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Growing up in Taiwan

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as the daughter of a calligrapher,

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one of my most treasured memories

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was my mother showing me the beauty, the shape

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and the form of Chinese characters.

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Ever since then, I was fascinated

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by this incredible language.

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But to an outsider, it seems to be

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as impenetrable as the Great Wall of China.

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Over the past few years, I've been wondering

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if I can break down this wall,

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so anyone who wants to understand and appreciate

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the beauty of this sophisticated language could do so.

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I started thinking about how a new, fast method

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of learning Chinese might be useful.

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Since the age of five, I started to learn how to draw

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every single stroke for each character

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in the correct sequence.

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I learned new characters every day

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during the course of the next 15 years.

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Since we only have five minutes,

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it's better that we have a fast and simpler way.

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A Chinese scholar would understand 20,000 characters.

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You only need 1,000 to understand the basic literacy.

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The top 200 will allow you to comprehend

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40 percent of basic literature --

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enough to read road signs, restaurant menus,

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to understand the basic idea of the web pages

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or the newspapers.

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Today I'm going to start with eight

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to show you how the method works.

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You are ready?

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Open your mouth as wide as possible

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until it's square.

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You get a mouth.

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This is a person going for a walk.

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Person.

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If the shape of the fire is a person

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with two arms on both sides,

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as if she was yelling frantically,

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"Help! I'm on fire!" --

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This symbol actually is originally from the shape of the flame,

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but I like to think that way. Whichever works for you.

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This is a tree.

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Tree.

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This is a mountain.

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The sun.

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The moon.

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The symbol of the door

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looks like a pair of saloon doors in the wild west.

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I call these eight characters radicals.

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They are the building blocks

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for you to create lots more characters.

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A person.

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If someone walks behind, that is "to follow."

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As the old saying goes,

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two is company, three is a crowd.

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If a person stretched their arms wide,

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this person is saying, "It was this big."

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The person inside the mouth, the person is trapped.

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He's a prisoner, just like Jonah inside the whale.

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One tree is a tree. Two trees together, we have the woods.

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Three trees together, we create the forest.

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Put a plank underneath the tree, we have the foundation.

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Put a mouth on the top of the tree, that's "idiot." (Laughter)

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Easy to remember,

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since a talking tree is pretty idiotic.

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Remember fire?

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Two fires together, I get really hot.

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Three fires together, that's a lot of flames.

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Set the fire underneath the two trees, it's burning.

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For us, the sun is the source of prosperity.

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Two suns together, prosperous.

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Three together, that's sparkles.

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Put the sun and the moon shining together,

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it's brightness.

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It also means tomorrow, after a day and a night.

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The sun is coming up above the horizon. Sunrise.

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A door. Put a plank inside the door,

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it's a door bolt.

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Put a mouth inside the door, asking questions.

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Knock knock. Is anyone home?

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This person is sneaking out of a door,

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escaping, evading.

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On the left, we have a woman.

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Two women together, they have an argument.

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(Laughter)

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Three women together, be careful, it's adultery.

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So we have gone through almost 30 characters.

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By using this method, the first eight radicals

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will allow you to build 32.

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The next group of eight characters

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will build an extra 32.

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So with very little effort,

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you will be able to learn a couple hundred characters,

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which is the same as a Chinese eight-year-old.

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So after we know the characters, we start building phrases.

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For example, the mountain and the fire together,

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we have fire mountain. It's a volcano.

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We know Japan is the land of the rising sun.

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This is a sun placed with the origin,

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because Japan lies to the east of China.

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So a sun, origin together, we build Japan.

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A person behind Japan, what do we get?

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A Japanese person.

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The character on the left is two mountains

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stacked on top of each other.

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In ancient China, that means in exile,

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because Chinese emperors, they put their political enemies

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in exile beyond mountains.

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Nowadays, exile has turned into getting out.

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A mouth which tells you where to get out

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is an exit.

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This is a slide to remind me that I should stop talking

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and get off of the stage. Thank you.

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(Applause)