#$%&* hanzi radicals!

In another edition of "Why Chinese is Hard," we'll talk about using a dictionary to look stuff up.

Because Chinese is not an alphabetic language like English, Korean, French, or any other language I know of, you can't look stuff up alphabetically. So you have to look at the character's "radicals" or pieces, find them in a pronunciation index, and then look it up.

For example, take "靠". There are two parts: the top is 告, and takes seven stokes to draw; the bottom is 非, and takes eight strokes. Using a dictionary software like DimSum, you can find 非 among the eight stroke radicals; click on it and it will give you a group of characters with 非 in them. Now you can look in the "seven other strokes" sub-group, click on "靠" and you'll see it's pronunciation: kào.

Now that you have an alphabetic reference, you can type it, or look it up in a dictionary for its meaning. You can find it under kao (and because it's fourth tone, it will be sort of near the back of the group of characters which are also pronounced "kao".)

So now you know how to use a dictionary. That's time-consuming enough as it is, but wait! There's more!

Different references use different indexing systems. That DimSum software uses the traditional index of 214 radicals, but other lists combine evolved or simplified radicals with their originals. You just have to know that if you see "扌" in a character, you won't find it in among the three stroke radicals; it's considered a four stroke radical because it used to be "手".

But my hand-held dictionary uses a 188 radical index, and similar radicals are grouped combined under one listing, like the radical 牛 with the top half of 告 (sorry, I can't write it separately). So I can't find 靠 by looking under 非 with seven other strokes, I have to find it under 牛 with eleven other strokes (three from 口 and eight from 非).

And these two aren't the only indexing systems -- there are others. So instead of just one outdated but offical system, realistically you have to learn how to look up radicals under a number of systems. Efforts to make it easier will never supplant the traditional methods; they just make it more complicated.

So to put it succinctly -- it's a pain in the neck.