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Learning Chinese Characters

Printed From: FSI Language Courses
Category: Learning Languages
Forum Name: Chinese (Standard)
Forum Discription: Discussion about studying Standard Chinese using the FSI course.
URL: http://fsi-language-courses.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=431
Printed Date: 16 January 2009 at 2:40am


Topic: Learning Chinese Characters
Posted By: lucvileyn
Subject: Learning Chinese Characters
Date Posted: 15 June 2007 at 8:22am
Hello, I'm learning Chinese at the Confucius Institute in Brussels, second year. I've made a website for learning Chinese Characters (Based on new Practical Chinese Reader, part 1). In a few months, I'll expand the site. All comments are welcome.

http://www.luc-vileyn.cn



Replies:
Posted By: linky
Date Posted: 14 March 2008 at 4:20am
maybe you can learn from a native speaker,it is a good way!

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http://www.italki.com - Language Exchange


Posted By: carolina_yeliza
Date Posted: 22 April 2008 at 4:02am
I am pretty good in speaking a Chinese language but I have to admit that I'm not good when it comes to writing.

Talking to a native speaker is a good idea if you are after on the right accent but I don't think it will work on learning a Chinese characters. You can also try some tutorials designed to help people to understand and easily remember Chinese characters.


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http://www.ukulc.com/ - Translation Services | http://www.ukulc.com/language_facts.php - Language Translation


Posted By: Orange
Date Posted: 22 April 2008 at 5:15am
There is no other way about but writing the characters as much as possible.  So you need lots of pencils, square-lined pads and any breaktime you can spare on it.  In this way, your writing muscles will be made to remember those characters.  You can not understand them in order to remember them.  I write Chinese charaters spontaneously.  I guess it goes with everything about language learning, either speaking or writing.  Chinese natives who can read and write are no exception.  I heard many Chinese people's proficiency in writing Hanzi are degrading due to computer typing.  Many of us use the Pinyin input programme, thus the shrinking time of imaging characters in our mind's eye and muscle exercising.  And there is one more thing for beginners.  That is to pay attention to the correct order of putting down the strokes of each charater.  Correct strokes ordering can make the handwriting easy and comfortable.  


Posted By: Camila
Date Posted: 22 April 2008 at 5:40am
Ni hao! I've learned Mandarin during my college years. I'm not a good speaker but i knew some basic mandarin. I can also write some words in Chinese character format but I'm not expert. I visited some online translation site when i needed help in creating my papers. 

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Cost Effective http://www.unitransservice.org - Language Translation Services


Posted By: mspxlation
Date Posted: 30 May 2008 at 3:21pm
The best way to learn characters is to copy meaningful material over and over.

Rather than learning individual characters, which can get confusing, learn compounds that they appear in. For example, don't learn guo (country) by itself. Learn names of countries that contain guo: Zhongguo, Meiguo, Faguo, Eguo, Deguo, etc. Copy them over and over. Then come back the next day and see if you can write them from the pinyin.

Do the same with your reading selections. Write them out in pinyin, and then the next day, come back and try to turn them back into characters.

It's an awful lot of work, but it is very effective.


Posted By: Lars
Date Posted: 30 June 2008 at 11:37am
For those of you who are working through the FSI Mandarin Chinese course and want to learn how to recognize and write the characters, I suggest you check out this post on Language Log:
 
http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=189 - http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=189
 
There is a new Chinese newspaper produced specifically for people learning the language: all characters have their equivalents written out in Pinyin.  The linguist who wrote this post said that if you use this method you need not write out every character dozens of times in order to learn them.
 
Hope this helps.


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Lars


Posted By: lucvileyn
Date Posted: 30 June 2008 at 3:13pm
I'm working on the optional modules transcribing the dialogues to characters (in collaboration with a Chinese teacher).
 
For all those who did pimsleur (mandarin III) before fsi, I have transcriptions in simplified and traditional Chinese, also a writing dictionary.
 
