because it’s difficult to find 天 (Tiān) in Chinese surname. So, I use 田 (Tián), which is common in China and Korea.

Korean Name: 벡야 우일랑 (Baekya Woo-ilrang) → If he has a Korean name, I'll name him 벡우일랑 (Baek Woo-ilrang).

Birth Korean Name: 천음 우일랑 (Cheon-eum Woo-ilrang) → If he has a Korean name, I'll name him 전우일랑 (Jeon Woo-ilrang) due to match his Chinese/Hanja name that seems common in Korea.

English Name: Based on one of his kanji names, I'll name him Gabriel because Gabriel in Hebrew origin means "God is my strength" or "a hero of God" (Coincidentally, it’s suitable for Yuu as the hero and has the high strength during his battle). In Christian belief, Gabriel is revered not only as one of only two archangels mentioned in the Bible (alongside Michael) but as the bearer of very good news. Someone with the name Gabriel is often seen as being kind-hearted and generous (just like Yuu (優)’s meaning name). Also, I want to match his English name with Mikaela’s one which is associated with archangels in the Christian bible. So, his English name is Gabriel Hyakuya/Gabriel Amane (Gabi).

2. Mikaela Hyakuya (百夜 ミカエラ)

Etymology: Mikaela (or Michael in another word) in Latin "Gift from God" or "God-like". Mikaela/Michael is one of the archangels alongside Gabriel (which later became Yuu’s English name). In the bible, Michael is the leader of the Army of God and the leader of heaven's forces in their triumph over the powers of hell. He is viewed as the angelic model for the virtues of the "spiritual warrior", his conflict with evil taken as "the battle within". Meanwhile, Mikaela’s true last name, Shindo (進藤) means "advance, make progress" (進) (shin) and "wisteria" (藤) (dō)

Chinese Name: 百夜 米迦尔 (Bǎiyè Mǐjiāěr) → If he has a Chinese name, I'll name him 白米迦尔 (Bái Mǐjiāěr). 米迦尔 (Mǐjiāěr) itself is the Chinese name version of Michael.

Birth Chinese Name: 进藤 米迦尔 (Jìnténg Mǐjiāěr) → If he has a Chinese name, his surname will be 金米迦尔 (Jīn Mǐjiāěr).

Korean Name: 벡야 미카엘라 (Baekya Mikaela) → If he has a Korean name, I'll name him 벡미카엘라 (Baek Mikaela).

Birth Korean Name: 진등 미카엘라 (Jindeung Mikaela) → If he has a Korean name, I'll name him 김 미카엘라 (Kim Mikaela) to match his Chinese name and one of his Japanese birth surnames. Also, Kim (김) is the most common name in Korea. Actually, 米迦尔 (Mǐjiāěr) is also being converted in Korea to be 미가이 (Migai). But it sounds too weird to hear it. Also, I think it’s not important to translate it too much. For me, Mikaela (미카엘라) sounds beautiful to him even though it has been converted into Korean rawly.

English Name: Actually, I don’t need to make his English name because his name is already English/Western, for God's sake. But since I think Mikaela seems too feminine for him, maybe I want to use Michael to sound more masculine than his true name. So, his English name is Michael Hyakuya/Michael Shindo (Micha). I think it will match Yuu’s Gabriel as the archangels-based name.

3. Guren Ichinose (一瀬 グレン)

Etymology: Guren doesn’t have a Kanji name. Instead, he uses Katakana for his name. But, there is a Chinese name 紅蓮 (Guren). 紅 (gu) means "crimson", while 蓮 (ren) means "lotus". So, Guren with Kanji 紅蓮 = “crimson lotus” (source from here).

Chinese Name: 一濑红莲 (Yīlài Hónglián) → If he has a Chinese name, I'll name him 易红莲 (Yì Hónglián) * Korean Name: 일뢰홍연 (Ilroe Hongyeon) → If he has a Korean name, I'll name him 이홍연 (Yee Hongyeon/Lee Hongyeon). * English Name: Since his name is in Katakana and when translated to English, his name will be read as Glenn Ichinose instead of Guren Ichinose. Also, Glenn in Irish origin means “glen” or “valley”. So, his English name is Glenn Ichinose.

4. Shinoa Hīragi (柊 シノア)

Etymology: Shinoa doesn’t have a Kanji name just like Guren and she also uses Katakana as her name even though her name sounds no like a Western name like Guren’s. But in Chinese, Shinoa is written as 筱婭 = 筱 (Shino) means " dwarf bamboo, Alternative form of 小 (xiǎo)"; 婭 (a) means " a brother-in-law, mutual term of address used by sons-in-law". Shi (シ) can also mean Four 「四」 can be read as "Shi" 「し」. Shi 「死, し or シ」 means "Death."

