The Chinese Language

你好 (Nǐ hǎo, hello)

On April 16th I attended a arts and ideas event titled, Discover Languages: Chinese. During this event, I learned about the unique aspects found in the Chinese language and even learned a little bit of Chinese as well. Through this event, I even found a greater interest in learning a new language someday.

The event began with an introduction to what the Chinese language was. It is said to be the oldest written language in the world! After this, we then were introduced to the Chinese "alphabet". There is really no such thing as an alphabet because what the Chinese use is something called pictograph. A pictograph is essentially what us Americans call letters but to the Chinese they mean words. Below is an example!

The picture above shows how sometimes these symbols can be combined in order to form a word that doesn't have its own symbol.

                               The picture above shows examples of symbols and their meanings.

The experience was very rewarding and I was able to gain a new understanding of the Chinese language. At the end of the presentation, the speaker even showed us a little bit of Chinese and the gestures that go along with it! I hope to one day learn a new language, preferably Portuguese.