汉字难学吗？
Is Chinese difficult to learn?
你可能经常听到这样的话：
You may often hear people say:
我想学汉语，但是汉字太难了。
I want to learn Chinese, but Chinese characters are too difficult.
不少想学汉语的人在开始学习之前可能都有这样的想法。
Quite a lot people who want to learn Chinese think this way before taking up Chinese.
实际上，当你了解汉字之后会发现汉字并不难学。
In fact, you will find it not so hard to learn after you get to know the Chinese characters.
与拼音文字大不相同，汉字具有它独特的规律。
Different from alphabetical languages, the Chinese characters have its unique discipline.
汉字最早起源于图画，是人们对事物形象的描绘，也就是最初的象形文字。
The Chinese characters, originated from pictures, were people’s depiction of things, or the original hieroglyphical characters.
看到这个字，你会想到什么？
What will you think of when you see this character “日”?
它是从这个图案演变而来的，它表示太阳。
The character was evolved from the graphical representation of the sun.
它就像一个圆形，中间有一个点。
It is like a circular form with a dot in the middle.
也许你会问，太阳中间为什么会有一个点呢？
You may ask why there is a dot in the middle of the Sun.
原来 人们直视太阳的时候，太阳中间强烈的光线，就像一个亮点。
In fact, when people look directly at the Sun, the strong light in the middle of the Sun is like a light spot.
可见，古人有着多么敏锐的观察力啊。
It is clear that ancient people had acute observation.
汉字从起源到现在已经有几千年的历史了。
Chinese characters have the history of several thousand years.
世界上最早产生的几种象形文字，例如古埃及的象形文字和印第安人的玛雅文字，
Humans generated several kinds of hieroglyphical characters，such as the hieroglyphical characters in ancient Egypt and Indians’ Mayan characters，
因为种种原因后来都已经失传。
were lost later due to a host of reasons.
只有汉字历经数千年的演变而延续至今。
only Chinese characters have gone through several thousand years of evolution and remain until now.
这是我们看到的最早的汉字，它们被写在龟甲以及兽骨上。
These are the earliest Chinese characters we have seen which were written on tortoise shells and beast bones.
字形有大有小 笔道很细。
There are big and small forms of characters with slender strokes.
每个字都像是一幅小孩子的图画。
Every character is like a small kid’s drawing.
这个字像不像女子跪坐的样子？
Does this character look like a woman kneeling?
它表示“女人”的意思。
It indicates the meaning of a “woman”.
实际上，双膝跪地，两手交于腰间，正是古代中国妇女的仪态。
In fact, kneeling down the two knees and the two hands crossed on the waist is just the bearing of ancient Chinese women.
它演变到现在是这样的。
It has evolved into the current form of the character “女”.
“月”字就像夜空中一轮弯弯的月亮；
“月” is like a crescent moon;
“人”字就像一个伸直了手臂弯曲站立的人的样子；
“人”is like a person who is standing with straight arms;
“手”字就像是一个有着五根手指以及手腕的手掌；
“手” is like a palm with five fingers and a wrist;
“山”字就像是连绵起伏的山峰。
“山” is like rolling peaks.
经过发展之后汉字在象形的基础上又发展出了其他的造字方法。
After its development, other methods of word-formation were developed based on the hieroglyphical characters.
如果你接触过一些汉字，就会发现很多汉字都可以拆成不同的部分。
Many Chinese characters can be taken apart into different parts.
并且很多汉字中都有着相同的部分，它们被称作“偏旁”。
Plus, many Chinese characters share the same parts, which are called components or basic structural parts.
英文中26个字母可以随意组成一个单词。
The 26 English letters may be formed into words freely.
汉字虽然没有字母，但是不同的偏旁也可以组成不同的汉字。
Though Chinese characters have no letters, different structural parts may form different Chinese characters.
这个偏旁是由“手”变化而来的。
This structural part conveys the connotation of a hand.
当你看到带有这个偏旁的字，你会发现这些字基本上都有与手的动作相关的意思。
When you see characters with this structural part, you may find that these characters are basically related to the motion of hands.
汉字中表示声音的偏旁约有1300个，表示意思的偏旁约有250个。
Among Chinese characters, there are 1,300 basic structural parts indicating different sounds and 250 indicating different meanings.
这些不同的偏旁可以组成不同的汉字。
These different structural parts may form different characters.
据统计，汉字有80%以上是由这种方法构成的。
According to statistics, over 80% characters are formed in this way.
到底有多少汉字，至今没有一个确切的统计。
There has no exact statistics on the total number of Chinese characters.
只有从字典中寻找到大概的数字。
only approximate figures can be found in dictionaries.
二十世纪已出版的《中华字海》中收录了汉字85000个。
85,000 Chinese characters have been included in Chinese Thesauruses published in the 20th century.
这么多的汉字可怎么记得住啊？
How to remember so many Chinese characters?
不要担心。
Do not worry.
汉字虽然众多，但是日常使用的汉字，仅仅几千个而已。
Though there are numerous Chinese characters, there are only several thousand daily-used ones.
据统计，1000个常用汉字能覆盖约92%的书面材料，2000字可覆盖98%以上，3000字时已经能够覆盖到99% 。
According to statistics, 1,000 commonly-used characters can cover nearly 92% of written documents, 2,000 characters may cover over 98%, 3,000 -- 99%.
你知道吗？
Do you know?
汉字不仅在中文中使用，日文中也有汉字。
Chinese characters are not only used in China, but also in Japan.
日本国在历史上很长一段时间内都没有文字来记录自己的语言。
No characters were used to record the language for a long period of time in Japanese history.
大约公元四世纪时，汉字通过朝鲜大量传入日本。
In about the 4th century AD, Chinese characters were introduced into Japan in large quantities through Korea.
日本人最初把汉字作为表示声音的符号使用。
At first, the Chinese characters were used as symbols to indicate sound.
后来这些汉字逐渐演变成日语的假名。
Later, they gradually became kana.
朝鲜语 越南语之中也同样有汉字的身影。
There are Chinese characters found in Korean and Vietnamese.
何不尝试着写几个汉字呢？
Why not try to write several Chinese characters?
你会发现其中的乐趣的
You may find the pleasure.
汉字
Chinese character
偏旁
Radicals, structural parts
