The other day I came accross the word 彼此 (bǐ​cǐ) in one of my Chinese lessons. It means each other or one another, and while I’d seen both characters before, I hadn’t seen them together like this.

There is also the idiom 彼此彼此 (bǐ​cǐbǐ​cǐ) in Chinese, which means you and me both or that makes two of us [source].

彼 (bǐ) on it’s one means that, there or those in Mandarin Chinese [source].

I’m more familiar the character 彼 in the Japanese words like 彼 (kare – he, him or boyfriend) and 彼女 (kanojo – she, her, girlfriend), 彼ら (karera – they, them) and 彼氏 (kareshi – boyfriend, he, him)

彼 can also appear in Japanese words like:

• 彼 (are) = that (thing / person / time / place)
• 彼の (ano) = that, those, the – usually written あの
• 彼処 (asoko) = there, over there, that place, yonder, you-know-where, private parts, that far, that much – usually written あそこ
• 彼方 (achira) = that way, that direction, over there, yonder, that (one / person), foreign country (esp. a Western one) – usually written あちら
• 彼方此方 (achikochi) = here and there, various places, all around, all over, everywhere, throughout, muddled, confused, back to front – usually written あちこち
• 彼是 (arekore) = this and that, one thing or another, this way and that, around about, roughly, nearly, almost – usually written あれこれ, can also be written 彼此

Source: https://jisho.org/

此 (cǐ) on it’s one means this or these in Mandarin Chinese [source].

In Japanese 此 can appear in words such as:

• 此れ (kore) = this (one / person) now, this time, here – usually written これ
• 此の (kono)= this, last, these, parts この
• 此方 (kochira) = this way, this direction, here, this (one) – usually written こちら
• 此処 (koko) = here, this place, this point, here, now – usually written ここ
• 此奴 (koistsu) = he, she, this fellow, this guy, this person, hey you! – usually written こいつ

Source: https://jisho.org/

I’ve seen some of these words written with kanji in subtitles for songs online, perhaps to save space on the screen.

When I first started learning Japanese, I tried to learn all the rarely-used kanji like this, and wanted to know the kanji for every Japanese word, if they existed. I’ve since forgotten a lot of them, but the Mandarin, Cantonese and Japanese lessons I’ve been working on recently have helped.

When I try to read texts in Chinese or Japanese, I can usually understand enough to get some idea of what they mean. However, there are often characters I’ve forgotten, or haven’t learnt yet, which can be frustrating. Fortunately, I can usually find them in a dictionary or translation app on my phone, or I can ask someone.