Chinese Name: 柊筱娅 (Zhōng Xiǎoyà) → If she has a Chinese name, I'll name her 钟筱娅 (Zhōng Xiǎoyà) because there is no 柊(Zhōng) in any Chinese hanzi surname or Korean hanja surname, but its phonetic is the same with 鍾/钟 (Zhōng). It will be the same case with any Hiiragi family so I only will explain it in this section.

Korean Name: 종 소아 (Jong So-ah) → Since her Kanji surname is only one syllable. So, it’s easy to identify it. So, definitely, her Korean name is 종소아 (Jong So-ah).

English Name: Since her name is Katakana but Shinoa even isn’t a Western name, I will use a two-syllable name, Noah instead to make it sound English. Noah in Hebrew word means "rest", "repose", or “peace.” In the U.S., Noah has traditionally been used as a boy's name. But the name Noah also can be used as a girl's name for example: Noah Cyrus (Miley Cyrus's younger sister). Even Noah as a feminine name means "motion" and stems from the Bible, in which No'ah was the daughter of Zelophedad. So, her English name is Noah Hīragi.

5. Yoichi Saotome (早乙女 与一)

Etymology: Yoichi's Kanji name (与一) = 与 (Yo) means "to provide" or "award"; while 一 (ichi) means “one”.

Chinese Name: 早乙女与一 (Zǎoyǐnǚ Yǔyī) → If he has a Chinese name, I'll name him 赵与一 (Zhào Yǔyī).

Korean Name: 조을여 여일 (Joeulyeo Yeo-il) → If he has a Korean name, I'll name him조여일 (Jo Yeo-il/Cho Yeo-il).

English Name: Based on one of his kanji name meanings, I’ll name him Timothy with the nickname Timmy. Timothy is a masculine name of Greek origin. Coming from the name “Timotheos,” the name means “honoring God,” or “God's honor”. In the New Testament, Timothy was a saint and companion of Saint Paul, which can make for a meaningful set of twin names. That name is at least a little bit close to his kanji name 与 (Yo) which means "to provide" or "award" because I think it means to give some award with an honor to God. So, his English name is Timothy Saotome (Timmy).

6. Shihō Kimizuki (君月 士方)

Etymology: Kimizuki's Kanji first name, Shihou (士方) = 士 (shi) means “samurai, warrior”; 方 (hou) means “direction, way, side”. That means, Shihou (士方) means “Samurai’s direction”

Chinese Name: 君月士方 (Jūnyuè Shìfāng) → If he has a Chinese name, I'll name him 君士方 (Jūn Shìfāng) since I can’t find any Chinese surname in one of his Kanji surnames, finally I decided to use to 君 (Jūn) in Hanja (Korean-Chinese) name. Even that hanja surname is the rarest of the rare in the world (check here).

Korean Name: 군월 사방 (Goonwol Sabang) → If he has a Korean name, I'll name him 군사방 (Goon Sabang) (check the explanation on his Chinese name section).

English Name: Since I can’t find an English name that is suitable for one of his Kanji name meanings, I decided to use Raphael as his English name because I also want to match it with Yuu’s and Mika’s English name based on the Archangels. Archangel Raphael doesn’t exist in the Christian bible, but he exists in the Catholic bible as three main Archangels alongside Michael and Gabriel. If Michael is a warrior, Gabriel is a messenger, then Raphael is a guardian. Raphael in Hebrew word means “God has healed”. His job is to provide healing and guidance to the faithful. Due to his actions in the Book of Tobit and the Gospel of John, Saint Raphael is considered patron of travelers, the blind, happy meetings, nurses, physicians, medical workers, matchmakers, Christian marriage, and Catholic studies. I don’t know that those traits are in Kimizuki. But, at least, his desire to recover his sister from her illness and also his intelligence and his domestic skills like cooking seem amazing to him. So, his English name is Raphael Kimizuki (Raphie). Also, it reminds me of OnS game, The Bloody Blades, where there are Kimizuki alongside Yuu and Mika wearing Idol costumes event. Seems like they can make their English name as their stage name for their idol personas, or their group name will be “Guren’s Archangels” (kidding XD ). Hehehe...

7. Mitsuba Sangū (三宮 三葉)

Etymology: Mitsuba's Kanji name (三葉) = 三 (Mitsu) means "three"; while葉 (ba) means “leaf”, means Mitsuba means "three-leaf clover."

Chinese Name: 三宫三叶 (Sāngōng Sānyè) → If she has a Chinese name, I'll name her 龚三叶 (Gōng Sānyè).

