In a book about learning simplified Hanzi, I’ve read this tip: “When you review (the learned characters) review only from the word (e.g. in English) to the character, not the other way around”
Is it really a matter of principle? I actually do it reversely, using LingQ flashcard I look at first on a character and then on the English meaning. Do I do it wrong? Is it important?
What do you (who already got it over and done with characters) think about it? Thanks
I reviewed from the character, from the meaning and from the pinyin pronunciation. Do what you feel like doing is my advice.
That’s my viewpoint, so please don’t learn my experience.
I think that it is not so difficult for us Japanese to review from the meaning except for the basic grammatical characters but I must concentrate on the pinyin pronunciation, so when using flash card, I check up the pinyin, especially the tone.
Memorizing pinyin pronunciations (without the tone) allows me to type chinese carcters, but to speak correctly, it is also necessary to know the tone. It’s for the reason that I must concentrate on the tone.
Of course, it is not also very difficult for us to write many characters because Japanese use a lot of chinese characters, I must pay attention to a little difference between two languages.
I think the most way to learn Chinese chracters is to start to learn basic characters such as 一，二，三，人，山，etc, which are quite easy to write and which at the primary school in China (also in Japan) children learn. At the same time, leaning basic chracters such as 我，你，他，她，是…etc for using conversation, which are not so easy, is also necessary.
sorry, I made mistakes…
Leaning basic chracters such as 我，你，他，她，是…etc, which we use in the basic conversation is also necessary.
Although it is Chinese section, and I am learning Japanese…
First, I thought that it would be easier to learn kanji at the order Japanese pupils learn them. But then I realised that it is not very helpful for me. Now I learn kanji that I used at my writings (after Emma-san corrects it) and that I found at forum posts, blog posts of Japanese LingQ members, and at news articles that I read.
Thank you all for your answers.
I got a great e-book about learning Chinese characters, so HOW to learn is no question for me at the moment. I intend to just follow this book which comprises ca 3000 carachters (literacy in Chinese). I review them using LingQ flash card system and in this point I differ from the advice of this book. So how to REVIEW was my trouble. Thanks again.
Ca 3000 characters are too many for me because these characters make many idiomatic words, more than 10000 words( I think). Some characters are not used today… In Japan, almost 2000 are enough for us to newspapers, books even if they are difficult. They say that in China 4500 words (not 3000 characters) are enough to attend a class in a university.
Sorry, I forgot to type verbs…
In Japan, almost 2000 are enough for us to read newspapers, books and to write various things even if they are difficult.
I think for many learners, especially low-intermediate ones, their thoughts first come out in their mother tongue, therefore, reviewing from English words to characters does help in this sort of translation.
You may recognize the character you just learnt, but you may not think of this character when given its English counterpart.
Also, I think motivation is the most decisive factor. Just learn in the way you most enjoy, and this gives you long-lasting energy in the language learning odyssey.
“They say that in China 4500 words (not 3000 characters) are enough…”
In my book nearly each character is described with one word, I think it is the main meaning, and only rarely- with 2 or 3 words. Although, I understand, each characters has many meanings. Dillemme, could you please say your opinion for the difference between 4500 words and 3000 characters. Thanks
I use a collection of roughly 2000 Chinese characters that are required for HSK exams. Only in a few instances have I encountered characters in texts that were not in this collection of “ka pian”. Almost every character comes with examples of words in which they are the first character. I guess there may be 6000-8000 words in this book. Sometimes I find words in a text which are not mentioned in the collection, so I add it on the “ka pian” (flashcard).
From the start I have been concentrating on characters that I recognize easily on LingQ flash cards or have remembered the pinyin of to learn how to write them. I use one notebook with a list of their pinyin form and another to practice writing characters from the pinyin list. I have noticed that it becomes easier to recognize charczters in a text when I have started to practice writing them. It helps to analyze the parts of the characters if you write them. That way I have now mastered slightly more than 200 characters that i can write from memory and keep working on about 370. I starting writing in December. I also have started using a Chinmese keyboard layout (pinyin to characters) for writing submissions. I think this also helps to remember characters and words. And I learn new words also from the tutor feedback.
I also use a Langenscheidt dictionary (Chinese-German).
Sorry, I made mistakes a little, Here is USL of HSK exams.
They say that for Advanced level, Characters: 2865 Words: 8840 are required, for Intermediate A, Characters: 2194 Words: 5257, etc but I don’t think so. Almost 2000 characters are enough but we can anticipate others in contexts.
the difference between 4500 words and 3000 characters are
Using about 2000 characters, we make about 5000 words. For example charater: 学, 校, 大 word: 学校, 大学, etc