Feel free to take a look and comment (files are in pdf).
 
http://www.pimsleur-mandarin-level-iii-transcripts.cn/ - http://www.pimsleur-mandarin-level-iii-transcripts.cn/
 


Posted By: Ivan Zimmer
Date Posted: 11 August 2008 at 1:06am
In learning Japanese and Chinese people seem to be so afraid of reading and writing, the aversion to Chinese characters is unnecessary and unfortunate. I studied "Chinese by myself, and got a B.A. in Chinese Literature from a National University in Taiwan, I also have an M.A. in teaching Chinese as a second/foreign language. So I'll share some experience with you:

1. Work on your oral and listening skills from the beginning--tone and pronunciation.

2. Utilize materials: Mainland China and Taiwan have many excellent textbooks for learning Chinese with many audio files. Use these texts because they are written in Chinese characters and pinyin is kept at a minimum---put writing---reading --speaking and listening together---synthesize it!

3. Chinese books and newspapers are everywhere--pick them up and read them, keep your dictionary handy and enjoy---don't worry about not understanding--that will come in time with study and experience. When you read, read out laous, this will become a memory aid and an oral/aural crutch to the graphical representation of Chinese---you'll be able to memorize characters better.

4. If you have a Chinese class, always write sentences, articles and essays in Chinese and ask your teacher for corrections. If your teacher refuses, that teacher is a hack and shouldn't be teaching! Send your essays to me, I'll correct them for you!Wink

5.Watch Chinese TV stations or programs, they usually have Chinese subtitles. That is another combined exercise that is also alot of fun!

6. Read Chinese characters and only Chinese characters---in this way you will become familiar with them . Also engage in meaningful writing activities,  such as witting letters to Chinese friends, chatting online, witting essays, poems, advertisements etc. In this way you will improve very quickly.

7. You must do all of the above if you want to take HSK (Hanyu Shuiping Kao漢語水平靠)or TOP Huayu (Test of Proficiency Huayu華語能力測驗)at any level.

Good luck on your studies--加油!祝大家的中文學習順利!Star


Posted By: rockyanw
Date Posted: 27 August 2008 at 6:06pm
with all due respect, ”Hanyu Shuiping Kao“ should be "汉语水平考(not ”靠“)"


Posted By: Ivan Zimmer
Date Posted: 28 August 2008 at 9:33am
Embarrassed我打字打了太快了,沒注意到!謝謝您替我注意!您說得沒錯,是“考”不是“靠”。


Posted By: Orange
Date Posted: 30 August 2008 at 4:21am
Originally posted by rockyanw

with all due respect, ”Hanyu Shuiping Kao“ should be "汉语水平考(not ”靠“)"
 
"汉语水平考试" should be the complete version of title  .  Ancient Chinese people use "kao考" alone as a noun / verb to express the meaning of "research".  So "汉语水平考” means " a research into the standards of Hanyu ". 
 
Nowadays, some loose-mouth Chinese people use "靠!"(kao4)for an interjection as strong as the English word of "f**k!".


Posted By: Ivan Zimmer
Date Posted: 31 August 2008 at 1:16pm
其实我们常常讨论“汉语水平考试”的时候不是说HSK就是说“汉语水平考”,这确实华语学界的讲法,是一种省略词,也有人简单地讲“水平考”,说不定以后会所到“汉考”。您的语法不错,但是你还要注意台湾和中国大陆的用法出入,还有要注意"特殊用法“,即修辞格。例如:“了-----乐”适合呼语法的句型,为什么呢?那是强调时貌并加强语气。其实是常见的结构。

这两年以来,我用了不少时间研究台湾和中国大陆的语言出入,该出入不仅在词汇上也在语法用法的习惯上,因素颇多,其一是方言的问题,其次是社会环境引起不同的语言习惯和发展,例如:“吹牛”一词,大陆差不多等于“聊天儿”的意思,在台湾、香港“吹牛”就是“说大话”、“夸张’的意思。又如“注意到”,那是将“倒”强调结果,更强调上文所提到的事情,在类似的情况台湾人就这么说。我用“替我注意”也是特殊的用法。

不过我并不会每次说得正确,那就是我太糊涂吧!ConfusedDead说千万别以为我自以为是,实在说有人注意这种的问题是难得的,希望可以跟您做朋友!哇!时间不早,在此告别!希望可以跟您常常联络。Sleepy

                                                                                                司马爱文
                                                                                                   敬上                                                               


Posted By: david808
Date Posted: 10 November 2008 at 7:16pm
Check out
http://www.ArchChinese.com - http://www.ArchChinese.com . It is a free, web-based Chinese character learning tool. Many users have found it useful and effective.



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