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Chineasy | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies |  | |
| umiak Groupie Poland Joined 4363 days ago 51 posts - 77 votes  Speaks: Polish* | Message 1 of 6 26 March 2014 at 3:06am | IP Logged | ||
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I've just come across an interesting method of learning Chinese characters mentioned by BBC in one of their clips entitled Designs of the Year: 76 eye-catching creations (the relevant part it starts at around 2:10). Since I've always wanted to start learning Chinese and wondered if there is a somewhat less painful way of learning the characters, I thought I'd search further. Here's the website of Chineasy, method of learning Chinese characters invented by Shao Lan and the description thereof:
Chineasy works on a simple building block principle. When you know a few key base characters (or building blocks) you can start combining them to create more complex words (compounds) which, when combined, allow you to create simple phrases and stories. How to use Chineasy It's worth browsing the page; you can find there a lot of useful information to beginners for learning basics of Chinese characters such as: radicals, their combinations, meanings in English, pinyn and audio pronunciation, and explanations why a given pictogram means what it means (there is probably more, as I haven't browsed everything). Here you can watch ShaoLan's Chineasy: Lesson 1 . This is all free up to this point. There is also a book to be found in shops. Having watched a few of Shao Lan's clips for the last few hours (the content is basically the same), I've noticed I remembered quite a lot (I have no knowledge of Chinese). It looks interesting and promising, so I thought I'd share. (I'm not trying to endorse buying anything and hope it's OK to post it here. If not, please deleate my post.) 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Ari Heptaglot Senior Member Norway Joined 6433 days ago 2314 posts - 5695 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese Studies: Czech, Latin, German | Message 2 of 6 26 March 2014 at 6:21am | IP Logged | ||
Here is a post by the eminent sinologist professor Victor Mair discussing Chineasy. His verdict:
I'm bound to agree. From what I've seen of the method, it seems to take the game of "marketing over efficiency" even further than Rosetta Stone. What you get are some cutesy mnemonic pictures (some of which don't even seem to be very good) for a small number of Chinese characters. And you only learn (part of) the meaning, which is the easy part (remembering the pronunciation is generally harder). The method seems pretty useless to me and nobody on these forums should waste their money on it. That said, I haven't used it myself (obviously), so take my opinions for what they are. 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| umiak Groupie Poland Joined 4363 days ago 51 posts - 77 votes Speaks: Polish* | Message 3 of 6 26 March 2014 at 1:06pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hello Ari,
Thank you for your comment. I'm sorry; I didn't mean to trick anyone into using this method. I only saw it yesterday for the first time in a few video clips by various sources (i.e. the media which seemed credible). As someone who doesn't know any Chinese, I thought it might be an easier way of learning Chinese characters. The article you quote and the discussion that follows it clarify that this isn't necessarily the case. They will save me (and hopefully other people) a lot of time and money. One thing though, there is pronunciation of the characters on the website (both pinyin and audio). From the discussion following Victor Mair's article, I've picked up the following two websites which can be halpful in learning Chinese characters: Chinese character stroke order rules Stroke Order Animation and Dictionary 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| shk00design Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4295 days ago 747 posts - 1123 votes Speaks: Cantonese*, English, Mandarin Studies: French | Message 4 of 6 26 March 2014 at 2:30pm | IP Logged | ||
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I've seen a similar approach of learning Chinese characters online. Nowadays it is much more common
for people to use electronic devices and text messages around instead of even writing things down on paper or a notepad. Recognizing characters when you see them is more important than knowing exactly how to write. In a Chinese class the teacher expects you to write a character correctly with the exact # lines. If you miss 1 line, the character would be wrong. When entering the Pinyin or Zhuyin (common in Taiwan) on an electronic device, it is the matter of finding the correct character. The other day I was watching a TV program from Taiwan made a few years back: 大學生了沒. It is a reality show with university students as guests. On 1 show they invited 3 guests who lived in Taiwan for less than 3 years to test their Chinese language skills including a man from Haiti (half-Chinese on the mother-side), Guatemala & the US. First they asked a Taiwan native to write the character 鼠 shǔ for mouse and then each of the 3 invited guests. Next they asked the same people to write the character 竊 qiè. Surprisingly the man from Guatemala wrote it down correctly. The video link for those interested: 大學生了沒20130621 (陶喆)同學!這些老外中 文都說的比你好! 完整版 Many people including myself can recognize many Chinese characters but may not be able to write them down from memory. Usually we are not going to remember the more complex or less commonly used ones. Even the Taiwan native from the TV show claimed he knows how to enter phonetics on a portable device but doesn't know how to write the characters. Many schools in Canada stopped teaching students how to do cursive writing because they will be entering text on computers or portable devices. It is a reality we are seeing everywhere. Edited by shk00design on 26 March 2014 at 3:01pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Ari Heptaglot Senior Member Norway Joined 6433 days ago 2314 posts - 5695 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese Studies: Czech, Latin, German | Message 5 of 6 27 March 2014 at 6:43am | IP Logged | ||
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Right. Being able to write on a piece of paper is a rare skill in China today. Ask any native speaker to write the three words "cough", "hiccup" and "sneeze" on a paper without looking in a dictionary. David Moser did this test on Chinese university undergraduates and found that out of 43 tested, only one person could produce all three words correctly, and 10 people got all three of the words wrong.
If only 2% of highly educated people can spell these three very common words, one cannot expect a foreign student to manage it. I still manage, because of Anki flashcards, but I do it because I'm studying Cantonese, for which phonetic input systems are few and of low quality. And because I enjoy the feeling of knowing more than native speakers. :) But one still has to learn to recognize the characters, know their pronunciation and know the words and grammar, of course. And Chineasy might not be a very effective way of doing that. There are studies that suggest that fluency and distinction of sounds are improved in students who aquire a grounding in the spoken language before they tackle the characters, which seems to be the opposite of what Chineasy does. Article on the sneeze and hiccup test: http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=9182 Article on delayed learning of characters: http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=10554 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Hungringo Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 3839 days ago 168 posts - 329 votes Speaks: Hungarian*, English, Spanish Studies: French | Message 6 of 6 27 March 2014 at 10:19am | IP Logged | ||
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The Economist reviewed it last week. You might want to read the article.
Learning Chinese The memory game 1 person has voted this message useful |
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