Korean Name: 삼궁 삼엽 (Samgoong Sam-yeop) → If she has a Korean name, I'll name her 공삼엽 (Gong Sam-yeop). Sounds like a masculine name, huh?! But, what can I do? I just follow it based on the Chinese alphabet.

English Name: Based on her kanji name meaning, I’ll name her Clover because Clover the plant has three leaves. So, her English name is Clover Sangū.

8. Sayuri Hanayori (花依 小百合)

Etymology: Sayuri's Kanji name (小百合) = 小 (Sa) means "small"; and 百合 (yuri) means “lily”.

Chinese Name: 花依小百合 (Huāyī Xiǎobǎihé) → If she has a Chinese name, I'll name her 华小百合 (Huà Xiǎobǎihé)

Korean Name: 화의 소백합 (Hwaeui Sobaekhap) → If she has a Korean name, I'll name her 화소백합 (Hwa Sobaekhap).

English Name: Based on one of her kanji names meaning, I’ll name her Suzanne. Suzanne is a traditionally feminine name of French and Hebrew origins, meaning "graceful lily." Known as a popular southern belle just like her other -anne suffix sisters, Suzanne is undoubtedly an attractive choice for her. Some other names can be named Susan, Susannah, Susannah, and Suzette. But I think Suzanne is perfect for her rather than only Lily because of her delicate personality among the girls in the Guren squad. So, her English name is Suzanne Hanayori (Sue).

9. Shigure Yukimi (雪見 時雨)

Etymology: Shigure's Kanji name (時雨) = 時 (Shi) means "autumn"; and 雨 (gure) means “rain”.

Chinese Name: 雪見時雨 (Xuějiàn shíyǔ) → If she has a Chinese name, I'll name her 薛時雨 (Xuē shíyǔ).

Korean Name: 설현 시우 (Seolhyun Shiwoo) → If she has a Korean name, I'll name her설시우 (Seol Shiwoo).

English Name: Based on her kanji name meaning, I’ll name her Jora because Jora is a name of Hebrew origin that literally means "autumn rain". So, her English name is Jora Yukimi.

10. Mito Jūjō (十条 美十)

Etymology: Mito's Kanji name (美十) = 美 (Mi) means "beauty, beautiful"; and 十 (to) means “ten”. So, Mito (美十) means "ten beauties".

Chinese Name: 十条美十  (Shítiáo Měishí) → If she has a Chinese name, I'll name her 石美十  (Shí Měishí).

Korean Name: 십조 미십(Sípjo Misip) → If she has a Korean name, I'll name her 석미십 (Seok Misip).

English Name: Based on one of her kanji names meaning, I’ll name her Astrid. Astrid is a given name of Scandinavian origin, a modern form of the name Ástríðr. Derived from the Old Norse Ássfriðr, a compound name composed of the elements áss (a god) and fríðr (beautiful, fair). It means “divinely beautiful”; “beloved of the gods”. So, her English name is Astrid Jūjō.

11. Norito Goshi (五士 典人)

Etymology: Goshi's first Kanji name, Norito (典人) =典 (nori) means “ceremony, rule, law”; while 人 (to) means “person, people”.

Chinese Name: 五士典人 (Wǔshì Diǎnrén) → If he has a Chinese name, I'll name him 吴典人 (Wú Diǎnrén). * Korean Name: 오사 전인 (Ohsa Jeon-in) → If he has a Korean name, I'll name him 오전인 (Oh Jeon-in). * English Name: Based on his kanji name meaning (at least nearly the same meaning), I’ll name him Zadock. Zadoc (also spelled Zadock, Zadok, Sadok, Sadaqat, or Sadokat) is a given name (first name), originally from Hebrew, meaning "just" or "righteous". It was originally the name of several biblical figures. So, his English name is Zadock Goshi.

12. Makoto Narumi (鳴海 真琴)

Etymology: Narumi's first Kanji name, Makoto (真琴) = 真(ma) means "true, real, genuine"; while 琴 (koto) means Koto, a Japanese harp. The name Makoto also means "sincerity" (誠).

Chinese Name: 鸣海真琴 (Mínghǎi Zhēnqín) → If he has a Chinese name, I'll name him 明真琴 (Míng Zhēnqín).

Korean Name: 명해 진금 (Myunghae Jin-geum) → If he has a Korean name, I'll name him 명진금 (Myung Jin-geum).

