Comments on: Best & Fastest Way to Learn How To Read Chinese Characters http://howtolearnchineseonline.com/best-fastest-way-to-learn-how-to-read-chinese-characters General Advice and Tips on Mandarin Chinese Learning Wed, 08 Feb 2012 08:52:37 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: admin http://howtolearnchineseonline.com/best-fastest-way-to-learn-how-to-read-chinese-characters/comment-page-1#comment-328 admin Mon, 29 Nov 2010 05:42:38 +0000 http://howtolearnchineseonline.com/test#comment-328 Hello Stephen Thanks for your input. Yes I agree with you that recognition alone is not very useful. I wasn't intending for people to learn to recognize ONLY. The book above tells the meaning of each character too. So when I say "recognize" I mean understand as well. Perhaps that wasn't clear but I would think that's a little obvious because of course the purpose of learning to read is to understand. Reading without understanding is useless. So just to be clear, when learning Chinese characters one by one like this you should also learn the meaning of each character, not just the pronunciation. Without the meaning you still can't really "read" anything. Hello Stephen

Thanks for your input. Yes I agree with you that recognition alone is not very useful. I wasn’t intending for people to learn to recognize ONLY. The book above tells the meaning of each character too. So when I say “recognize” I mean understand as well. Perhaps that wasn’t clear but I would think that’s a little obvious because of course the purpose of learning to read is to understand. Reading without understanding is useless.

So just to be clear, when learning Chinese characters one by one like this you should also learn the meaning of each character, not just the pronunciation. Without the meaning you still can’t really “read” anything.

]]> By: stephen http://howtolearnchineseonline.com/best-fastest-way-to-learn-how-to-read-chinese-characters/comment-page-1#comment-327 stephen Sun, 28 Nov 2010 17:15:13 +0000 http://howtolearnchineseonline.com/test#comment-327 I am sorry to burst the bubble, but merely to 'recognize' the Chinese characters is nothing useful. If you study Japanese you'll know, you can 'recognize' everything written in Japanese in a day, but without actually understanding the multiple meanings of each Chinese character, there's no use to recognize the character, and you'll forget them very soon. I am a native Chinese and I haven't seen any character I don't know for 10 years already, but there are still times when I read ancient Chinese, I don't understand what its saying - they are the same characters as we use today, but the meaning could be different, and that makes a huge difference in understanding. I am sorry to burst the bubble, but merely to ‘recognize’ the Chinese characters is nothing useful. If you study Japanese you’ll know, you can ‘recognize’ everything written in Japanese in a day, but without actually understanding the multiple meanings of each Chinese character, there’s no use to recognize the character, and you’ll forget them very soon.
I am a native Chinese and I haven’t seen any character I don’t know for 10 years already, but there are still times when I read ancient Chinese, I don’t understand what its saying – they are the same characters as we use today, but the meaning could be different, and that makes a huge difference in understanding.

]]> By: admin http://howtolearnchineseonline.com/best-fastest-way-to-learn-how-to-read-chinese-characters/comment-page-1#comment-160 admin Wed, 23 Jun 2010 01:30:00 +0000 http://howtolearnchineseonline.com/test#comment-160 Thanks for your input and experience Mark. When I said "read" I meant recognize. Of course it IS possible for someone to read an entire newspaper 100% and still not understand it because knowing the meaning of 1 character individually doesn't mean you understand the meanings of the combinations of characters, especially 4 character idioms. You say you know 2500+ characters? I am curious can you recognize over 90% of newspaper characters ? You should be able to. If you can't then you obviously haven't learned the characters in order of frequency. That is crucial to my estimate. It's possible to know 10,000 characters and only recognize 10% of what you read if you happened to learn the most infrequent characters. I have noticed in the Universities Chinese teachers don't teach based on frequency. I'm not sure of the method they use, but in my opinion it's not as effective or economical with time. Thanks for your input and experience Mark.

When I said “read” I meant recognize. Of course it IS possible for someone to read an entire newspaper 100% and still not understand it because knowing the meaning of 1 character individually doesn’t mean you understand the meanings of the combinations of characters, especially 4 character idioms.

You say you know 2500+ characters? I am curious can you recognize over 90% of newspaper characters ? You should be able to.

If you can’t then you obviously haven’t learned the characters in order of frequency. That is crucial to my estimate. It’s possible to know 10,000 characters and only recognize 10% of what you read if you happened to learn the most infrequent characters.

I have noticed in the Universities Chinese teachers don’t teach based on frequency. I’m not sure of the method they use, but in my opinion it’s not as effective or economical with time.

]]> By: Mark http://howtolearnchineseonline.com/best-fastest-way-to-learn-how-to-read-chinese-characters/comment-page-1#comment-159 Mark Tue, 22 Jun 2010 15:20:49 +0000 http://howtolearnchineseonline.com/test#comment-159 I think your statement re: knowing 1000 characters allows you to read 90% of a newspaper is very misleading. Yes, you may grasp the major ideas but it's really not enough to 'comprehend'. I know 2500+ characters and still struggle a lot with reading comprehension at the newspaper level. I think your statement re: knowing 1000 characters allows you to read 90% of a newspaper is very misleading. Yes, you may grasp the major ideas but it’s really not enough to ‘comprehend’.

I know 2500+ characters and still struggle a lot with reading comprehension at the newspaper level.

]]> By: Nathan Cain http://howtolearnchineseonline.com/best-fastest-way-to-learn-how-to-read-chinese-characters/comment-page-1#comment-29 Nathan Cain Sun, 10 Jan 2010 02:49:03 +0000 http://howtolearnchineseonline.com/test#comment-29 I like this book because the most popular characters/words can have so many different meanings. Most dictionaries include a list brief English equivalents for each word, but this book describes in detail the different meanings uses of each word. I like this book because the most popular characters/words can have so many different meanings. Most dictionaries include a list brief English equivalents for each word, but this book describes in detail the different meanings uses of each word.

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