If you're thinking about learning to read, check out this new study resource - printable vocabulary review sheets. These fold-over review sheets are based on my book, Very Practical Chinese including all the vocabulary from the dialogues, exercises, and the accompanying Study Guide. The review sheets are free for anybody to download, print and use. Check them out here.
Start off with the chapter-by-chapter sheets, and move up to the randomized sheets. Right now I have files with a random selection of vocabulary words taken from Chapter 1 and 2, and also files with random vocabulary words from Chapters 1 thru 4. I will post more randomized sheets soon, eventually having a random selection from Chapters 1 - 20, and even Chapters 1 - 45 ~ the idea being that if you can look at characters completely out of context and still know the English definition, Pinyin spelling and tone, then when it comes to reading them in context, you'll be laughing.
Come on! Learn to read!! Don't buy the line that it's not necessary. Don't be scared that it's too hard. It is not that hard and it is so rewarding, and, I dare say, necessary, if you want your Chinese to progress beyond a certain level. And the fact of the matter is that learning how to read characters (by memorizing the correct Pinyin spelling and tone for a character, in addition to the Englsih definition) will ensure that you teach yourself to speak properly! As a bonus, you'll be able to type in Chinese (in Pinyin), and thus able to text, to blog, to email.
There are a few sample sheets scanned for you to take a look at, and (at the risk of overkill) a "how to" PDF as well. Fold them over one way to write the Pinyin and English. Fold them over the other way if you are learning to handwrite characters. Remember to fold them back over to correct your mistakes.
You can use them in conjunction with the Line-by-Line Flashcards, the Fill-in Pinyin Sheets, and the VPC Online Flashcards. All of these materials are based on the VPC Textbook and Study Guide. Keep an eye out for more to come!
Showing posts with label Writing in Chinese. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Writing in Chinese. Show all posts
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Learning to Read - Baby Steps!
So you've decided to learn to read and write Chinese - or if you're still on the fence and looking for a few more reasons to, read this.
But if you don't know any characters, how do you start? It seems a bit daunting!
I've developed a way for beginners to learn to recognize characters, based on the books I've written (with the help of my two wonderful editors, both native Mandarin speakers AND Chinese teachers). This set of books is comprised of a textbook called Very Practical Chinese - 45 Conversations to Know (VPC for short), which includes 16 hours of MP3 compatible audio, and its companion, the VPC Study Guide, which breaks down each line of the dialogue. Our books focus on everyday conversations and making grammar easy and accessible. They also have a huge glossary, heaps of slang, idioms, tongue twisters and jokes. You can read more about them here.
Once finished, I started to think about supplementary materials to help my readers learn to read and write. I came up with "Black Out" Photocopiable Templates that let the reader cover parts of the dialogue in order to test their memory. From here, I made "Fill-in Pinyin" Templates, printable worksheets where the Pinyin and English gloss are whited out, leaving space for you to write your answer and test yourself!
From there, it struck me that for beginners, bigger would be better! That, and a way to be interatctive with the characters, which seems to be a better way to memorize new information than just passively staring at it (think of the "Memory" card game we all played as kids), and so the "Line-by-Line Flashcards" were born. I've got Chapters 1 thru 9 done (more are on the way). The idea is to arrange the cards while listening to the dialogue, or from memory. Then see if you know the tones for each of the characters in every line (best accomplished by using on of the "Fill-in" Templates at the same time). Finally, flip them over to see the tones!
If you've already learned a few hundred characters, these are too remedial for you, I think, but if you're brand new at it, they're a very good way to cut your teeth and ease your way into memorizing characters!
Best of all, you can try my system for free! Simply:
1. Open a Sample Chapter from the VPC Book (Ch.1, 2, and 3) are online and its accompanying audio files. (You'll find the Study Guide Notes for each here as well.)
2. Go to the Line-by-Line Flashcards for Ch.1, 2, 3. Print them on double sided paper.
Give it a try and see:) I'm about to post new worksheets on my website that I call "Fold-over" Vocabulary Reivew Sheets, which will be great to jump to after you've gotten a few hundred characters memorized using the Line-by-Line Flashcards.