English Name: Based on one of his name meanings (at least nearly the same meaning), I’ll name him Nathaniel or Nathan. Nathaniel, a Hebrew boy's name, means "God has given." This name features in the Old and New Testaments of the Christian bible, as well as the Jewish bible, where it's spelled as Nathanael. Nathaniel comes from the words natan, to give, and el, which is used to refer to God. I think the meaning of Nathaniel is nearly the same association with “sincerity” too. Some source stories also said that Nathaniel is also one of the archangels (even though not as popular as Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael). He is the Archangel of life purpose, manifestation, and transformation that gifts us six powerful motivational angelic incentives to inspire us and to help us on our way toward our life’s purpose: Self-forgiveness, worthiness, visualization, joy, new ventures & perseverance. So, his English name is Nathaniel Narumi (Nathan/Nat).

13. Shūsaku Iwasaki (岩咲秀作)

Etymology: Shūsaku's Kanji name (秀作) = 秀 (shuu) means “excellent, outstanding”; while 作 (saku) means “work, production”.

Chinese Name: 岩咲秀作 (Yánxiào Xiùzuò) → If he has a Chinese name, I'll name him 严秀作 (Yán Xiùzuò).

Korean Name: 암소수주 (Amso Suju) → If he has a Korean name, I'll name him 엄 수주 (Uhm Suju/Eom Suju).

English Name: Based on his kanji name meaning (at least nearly the same meaning), I’ll name him George. George derived from the Greek word georgos and the Greek name Georgios, this baby name means “farmer” or “earthworker.” I think the name George has an association with someone who is a hard worker like Shusaku's meaning name. So, his English name is George Iwasaki.

14. Rika Inoue (井上 利香)

Etymology: Rika's Kanji name (利香) = 利 (ri) means “profit, benefit, advantage”; while 香 (ka) means “incense, perfume, fragrant”.

Chinese Name: 井上 利香 (Jǐngshàng Lìxiāng) → If she has a Chinese name, I'll name her 井利香 (Jǐng Lìxiāng).

Korean Name: 정상 이향 (Jungsang Lee-hyang) → If she has a Korean name, 정이향 (Jung Lee-hyang).

English Name: The name Rika is a girl's name of Dutch origin meaning "beautiful village; peaceful ruler; estate ruler". Rika is most common as a Japanese name, when it means "beautiful village" in one kanji combination. Since Rika is like English name (or Universal origin for me), her English name is still Rika Inoue or if you want it you can change K to C to be Rica Inoue.

15. Yayoi Endo (円藤弥生)

Etymology: Yayoi's Kanji name (弥生) = 弥 (ya) means “go across; span; cover”; while 生 (yoi) means “fresh”. So, Yayoi's (弥生) means “the month of spring; March, the third month of the lunar calendar”.

Chinese Name: 円藤弥生 (Yuánténg Míshēng) → If she has a Chinese name, I'll name her 袁弥生 (Yuán Míshēng).

Korean Name: 엔등 미생 (Endeung Misaeng) → If she has a Korean name, 원미생 (Won Misaeng).

English Name: Based on her kanji name meaning (at least nearly the same meaning), I’ll name her Chloe. Chloe is a feminine name of Greek origin, meaning "young green shoot," "blooming," or "fertility." It is derived from the Greek name Khlóros which translates to "greenish-yellow color"—referring to the shade of springtime shoots. At least that name is suitable for Yayoi's Kanji meaning name. So, her English name is Chloe Endo.

16. Tarō Kagiyama (鍵山太郎)

Etymology: Tarō's Kanji name (太郎) = 太 (ta) means “big, fat, great, very large, thick, grand”; while 郎 (rou) means “son”. Taro also means "strong, heroic, masculine".

Chinese Name: 键山太郎 (Jiànshān Tàiláng) → If he has a Chinese name, I'll name him 简太郎 (Jiǎn Tàiláng).

Korean Name: 건산 태랑 (Geonsan Taerang) → If he has a Korean name, I'll name him 간태랑 (Kan Taerang).

English Name: Based on his kanji name meaning (at least nearly the same meaning), I’ll name him Andrew. Andrew in Greek means "strong," "manly," and "courageous." In the New Testament, Andrew is the first apostle to be called by Jesus. So, his English name is Andrew Kagiyama.

17. Eita Kusunoki (楠木 英太)

Etymology: Eita's Kanji name (英太) = 英 (ei) means “(flower; calyx, excellent, fine, outstanding; English/England)”; while 太 (ta) means “big, fat, great, very large, thick, grand”.

Chinese Name: 楠木英太 (Nánmù Yīngtài) → If he has a Chinese name, I'll name him 南英太 (Nán Yīng).

Korean Name: 남목 영태 (Nammok Youngtae) → If he has a Korean name, I'll name him 남영태 (Nam Youngtae).

English Name: Based on his kanji name meaning (at least nearly the same meaning), I’ll name him Anthony. Anthony is a boy's name of Latin origin. Derived from the Roman family name Antonius, it means "priceless one”, or “Praiseworthy." So, his English name is Anthony Kusunoki.

