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Thread: How do you memorize Chinese characters?
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[quote=TOMSPENCER,295970]Oh, the book is 'Reading & Writing Chinese (Simplified Character Edition)'. Like I said, it has flaws but for my money it's better than the couple of thousand flashcards that I've bought over the years. Only the most common 1,067 characters are explained in depth (five to a page). The remaining two thousand or so are crammed-in, twenty to a page. The indexing isn't always accurate and the author annoys me by discussing, early on, radicals such as '亠' (tou), which you will see repeated in many characters, and assigning an English name to these radicals. In the case of '亠' (tou) he calls it 'the lid radical'. Every time the radical crops up in a character later in the book the author will say something like "this character has got the 'lid' radical on top, which signifies..." - I just wish he would call it by its Chinese name, like "this character has got the 'tou' radical on top...". It would just make more sense to me and would help me to order things properly in my mind. That aside, I heartily recommend it and if you can't find it in your local bookshop then try Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Reading-Writing-Chinese-Simplified-Character/dp/0804835098 The one other book I would recommend for anyone starting to learn Chinese is the 'Oxford Beginner's Chinese Dictionary' (http://www.amazon.com/Oxford-Beginners-Chinese-Dictionary-Boping/dp/019929853X), which is quite frankly fantastic. Intermediate and more advanced learners will find that this dictionary lacks some of the words you need to find, however for beginners it gives great demonstrations of how to use words in different contexts, as well as explaining basic grammar. It also contains a really well-thought-out phrase book and a whole section on important things that you might like to know about Chinese history, culture and traditions. For other books I think your teacher or study group may be able to guide you as to the most useful ones. I've accumulated quite a few over the years and they've all served their purpose, but the two I've mentioned above I would recommend to anyone who wants to learn Chinese.[/quote]
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