For those of you who prefer to review new words and characters on your computer, Online Flashcards for the VPC Chapters (through to Chapter 24), which were created by my industrious student, Bruce, are now available! He has graciously made them available to other students at Flashcard exchange, for which I am greatly indebted to him. Check out the VPC Online Flashcards here!
But if you don't know any characters, how do you start? It seems a bit daunting!
I've developed a way for beginners to learn to recognize characters, based on the books I've written (with the help of my two wonderful editors, both native Mandarin speakers AND Chinese teachers). This set of books is comprised of a textbook called Very Practical Chinese - 45 Conversations to Know (VPC for short), which includes 16 hours of MP3 compatible audio, and its companion, the VPC Study Guide, which breaks down each line of the dialogue. Our books focus on everyday conversations and making grammar easy and accessible. They also have a huge glossary, heaps of slang, idioms, tongue twisters and jokes. You can read more about them here.
Once finished, I started to think about supplementary materials to help my readers learn to read and write. I came up with "Black Out" Photocopiable Templates that let the reader cover parts of the dialogue in order to test their memory. From here, I made "Fill-in Pinyin" Templates, printable worksheets where the Pinyin and English gloss are whited out, leaving space for you to write your answer and test yourself!
From there, it struck me that for beginners, bigger would be better! That, and a way to be interatctive with the characters, which seems to be a better way to memorize new information than just passively staring at it (think of the "Memory" card game we all played as kids), and so the "Line-by-Line Flashcards" were born. I've got Chapters 1 thru 9 done (more are on the way). The idea is to arrange the cards while listening to the dialogue, or from memory. Then see if you know the tones for each of the characters in every line (best accomplished by using on of the "Fill-in" Templates at the same time). Finally, flip them over to see the tones!
If you've already learned a few hundred characters, these are too remedial for you, I think, but if you're brand new at it, they're a very good way to cut your teeth and ease your way into memorizing characters!
Best of all, you can try my system for free! Simply:
1. Open a Sample Chapter from the VPC Book (Ch.1, 2, and 3) are online and its accompanying audio files. (You'll find the Study Guide Notes for each here as well.)
2. Go to the Line-by-Line Flashcards for Ch.1, 2, 3. Print them on double sided paper.
Give it a try and see:) I'm about to post new worksheets on my website that I call "Fold-over" Vocabulary Reivew Sheets, which will be great to jump to after you've gotten a few hundred characters memorized using the Line-by-Line Flashcards.
For those of you who prefer to review new words and characters on your computer, Online Flashcards for the VPC Chapters (through to Chapter 24), which were created by my industrious student, Bruce, are now available! He has graciously made them available to other students at Flashcard exchange, for which I am greatly indebted to him. Check out the VPC Online Flashcards here!
Friday, September 25, 2009
Five Reasons YOU Should Learn to Read and Write in Chinese
1. Your curiosity has gotten the better of you.
Admit it...you want to know what all those neon street signs say. You want to be able to read the menu, instead of looking at the pictures. (The latter is far more likely to impress your date!) You're not illiterate in your native tongue, nor would you likely learn to only speak French or Italian."Oh", but you say, "Chinese is different!" You might not believe it, but trust me...
2. It's not as hard as it looks.
Take a look around you, and say to yourself, "If they could do it, so can I!" Of course, having learned as children, they had something of an advantage, but on the other hand, with technology where it is now, you don't have to tediously copy characters dozens or hundreds of times (like they did). YOU can...
3. Learn to type, (not handwrite) characters
It's a hundred (if not a thousand) times easier to recognize a character when it's in front of you than it is to recall if from memory and re-create it stroke by stroke. You could, of course, learn to painstakingly handwrite characters if you're a purist (or a masochist)...but why, when it's soooooo much easier to type, using a phonetic system, either Pinyin or BPMF, to input the sound, and then choose the character (or compound word) you desire from a list.
