When "Mexico" Is Enough...

Over the last week I have been thinking quite a bit about the topic of what constitutes enough learning for a day. When you realize that learning is a bit like eating, you have a new appreciation of what may or may not be a good amount for you. For example, I have been satisfied with a "meal" of one word--the word "kaber" (grave) in the Hebrew text of Job 3:22, which opened a rich metaphorical world in that verse, or a few dictionary phrases in Chinese. Today, however, overwhelmed with the vastness of that Asian language, I decided just to make sure I had "down" the three character expression for "Mexico." Of course, this led me to a few other countries, and then to review the 12 signs of the Chinese zodiac and one sentence that comes from a Chinese Pod dialogue, but then I had to end it, lest my delicious meal make me stuffed and cause me to forget the entire reason for my eating.

Beginning Simply Enough

So, I decided I wanted to make sure I understood and could easily reproduce the names of a few countries in Chinese. This isn't a useless exercise, since it adds to knowledge, but it is nearly so--since the characters used to write the country name are used solely because of sound--and not because of meaning. So, it is a pure memorization of sound, shorn of any meaning. Yet, I do it. I wanted to make sure I had the following four countries "down"--Australia, France, Germany, Mexico. This led to Ireland, Asia and Europe and these 17 (unrepeated) characters became the basis of my learning for the day. They are:

1. Mo(4) xi(1) ge(1). The "mo" is the word for ink or, as the Chinese might say, "you(2) mo(4) de mo(4)"--or "ink's 'mo'." Because many characters can have the same sound, you have to differentiate. The "mo," then, is the "mo" that appears in the Chinese word for "ink." It is a 15-stroke character The others are easier. The "xi" is the "xi" that means "West" and the "ge" is the term for "older brother."

2. Ao(4) da(4) li(4) ya(4) is the longish word for "Australia." The first is a 15-character symbol, meaning "inlet" or "bay" and it also appears in other place names, like "Macao" (ao men(2), or the "bay gate"). The "da" is the word for "big," the "li" a very useful and productive word, meaning "advantage" or "profit" or "sharp." You can see the complexity of Chinese consists not only in the fact that one sound may represent many, many different characters (and that more than 2000 of the characters have both a simplified and traditional form), but that each character may have many, many meanings based either on its stand-alone usage or its usage in combination. It can almost drive you crazy, unless you go slowly up this massive mountain. The "ya" is the word for "second" or "lesser." When I was in Yanji, China, I had to take the bus to Chang Bai Shan through the "Dong Ya" or the Eastern substation terminal.

3. The "ya" then led me to make sure I knew both "Ya zhou(1)"--Asia--and "Ou(1) zhou(1)" or Europe. Thus, with the four characters for Australia and three for Mexico, we now have two more non-repeats, leading us to make sure we have "down" these 9 characters.

4. But I wanted to go a little further on my country knowledge, and so I added to that the following, which gave me 8 more characters: France (fa(3) guo(2)); Germany (de(2) guo(2)); Ireland (ai(4) er(3) lan(2)); and Greece (xi(2) la(4)). The "fa" is the "fa" of law, a very useful character elsewhere; the "guo" is the regular word for "country," and the "de" of Germany is the very useful 15-stroke character for "morals" or "kindness." The "ai" of Ireland is "love's 'ai'," the "er" is the formal for "thou," and the "lan" is the word for "orchid." Finally, it seems that the "xi la" is meant to reproduce "Hellas" rather than "Greece." The "xi" is "hope's xi" and the la(4) is an unusual/rare character representing the twelfth lunar month or cured fish. The two aren't so unrelated, since the latter, apparently, was eaten in the former.

Further Ruminations

We see how we could take this much further. We could branch into various systems of dividing the universe that the ancient Chinese had. We could go onto other countries. Indeed, I was tempted to try to "include" America, England, Wales and Scotland, but I had to desist, lest the meal become too rich for me. But since the Chinese new year just dawned, I thought I would finish by making sure I had memorized the 12 animals comprising that cycle, in their order. This year is the year of the dragon (long(2)--appropriately, my birth year!), and so I thought I should know these 12, once and for all. They are, in order, "rat, cow, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, chicken, dog and pig." Or, in Chinese, mindful of collecting twelve more nice characters, they are: "shu(3), niu(2), hu(3), tu(4), long(2), she(2), ma(3), yang(2), hou(2), yi(1), gou(3), and zhu(1)." Say that really fast, many times, and you will be on your way to the mastery of the animals..though I suppose this doesn't help you for cat, fish, lion or, for that matter, squirrel or porcupine!

Finishing With a Sentence

The sentence is not "I was born under XXX sign.," using the verb "shu" (3). Rather, the Chinese Pod dialogue for the day had one of the speakers, just before she recited the 12 zodiacal signs (sheng(1) xiao(1)) quickly, ask the question:

"kuai(4) yi(1) dian(3) hai(2) shi(4) man(4) yi(1) dian(3)?"

Or, "do you want me (to recite them) quickly or slowly?" The answer was "quickly" (which itself reminded me of the Modern Major General repeating one of the stanza's of his famous song "really fast"). I like this sentence because it is useful and easy to remember, and it gives us about five more characters to makes sure we have learned.

Thus, ultimately, it was about a 35 character day. Sometimes you just have to go very slowly, to make sure you have them "down." The language can tend to overwhelm; anything to get a good anchor is helpful. So, we have the 12 signs, a few countries, and a simple sentence. A nice meal. Now we can get on to the other things of the day.

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