Cobie

Good to see you!

I second that. ABC - avoid bad company. I second that.

Yes. I can read the pinjin and do the ‘tones’ fairly now. But I cannot remember words well as they have no common root with my language at all. Also I think I started a bit too late in life to get anywhere with something that requires so much memorising. I still practice a little bit, just for fun, as I do think it is a very beautiful and intriguing language. Yes. It’’s like having to learn 2 languages. For each English word I have to learn the Chinese equivalent + the character for it. Despite online fairy tales, in my experience each character is pretty much unique and needs to be separately memorised. Ha, ha, I definitely sympathise. But yes, it would be “rare”; most people love their own language above all others. Yes, I heard a bit about that before. A system of very hard to pass exams for entry into civil service, one had to learn by heart some of the classics. Wow, 81 verses … definitely impossible for me.

Me ‘Cassandra’ do prophesy that Xxandra will not be back.

The OP scared me off.

Nothing new under the sun.

Yep. Kanji means 漢字 han4 zi4 - Chinese character.

Worse! Bernhard Karlgren wrote in 1911: Even if you know the modern colloquial and recognize a couple of thousand Chinese characters, you cannot read a single line of Chinese literature. … Once you after no end of toil have mastered the language used in the classics, you still cannot read the histories written at the same time. If you master the two languages, you still cannot read a line of poetry. If you master the three languages, you still cannot read novels. If you master the four languages, you still cannot read newspapers. If you master the five languages, you still cannot read imperial edicts, trade agreements, passports, etc. And so on, and so on. http://goranmalmqvist.blogspot.com/2015/09/bernhard-karlgren-man-behind-scholar.html

My Chinese teacher used to say, “One cannot read Chinese without knowing the culture”.

Hi Ramleh. Welcome to the forum.

Please use Google: antlers and horns belong to two different biological families: bovidae and cervidae.

Imo often psychosomatic.

Yes, 鹿 is deer … but ‘caprinae’ is not ‘鹿’.

I second that.

True. @VELLY Your wife too will respond well to being loved by you. My advice: focus on the relationship and forget about the mentioned problems.

Very impressive.

@Mango This type of dictionary, I always switch language a few times. If the translation does not stay the same (as in your ‘deer’ case), it indicates a mistake in the database.

It’s a mistake in this database, as 鹿 lu4 - deer (cervidae).

Only by consensus.

As a Dutch speaker, trying (unsuccessfully) to learn some Chinese; I now think the language is extremely hard to learn for me. I think the same goes for Chinese speakers learning English, extremely difficult for them too. So I have lots of respect for the English of @Mango

That’s very interesting. What characters do you use for followers of Taoism?

I think we can forget about the 道徒 meaning ‘Semi-Taoist’.

@Mango thanks for corroborating.

My guess is: (1) 道人 dao4 ren0 or 道士 dao4 shi0 - Taoist priest (真人 zhen1 fen2 - high-ranking priest) Taoist priest an ascetic; not married; lives in the Taoist shrine 24/7 follows the principles of Tao (2) 道徒 dao4 tu2 - Taoist, follower of Taoism Religious Taoist not an ascetic; may be married; lives in his own home; has a secular job to make a living; visits the shrine follows the principles of Tao Secular Taoist only follows the principles of Tao but is nonreligious.

道徒 dao4 tu2 - Taoist, participant of Taoism or some religious superstitious organization. https://www-zdic-net.translate.goog/hans/道徒?_x_tr_sl=zh-CN&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=sc