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HomeShop at BookSurgeTravelEuropeLearning Chinese The Easy Way: Read & Understand The Symbols of Chinese Culture |
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| Customer Reviews: | | Average Customer Review:
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2 of 2 found the following review helpful:
The whole learning process is totally fascinating Nov 19, 2009
I am an adult and like to learn independently. Lately my passion has been learning Mandarin Chinese.
At first I thought that I would focus only on listening and speaking (and using Pinyin), but friends advised me that my approach would only take me so far and that to truly advance in my studies, I'd have to learn to read the characters.
I bought this and Sam Song's other book, The Fox and the Goat, on Amazon. The book and the download files that he makes available made learning a large number of characters relatively easy. It's a nice jump start to learning Mandarin.
6 of 7 found the following review helpful:
Really Easy and Fun May 13, 2009
This is a great book it is really easy to learn to write Chinesse with this one I highly recromend
3 of 3 found the following review helpful:
Artistic Symbols Are Language of Communication Feb 02, 2009
Sam Song has provided a wonderful book which describes in an easy to follow manner a very logical technique for learning Chinese characters and a way of "putting it all together" to read Chinese. The first thing to remember is that it is necessary to write down each character and practice writing it many times, as often as fifteen times to train the mind to recall the symbol and its meaning. The author uses a technique called progression which takes an ordinairy picture and through a few modifications it is altered to become the Chinese character. Using this pictorial version, the reader is able to associate the Chinese symbol with the word which it represents. Chinese writing is a beautiful art form and Sam Song has provided an enjoyable experience to reach the moment of "ah ha" where the reader awakens to the meaning of the word through symbols. At the end of the book are two short stories which the learner can actually read, having learned the symbols for the characters in this book. The author also demonstrates a sense of humor along with providing some interesting historical information while teaching Chinese characters.
In this book, the author tells the reader that traditional Chinese writing is over 5,000 years old but the Chinese government in the 1950s decided to simplify some of the characters and use it as the official written Chinese language. Therefore, in China the "simplified" characters are used but in most places outside of China the "traditional Chinese" is in vogue. The good news is that 70% of the "simplified" Chinese characters are the same as the "traditonal" ones.
First, the author provides the symbol he wishes to teach: for example, the word "watch". Next he provides an easily recognizable picture of an eye. Through progression the eye is slightly altered into a symbol which is again slightly modified and then viewed as an eye. Along with the eye, the author uses the picture of a hand and through some simple modifications, it is changed into the Chinese character for hand. The alterations and modifications provided by the author make sense and the characters come alive with meaning due to his explanations. This book is most highly recommended. Erika Borsos [pepper flower]
4 of 4 found the following review helpful:
"Entertaining, excellent book! Aug 07, 2008
Chinese characters are pictographic in nature. One of the major difficulties for most learners is to remember Chinese characters. It's just like we are impossible to remember many random numbers or telephone numbers by human brain. This book does great help from this point of view! This is the best book I have ever seen!
5 of 5 found the following review helpful:
Makes sense of incomprehensible characters! Aug 05, 2008
I travel frequently to China, and have often asked Chinese colleagues how on earth the characters that we see today have developed over time. Looking at it from a Chinese perspective, I don't imagine that our Arabic lettering makes any sense either, but Mr Song's clever little book has given me an interesting insight into the development of the written language China has used for centuries.
For those who are considering learning the language but are put off by the written aspects, this is indeed a valuable tool, and far less onerous than the more daunting texts that are out there today. Many people are keen to learn Chinese as this wonderful country continues with its global rise, and this is a wonderful gift for anyone who travels to, or is interested in China and its culture.
It is a little gem!
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