Product Description: This is a revised third edition of Tuttle’s Reading & Writing Chinese. This new edition focuses on the internationally recognized test of proficiency in Chinese, the Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi (HSK). All 800 characters prescribed for Level A are covered here, and the 1400+ Levels B and C characters are covered concisely. All of the prescribed vocabulary for Levels A-C of the Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi is included among the example compounds. Knowledge of the 2,200+ characters and 5,253+ vocabulary items covered will equip students to take the test at either the Basic or the Elementary-Intermediate standard. Success in the top band of the Basic standard is sufficient to enter college in China.
Must have for those wanting to learn Chinese Simplified Characters Reading and Writing Chinese Simplified Character Edition is an excellent guide to thousands of characters. Each character shows the stroke order and gives examples and definitions of characters close to or similar in meaning or sound or look. There is an alphabetical index as well as a stroke index. It is probably best to read the preface and student's guide, but it is not necessary if you want to jump right in you can. Reading the preface and student's guide is advised at some point.
Good, as far it goes! If at all there is a single book to learn Mandarin Chinese script, this is certainly not the one. Once the expectations are made reasonable, this is indeed a great book for a beginner. The book is very well produced, on thick paper, with an attractive layout, and it is as well organized as a military camp! Although it is an encyclopedic listing of Mandarin ("man daring"?) characters, I found it to be quite interesting to skim through, and found a few characters to be quite cute.
The author does a remarkable job in trying to make sense of a non alphabetical script that does not lend itself to any such attempt. Characters are grouped by number of strokes they contain, by numbers 1-1000 (there are 6-50,000 characters, I am told), and by English alphabetical order. None of these makes learning the script any less intimidating. Let's admit that the energy expenditure has to be weighed against the desired gain.
Learning by immersion ("sink or swim") may be the best method to learn a language, but it is not relevant here. Next is learning to read and write its alphabet, which is apparently not the case with the Chinese language. I have tried CDs and tapes of conversational Chinese, but to memorize hundreds of meaningless phrases is hardly better than mastering the (non)alphabet.
Ordinarily, learning through the grammar and usage is not considered a good method. However, I found it to be more practical for learning Chinese. I bought Claudia Ross' book Modern Mandarin Chinese Grammar (Modern Grammars) (see my review), and the McNaughton's book at the same time. The Ross' book gives an adequate introduction to the grammar, and the remaining 3/4 of the book gives its application. I could begin to learn conversational Chinese fairly easily and painlessly. The present book satisfied my curiosity, and and curbed my unwarranted jubilation.
I have tried creatively to simplify and teach foreign languages to a native English speaker with varying success Sanskrit: An Appreciation Without Apprehension, A Crash Course to Learn the Gujarati Script (Setubandh Language Series Volume: 3), and A programmed text to learn Gujarati (Setubandh language series). I wish to find a simpler way to learn/teach Mandarin Chinese. Pending that, I highly recommend both, Ross' and McNaughton's books, which are complementary.
So Far So Good If memorization is the key to learning Chinese, then this book is the best tool around. It systematically introduces every character so that one learns the simpler characters first that are subsequently combined to make new characters. The 10 pages or so of introduction is extremely informative and I suggest to anyone using this book to begin by reading it thoroughly.
Why buy a character book? I bought this book years ago because it was on one of these Amazon lists, and when I got it, I couldn't figure out what to do with it. Because I was learning Chinese in university, I didn't have a shortage of materials like dictionaries. Then why "bei danzi" / memorize single characters? That's the way Chinese study English in college, which is why it's so tough for them. No. Take the "read, write, speak, listen" approach. I guess if you're learning to write all by yourself you might need something like this. I don't know.
EXCELLENT FOR CHARACTER RECOGNITION & WRITING This is an excellent book for learning Chinese character recognition and writing. Despite indexing errors, I would recommend this book to all those who want to learn how to write and read Chinese. The book is well organized with similar sounding and similar looking characters arranged in learning facilitating sequence. In the first part of the book, which shows 1067 characters, each page presents 5 characters with the sequence of strokes clearly displayed. Do not be misguided by negative reviews written by some of the buyers. Look at the over-all rating and rely on the positive reviews provided by many readers.
Anything Goes Trivia
Megaton Man
Trevor