18. Aiko Aihara (相原あい子)

Etymology: Aiko's name (あい子) also can be in Kanji name as 愛子 (Aiko) = 愛 (ai) means “go love”; while 子 (ko) means “child”. So, Aiko (あい子) means “love child” or “beloved child”. It also means "draw, tie" or "patronage, favor" in Japanese.

Chinese Name: 相原爱子 (Xiāngyuán Aizǐ) → If she has a Chinese name, I'll name her 向爱子 (Xiàng Aizǐ).

Korean Name: 상원 애자 (Sangwon Aeja) → If she has a Korean name, 향애자 (Hyang Aeja).

English Name: Based on her kanji name meaning (at least nearly the same meaning), I’ll name her Amanda. Amanda is a feminine name of Latin origin that means “worthy of love, loveable.” First coined in the 17th century, Amanda is derived from the Shakespearean name Miranda, which shares a similar meaning and Latin roots. So, herEnglish name is Amanda Aihara.

19. Kureto Hīragi (柊 暮人)

Etymology: Kureto's Kanji name (暮人) = 暮 (Kure) means “dusk, twilight, livelihood, make a living, spend time”; while人 (to) means “person, people.” So, Kureto (暮人) means  "Dusk person."

Chinese Name: 柊暮人 (Zhōng Mùrén) → If he has a Chinese name, I'll name him 钟暮人 (Zhōng Mùrén).

Korean Name: 종 모인 (Jong Mo-in) → If he has a Korean name, I'll name him 종모인 (Jong Mo-in).

English Name: Based on one of his kanji name meanings, I’ll name him Arrats. Arrats is a rare name of Basque origin that means "afternoon, dusk”. This name is virtually unknown in English-speaking parts. So, his English name is Arrats Hīragi.

20. Shinya Hīragi (柊 深夜)

Etymology: Shinya's Kanji name (深夜) = 深 (Shin) means "deep, close, thick, profound"; while夜 (ya) means “night, evening.” So, Shinya (深夜) means  "deep night" as in "midnight".

Chinese Name: 柊深夜 (Zhōng Shēnyè) → If he has a Chinese name, I'll name him 钟深夜 (Zhōng Shēnyè)

Korean Name: 종심야 (Jong Shim-ya) → If he has a Korean name, I'll name him 종심야  (Jong Shim-ya).

English Name: Based on one of his kanji names meaning, I’ll name him Noctis. Noctis is a unique name of Latin origin that means "night". Coincidentally, I use that name from the game character Noctis Lucis Caelum from Final Fantasy XV, which shares same Japanese voice actor with Shinya, Tatsuhisa Suzuki (seiyuu thing, u know?). So, his English name is Noctis Hīragi.

21. Seishiro Hīragi (柊 征志郎)

Etymology: Seishiro's Kanji name (征志郎) = 征 (Sei) means “subjugate, to go on a long journey, conquest”; 志 (shi) means “purpose, will, determination, aspiration, ambition”; and 郎 (rou) means "son." So, Seishiro (征志郎) means  “Conquest Ambition Son.”

Chinese Name: 柊征志郎 (Zhōng Zhēngzhìláng) → If he has a Chinese name, I'll name him 钟征志郎 (Zhōng Zhēngzhìláng).

Korean Name: 종정지랑 (Jong Jungjirang) → If he has a Korean name, I'll name him 종정지랑 (Jong Jungjirang).

English Name: Based on one of his kanji names meaning, I’ll name him Bryce. The name Bryce is of Scottish origin and means ‘speckled,’ spotted,’ or ‘freckled.’ It could also mean ‘go-getter.’ It is derived from the name Bricius (the Latin form of the Celtic word brych), which means a ‘blemish’ or a ‘freckle.’ It might be derived from the Celtic element bri, which means ‘force’ or ‘strength,’ or bright, which means ‘valor’ or ‘strength.’ It is one of the names that is used for describing physical features. It could also be of Irish origin, which means ‘swift.’ In English, this name means “son of a nobleman.” So, his English name is Bryce Hīragi.

22. Tenri Hīragi (柊 天利)

Etymology: Tenri's Kanji name (天利) = 天 (Ten) means = “heaven, sky, imperial”; while 利 (ri) means “profit, benefit, advantage, rule“ So, Tenri (天利) means  "Heaven’s rule."

Chinese Name: 柊 天利 (Zhōng Tiānlì) → If he has a Chinese name, I'll name him 钟天利 (Zhōng Tiānlì).

