提高汉语教学效率：注意拉丁桥

雷立柏
中国人民大学

教外国学生汉语必须帮助他们记住汉字、汉语单词及汉语成语。一些跨越汉语及西方（欧洲）语言的“桥梁”有助于实现此目标。拉丁语便为汉语学习提供了此类“桥梁”，即意义、词源均相似的词。一些词组和隐喻亦是如此，比如在拉丁语和汉语中，“泉源”均可指代抽象的“根源”。本文提供一些跟“宇宙”、“水”、“风”、“植物”等相关的例子来说明那些从西方语言跨越到汉语、或从汉语到达西方语言的“桥梁”。比较词汇学或比较修辞学的使用可提高对外汉语教学的效率。

Enhancing the Efficiency of Teaching and Learning Chinese: Look for the Latin Connection

Leopold Leeb
Renmin University of China

Teaching Chinese to foreigners often entails the memorization of Chinese characters, words and phrases. The learning process can be supported by “bridges” that would connect Chinese and western (European) languages. The Latin language can offer such “bridges,” namely words that convey similar meanings and have similar etymologies. Some phrases or metaphors are used in the same way, for example “fountain” and “spring” can also mean “origin” (in the abstract sense), both in Latin and in Chinese. This article uses examples from the word fields of “universe,” “water,” “fire,” “wind,” and “plants” to show that many words can become bridges from Chinese to western languages and from Latin to Chinese. The use of comparative lexicology and comparative rhetoric may enhance the efficiency of teaching Chinese to foreigners.

Keywords: language learning, comparative lexicology, comparative rhetorics