4. Literacy opens up your study options
Once you can read and type, suddenly so many more study avenues are open to you. You can keep keep a diary, write letters, and go online to find a ton of websites, online dictionaries and newspapers... CSL (Chinese as a Second Language) is really starting to emerge as a field of interest, and it's only going to get more popular as more and more people study what is destined to be THE language of the 21st century.
5. It's not all work...
Texting, MSN, chatrooms, blogs - once you can read and type, you can communicate in Chinese! Whether texting your language exchange buddy to ask what time your lunch date is, reading (and replying to!) an interesting blog, or chatting with someone next door (or half a world away) on MSN, once you are literate you can be a social butterfly! (Or a Don Juan!)
How to get started:
Granted, if you can't read a lick of Chinese it might seem a bit daunting, but I have a plan for you! Read this!
Admit it...you want to know what all those neon street signs say. You want to be able to read the menu, instead of looking at the pictures. (The latter is far more likely to impress your date!) You're not illiterate in your native tongue, nor would you likely learn to only speak French or Italian."Oh", but you say, "Chinese is different!" You might not believe it, but trust me...
2. It's not as hard as it looks.
Take a look around you, and say to yourself, "If they could do it, so can I!" Of course, having learned as children, they had something of an advantage, but on the other hand, with technology where it is now, you don't have to tediously copy characters dozens or hundreds of times (like they did). YOU can...
3. Learn to type, (not handwrite) characters
It's a hundred (if not a thousand) times easier to recognize a character when it's in front of you than it is to recall if from memory and re-create it stroke by stroke. You could, of course, learn to painstakingly handwrite characters if you're a purist (or a masochist)...but why, when it's soooooo much easier to type, using a phonetic system, either Pinyin or BPMF, to input the sound, and then choose the character (or compound word) you desire from a list.
4. Literacy opens up your study options
Once you can read and type, suddenly so many more study avenues are open to you. You can keep keep a diary, write letters, and go online to find a ton of websites, online dictionaries and newspapers... CSL (Chinese as a Second Language) is really starting to emerge as a field of interest, and it's only going to get more popular as more and more people study what is destined to be THE language of the 21st century.
5. It's not all work...
Texting, MSN, chatrooms, blogs - once you can read and type, you can communicate in Chinese! Whether texting your language exchange buddy to ask what time your lunch date is, reading (and replying to!) an interesting blog, or chatting with someone next door (or half a world away) on MSN, once you are literate you can be a social butterfly! (Or a Don Juan!)
How to get started:
Granted, if you can't read a lick of Chinese it might seem a bit daunting, but I have a plan for you! Read this!
Monday, April 27, 2009
How (and Why!) to Write Chinese by Typing it!
For all intents and purposes, these days “writing” in Chinese is really just typing it – and if you can spell the pinyin for each character, then you can become literate at the same pace as you become verbally fluent in Mandarin.
Windows (98, XP, Vista) generally includes Language Interface Pack (LIU) in its operating system. If you only have the Basic Vista package, it’s not included (which I just found out) but you can download it free of charge from the Microsoft website (which I also found out, in short order). If you’re having trouble getting characters to work after you've loaded the LIU Pack, here's how you do it:
To install Traditional Characters (with Pinyin input):
Go to Start → Control Panel → Regional Languages Options → Keyboards and Languages → Change Keyboard → Chinese (Taiwan) double click → Chinese Traditional New Phonetic
Now click on Chinese Traditional New Phonetic (in your list of languages. Look at the sidebar, which says add, remove and properties) → properties → keyboard → HanYu Pinyin
To add Simplified Characters as well:
Click add scroll down and pick Chinese (PRC)
Done? Yay! Now you’re ready to type in Chinese!!