Korean Name: 종천리 (Jong Cheonri) → If he has a Korean name, I'll name him 종모인 (Jong Cheonri).

English Name: Based on one of his kanji names meaning, I’ll name him Henry. Henry in English or German origin means “Home ruler”, “Ruler of (the) home”, “Ruler of the homeland”. So, his English name is Henry Hīragi.

23. Aoi Sangū (三宮 葵)

Etymology: Aoi's Kanji name (葵) means “mallow, hollyhock, hibiscus, althea.”

Chinese Name: 三宫葵 (Sāngōng Kuí) → If she has a Chinese name, I'll name her 龚葵 (Gōng Kuí)

Korean Name: 삼궁 규 (Samgoong Kyu) → If she has a Korean name, I'll name her 공규 (Gong Kyu).

English Name: Based on her kanji name meaning, I’ll name her Holly derived from the flower name Hollyhock. Coincidentally, Holly is the meaning name of Hiragi (柊). So, her English name is Holly Sangū.

That's for the part 1. Next time is the civil ones like Hyakuya orphans and Shinoa Squad's sisters in the part 2

Part 1 (For JIDA + Mikaela Hyakuya) Part 2 (For Hyakuya Orphans + Shinoa Squad' sisters)

NB: Then I realized that all the Shinoa Squad boys (including Mika + Narumi) have English names meaning which related to God.

Yuu is "God's strength"

Mika is "God-like"

Yoichi is "God's honor"

Kimizuki is "God's healer"

Narumi is "the gift of God"

Plus, Mito Jujo's English name also has a God-related meaning that is "beloved of the Gods".

[rekishi-aka]

The Mars House by Natasha Pulley

So somehow...I managed to finish the book already? Not sure how, actually. (Well, I sort of do, I spent a few hours in bed with a hot water bottle on my chest to relax the muscles in case that's causing some of my issues.)

Anyhow!

In a way, it was a very typical and also a very un-typical Pulley book. I like her style a lot in all her books (we shall not speak of the Pepperharrow book and I have not read the Bedlam Stacks) and there are enough twists in the story to keep me entertained. Some of it was utterly predictable, but in a good way where I want to know how they pull off a trope.

I've been rereading some of the Pulley books recently and they're all much more minimalistic than I do remember them after the first read. Which is...weird, sort of, but I think is actually a perk of her style. It looks like a hole when you scrutinize it, but your mind actually makes up for it.

The Mars House is a bit denser written than her previous things, but in a good way, it's fun.

It has a lot of Mandarin (and footnotes!!), but often the hanzi are missing in favour of only giving the Pinyin. As someone with a basic language and C-ent background, this is mildly annoying. I think the random Pinyin would drive me even more bonkers if I didn't have that background. I like it! I genuinely do and I think it's nicely done. But also...I'm not sure how people other readers are experiencing this.

The characters are nicely drawn, I like them all even if I want to bash January over the head sometimes.

I especially like the gender abolition topic and the friction it causes within the society, but also the display of how if a non-issue it is in the end.

I do recommend it!

Spoilers under the cut

A list of thoughts:

January. I love him. He has no clue what kind of story he's in. Which is fair! But he makes some Really Dumb Decisions, which are understandable in his position - he's not a politician, he has only been paying surface attention to the politics, Gale is being cagey about a lot of things, he's traumatized, marginalized, and has good reason to believe he'll meet the same fate as Max - but argh. January, honey, get with the program and pay attention. (He comes around.)

Gale (River) is a smart idiot. I love them. But for all their intelligence, they are a bit stupid. I get why. It makes sense for them. But they could have made this a lot easier on everyone if they'd just come clean to January.

I wish we'd learned more about the naturalization process, because it sounds fascinating

I expected the Canadian shack (or well..tent in the cold wilderness), but not like this, that was nice twist

It's also quite meta since it references both a certain shop on Filigree Street, as well as radio-dosimetry on film

As I said, I need to suspend my disbelief here, simply because I mean

Mammoths?!

What do the mammoths eat and drink, if water is the limiting factor? How do they have pine forests, if they are low on water? I mean I get it, pine do better in cold climate, but pine also needs water. There are examples of arid cold climates on earth, but....hrm idk. Weird.

Why are mammoths relevant for the ecosystem anyway?

The resistance cages are such a central part and idk if it really makes sense. Like yes, gravity is lower on Mars, sure. And yes, people will probably grow taller in lower gravity. But one the one hand, evolution doesn't work that quickly (sure, they do genetic engineering), but also people who come to Mars will have less muscles after a while. We see it with ISS astronauts and they exercise a lot up there. So the danger would actually be less after a while if they just left people out of cages. There's even a point of that in the book, where Sasha and his staff train with the cages.

