|
 |
Rapid Literacy in Chinese | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| AlexL Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 7090 days ago 197 posts - 277 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Italian | Message 1 of 3 11 November 2008 at 6:04pm | IP Logged |
|
I just picked up a copy of "Rapid Literacy In Chinese," a book designed to teach Chinese characters (750 of them) quickly and easily. It is by far the best method I've seen to learn Chinese characters and words.
The way it works is that there are 25 chapters which each teach thirty characters. The heart of each chapter is a Chinese sentence that uses all thirty of the new characters. You learn the sentence (and what it means), and practice it every day, and then you know the characters. The first sentence translates into "My girlfriend was born in 1967 on May 28. This year is she is 34 years old. Sunday is her birthday." (okay, so a little more than one sentence.) You learn those thirty characters, and then on the next page, there is a list of words that can be built from these characters, as well as a long list of example sentences, passages, and dialogues which use only the characters you've learned so far. In some books, the list of words that can be built from the characters you know is an afterthought, but here it is hard to ignore. In fact, many of the example sentences use the words you're supposed to be learning. Finally, there is a review passage that uses all the characters, as well as translations of the 25 main sentences/short passages. I recommend this book highly. Edited by AlexL on 11 November 2008 at 7:42pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
 Hencke Tetraglot Moderator Spain Joined 6900 days ago 2340 posts - 2444 votes Speaks: Swedish*, Finnish, EnglishC2, Spanish Studies: Mandarin Personal Language Map | Message 2 of 3 12 November 2008 at 5:38pm | IP Logged |
|
I'll second that. I got the book and the tapes and apart from writing the sentences by hand a gazillion times I also did intensive shadowing of the recordings.
It would usually take me two to three weeks of shadowing to get the pronunciation exactly right in each chapter, and so it took me almost a year to get through the first fifteen chapters. Now I've put this book aside for a while and moved on to David and Helen. I still intend to complete the remaining ten chapters though, at some point when I can find the time. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| onebir Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 7169 days ago 487 posts - 503 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin | Message 3 of 3 13 November 2008 at 3:46am | IP Logged |
|
It's supposed to be used as a follow-up to a pinyin based oral course called "Intensive Spoken Chinese" (same author/ publisher), together with a book introducing the radicals. Anyone used those? Edited by onebir on 13 November 2008 at 3:49am 1 person has voted this message useful |
If you wish to post a reply to this topic you must first login. If you are not already registered you must first register
|  | 
Printable version
|
| Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization. |