This predictive text program makes typing so easy! For example, if I want to type “I am a student”, I will type “wo” (I) and 我 appears. Then I type “shi” (am) and then 是, the correct character, appears. Given that there are so many different characters with the pronunciation “shi”, how does the program know that 是 is the right one? Because this 是is the most logical choice for this sentence – and in this case, correct. The rest of the sentence continues in the same way…next I type “yi” and get 一 (which means one, and combined with the classifier “ge” 個, the next two characters I type, together mean “a/an”. Finally, I type “xue” and 學 pops up, which I follow with “sheng” 生. The 學 appeared because, again, it is one of the most common characters, and the most logical in this sentence. 生 follows, because there’s only one compound word with the combination “xuesheng” (student) – and the program knows this. It’s smart!
What if I don’t want the default characters the program provides? Let’s say I type “yao”. The most common one, 要, comes up, however I don’t want the “yao” that means “want”, but the “yao” that means “medicine”. Since 要 has a dotted line under it, I can change it. (It only “sets” when you press enter, and the dotted line disappears.) To change characters, I use my down and side arrow keys at the bottom right hand of the key board. To get the correct character, 藥, I press the down arrow (↓) and see 9 options, each with a handy key in number on the left. I scroll down to number 3 because that’s the “yao” I want. To see all the characters, I can press the down arrow (↓) and then press the right arrow key (→) and presto, 81 different characters for the sound “yao” appear. (The one drawback to this program is that the characters are so darned small. You have two options – you can squint like me, or you can invest in a magnifying glass like my student, who assures me it works like a charm!)
We have taken great pains to ensure that the pinyin equivalent is either under or beside every character in the Very Practical Chinese Book and its accompanying Study Guide – ensuring that you are able to write anything you find in either one. As you get more and more comfortable with the dialogues, absorbing the syntax and vocabulary, you will be able to write your own thoughts in emails, MS Messenger and text messages. You will be literate as long as you are supported by the current level of technology we have. And let’s face it: If the day comes when we no longer have cell phones and computers, chances are the inability to write in Chinese will sadly be the least of your worries.
So, presuming you’ll always have access to the equipment that allows you to type in Chinese, is there any reason that you would still want to learn to write characters old school, stroke by stroke? Well, while it’s a very artistic language to “draw”, the beauty and spontaneity of the “brush strokes” is lost on all but the most diehard purists by the 10th or 20th time you write a character, bearing in mind that it might take 100 times for you to actually commit just one character to memory. Ditto for being able to keep a Chinese diary of your secrets, strictly for the purpose (well, this was my pathetic purpose) of leaving it around the house, knowing no one else in your family would be able to read what it says. (As it so happens, no one was that interested in my secret thoughts, so the effort to payoff ratio was dismal.) Perhaps you’re worried that you might be on the street and run up against a situation where you have to give someone an address…well, your cell phone has all the same characters as your computer, the same Pinyin (or BPMF, if you prefer) input. Finally, let me assure you that unless you are very different from most of us, the day you stop copying characters out 10- 20 times each is the day you start to forget them. A year from the day you stopped, you might remember how to handwrite 1/20th of what you once knew if you’ve got a VERY good memory. It’s depressing but true, and I speak from personal experience.
The bottom line is that learning to handwrite characters stroke by stroke is not a viable option for time sensitive non-native adult learners of Chinese. We don’t have all the time in the world, unlike those industrious grade school children all across China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan who tack on a good hour or two to their homework schedule every night for 15 years, just to become literate.
So why not give it a try? You’ll be amazed at how fast you’re able to express your ideas in writing. Be sure to make use of all the FREE study materials at www.verypracticalchinese.com to become impressively fluent and literate in Mandarin in no time flat!
Windows (98, XP, Vista) generally includes Language Interface Pack (LIU) in its operating system. If you only have the Basic Vista package, it’s not included (which I just found out) but you can download it free of charge from the Microsoft website (which I also found out, in short order). If you’re having trouble getting characters to work after you've loaded the LIU Pack, here's how you do it:
To install Traditional Characters (with Pinyin input):
Go to Start → Control Panel → Regional Languages Options → Keyboards and Languages → Change Keyboard → Chinese (Taiwan) double click → Chinese Traditional New Phonetic
Now click on Chinese Traditional New Phonetic (in your list of languages. Look at the sidebar, which says add, remove and properties) → properties → keyboard → HanYu Pinyin
To add Simplified Characters as well:
Click add scroll down and pick Chinese (PRC)
Done? Yay! Now you’re ready to type in Chinese!!
