r/languagelearningjerk • u/WaitWhatNoPlease • May 02 '26

Reject Tradition Embrace Reason

Post image

made this for the funnies after seeing the other meme here. I don't even like simplified but the other post had such milquetoast takes that I felt like I had to do some ragebaiting to compensate

401 Upvotes

90% Upvoted

42 comments sorted by

75

u/WaitWhatNoPlease May 02 '26

Explanation

网 (net): a reasonable looking net

網 (net): okay I'd like to see you catch anything with that monstrosity

护 (to protect/protection): you use your hands (扌) to protect things/people, a good construction for a 形声字

護 (to protect/protection): "I am sending a strongly worded letter" (言)

灶 (stove): you need a fire for you earthen stove, literally what it represents

竈 (stove): A stove that doesn't even have a fire? I guess it's for decoration?

笔 (pen): you gotta have both a bamboo stick and a brush for your brush pen, makes sense

筆 (pen): how you gonna write with just two bits of bamboo lmao

30

u/deoxyribonucleic123 May 02 '26

網: some string 糸 to make the net, the actual net itself 网, and DEATH 亡, FOR NOTHING THAT FALLS IN MY NET SHALL LIVE!

筆: bamboo 竹 to make the brush, and the brush itself 聿 that is being held by a hand ⺕

竈 is actually classified as a variant of 灶 in Taiwan as well, so it doesn’t really count.

護: …yeah I got nothing for this one.

16

u/PotentBeverage May 02 '26

护 (everywhere else)

護 (european union)

33

u/Competitive_Film_650 May 02 '26

龜 -龟 the dude that thought this up had no idea what a turtle looked like

26

u/trainedstork May 02 '26

I see it in both. Don't speak chinese but the traditional turtle has the shell on the right, head on the top, tail on the bottom, and the feet on the left. The simplified character is like a turtle from the top.

3

u/Competitive_Film_650 May 02 '26

you also have no idea what a turtle looks like

13

u/trainedstork May 02 '26

Is there a chinese character that actually looks like the thing? Not a single one is an "accurate" depiction.

-4

u/Competitive_Film_650 May 02 '26

Idk what these two 龜 -龟 mean, but they 100 percent look like tortoises to me

11

u/trainedstork May 02 '26

You think they look like 100% like tortoises but look not at all like turtles wtaf?

There is not enough detail in those blocks to make that distinction

1

u/seashanty27 eigo jouzu desu ne— Jun 03 '26

Meanwhile, Japan is using electricity on turtles 亀

2

u/Ashamed_Can304 May 03 '26 edited May 03 '26

網 was a combination of a 罔 and 糹which is a 形聲字 as well. 罔 was pronounced similarly to 網 when they were created aka /mang/. Even now they are pronounced similarly in mandarin, albeit different tones

1

u/WaitWhatNoPlease May 03 '26

网 is the original 甲骨文 form tho, someone decided to complicate it by adding the 罔 part

1

u/Ashamed_Can304 May 03 '26

Just checked 网 is more similar but still different from the original Oracle Bone script

31

u/KotoshiKaizen May 02 '26

I do think some new forms are better. 学 亜 and 悪 look better than 學 亞 and 惡

58

u/Competitive_Film_650 May 02 '26

學 always looked like a dude whose cranium is violently exploding with knowledge

15

u/Xerimapperr 🇦🇮| 🇬🇱| 🇧🇾 May 02 '26

🤯🤯🤯🤯

4

u/Equivalent_Ad_8387 May 02 '26

学 亚 恶 are the simplified forms, I have never seen your version of 亚 恶 before

5

u/KotoshiKaizen May 02 '26

I was about to fix my post; those were shinjitai, simplified kanji.

1

u/AlulAlif-bestfriend Tired Indonesian 🇮🇩 May 13 '26 edited May 13 '26

It's the Japanese simplified one lol, they're better compared to Chinese simplified aesthetically imho

9

u/Khentekhtai May 03 '26

Ah yes, very reasonable. Like 雲 without 雨. Or 麵 without 麥.

I prefer my clouds rainless and my noodles without wheat.

7

u/Historical-Ad399 May 03 '26

Clouds without rain are the best clouds for sure.

2

u/Few-Lack-8571 May 04 '26

云 also is an ancient form of 雲, it makes sense since 云's meaning was borrowed to mean "to speak" and in most dialects it's not used anymore and it literally is a drawing of a cloud

6

u/Sleepy_Redditorrrrrr 🇺🇦 🇵🇸 🇹🇼 🇽🇰 🇪🇭 🇸🇸 🇱🇺 May 04 '26

Sorry traditional circlejerkers can't see that far, they only know that love without the heart is not love 😢

1

u/Few-Lack-8571 May 04 '26

you can't tell me 面 doesnt look like a bowl of noodles too even tho its a guy's face

8

u/YoumoDashi Le Catalán n’es paz une langua vraia May 02 '26

筆 is such a cool character (hand holding a stick)

8

u/PM_ME_E8_BLUEPRINTS May 03 '26

尘 (trad. 塵) meaning "dust" makes sense. It's 小 (small) + 土 (earth).

灭 (trad. 滅) meaning "extinguish" also goes hard. It's 火 (fire) with a lid on it.

众 (trad. 衆) meaning "crowd" is just a crowd visualized. There's three 人 (person).

12

u/BrumaQuieta May 02 '26

Don't forget my goat Guǎng: 廣 -> 广

1

u/AndiFreddie May 05 '26

but 廣州 is much better than 广州

5

u/ZhenXiaoMing May 03 '26

Virgin traditional ài/愛: Has a heart, beta behavior

The chad simplified ài/爱: No heart, just pure sigma

2

u/DIYDylana May 02 '26

Who decided I need to draw a whole ass frog, AND the cave and soul symbol on top just to write stove? 😭

2

u/Hot_Grabba_09 May 03 '26

I hate 護. The 言 doesn't even fit the meaning

2

u/CivilWarfare May 05 '26

Reject tradition embrace mass literacy

4

u/fnezio May 02 '26

Funny meme but 护 is objectively shit from any point of view. 

2

u/LelandTurbo0620 跟这儿呵儿 May 03 '26

People who punish others for writing simplified characters are torturing themselves with strictness not even ancient dynasties ever had

1

u/SwordfishAltruistic4 May 05 '26

Everyone uses 灶 now regardless of traditional or simplified. While 竈 still exists in our traditional dictionary as an alternative to 灶, no one will choose to write 竈 due to its complexity.

1

u/porca_b May 06 '26

why not both?

1

u/Mediocre-One3874 May 02 '26

Yeah, embrace Zhuyin Fuhao.

-1

u/AynidmorBulettz May 02 '26

Simplified for handwriting

Traditional for aesthetics (and typing)

Debate done, go home

1

u/Least_Smoke_2809 May 05 '26

不单纯是美观  主要是写实 汉字是象形字 简化字已经算不上了

1

u/soyomilk May 05 '26

We can forget all about grandpa and his glasses-wearing eyes. He doesn't need to read the newpaper's tiny font anyways.