Characters you just can't get right, damnit!

[HashiriKata]

Really?

I don't think so.

[imron]

They still look quite similar to me 鳥烏

[JimmySeal]

I think they look similar too, but if you know the traditional forms, there is a mnemonic for telling them apart:

If you cut the bottom part off of 鳥, you get 白 hence, a white bird, but take away a stroke to get 烏 and you can't make white anymore. It has had its whiteness removed and become a blackbird.

Now you just need to connect that to the simplified ones, seeing 乌 as 鸟 with a dot removed, and Bob's your uncle.

[DoraYao]

Since many Chinese characters look very similar like 已己巳. I would say that Chinese people must be good at distinguishing pictorial symbols. The brains of Chinese people must be the world's most developed in recognizing objects. Don't you think. Ha ha ha.

[adrianlondon]

I would say that Chinese people must be good at distinguishing pictorial symbols

Context.

[heifeng]

Since many Chinese characters look very similar like 已己巳. I would say that Chinese people must be good at distinguishing pictorial symbols. The brains of Chinese people must be the world's most developed in recognizing objects. Don't you think. Ha ha ha.

hmmmm. Well, all I can say is that many chinese people I know do not write '4' '6' and '9' the way I've seen anyone else write them EVER. I don't want to go as far as say they write them 'incorrectly', but I have a feeling the nun who taught me math as a kid would be taking her ruler and swinging out if she saw how some of these 4, 6, 9's were written.

Example (I), almost ever time I (very correctly and clearly) write a '6' or a '9' someone thinks it's a four since locals write a 4 curvy like a 6 with a tail out the bottom (almost like a curvy '9').... Plus, almost everytime I fill out a form (very clearly and printed) there is bound to be a mistake once it is typed, usually the following mistakes:

M = IV or IN or some combination of / N= U / R= P and so forth

It's gotten so bad that I refuse to fill out my own paperwork in English and just let the person at whatever office I need to print the English 'chinese style' because there is bound to be a letter, a number, or ten written incorrectly after 'copying' what I printed, or what is printed in my passport.

So I dunno what to say about this distinguising pictorial symbols, but somehow that superhuman ability must break down when it comes to numerals and romanized letters. 'Thus I think it's safe to say we all have our weakness here and there

If you learned the Traditional Form instead of the Simplified form

This is from a while ago, but technically I did learn traditional characters first since almost all my huaqiao classmates used traditional (since we are on the subject of characters you can't get write, I almost always screw up and write 条in traditional in my actual pen and paper writing) ~ this theory would make sense if I actually had only been exposed to simplified, but my wu and niao dilemma must just be a product of eating lead paint chips as a kid or something...

[heifeng]

or more likely, of not prioritizing.

Actually now i just remember wugui and how it's kinda hard to see a wugui's eye's from a distance unlike a bird's (i.e. sea gull or such).....not exactly the most 'systematic' approach, but it's been working lately hehe

[heifeng]

nah. after my mental block on an HSK writing portion once i decided I had to get it right once and for all.

[dancingalone]

haha, that's funny.

sorry, i just imagined that if I read the poem "春眠不觉晓"as "春眠不觉烧", that just amused me:D

I guess remembering a chinese character maybe just as hard as for Chinese to struggle to get the English spelling right.

[muyongshi]

Just like it's hard for native speakers to get spelling right....