It’s time for another vocabulary challenge on Hacking Chinese! It starts on June 10th and focuses on characters, words and expressions. The challenge is sponsored by Skritter, including things both for new and existing users. Check the challenge article for details!
These challenges are run every month with different focus, with the goal of encouraging people to learn more through daily practice and friendly competition. If you want to learn more about the challenges, I recorded a podcast episode about it here:
@SkritterOlle very interesting article on tracing errors in character writing, thanks.
I notice in your article you don’t mention mnemonics. Do you not use them?
For 偵 I use the mnemonic “people use fortune-teller money to SEEK OUT their futures” based on 卜 for fortune-telling and 貝 for cowrie-shell money. “fortune-teller money” is also a useful mnemonic for the character for divination 貞 , although perhaps less helpful for the meanings of loyalty and chastity.
For 恬 I would use the mnemonic “heart tongue is QUIET and PEACEFUL” (in the sense of no racing thoughts.)
You also mention a “form component.” What is this, or more to the point, what is its function, separate from phonetic and semantic components?
Yes, I use mnemonics. I think I mention specific examples for roughly half the cases, no? I don’t do only a mnemonic, though, I combine that with more understanding of the character itself, but if you look under “solution” for each, you’ll see direct reference to mnemonic devices of various kinds!
My goal this time is to clear my queue, which was at 2250 or so before the challenge started. That’s only handwriting, so will take a while to clear! I aim for a maximum of 21 hours, but hopefully it’ll be faster than that.
My goal is 40mn a day so that I can finally make some progress with the HSK4 deck