For foreigners, learning to speak Chinese is a hard task. But learning to read the beautiful, often complex characters of the Chinese written language may be less difficult. ShaoLan walks through a simple lesson in recognizing the ideas behind the characters and their meaning -- building from a few simple forms to more complex concepts. Call it Chineasy.<br /><br />TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and much more.<br />Find closed captions and translated subtitles in many languages at <a href="http://www.ted.com/translate" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://www.ted.com/translate</a><br /><br />Follow TED news on Twitter: <a href="http://www.twitter.com/tednews" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://www.twitter.com/tednews</a><br />Like TED on Facebook: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/TED" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">https://www.facebook.com/TED</a><br /><br />Subscribe to our channel: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/TEDtalksDirector" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/user/TEDtalksDirector</a>