Chinese characters that are not just similar in sound: 01 (the 票 piào batch)

 

Even after over 40 years of teaching Mandarin in London, I'm still discovering new things to teach, new ways of looking at the language to help students get a firmer grasp as they're constantly grappling with it, especially the written script.

    I started to look at Chinese characters, for presenting to the students, as being in a batch of logically related context, rather than "just learn by rote" which is the traditional way for Chinese children in Chinese-speaking countries.  (Even if that wasn't the original principle behind those characters having a common perspective, it's still useful as a mnemonic.  Like the placebo effect:  who cares even if it's really just a placebo effect?  If it works, why not go along with it?)

    Here's the first that has inspired this series.

票 piào: (N) voucher –> therefore, float from place to place [change hands] –> I'm using the word "float" as the link for this batch.  

(票 piào / voucher has the 示 shì radical.  示 shì means to show, therefore used for "voucher"  –being shown for a transaction.  It is used for things like "ticket", "invoice / receipt", "cheque".  A lot, if not all, of the students I've inherited from other courses only think of it as "ticket", which is not right because a cheque or an invoice or receipt isn't called a ticket, so confusion can arise.  One needs to go back further back, and to a more general umbrella term, and adjust the English accordingly.)

漂 piāo (water radical 氵): (V) to float (on water)

飄 / 飘 piāo (wind radical 風 /风 fēng): (V) to float (in the air/wind)

瓢 piáo (gourd radical 瓜 guā): (N) gourd ladle (light, therefore float)

嫖 piáo (woman radical 女 nǚ): (V) to visit prostitutes (float from woman to woman)

瞟 piǎo (eye radical 目 mù): (V) cast sidelong glance at (a floating look)