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Chinese Characters | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Questions About Your Target Languages |  | |
| patuco Diglot Moderator Gibraltar Joined 7017 days ago 3795 posts - 4268 votes  Speaks: Spanish, English* Personal Language Map | Message 1 of 6 19 December 2005 at 5:23pm | IP Logged | ||
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I know the title is a bit vague, but let me explain.
My friend recently showed me a Mandarin Linguaphone set he had purchased. It is written in pinyin throughout but it includes the (hopefully correct!) characters above every line of text. It also has a separate "characters book" which aims to teach you a few characters (can't remember exactly how many). He would like to know: 1. Would it be beneficial to learn some characters before starting the course or should he complete the course in pinyin and then learn some characters? Perhaps he should learn them concurrently? Bear in mind that at the moment, he has no knowledge whatsoever of Mandarin. 2. What are the best methods for learning characters? I've read great reviews for Heisig's books on "Learning the kanji" but this obviously applies to Japanese. I was just wondering if there are any equivalent books for Chinese characters? I know that Malcolm mentioned some graded readers in one of the threads but these wouldn't be much good if you didn't know any characters at all, would they? 3. Is Pimsleur worthwhile? FSI is out of the question so he is thinking of starting with only Pimsleur. I have helped him as much as I could but I haven't learned Mandarin yet (it's on the to-do list!). Any advice would be appreciated. Edited by patuco on 19 December 2005 at 5:27pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Lucky Charms Diglot Senior Member Japan lapacifica.net Joined 6951 days ago 752 posts - 1711 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: German, Spanish | Message 2 of 6 19 December 2005 at 6:59pm | IP Logged | ||
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This is the book I use for learning the characters. It's similar to the old Reading and Writing Japanese, in that it introduces the radicals first and then the characters "in order" (you should know what I mean- the order is determined according to some system and not necessarily according to which are the easiest or most commonly used).
I actually think he should wait until he can formulate sentences before struggling with the characters, though. The fact that he will already be able to make the sound - meaning connection with certain words will make it much easier on him than learning the sound - meaning - writing all at once, as we do at the university. Also, hopefully by studying the Linguaphone program with the characters above the pinyin, he will passively start to pick up the ability to identify a few, which of course will make it easier to write them. Wish him the best of luck in his studies! 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| orion Senior Member United States Joined 7023 days ago 622 posts - 678 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Russian | Message 3 of 6 20 December 2005 at 1:27am | IP Logged | ||
I found Pimsleur OK for pronunciation, especially for the tones. They don't teach any characters at all however. I like the books by Yong Ho: Beginner's Chinese and Intermediate Chinese, both available on Amazon. At my current level they are pretty good. They include both pinyin and characters, and the lessons are in manageable chunks. Others on the forum could probably offer better advice for the serious Mandarin learner. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Guanche Hexaglot Senior Member Spain danielmarin.blogspot Joined 7048 days ago 168 posts - 178 votes Speaks: Spanish*, EnglishC2, GermanC1, RussianB1, French, Japanese Studies: Greek, Mandarin, Arabic (Written) | Message 4 of 6 20 December 2005 at 11:26am | IP Logged | ||
I think he should start studying the characters from the very beginning. Studying them later will only postpone the pain ;-). When I go to my Chinese and Japanese lessons, we always take some time learning new characters and how to write them. Learning Hanzi/Kanji is an integral part of studying Chinese and Japanese, and cannot be put aside. Edited by Guanche on 20 December 2005 at 11:27am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| mabelee Newbie United States Joined 7042 days ago 23 posts - 25 votes Speaks: English* | Message 5 of 6 20 December 2005 at 8:48pm | IP Logged | ||
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Why is FSI out of the question?
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| patuco Diglot Moderator Gibraltar Joined 7017 days ago 3795 posts - 4268 votes Speaks: Spanish, English* Personal Language Map | Message 6 of 6 21 December 2005 at 6:08am | IP Logged | ||
Because he doesn't have that much money to spend, although I have told him that there are efforts to digitize it on this forum. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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