Need advise on techniques and some questions

[Lao Che]

Assuming I am wrong and 汉字 does have a good logic structure how does 牛午 have anything in common? How can the little line on the top of 牛 mean the difference that the character means ox instead of the time of afternoon?

Hans 汉 are as common as right handedness 又 and water 氵. The child's (子) under roof (宀) on rainy day writing character 字. Cow 牛 pokes his head out at noon 午.You can create this type of "logic" for all characters and words. Sometimes your way of remembering them will not sync with the actualy etymology, but the characters are far from random, even if they appear that way to you. Learn the radicals, learn the characters, and then remember words and other characters by recognizing their components (the radicals and characters composing them) and combining their meanings together in your memory to create strong, lasting connections. That is what works for me, and makes the task far more enjoyable than rote memorization. Heisig or memrise.com (I included a couple links) will get you started, but pretty soon you will break away from these sources and develop your own personal method.

[rob07]

E.G.

丁立波： 小明，你什么时候出去玩儿？

小明：今天下牛出去玩儿。

I don't think dialogues often feature errors like that, so it may be a bit easier than you think...

Yes, bad mistake. He probably would have had more fun if he had just kept on riding the cow instead of going out.

[大哥哥]

Thank you guys for the help. I understand the best way is just to study them and not think about the logic structure. I automatically assume the worlds most spoken language's writing system would be based on something more concrete and logical (by logic I mean retaining brain mass, im pretty damn sure using the non phoetic 汉字 writing system uses 10x more brainmass compaired to using the phoetic Alphabet Roman system. ) than historic varients of caveman paintings.

@OP: the advice/advise thing was mainly a dig at the thread title+admonition to study more, accept things as they are, accept that Chinese is not more illogical than English...

Im not talking about Chinese compaired to english. Im talking about 汉字 (chinese writing) compaired to Roman letters, AKA the alphabet. Infact I think the Chinese language is more logical compaired to the English language, due to its combining of words intertwining thier meanings.

[Glenn]

by logic I mean retaining brain mass, im pretty damn sure using the non phoetic 汉字 writing system uses 10x more brainmass compaired to using the phoetic Alphabet Roman system

I think maybe "efficient" is better than "logical" in this case.

[edelweis]

[Deleted off topic stuff.]

Anyway, good luck with your studies.

[Mekkalomp]

In this aspect, learning English words is like learning hanzi.

I rarely speak in English and I can still read and speak English alright. But can't read Chinese properly/at all.

[cababunga]

I understand the best way is just to study them and not think about the logic structure.

I don't think that's exactly what people were trying to say. There is a reason why Heisig/Richardson's book was mentioned on this thread three times already; here is a link, by the way:

http://nirc.nanzan-u.ac.jp/publications/miscPublications/Remembering%20Hanzi%201.htm

The truth is that the characters like 牛 and 午 are very simple and there are not so many of them in Chinese. These are really no different from C/G or O/Q. These you can just memorize. These simple characters often used as components of more complicated ones. For example

午 is used as a building block for these characters:

仵 吘 啎 忤 旿 杵 汻 浒 玝 許 许 迕,

and 牛 for these:

件 侁 侔 俈 傜 儹 先 兟 冼 劺 勂 吽 吿 告 哞 哠 哰 喾 嗂 嚳 囋 墀 夝 姓 姺 媱 宪 峼 嵼 嶰 巑 廨 徃 徭 徲 怣 性 恈 悎 惺 愮 懈 戥 捁 搖 摇 摌 摨 攢 旌 星 晧 暒 曐 栍 桙 梏 榣 樨 檞 欑 殅 毨 毪 汼 泩 洗 洠 浩 浶 湦 滛 滻 漽 澔 澥 灒 烍 焅 煋 熎 牛 牜 牝 牞 牟 牠 牡 牢 牣 牤 牥 牦 牧 牨 物 牪 牫 牬 牭 牮 牯 牰 牱 牲 牳 牴 牵 牶 牷 牸 特 牺 牻 牼 牽 牾 牿 犀 犁 犂 犃 犄 犅 犆 犇 犈 犉 犊 犋 犌 犍 犎 犏 犐 犑 犒 犓 犔 犕 犖 犗 犘 犙 犚 犛 犜 犝 犞 犟 犠 犡 犢 犣 犤 犥 犦 犧 犨 犩 犪 犫 狌 猩 猺 獬 珄 珗 瑆 瑤 瑶 瓚 生 甠 甡 產 産 甤 甥 甦 甧 皓 眚 眸 硞 磘 礸 祰 禶 穉 穳 窂 窖 窰 笙 筅 筶 篂 簅 籫 糙 繲 纘 聕 胜 腥 臢 艁 苼 荦 薢 蛑 蟹 蠏 襸 解 詵 誥 謃 謠 謡 讚 诜 诰 谣 貹 贊 趲 跣 躦 选 造 遙 遥 遲 邂 郜 酰 酷 醒 鈝 鉎 鉾 銑 鋯 鍌 鍟 鎐 鏟 鑽 铣 锆 隡 靠 頶 饡 駪 鮏 鯌 鯹 鰩 鳐 鴸 鴾 鵇 鵠 鹄 麰 鼄 鼪