Forums > Study > who knows what is the difference between 了解 and 明白？

"明白ming2 bai2"similar with"懂dong3",means "understand—-need explain and then got it"
for example,afeter the teacher's explain,she\he can ask the students

teacher:"dong3 le ma? or ming2 bai2 le ma ?understand ?"

students:"ming2 bai2 le \bu4 ming2 bai2 or dong3 le\bu4 dong3."

"了解liao3 jie3" means "know sb or sth very well,know the details"
我认识John,但是我不了解他== I know Tom,but I don't know him well(where he from,what's he hobby,married or not etc)

我不了解中国的文化wo bu liaojie zhongguo wenhua == I know nothing about Chinese culture。