This book is a quick and easy way to learn basic Chinese Characters. All beginning Chinese language learners struggle to memorize and learn to write Chinese characters. The First 100 Chinese Characters adopts a structural approach which helps students to quickly master the basic characters that are fundamental to this language. This character book is intended for beginning Chinese students. It presents characters that have been carefully selected for rapid and effective learning. The English meanings, pronunciations in hanyu pinyin and alternate forms (if any) for each Chinese character are presented along with a stroke order guide and spaces for writing practice. Printed with gray guidelines, the stroke order guides are designed to be traced over to teach students the standard sequence of strokes used to write the character. Related compounds and phrases are given to assist in vocabulary building. Three indexes at the back allow the characters to be looked up by their English meanings, hanyu pinyin pronunciations, or radicals. Extra practice sheets are also provided. This Chinese character book contains: Step-by-step stroke order diagrams show you how to write each character. Special boxes with grid lines help you practice writing them correctly. Compounds and sample sentences provide easy vocabulary building. Hanyu pinyin romanizations identify and help you pronounce every word.
This book is a quick and easy way to learn basic Chinese Characters. All beginning Chinese language learners struggle to memorize and learn to write Chinese characters. The First 100 Chinese Characters adopts a structural approach which helps students to quickly master the basic characters that are fundamental to this language. This character book is intended for beginning Chinese students and features characters that have been carefully selected for rapid and effective learning. The English meanings, pronunciations in hanyu pinyin and alternate forms (if any) for each Chinese character are presented along with a stroke order guide and spaces for writing practice. The stroke order guides are printed with gray guidelines, designed to be traced over to teach students the standard sequence of strokes used to write the character. Related compounds and phrases are given to assist in vocabulary building. Three indexes at the back allow the characters to be looked up by their English meanings, hanyu pinyin pronunciations, or radicals. Extra practice sheets are also provided. This Chinese character book contains: Step-by-step stroke order diagrams show you how to write each character. Special boxes with grid lines help you practice writing them correctly. Compounds and sample sentences provide easy vocabulary building. Hanyu pinyin romanizations identify and help you pronounce every word.
This user-friendly book is aimed at helping students of Mandarin Chinese learn and remember Chinese characters. At last--there is a truly effective and enjoyable way to learn Chinese characters! This book helps students to learn and remember both the meanings and the pronunciations of over 800 characters. This otherwise daunting task is made easier by the use of techniques based on the psychology of learning and memory. key principles include the use of visual imagery, the visualization of short "stories," and the systematic building up of more complicated characters from basic building blocks. Although Learning Chinese Characters is primarily a book for serious learners of Mandarin Chinese, it can be used by anyone with interest in Chinese characters, without any prior knowledge of Chinese. It can be used alongside (or after, or even before) a course in the Chinese language. All characters are simplified (as in mainland China), but traditional characters are also given, when available. Key features: Specially designed pictures and stories are used in a structured way to make the learning process more enjoyable and effective, reducing the need for rote learning to the absolute minimum. The emphasis throughout is on learning and remembering the meanings and pronunciations of the characters. Tips are also included on learning techniques and how to avoid common problems. Characters are introduced in a logical sequence, which also gives priority to learning the most common characters first. Modern, simplified characters are used, with pronunciations given in pinyin. Key information is given for each character, including radical, stroke-count, traditional form, compounds, and guidance on writing the character. This is a practical guide with a clear, concise and appealing layout, and it is well-indexed with easy lookup methods. The 800 Chinese characters and 1,033 compounds specified for the original HSK Level A proficiency test are covered.
At long last the approach that has helped thousands of learners memorize Japanese kanji has been adapted to help students with Chinese characters. Book 1 of Remembering Simplified Hanzi covers the writing and meaning of the 1,000 most commonly used characters in the simplified Chinese writing system, plus another 500 that are best learned at an early stage. (Book 2 adds another 1,500 characters for a total of 3,000.) Of critical importance to the approach found in these pages is the systematic arranging of characters in an order best suited to memorization. In the Chinese writing system, strokes and simple components are nested within relatively simple characters, which can, in turn, serve as parts of more complicated characters and so on. Taking advantage of this allows a logical ordering, making it possible for students to approach most new characters with prior knowledge that can greatly facilitate the learning process. Guidance and detailed instructions are provided along the way. Students are taught to employ "imaginative memory" to associate each character’s component parts, or "primitive elements," with one another and with a key word that has been carefully selected to represent an important meaning of the character. This is accomplished through the creation of a "story" that engagingly ties the primitive elements and key word together. In this way, the collections of dots, strokes, and components that make up the characters are associated in memorable fashion, dramatically shortening the time required for learning and helping to prevent characters from slipping out of memory.
The pioneering memory technique taught in this book removes the major obstacle to learning modern Mandarin Chinese: how to remember the meanings of more than 2,000 of the most common of traditional Chinese characters--enough to read more than 96 percent of the characters in almost any Chinese text. The lessons included here will help to learn new definitions at a breakneck pace, build up new characters using characters already learned, develop memory tricks to associate meanings with these characters, and fix meanings and characters forever in the mind. This unique manual provides a sure-fire way to master the most challenging and intimidating aspect of learning Chinese, vital for any student of the Chinese language.
