Thursday, May 19, 2022

What is the Chinese word for "tiger"?

ANSWER: 老虎 (노호), which literally means "old (老) tiger (虎)."
兩隻老虎 (양척노호), 兩隻老虎 (양척노호)
Two old tigers, two old tigers
跑得快 (포득쾌), 跑得快 (포득쾌)
Running fast, running fast
一隻沒有耳朵 (일척몰유이타), 一隻沒有眼睛 (일척몰유안정)
One of them with no ears, one of them with no eyes
眞奇怪 (진기괴), 眞奇怪 (진기괴)
Very strange, very strange
    

I am trying to teach myself to read Chinese books and writings using Korean pronunciations instead of Chinese. Why? Because I already know the Korean pronunciations of many Chinese characters and do not want to spend the time to also learn the Chinese pronunciations. If I wanted to learn to speak Chinese, then I would need to learn Chinese pronunciations, but since I only want to learn to read Chinese, I think I can skip Chinese pronunciations and just focus on Chinese grammar. 

 It took me decades to learn to speak Korean, and I do not have decades left to also learn to speak Chinese. 

 Koreans used to write in literary Chinese, and a majority of Korean words are Sino-Korean, which means they are formed from Chinese characters, so by learning to read Chinese I am hoping that I will also learn more about the Korean language. If I were a young man, I would be interested in learning to speak Chinese, but I am no longer a young man.

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