rAs Kids All courses
Nǐ hǎo! Chinese · Module 1 of 8
🪨 No device needed

The Sun, the Mountain and the Walking Person

Chinese characters are not random squiggles — they are pictures that got tidier over three thousand years.

🚶 → 𠆢 → 人 ☀️ → ⊙ → 日 ⛰️ → 山
On the left the real thing, in the middle the ancient scratched picture, on the right the character people write today.

🎒 What you need

✋ Do this

  1. Find smooth sand or a flat wall. Draw a person from behind, walking, with two legs striding. Now rub out the head and the arms. What is left is 人 — rén — person.
  2. Draw three mountain peaks in a row, the middle one tallest. Straighten every line. That is 山 — shān — mountain.
  3. Draw the sun as a circle with a dot in the middle. Now squash the circle into a box. That is 日 — rì — sun.
  4. Draw a tree: one trunk, two branches going up, two roots going down. That is 木 — mù — tree.
  5. Draw all four characters BIG, in a row, and leave them there. Bring someone to look at them and make them guess which is which before you tell them.
  6. Say each one aloud three times while you point at your drawing: rén, shān, rì, mù.

💡 Why it works

Your brain stores pictures far better than it stores shapes with no meaning. When you learn 山 as three peaks instead of as three lines, you are attaching the character to something you have seen every day of your life. That link is what stops you forgetting it next week.

🔥 Challenge

Draw all four characters in the sand, then get a friend to stand in the middle and act out the one you shout. Person? They walk. Sun? They shine.

📖 New words

人 rénperson
山 shānmountain
日 rìsun; day
月 yuèmoon; month
木 mùtree; wood
⛰️
Sand Scribe

Tap when you have finished this module.