Learning Chinese characters is fun only when you know the right technique. Otherwise, it’s going to take you lots of time and effort and you might end up memorizing it the hard way, not a pleasant one.
Let’s help you learn Chinese the right way. The first Chinese character that we are going to learn today is the Chinese character 面.
What does this Chinese character mean?
面 (mian4) is the Chinese word for noodles.
Noodles are an iconic dish in Chinese culture and many Asians enjoy bonding over a bowl of noodles.
Remember the first bowl of yellow noodles you bought from your primary school school canteen? What about the Maggi mee that accompanied you through your childhood until now?
There are so many kinds of mian4 in the world. We have the flat yellow mee pok, the fat whitish (ban3 mian4) and the thin egg noodles (you4 mian4). Other cultures also have their own version of noodles too.
What type of noodles is your favourite? If you like, share a memory of you and your favourite noodles with me on social media with the hashtag #chinesewithzls. I’ll be interested to know if you like the same kind of mian4 like I do.
Aside from noodles, it might be interesting to know that this Chinese character has another meaning which is “face”.
How to remember this Chinese character 面 (mian4)
Unlike most Chinese characters that has a radical, the first thing that you might notice about this word is that the Chinese character 面 that has none.
Remembering this Chinese character for noodles is rather easy. Just picture yourself smiling as you enjoy your noodles from a gigantic bowl! That’s your yummy mian4!
Do you think you can remember how this Chinese word is written now?
What other Chinese characters can you pair 面 mian4 with?
Since noodles is made of flour, another word that you might have heard of is the Chinese word for bread 面包 (mian4 bao1) which is also made of flour.
Have you added this new Chinese word 面 to your vocabulary yet?
On the scale of 1 to 10, how well do you think you have mastered this Chinese character?
Don’t forget to bookmark this page if you want to learn more Chinese characters with me!