This predictive text program makes typing so easy! For example, if I want to type “I am a student”, I will type “wo” (I) and 我 appears. Then I type “shi” (am) and then 是, the correct character, appears. Given that there are so many different characters with the pronunciation “shi”, how does the program know that 是 is the right one? Because this 是is the most logical choice for this sentence – and in this case, correct. The rest of the sentence continues in the same way…next I type “yi” and get 一 (which means one, and combined with the classifier “ge” 個, the next two characters I type, together mean “a/an”. Finally, I type “xue” and 學 pops up, which I follow with “sheng” 生. The 學 appeared because, again, it is one of the most common characters, and the most logical in this sentence. 生 follows, because there’s only one compound word with the combination “xuesheng” (student) – and the program knows this. It’s smart!
What if I don’t want the default characters the program provides? Let’s say I type “yao”. The most common one, 要, comes up, however I don’t want the “yao” that means “want”, but the “yao” that means “medicine”. Since 要 has a dotted line under it, I can change it. (It only “sets” when you press enter, and the dotted line disappears.) To change characters, I use my down and side arrow keys at the bottom right hand of the key board. To get the correct character, 藥, I press the down arrow (↓) and see 9 options, each with a handy key in number on the left. I scroll down to number 3 because that’s the “yao” I want. To see all the characters, I can press the down arrow (↓) and then press the right arrow key (→) and presto, 81 different characters for the sound “yao” appear. (The one drawback to this program is that the characters are so darned small. You have two options – you can squint like me, or you can invest in a magnifying glass like my student, who assures me it works like a charm!)
We have taken great pains to ensure that the pinyin equivalent is either under or beside every character in the Very Practical Chinese Book and its accompanying Study Guide – ensuring that you are able to write anything you find in either one. As you get more and more comfortable with the dialogues, absorbing the syntax and vocabulary, you will be able to write your own thoughts in emails, MS Messenger and text messages. You will be literate as long as you are supported by the current level of technology we have. And let’s face it: If the day comes when we no longer have cell phones and computers, chances are the inability to write in Chinese will sadly be the least of your worries.
So, presuming you’ll always have access to the equipment that allows you to type in Chinese, is there any reason that you would still want to learn to write characters old school, stroke by stroke? Well, while it’s a very artistic language to “draw”, the beauty and spontaneity of the “brush strokes” is lost on all but the most diehard purists by the 10th or 20th time you write a character, bearing in mind that it might take 100 times for you to actually commit just one character to memory. Ditto for being able to keep a Chinese diary of your secrets, strictly for the purpose (well, this was my pathetic purpose) of leaving it around the house, knowing no one else in your family would be able to read what it says. (As it so happens, no one was that interested in my secret thoughts, so the effort to payoff ratio was dismal.) Perhaps you’re worried that you might be on the street and run up against a situation where you have to give someone an address…well, your cell phone has all the same characters as your computer, the same Pinyin (or BPMF, if you prefer) input. Finally, let me assure you that unless you are very different from most of us, the day you stop copying characters out 10- 20 times each is the day you start to forget them. A year from the day you stopped, you might remember how to handwrite 1/20th of what you once knew if you’ve got a VERY good memory. It’s depressing but true, and I speak from personal experience.
The bottom line is that learning to handwrite characters stroke by stroke is not a viable option for time sensitive non-native adult learners of Chinese. We don’t have all the time in the world, unlike those industrious grade school children all across China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan who tack on a good hour or two to their homework schedule every night for 15 years, just to become literate.
So why not give it a try? You’ll be amazed at how fast you’re able to express your ideas in writing. Be sure to make use of all the FREE study materials at www.verypracticalchinese.com to become impressively fluent and literate in Mandarin in no time flat!
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