第二十五天

[nnozomi]

（抱歉迟到了，我有几个交货期...)

以后，after a given time, hereafter
https://resources.allsetlearning.com/chinese/grammar/After_a_specific_time_with_%22yihou%22

Guardian:
所以以后，我希望你能注意安全 (Shen Wei: So hereafter, I hope you will be able to take care. To which Zhao Yunlan responds with 谢谢关心, thank you for your concern, lol.)
你以后就不用在害怕了 (Zhang Ruonan to Wang Yike: you won't need to be frightened any more, *sniff*)
那好，从今天以后我的名字就叫做沈...巍。(Okay, from today on the name I am called will be Shen...Wei.)

My practice:
你能不能快点，我三点以后一定要再出去。
下周以后，我打算每天都弹钢琴。（真的吗呀）

(Oh yeah, I asked 瑜姐 about 我在上海工作 vs 我住在上海。 Her first reaction was the typical native-speaker "Huh? Oh yeah, I guess it does work that way. 很奇怪，为什么呀," but she suggested it might have to do with single-character verbs--you would say 住在 or 睡在 or 坐在, but not 吃饭在 or 工作在 and so on. Another data point?)

Comments

[scytale]

Throwing some ideas out there, all with the caveat that brains are different, and some part of this may not work for you (or you may already be doing it):

- Are you having trouble with reproducing the character as well, as well as recognizing it? Try practice writing them (by hand, or in the air, or both), and then test yourself (can you write it given the pinyin, or fill in a phrase like __后).

I think in general, (1) practice both recall and recognition, and frame it as a question-answer thing and (2) figure out some way to switch up the context, possibly more than once? It sounds like you might be using the context clues (which is like, 90% of the way I actually read Chinese personally xD, and also a very nice way to read), but using context clues can also become a shortcut.

- When I'm writing, I mentally chunk up 次 as two parts (the two strokes on the left, and then 欠， which is a kangxi radical), whereas 以 feels like three parts to me，the two strokes on the left as separate entities that require moving back up, and then the 人. Having the two on the left is like the er in 二次， and 以 feels like a, um, sandwich to me.

- Silly homophone stuff: the leftmost stroke of 以 looks like a chair to me -- a 椅子！And obviously only 人 can sit in chairs. ;) Whereas if you go get something once and still 欠 something, you might want to try 第二次 (i.e. my life in every grindy videogame)。

[grayswandir]

Hah, I like your homophone options. :D I don't know that I've ever mixed up these two characters specifically, but I'm terrible at remembering how to write pretty much ANY characters, and remembering 次 in terms of 二 + 欠 seems like it would make sense to me. I also love your "only 人 can sit in chairs" image. XD I think I mostly rely on context to remember what 以 is, so I'm going to try to see it as a chair now...

[scytale]

Okay, I took the excuse to use some pens and draw a picture! It probably won't help, but maybe it's so ridiculous it will help anyway? xD

Here's a...doodle...fanart? xD

It was my first time handwriting a lot of those characters (especially 酬， so, UH).

(for anyone on screenreaders or anyone who can't see the picture, it's a cat sitting in a chair with a crown, next to a person. The chair， the cat's tail, and the person are made of the bits of 以, with dialogue)

Dialogue:
Cat: 只有猫可以坐在这里。
Person: 以后我一定会报酬的！ 死猫!
Chair: 为什么我们都没有腿？

ETA: I realized belatedly the person had legs! Oh no. I am filled with great shame! If only I had an art beta! :P

[grayswandir]

...Literally my first thought when I read "only 人 can sit in chairs" was "every cat I've ever known begs to differ," so I consider this doodle highly accurate.

(Oh, and I took 我们都没有腿 as referring to "us chairs," so I didn't see a problem with it! Don't let me be your art beta. XD )

[scytale]

That was my first thought too! I didn't add it because it confused the issue.

I was imagining everyone in the picture! The cat didn't have legs, and I was wondering myself why the chair didn't have legs either. ;)

[presumenothing]

I'M SO SORRY TO SAY THIS after you went to the trouble of writing it but the chou you want here is 报仇 for revenge 报酬 is for like. Salary kinda compensation. Also it took me embarassingly long to realise why that line looked odd I just woke up

[scytale]

Ah!! 报仇 is much easier, so yay for next time. ;P

(I am amused by the idea of...paying a salary instead of revenge! Like, wow, that's a miscommunication. XDD)

Thank you!

[presumenothing]

XD

Oh you think English puns are bad? Chinese puns are worse. Way worse. The limitless potential for horrific same-sound joke mashups of everything. 谐音梗 literally translates to "homophone joke" and it haunts us all day errrrr day.

[yaaurens]

I'm now imagining someone storming up to whoever wronged them and throwing money in their face.

[scytale]

Yes! :D

"I will spend my entire fortune on revenge if I need to! By throwing it in your face!"

[nnozomi]

ADORABLE doodle (and useful explanation) oh my goodness.
I believe in Japanese 報酬 is also used for the Wages of Sin, so you may not be too far off?

[scytale]

:D I'm glad you liked the doodle! I was happy to have an excuse to draw it. :P

in Japanese 報酬 is also used for the Wages of Sin, so you may not be too far off?

Ooooh, thank you! It delights me how versatile words like "reward" are! And I think that was how I got confused -- revenge feels like payback/compensation to me, but 报仇 is literally "report hatred/enmity?" Which takes a bit of shift in my head, from the consequences to the feelings behind it.

And now I am prepared to make terrible jokes, which is of course one of the most important learning goals: “要报仇？ 多谢, 我家房租很高!". :D

[nnozomi]

“要报仇？ 多谢, 我家房租很高!". :D
哈哈哈 太喜欢了 :)

[yaaurens]

Most of the time I struggle with recognizing/remembering is when I'm doing my flashcards so it's just the one character on its own with no context. Generally once I can remember which is which, I can write them just fine. :-/

I like your homophone ideas! The chair thing may stick now, especially with your cute comic!

[scytale]

Ah, yes, I get that too with the one character thing. :( Or with new contexts, for me!

Reading often doesn't lead to writing for me (I wish it did!), and I get by on typing entirely on reading the selections the autocomplete suggests. :P (And when I learn a new one with the same left-hand side and a similar right hand side, it's chaos all over again...). But on the other hand, once I can write something, I can always read it. Hence why air writing and copying things out over time works for me.

Good luck! I hope the chair helps or that you find something else that works!

[yaaurens]

I've got the writing flashcards on TofuLearn, so I have daily writing practice too, even if it's not like. WRITING writing. Fingers on phones is nothing like pencil on paper!

I'm finding this particularly frustrating because I know I learned both of these characters back when I was actually IN a class so my brain should have this information stored in there somewhere, it's just... not bringing it back when I need it. And yet it brings back lots of other things that are much less useful!