Different from English or French, in which the smallest building bloc is word, Chinese language is constructed on 54,678 characters, which then are combined or connected as words and expressions. But, don't be scared, to socialize you need between 2000 to 5000, even in Chinese school, only 6000 to 8000 are taught. 

Let's talk about some fun combination of Chinese characters to practice a bit of comprehension. Most of Chinese words are combined by two individual meaningful characters. 

For example: the word  开心 Kāixīn/ Happy is combined with character 开 (open) and 心(heart), yeah, opening your heart, happiness is here!

Another example, 心中Xīnzhōng/ by heart is combined with character 心(heart) and 中 (middle), means deeply in someone's heart.

If reversing the order of these two characters, there comes the word of 中心Zhōngxīn, which means center.

By simply remember two characters, we get to learn 4 expressions: 心(heart) , 中 (middle), 心中Xīnzhōng/ (by heart), 中心Zhōngxīn( center).

Let's have a look of those interesting words being constructed on two same characters, but have different meaning: 

上 Shàng( up), 山shān ( mountain)---上山 (climb up the mountain) // 山上 (on the mountain)

下Xià (under), 山shān ( mountain) ---下山 (go down the mountain) // 山下( at the foot of mountain)

上Shàng( up),  海hǎi (ocean)---上海(Shànghǎi, name of biggest metropolitan in China)//海上 (at ocean)

工Gōng (work), 人rén (human being )--- 工人 (worker)//人工 (artificial) 

牛Niú (cow, ox, bull), 奶nǎi (milk)--- 牛奶 (cow milk) //奶牛 (cow)

人Rén (human being), 名míng (name, reputation)--- 人名 ( a person's name) // 名人 (celebrity)

There are many examples like this. By remembering two characters, and re-arrange their order to get two more new words. 

Weekly Cartoon Recommendation:  

Green Hands from Emmy and GooRoo

At hihilulu Halloween and Autumn theme-based vacation camp, kids learn Chinese through activities, like trick-or-treat,  pumpkin curving, draw mind map on pumpkin life circle, art creation of autumn leaves, etc.

The thematic vocabulary learning can effectively prevent interference effects caused by semantic setting. This method is especially effective in learning Chinese where subtle changes in character combinations may have different meanings( see examples above). 

Watch cartoon Green Hands from Emmy and GooRoo, continue the journey of thematic Chinese vocabulary learning.