Hi everyone :-)
Today's lecture had one interesting quotation of Confucius to show important difference between words 学 and 学习 and to explain the meaning of 学习. It goes like this: "学而时习之，不亦说乎？" English translation would be "One studies and often takes reviews, isn't it the source of delight?" In Chinese - English dictionaries you would find, that both words mean "to learn, to study", and in this case English language is dry, because for Chinese people there is a big difference.
学习 meaning is explained in Confucius quotation above - it means to learn doing it really by heart and not only thinking, but DOING that (character 习 meaning review, repeated study) repeatedly. It is general meaning, as it is not limited for studies but also for learning to live, learning to express yourself, etc. That’s what every man should do in his life! Teacher encouraged us all to study Chinese harder, have the real goal to learn the language and try to achieve it, because only in this way you can learn it well.
And the word 学 means just "to learn, to study".
Well that's how I understood teacher's explanation, correct me if I'm wrong :-)
I like more and more such lectures like today's - having some philosophy inside - more than just plain language study :-)
Today we have also read both dialogs in Lesson 7, learned grammar rules 1.(Attributes expressing possession) and 2.(V/A-not-V/A questions) and new words. Even though we didn't have enough time to finish Lesson 7 in class, we have to do that during this long weekend. We must also fill in all the workbook for Lesson 7 until Monday and bring it to the class for checking (Monday).
That's it for now. Have a warm and cosy weekend. Don't get cold visiting cemetery and feel peaceful remembering all our relatives/friends that are already gone..
P.S. In case you would like to have more philosophical thoughts, I found next few sentences from the same Confucius writing: 学而时习之，不亦说乎？有朋自远方来，不亦乐乎？人不知而不愠，不亦君子乎？ The translation given is this: “One studies and often takes reviews, isn't it the source of delight? One has men from the same line to visit from afar, isn't it the origin of happiness? One is unknown and stays without frustration, isn't it the expectation of the noble?” There was also given comment for it, even though for me it was a little bit dry, but it gives better understanding what is being said by Confucius. Here it is:
Every Chinese who has received compulsory education knows this section. It defines the channel where people get delight, happiness and nobleness from. Confucius maintains that the happiness shall be the result of people's cultivation. Internally, one should keep studying, and approach delight from the in-depth achievement in the knowledge of the world, or the improvement though the sentimentality, but not the superficial body entertainment or fortune written in water. Here Confucius also emphasizes the importance of repetition. People, especially the youth, are always too easy to be attracted by new ideas. However, only through repetition will one build a solid fundamental upon which can one flash real innovation. But only becoming a learned man is far from enough from Confucius' view. One should make friendship with others. Confucius does not use the item "friend" but a more precise word "men from the same line". For in traditional Chinese, friends can be divided into two types: "men from the same line" or "men of the same aspiration, comrade". Confucius means to point out only the common interest in study here. He also advocates that men from the same line should contact regularly, despite of the distance. A simple fact is that, men from the same line feel happy when getting together. Certainly, physical distance is no longer a problem today. But the laziness and the psychological distance become even greater gap, and prevent people from happiness. In ancient times, the communication system and public media is not developed. So, people can only become known over one-by-one introduction. This is also why Confucius would like learned people to go afar and pay visits to the men of the same line and get to know more potential opportunities. We can see in comparison with Bacon's great proverb "knowledge is power" that Confucius first point out that knowledge is firstly happiness, and only knowledge itself cannot become power. Certainly, both Bacon and Confucius agree that learned people will play the role of governor, but Confucius not only delivers an abstract concept, but also a practical methodology: one should build a solid knowledge and moral background, and one should contact more to touch base of transferring knowledge into power. And power comes out from the happiness. So we can see the advantage of the Confucius' political and ideological combination. He does not directly goes in power, but he does first retrieve happiness. The last sentence escalates the whole section, and proves again the idea that happiness is more than power. Even if one's merits are unrecognized, he should still remain in peace. The problems existing in the real world is mostly resulted from the chauvinism, not willing to leave any space on one or a nation's capability. Confucius tells that the happiness comes not from fighting, or showing the superiority, it comes from study and communication with men from the same line. So, nobleness is seen when one is unknown rather than one is admitted. Only if one understands the source of happiness is he recognized as a noble. It also implies that people are not in full control of destiny, but generally they can behave themselves. The noble is one of the core concept of Confucius', here we see its first appearance and explanation: the noble gets delight from studying, and puts attention to happiness more than recognition, willing to make great efforts and let it take its own course. In this very first section Confucius uses concise words to express his way of how people can live happy lives and which people are considered noble.
I wonder, what do you think about it? Think and DO something!
