It has been more than 50 years than the first researchers have warned us that our current human development is not sustainable. Many international meetings have been made to agree on concrete actions and legislation, but without real success.
Raise your hand if you’ve been in China for 3 years and are still struggling to learn Mandarin!
Characters can be hard enough to learn in general, not to mention all the characters that look EXACTLY the same but have completely different meanings!
Today, the GiC team found the most common characters
that might have you saying “am I seeing double?”.
We promise, you aren’t.
Take a look.
01
The left character is 已(yǐ).
Basic meaning: to express it has passed.
like 已经(yǐ jīng): already
The right character is 己(jǐ).
like 自己(zì jǐ）: oneself
Separately they look identical but can you spot the difference with them side by side?
02
汩 gǔ’s right component is “曰”(yuē)
汩汩 gǔ gǔ describe the sound of waves or the sound or appearance of water flowing.
汨 mì’s right component is ‘日'(rì).
Mì luó river is a river in the north of Hunan province in southern China.
03
垚（yáo）is used to describe a mountain that is very high.
壵（zhuàng）means strong.
04
雎（jū）is a rare surname.
睢（suī）That means sharpen your eyes, you can see the essence of the problem.
05
茶(chá): tea
荼 is polyphony. It can be (tú) or (shū).
In ancient books, it means a bitter vegetable or a white flower of thatch.
06
夂（zhǐ）means to walk from behind.
夊（suī）means walking slowly.
07
匸（xì）means hide.
匚（fāng）It means a container like a basket.
Wait… they basically look the same!!
08
祖（zǔ）has many meanings like 祖宗(zǔ zōng)ancestors;
祖国(zǔ guó): motherland
袓（jù）means good things; the beauty of the color white.
Wow! Did you know there were so many similar characters in Mandarin?
The above Chinese characters are just a few of them.
Now you can begin your scavenger hunt to find them all, good luck!
China is the first country that has known such a growth for the past 30 years, but not without consequences. At a point that still a few years ago, the air was harmful to breathe in many big Chinese cities.
However, the Chinese government has recently taken some decisions that have helped in making rapid and noticeable changes.
On March 14th, our networking event aims to show you some local examples of how some entrepreneurs are helping, at their level, to develop sustainable and friendly environmental activities.