[crystalflygeo]

Long overdue final ebg post (lmao) bc I need to get this out of my system...

Tag for all the posts/storyline

Art by the amazing lovely precious cutie Aine @/ainescribe

First of all I want to thank @i23kazu immensely for allowing me to participate pls I was SO unsure at first haha and she absolutely killed it with the interactions, the lil side project, the prompts, the scores tally... it's just so much work, kudos to you Ying fr!! It was a super fun game.

Shoutout to my besties/mutuals

@silentmoths @ainescribe thank you for your lil asks I love seeing your characters aaaaaaaa 💕

@floraldresvi @moraxsthrone and all the anons I got, your sabotages here and in discord were brutal omg Vi you almost made my cry //pos bc I wanted to react/respond to Li's messages 🥺 EVERY SINGLE TIME ghgnhgnghgn and NOT KEL MAKING MY GIRL HAVE A WET DREAM/SPICY MEMORY TYVM 💕 the way I had to contain myself hELP I loved it svcgavscgvsjgacbkackl

@meimeimeirin you also sabotaged me a lot, meanie //pos I loved SO MUCH your asks/little stories aaaaaa thank you for engaging so much when I know you're super busy 🥺 it def made my day everytime, ty for bringing the girl home and solving my silly lil mystery hehe 💕

@kurikurikurisu GIIIIIRL it's so funny to me that we kinda started interacting more on the last ebg for Rin and then I was like "she's a cool person I wanna fren.... 👉🏻👈🏻 but I shy...." took my sweet time to invite you to the server and turns out THIS ebg got us closer (I think? ehe?//hit) we didn't interact much in tumblr with each other's plots but bOY were we emotional support in discord, we really were in this suffering together 🤝🏻 mhm //nods nods 🤣 thank you so much for being interested in my lil silly plot and my girl aaaaaa

As for the "plot" and other things... (this got so long I am so sorryy;;;)

Well at first I wanted to do kinda a normal ebg, no plot or anything bc I don't think I have the smarts to do an elaborate game/story lmao and I kinda wanted to have more established s/i lore?? And then I realized hey I can use the ebg to introduce my s/i!!!

See I'd been working SO hard on her names lately, researching and studying in-game adepti lore and stuff and I though why don't I make it a simple game where the goal is to guess her name (with me giving hints ofc) and at the very start I had the idea of her losing her memories so she could re-discover/remember things about herself alongside the "players" learning them. Whoever character I got as my bias would help her and get to know her too along the way, even npcs (or in the rare case of me getting Dottore/Pantalone, probs be the villain for her memory loss lmao)

And then I got Kazuha. And it was so SO perfect. I took inspiration from Spirited Away with the plot point of having your name/memories/identity stolen and for some reason I remembered the whole Ino-shika-cho koi-koi card combo from Summer Wars I just had this vivid mental image of a scene where Kazuha dropped the biggest hint by writing the Kanji for Butterfly (Chō) which doubles ofc as the Hanzi for Butterfly/Crystalfly (Dié) written the same pronounced (and romanized) differently :3c

I was very proud of myself//hit also

I did not end up making haiku bc they are complicated but I at least tried to loosely keep/emulate the 3 phrases, phonetic rhyme and sensory elements while referencing my lil plot lmao

✧˖Originally I was gonna blame it on a playful tanuki or smth but I don't think they're powerful enough youkai lmao it was probably a kitsune.... we may never know ✧˖She was technically never in any danger yeah but imagine being lost with no memories and no way to know if you could get them back even because every person she met kept telling her they didn't know ofc she'd break down, or at least me, I'm very crybaby and neurotic sometimes//HIT ✧˖Yes this entire thing was technically Zhongli's fault since he did write her a letter addressed 亲爱的晶蝶 ("My dear Crystalfly/Jingdie") and that IS her name woops on a random note I kinda imagine he also signs with something like 你的龙 "Your Dragon" and vice versa with Crys ("My dear Dragon/your Crystalfly") sgcvgajsvcjhacbajkca //squeals kicks feets

And all this started because I was stressing over the fact that "Crys" is not an appropriate name for a Liyue character lmao, I debated for so long giving her a chinese name, but I didn't want to further make her an OC I wanted her to represent me/my blog (also part of me was and still is immensely worried I somehow insult cn ppl by being as some sort of weeabo equivalent or that I am "appropriating culture" or idk I may be dumb but I try to do my research and I prommy it does not come from a place of malice or anything I genuinely love genshin and Li and it's got me interested in a culture/country I funnily enough have somehow interacted with and have friends in but never really paid that much attention to ig...) and then I just had the epiphany What if I just reverse engineer and name her Crystalfly in cn? Lore would be that either her name got accidentally translated in documents a long long time ago and ppl started calling ehr Crystalfly/Crys and she rolled with it or she simply adopted the translation/nickname as her name for international settings, keeping her true name more private (hidden in plain sight tbh) p sure the only ones who know are the elder adepti (Ganyu/Xiao included) and Neuvillette (once he told her his real/first name) (ironically Crys may be harder to pronounce i other languages lmaoooo rip Fontaine)

