Chinese characters made easy

[marta]

I  am a student and I was frustrated to learn all the Chinese characters. My teacher advised me to use a teaching textbook in the classroom " Chinese characters made easy for everyone" This method has helped me learn a core group pf over 600 characters from A to Z and learn easily all the family characters ( 3000 characters). you learn the main character such as love, you will learn easily the other family characters and their compositions. You will also have exercises to practice the main characters.

I wanted to share my experience and I am planning to take the HSK exam.. My writing has improved.

Marta, Student.

 

[宇崎ちゃん]

Good luck!

I'm currently running through the Kanji characters (Chinese characters in Japanese) through WaniKani.
I can say that website helped me a lot in a very short time already (level 13 out of 60 at the moment of writing).
I hope to find a similar website for the remaining Chinese characters not used in Japan.

I recommend that site to all learners of Japanese.
It's quite useless for Chinese learners (especially because of the vocabulary), but my reason mentioning it is simply because I wonder if something similar exists for Chinese too.

[kurdapia]

I think the simplified form will make it easier to remember. I wonder if learning it will also help me identify the classic or the not simplified version. Isn't there a confusion when you try to learn to write given the fact that there are two versions? If I learn the simplified is it necessary to learn the other version too?

[宇崎ちゃん]

4 hours ago, kurdapia said:

I think the simplified form will make it easier to remember. I wonder if learning it will also help me identify the classic or the not simplified version. Isn't there a confusion when you try to learn to write given the fact that there are two versions? If I learn the simplified is it necessary to learn the other version too?

I'm learning Japanese Kanji and I can still distinguish it from Chinese and Cantonese Hanzi (2 different ones).
The Chinese one is the simplest and the Cantonese is just the traditional one, but I certainly see the differences in radicals.

For example:
饮

飲

The first one is in Mandarin Chinese, while the second one is both Cantonese and Japanese.
Just note the differences with the left radical.

 

[kurdapia]

On 4/28/2016 at 2:17 PM, Blaveloper said:

I'm learning Japanese Kanji and I can still distinguish it from Chinese and Cantonese Hanzi (2 different ones).
The Chinese one is the simplest and the Cantonese is just the traditional one, but I certainly see the differences in radicals.

For example:
饮

飲

The first one is in Mandarin Chinese, while the second one is both Cantonese and Japanese.
Just note the differences with the left radical.

 

I am just starting to study Chinese Mandarin. I got a bit apprehensive when I read here that there are two different versions. I would not want to focus on one and then find out later that I should have learned the other version. My main goal in learning is to be able to read daily Chinese characters. I need your advice, should I learn both or should I focus on the simplified one? Thank you for your help

[宇崎ちゃん]

15 minutes ago, kurdapia said:

I am just starting to study Chinese Mandarin. I got a bit apprehensive when I read here that there are two different versions. I would not want to focus on one and then find out later that I should have learned the other version. My main goal in learning is to be able to read daily Chinese characters. I need your advice, should I learn both or should I focus on the simplified one? Thank you for your help

I'm not a Chinese learner, but I did attempt it before.

Since you already mentioned you want to learn Mandarin Chinese, just concentrating on simplified characters is all you need to do.
Native Mandarin speakers only know those, and lots of Chinese websites come with a converter so you can set them to simplified or traditional characters any way (and if not, they're simplified by default).

[Nicolay Shinkin]

Analysis of the Chinese Characters for Better Understanding

 

When we analyze something we better understand and quickly memorize it. The same is with the learning Chinese characters.

When we see and understand what radicals and components the character consists of,

our mind does not resist to absorbing this information. We easily learn what we understand.

If we do not understand the structure of a character, then we need to spend hours and days writing and writing this character.

 

Let us have a look at the decomposition the Chinese character 我  wǒ  ‘I’ :

 

丿 piě slash,

找 zhǎo look for,

扌 shǒu hand,

一 yī one,

亅 jué hook,

戈 gē spear,

弋 yì shoot,

一 yī one,

丿 piě slash,

丶 zhǔ dot,     

 

我  wǒ ‘I’  : 丿找扌一亅戈弋一丿丶

 

Now the character我  wǒ ‘I’ looks more familiar to us, doesn’t it?

[Mdaed]

On 2/25/2016 at 4:33 AM, Blaveloper said:

Good luck!

I'm currently running through the Kanji characters (Chinese characters in Japanese) through WaniKani.
I can say that website helped me a lot in a very short time already (level 13 out of 60 at the moment of writing).
I hope to find a similar website for the remaining Chinese characters not used in Japan.

I recommend that site to all learners of Japanese.
It's quite useless for Chinese learners (especially because of the vocabulary), but my reason mentioning it is simply because I wonder if something similar exists for Chinese too.

If you want a similar site for Chinese I would suggest Pandanese.

[Mary Jay]

'Chinese characters made easy for everyone" is a great book! I have used it as well.

Still, when I had HSK 2, I had to look for mobile and web apps to learn more and more characters in my cellphone. I have found and tested many tools. However, there is one app that I am still using now. Hack Chinese has no advanced functionality, but it perfectly suits me for learning and revising characters.

[宇崎ちゃん]

On 5/30/2018 at 9:42 AM, Mdaed said:

If you want a similar site for Chinese I would suggest Pandanese.

2 and a half years late with my reply, but thanks!
I'll definitely look into that, although I'm not really trying to learn Chinese, but I do have a growing interest in Chinese and Korean (especially Taiwanese culture and the whole history of pre-communist China) as of late.