I’ve been learning Mandarin mostly trough sentences and sounds.
For example I learned 火锅 some days ago.
I know that 火 is 🔥 (I imagine fire in my mind).
But I don’t have an idea what 锅 means, so I just learn it means “hot pot/火锅“.
Like if If put the meaning of 火锅 inside 锅.
If I learn another meaning for 锅 I will start creating an “image of the meaning”
看 has a very broad meaning in Chinese.
In Spanish and English we have “See”, “Look, “Watch” and “Read”.
In Chinese there are:
看电影
看书
Two different actions, but I try to see the characters and I try to get the “real” Chinese meaning.
So I understand 看 as “the action of putting your eyes into something and analyze it’s details”
I see the character 书 and I try imagine this -> 📒
I mostly can’t remember how to write the characters since I don’t write them very often, but I can recognize them immediately If I see them in a word or a sign
Something that helps me with languages is to attach the “sound” and “written form” to a “mental image” rather that “a word”.
Rather than:
火 -> Fire/Fuego
水 -> Water/Agua
晚 -> Night/Noche
手机 -> Cellphone/Teléfono
I do it like this:
火 -> 🔥
水 -> 💧
晚 -> 🌃
手机 -> 📱