Painless Chinese learning starts with your body（无痛学中文，从身体开始）
Dec 25, 2023A student has been studying Chinese for 3 years. One day, he asked me, "Teacher, what does "夭折"(yāo zhé) mean?" I told him that it means that a person dies before he or she is old, or even before he or she grows up. One day later, he came back to me and asked, "Teacher, what does "夭折"(yāo zhé) mean? Once again, I told him that it means that a person dies very young. On the fourth and fifth day, he came to me every day and asked me, "Teacher, what does "夭折"(yāo zhé) mean? I began to wonder if he had lost his memory or if I had entered some kind of time loop.
(一个学生学中文3年了。一天，他问我，老师，“夭折”是什么意思？我告诉他，意思是一个人还没老就死了，甚至还没长大就死了。过了一天，他又来问我：老师，夭折是什么意思。我再一次告诉他，意思是一个人死得很年轻。第四天、第五天，他每天都来问我，老师，夭折是什么意思。我开始怀疑是他失忆了，还是我进入了某种时间循环。 )
In fact, the Chinese word 夭折 is not used much in everyday life. Chinese people don't know this word as children either. They learn the word in school or when they read books. So, 夭折 is an advanced word that may be hard for non-native speakers to remember. But, you only have to explain this word once to Chinese kids and they will never forget it. Why?
(其实，夭折这个中文词在日常口语中用得不多。中国人小时候也不知道这个词。他们在学校或者看书的时候会学到这个词。所以，夭折是一个高级词汇，对于非母语者来说可能很难记住。但是，你只用向中国小孩解释一次夭折的意思，他们永远都不会忘。这是为什么呢？)
Chinese kids are familiar with the word "腰"(yāo), meaning waist. Waist is the middle part of our body, so 腰(yāo) also means middle. For example, in Chinese we call the middle part of a mountain 山腰(shān yāo), which means the waist of the mountain, the middle part of a mountain.
(中国小孩熟悉一个词“腰”，意思的waist。腰是我们人体的中间部分，所以还有中间的意思。例如，在中文里，我们把山的中间部分称为山腰，意思是山的腰部。)
腰(yāo) is pronounced the same as 夭(yāo) in 夭折。 腰, 夭折, you can tell that they are pronounced the same. Although they are not the same character, but they have some kind of relationship.
(腰和夭折的夭发音相同。腰、夭折，你能听得出来他们发音相同。尽管他们不是同一个字，但是他们有某种关系。)
夭折。What is 折? This is 折. This is 折. This is 折.
It's a verb that every Chinese kid is familiar with. So when a kid hears the word 夭折 for the first time, he or she can think of this image. It seems that a person's life is broken down in the middle. From then on, they will never forget this word.
(夭折，什么是折？这就是折，这就是折，折就是折。这是一个每个小孩都很熟悉的动词。所以当一个小孩第一次听到这个词：夭折，就能想到这个画面。好像一个人的生命从中间折断。从此之后，他们永远不会忘记这个词。)
As native speakers, the earliest vocabulary Chinese children learn is about body parts and body movements. But for many Chinese learners, the earliest thing they learn may be Pinyin, greeting like 你好、谢谢 or some sentence patterns like 你叫什么名字. They may have studied Chinese for 2 or 3 years and still not know or be familiar with basic vocabulary, such as 腰 and 折. This is the difference between Chinese learners and Chinese children.
(作为母语者，中国小孩最早学会的词汇是关于身体的各个部位和肢体动作。但是对于很多中文学习者，最早学会的可能是拼音、打招呼或者一些句型。他们可能学了两三年的汉语，还不认识或者不熟悉基础词汇，如腰和折。这就是中文学习者和中国小孩子的不同。)
You can find examples like "夭折" everywhere in Chinese. Intermediate and advanced Chinese words are built on the basis of basic words. The real basic words are the ones we hear constantly from birth, such as spit, chin, fart, pee, scratch, and so on. Don't think hello, thank you, what's your name, how old are you, these are the basics. They are not really basic. We don't learn these until we are 2 or 3 years old.
(像“夭折”这样的例子在中文里随处可见。中级和高级的中文词都是建立在初级词的基础上。真正的初级词就是我们一出生就开始不断的听的那些词，例如口水、下巴、屁、尿、抓等等。不要以为你好、谢谢、你叫什么名字，你几岁这些是基础，它们不是真正的基础。我们两三岁之后才会学这些。)
Native speakers can learn Chinese in a painless way because they start with these really basic words. You can't remember Chinese words and Chinese characters because you lack these basic words.
I always say that Chinese language is like a big tree. You know a big tree has so many branches and each one is different. There are so many leaves and also each one is different. A tree contains so many details. If we want to get a big tree, you shouldn't go to design and manufacture each branch and each leaf. It's a so big project. How should we do it? We just plant a seed and it will grow into a big tree.The seed of the Chinese language is our body.
If you start learning Chinese by recognizing body parts and body movements, you are planting the seed of Chinese.
This is why I designed this Chinese course: Learn Chinese like a Chinese. The purpose is to help you plant this seed of Chinese and get this big tree. It might be a little harder at first, a little harder than 你好、谢谢. You can't use what we learn right now. You can't show people what you've learned in Chinese. But this is the Chinese way of learning Chinese, the natural way. You will learn faster and faster and easier like a native speaker.
(所以我设计了这套中文课程：像中国人一样学中文。目的是为了帮助你种下这棵中文的种子，得到这颗大树。一开头可能会难一些，比“你好”、“谢谢”难一点。你没法立刻把我们学的东西用出来，没法向人展示的你学的中文。但是这是中国人学中文的方式，是符合自然规律的方式。你会像母语者一样越学越快，越来越轻松。)
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