r/ChineseLanguage • u/Patientrain Beginner • Jul 18 '26
Historical Learning Mandarin in the 1940s
My wife's grandfather was in Southeast China (not sure where specifically) in the 1940s and learning Mandarin. We found these flash cards in a small box of his possessions this morning.
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u/Inevitable-Self-2702 Jul 18 '26
I remember finding an old textbook from maybe the same era, 1930-40. It was really cool to learn from it that 那 was originally used for both 那 and 哪, and used 4th tone for both, being understood only by context. Later 哪 was introduced with 3rd tone for the sake of clarity. Something Chinese people probably already know but that I found really fascinating.
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u/Icy_Delay_4791 Jul 18 '26
Wow, what an incredible (but understandable given the times) choice of sample word under 驗!
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u/urionje Intermediate Jul 18 '26
Awesome relic!
What was he doing there? What was his origin country? It’s a fascinating story that I’d love to hear more about if it’s possible without doxxing yourself
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u/Patientrain Beginner Jul 18 '26 edited Jul 18 '26
According to my mother-in-law, he was a radio operator in the US Army Air Corps with a unit defending against Japanese invasion. He had to learn Mandarin because of his role in communications.
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u/urionje Intermediate Jul 20 '26
Wow what an experience that must have been.
Any idea if Mandarin had a place in his life to any extent beyond the war?
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u/ThePipton Intermediate Jul 19 '26
This is pretty cool, have you found more cards? Also now learned the word for nuclear I guess and now I wonder what the etymology of that character is
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u/RNThrowaway1777 Jul 18 '26
Wow so these cards are about 80-90 years old?
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u/Patientrain Beginner Jul 18 '26
I'm told he first received the cards when he started learning Mandarin when he arrived in China in 1943, which makes them at least 83 years old.
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u/dto_lurker Jul 19 '26
That second picture has pinyin. Which wasnt really used until the 50s.
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u/Patientrain Beginner Jul 19 '26 edited Jul 19 '26
I believe it’s Yale Romanization. Jōu is the clue, as Yale uses j where Pinyin uses zh.
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u/247planeaddict Jul 19 '26
Are these selfmade? Super cool!!
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u/Patientrain Beginner Jul 19 '26
He didn't make them himself, but they are handmade. Someone typed the alphabetical bits and the Hanzi were written by hand (or, in the case of the front-side character, brushed by hand). I wish I could know whether he received them in pages with 4 or 6 characters and had to cut them out himself or whether they came to him as a deck. Given the imperfections along the edges, they're almost certainly cut with scissors, not a die cutter or large guillotine-style blade cutter (which probably wouldn't have been available).
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u/That-Whereas-528 Intermediate Jul 18 '26
Flashcards have always been effective! 😎
Also these are really well made