Anyway this got way too long lmao sorrryyyyyyyy thank you everyone kith kith love y'all bye!! 💕

[dkniade]

“欲买桂花同载酒” / Zhongli’s osmanthus wine idle line

(Disclaimer: I don’t know that much about syntax, so I apologize for the wildly inaccurate syntax trees. I made the mistake of warming up with something that’s not English prose haha… I’ll be focusing on the meaning of the line and its hanzi characters, so the syntax is only there to help me explain some things.)

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“欲买桂花同载酒”…

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This line is from the Chinese songci (宋词, a form of traditional Chinese poetry) 《唐多令·芦叶满汀洲》，by 刘过 (Liu Guo). It’s the one referenced in Zhongli’s osmanthus wine idle line in Chinese. (By the way, it does not directly mean “Osmanthus wine tastes the same as I remember”, but more on that later.)

载 (zai3) as a verb could have the meaning of “to carry (something)(with a vehicle)”. For example, “这车可载三箱酒。” = “This car can carry three crates of wine.”

And since the rest of the songci talks about a harbour scene with boats, 载 could indeed be seen as a verb in the poem’s context, and the vehicle is implied to be a boat. So in the context of the songci, this line could be understood in English prose as “[I] wish to buy some osmanthus and ride [a boat] along with some wine.”

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However, despite the songci’s context, none of these hanzi characters in the line itself directly mean “boat”. While looking at it closer today, the syntactic structure felt a little strange to me even though I’m not familiar with Chinese songci syntax.

It turns out 载 has multiple meanings. 载, pronounced with the fourth tone (zai4), as a preposition used in pairs (in modern Chinese), could mean “simultaneously” or “at the same time”. For example, 载笑载哭 should probably mean “laughing at crying at the same time” or “laughing while crying”…

Also, the original songci doesn’t follow the osmanthus line with a section about old friends, but instead the idea of old friends is actually mentioned two lines prior. For the bolded sections, I’m doing a modern English translation, referencing the modern Chinese translation from the Gushiwen website here, but note that the original songci uses the poetic Chinese wenyan (文言) syntax.

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“黄鹤断矶头，故人今在否？旧江山浑是新愁。欲买桂花同载酒，终不似，少年游。”

“故人今在否？” = “Are [my] old friends still alive in this moment?”

“欲买桂花同载酒” = “[I] wish to buy some osmanthus and ride [a boat] along with some wine.”

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It’s pretty cool that Genshin Impact alluded to the friends idea present in the poem too. Also, both Liu Guo’s songci poem and Zhongli’s line use the term 故人 (gu4ren2) to mean “old friend(s)”.

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Meaning, Zhongli’s poetic-sounding Chinese idle line “欲买桂花同载酒…只可惜故人，何日再见呢？” is closer to “I wish to buy some osmanthus and also some wine… But as for those old friends, when would I meet them again?” in modern English with the game’s context (without taking into account that the real poem alluded to here is about boating). (This is a rough translation that follows the overall sentence structure in Chinese a little closer.)

Thus Genshin Impact’s English localization of “Osmanthus wine tastes the same as I remember… But where are those who share the memory?” might actually be okay in terms of meaning even if it lacks the nuance from the poetic reference. Well, I would’ve liked the first part (the songci) to be localized in Shakespearean English, and the second part to be in modern English, since the difference in syntax and tone still stands out a lot in Chinese… In an English localization, if a character who usually speaks in English prose suddenly quotes something in Shakespearean English, it’s easier to pick up on the fact that it might be a line of poetry ‘cause of the contrast, I believe.

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Somewhat unrelated, but in terms of poetic structure, it seems the entire poem in Chinese has an usually strict rhyming scheme, rhyming nine out of the twelve ending sounds together (roughly speaking. Not gonna go into the phonology of it haha)

Usually Chinese songci have a more diverse (?) rhyming scheme. E.g. “水调歌头•明月几时有” by 苏轼 (Su Shi), which miiight be the base inspiration for Liyue’s general storyline and cast

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In the end… Zhongli quotes a line of songci with seven hanzi/syllables. It’s a wild guess but maybe it refers to the original Seven Archons?

欲买桂花同载酒…只可惜故人，何日再见呢…