Learning Mandarin through mental images

[Fely Añez]

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 -> 📱

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