This is a complete and easy–to–use guide for reading and writing traditional Chinese characters. Reading and Writing Chinese has been the leading text for foreign students and teachers of the Chinese writing system since it was first published. This completely revised edition draws on the lessons learnt from the use of the book in classrooms so as to provide a more convenient and up–to–date introduction to written Chinese. Over 1,100 new combinations of characters have been added, increasing the total vocabulary significantly to about 4,500 items. There are also new notes on usage to give students insight into the contemporary state of the Chinese language. The student's ability to read Chinese and write Chinese are reinforced throughout. For each of the basic 1,062 characters, the pronunciation, definition and derivation are given, with examples of the use of most words and a chart showing how to write each character. Memorization tips and cautionary cross–reference to look–alike characters are also provided, as well as notes to help clarify those overlooked aspects of the Chinese writing system. Key features of this book: The Student's 1,020 List and the Official 2,000 List. Over 2,000 characters and 4,500 vocabulary items. Pronunciations given in standard Hanyu Pinyin Ronamized form Memorization hints and stroke–order diagrams. Hong Kong/Taiwan and China/Singapore forms. Traditional and modern radical systems. The best-selling student's guide
The ideal workbook for students to practice learning to read, recognise, and write the 100 most common Chinese medical Chinese characters! This work forms an integral part of the Chinese Medicine Language Series for students and practitioners who are engaged in the study of Chinese medical language. It presents the first 100 characters based upon frequency of use in medical texts, as well as an overall program designed to help the student acquire the necessary tools for building a thorough vocabulary. This first volume presents the basics of Chinese characters along with the etymologies of the 100 most commonly seen characters. Designed as a workbook, it offers students practice in learning to read, recognise, and write the characters and provides the basic tools that students need to become familiar with the written language of Chinese medicine and thereby enrich their studies.
Learning Chinese can be frustrating and difficult, partly because it's very different from European languages. Following a teacher, textbook or language course is not enough. They show you the characters, words and grammar you need to become proficient in Chinese, but they don't teach you how to learn them! Regardless of what program you're in (if any), you need to take responsibility for your own learning. If you don't, you will miss many important things that aren't included in the course you're taking. If you study on your own, you need to be even more aware of what you need to do, what you're doing at the moment and the difference between them. Here are some of the questions I have asked and have since been asked many times by students: How do I learn characters efficiently? How do I get the most out of my course or teacher? Which are the best learning tools and resources? How can I become fluent in Mandarin? How can I improve my pronunciation? How do I learn successfully on my own? How can I motivate myself to study more? How can I fit learning Chinese into a busy schedule? The answers I've found to these questions and many others form the core of this book. It took eight years of learning, researching, teaching and writing to figure these things out. Not everybody has the time to do that! I can't go back in time and help myself learn in a better way, but I can help you! This book is meant for normal students and independent language learners alike. While it covers all major areas of learning, you won't learn Chinese just by reading this book. It's like when someone on TV teaches you how to cook: you won't get to eat the delicious dish just by watching the program; you have to do the cooking yourself. That's true for this book as well. When you apply what you learn, it will boost your learning, making every hour you spend count for more, but you still have to do the learning yourself. This is what a few readers have said about the book: "The book had me nodding at a heap of things I'd learnt the hard way, wishing I knew them when I started, as well as highlighting areas that I'm currently missing in my study." - Geoff van der Meer, VP engineering "This publication is like a bible for anyone serious about Chinese proficiency. It's easy for anyone to read and written with scientific precision." - Zachary Danz, foreign teacher, children's theatre artist About me I started learning Chinese when I was 23 (that's more than eight years ago now) and have since studied in many different situations, including serious immersion programs abroad, high-intensity programs in Sweden, online courses, as well as on the side while working or studying other things. I have also successfully used my Chinese in a graduate program for teaching Chinese as a second language, taught entirely in Chinese mostly for native speakers (the Graduate Institute for Teaching Chinese as a Second Language at National Taiwan Normal University). All these parts have contributed to my website, Hacking Chinese, where I write regularly about how to learn Mandarin.
This highly-visual book introduces an effective new method for learning Chinese characters using visual stimuli and pictographs. Learning the necessary characters used to write even simple Chinese sentences can be a long and arduous process. Chinese Characters Made Easy makes the learning process fun and easy by presenting the 1,000 most common characters using a new mnemonic approach that associates each character with a memorable visual and verbal clue--making memorization easy. The character for person, for example, is superimposed over a sketch of a man representing "a person standing on two legs"—drawing the reader's attention to the distinctive shape of the character and associating the sketch with the character's meaning. The Chinese characters are presented in groups or clusters all sharing common elements and meanings, for context and ease of identification. These groups of characters all share common root symbols known as radicals or relate to a particular theme or topic such as colors, numbers, animals, or body parts. Pronunciations, meanings and vocabulary compounds are provided for each character in the group. Key features of Chinese Characters Made Easy include: An introduction to the history and structure of the Chinese writing system 1,000 characters and over 3,000 words for beginning learners of Chinese This Chinese character book's visual approach is a powerful learning tool. It can be used by serious students and is entertaining and useful to general readers who are curious about how the Chinese writing system works and how it developed.
