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Cracking the Chinese Puzzles by TK Ann

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30 messages over 4 pages: 1 24  Next >>
Sprachprofi
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 Message 17 of 30
25 August 2011 at 11:37am | IP Logged 
newyorkeric wrote:
The focus is traditional characters, but he includes the simplified
versions as well.

To me, it seems like he's using whether suits him. Sometimes he gives the traditional
character and the simplified character as a footnote or not at all; sometimes he gives
the simplified character and the traditional character as a footnote (as in the example
page) or not at all.
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newyorkeric
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 Message 18 of 30
25 August 2011 at 4:22pm | IP Logged 
Sprachprofi wrote:
newyorkeric wrote:
The focus is traditional characters, but he includes the simplified versions as well.

To me, it seems like he's using whether suits him. Sometimes he gives the traditional
character and the simplified character as a footnote or not at all; sometimes he gives
the simplified character and the traditional character as a footnote (as in the example
page) or not at all.


Yes, I had the same feeling. He isn't clear at all about it in the introduction, at least as far as I could tell. The introduction is 6 chapters plus. I may have missed it!
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Luk
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 Message 19 of 30
26 August 2011 at 12:15am | IP Logged 
I'm a little disappointed with Heisig's book. Some of the stories make no sense at all, for instance, number 66 "uniform". The standard type font on the left is accurate, but the handwritten on the bottom is actually the traditional character! and he uses a primitive corresponding to the traditional character (two) when in fact is different (dian and tí). The story is very bad in my opinion.

There was another character, among the first ones which was even worse (I don't remember it now).

The fact that he uses different primitives for the same character make me a little nervous.

I'm not saying is a bad book, but if I make up my own stories maybe I should simple use other book like Cracking...

My problem is that I cannot get my hands on it. I don't know what to do.

Edited by Luk on 26 August 2011 at 12:16am

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newyorkeric
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 Message 21 of 30
26 August 2011 at 3:43am | IP Logged 
Luk wrote:
I'm a little disappointed with Heisig's book. Some of the stories make no sense at all, for instance, number 66 "uniform". The standard type font on the left is accurate, but the handwritten on the bottom is actually the traditional character! and he uses a primitive corresponding to the traditional character (two) when in fact is different (dian and tí). The story is very bad in my opinion.

There was another character, among the first ones which was even worse (I don't remember it now).

The fact that he uses different primitives for the same character make me a little nervous.

I'm not saying is a bad book, but if I make up my own stories maybe I should simple use other book like Cracking...

My problem is that I cannot get my hands on it. I don't know what to do.


Here is another book that uses mnemonics: Hoenig. I've only glanced through it. It seems pretty good. I prefer the Matthews and Matthews book because they include a story for the sound as well as the character, something neither Heisig nor Hoenig do.
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Luk
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 Message 22 of 30
26 August 2011 at 10:54pm | IP Logged 
I have looked the book a bit. Looks interesting.
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Luk
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 Message 23 of 30
02 September 2011 at 6:07am | IP Logged 
I have finished chapter 6. I think I'll stay by Heisig's side for now.

If anyone knows a way that a can get Cracking the Chinese puzzles I'll appreciate you letting me know.
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OneEye
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 Message 24 of 30
03 September 2011 at 7:25am | IP Logged 
I've sorted all the characters from Harbaugh's book in a Heisig-like order. Specifically, all the characters in the book that are also in RTH come first, in RTH order. Then all that are in RTK in RTK order, then the remainder in the order in which they appear in Harbaugh. So the number of characters sorted in Heisig order is 2731. After this point, the order shouldn't matter since you should already know the components and how to make new mnemonic stories, but they are still in a logical order based on composition. The spreadsheet also has pinyin, definitions, RTH and RTK keywords where they exist, Japanese readings and vocabulary, references to major dictionaries, paraphrases of Harbaugh's explanations of etymology (these are folk etymologies, not scientific ones), etc. Hopefully it will be useful.


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