I am a Primitive Man
Chapter 22 – The whole tribe must speak Mandarin
I need to make a pot.
After eating fish, Han Cheng, holding a snowball made into a porcelain-like lump, sighed again while gnawing.
Not to mention making fish soup to drink, just boiling some hot water would be nice. Unlike now, every sip I take is like an icy path from my mouth to my stomach. All the warmth painstakingly accumulated is gone, not a bit left. It’s just bone-chilling, not a bit uplifting.
I need to make a…
In this primitive era, living in a tribe that relied on fishing and hunting, there were too many things Han Cheng wanted to make. However, the bitter cold outside and the ice and snow blocked many of his ideas. He could only stay in the cave and do things that were within his abilities.
With ample food, the atmosphere in the tribe had relaxed again. Now, Han Cheng had an additional task. Take advantage of the people’s leisure time to teach them Mandarin.
This decision was inspired by the “gloves” incident and became Han Cheng’s resolution.
The language in the tribe wasn’t systematic, extremely simple, and only consisted of some daily expressions. Slightly more complex meanings had to be communicated through speaking and gesturing, which took a long time. Even then, it didn’t guarantee the other person understood your meaning.
Han Cheng’s thinking had been limited in the past.
Because subconsciously, he believed that as an outsider, he needed to adapt to the local customs, and naturally, he should learn the tribal language. It wasn’t until the appearance of “gloves” that he had a sudden realization.
Yes.
He possessed an extremely rich language and corresponding writing system. Why not teach these languages and writing to everyone instead of learning the almost primitive language of the tribe?
Especially after witnessing Shaman painstakingly recording things on a slate, contemplating and creating a new vocabulary to describe the making process, usage, and names of the newly appeared gloves and socks. After pulling out even more hair from his already sparse head, this further solidified Han Cheng’s idea of teaching the tribe to speak Mandarin and write Chinese characters.
The first two characters he taught Shaman were “shou tao” (gloves).
Taking the stone pen from the shaman, with the Shaman’s surprised expression, Han Cheng wrote the characters for gloves on a blank slate. Then, pointing at these two characters and raising the gloves in his left hand, he said, “Shou tao.”
Shaman, being an intelligent member of the tribe, quickly understood Han Cheng’s meaning. He realized that these two square things referred to gloves.
Although the pattern was extremely strange, significantly different from the characters he usually wrote, and it was impossible to see the shape of gloves from them, the shaman didn’t find it difficult to accept. Since these were new things, just like gloves, it was natural that they didn’t resemble anything familiar.
“Shou tao.”
He followed Han Cheng’s pronunciation and repeated the Mandarin words with clear intonation.
Han Cheng handed the stone pen to Shaman, indicating for him to write these two characters.
Shaman had never encountered this strange writing before, but because of his frequent writing, his attempt looked quite decent. Although it was a bit awkward at the beginning, with stiff wrists and inconsistent spacing and lengths of strokes, he could still recognize that these two characters represented gloves.
“Good.”
Han Cheng praised in the tribal language and gave a thumbs-up to the Shaman.
Shaman looked at the two characters Han Cheng wrote, square and neat, and then at the two characters he wrote, uneven and twisted.
Hearing Han Cheng’s praise, he couldn’t help but smile, shake his head, and bend down again. Following Han Cheng’s example, he carefully and earnestly wrote stroke by stroke.
A person with a cultural background writes differently. After practicing about six or seven times, Shaman wrote the characters for “shou tao” in a decent manner, and he could now independently write them without looking at what Han Cheng wrote, silently recalling them.
This surprised Han Cheng.
From Shaman’s exceptionally quick reception of new knowledge, Han Cheng became confident in his idea of teaching and spreading the Chinese language and characters to the people in the tribe.
“Hand.”
Seeing that Shaman had already mastered the “shou tao” characters, Han Cheng pointed to the character “手” and pronounced it. Then, he pointed to his hand, telling Shaman that this character represented “hand.”
Shaman expressed surprise because the pronunciation of “hand” in the tribal language was completely different.
He seemed hesitant, unsure whether to learn this new character and pronunciation because it conflicted with something existing in the tribe.
Han Cheng roughly understood Wu’s thoughts, so he naturally brought up the banner of the Heavenly God.
He pointed to the sky and the totem pole not far away, saying, “Heavenly God, speak.”
Shaman was moved. He did not expect this was the Heavenly God’s language and characters.
After Han Cheng draped the glory of the Heavenly God over Chinese characters and Mandarin, Shaman immediately lost his resistance.
After all, this was the language and characters of the gods.
He had never received the guidance of the Heavenly God in his lifetime, and now the Heavenly God had sent a divine child to teach him the language and characters of the gods. How could he not study them well?
So, Shaman’s enthusiasm for learning Chinese characters was aroused.
On the first day, he learned to write the characters for “shou tao” and read and write more direct words in Mandarin Chinese characters, such as foot, leg, head, etc.
Education should start from childhood.
Having been educated from childhood for more than ten years, Han Cheng, who had never forgotten this principle, not only remembered it but also put it into action.
In the name of the ethereal god, telling Shaman that the god said to pass on the language and characters of the gods to the world, let everyone speak the language of the gods and use the characters of the gods, Wu began to understand the magic and simplicity of the characters and language of the gods.
Shaman, who had only studied for three or four days and knew only a few dozen characters of the gods, had already experienced the benefits of the characters and language of the gods.
In the past, he lacked the corresponding language when he wanted to express something. Now, he could use the language of the gods to speak.
In the past, the characters he inherited and created had many readings that did not correspond to them, belonging to the kind that could only be understood and not transmitted by words.
This kind of thing is difficult to teach to others, and sometimes only the creator knows its meaning.
Now, with the characters and language of the gods, there is no need to worry about this problem because the characters and language of the gods are standardized.