19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Good textbook for teaching elementary Chinese characters, May 26, 2006
This review is from: Fundamentals of Chinese Characters (Paperback)
This is a review of Fundamentals of Chinese Characters by John Jing-hua Yin.
This is a very innovative textbook for teaching Chinese characters. Yin points out that, when students first study Chinese, they generally begin with the characters that correspond to the expressions in spoken Chinese that they are learning. However, this is somewhat awkward, since the characters used to write everyday spoken expressions like "How are you?" and "Thank you" are generally NOT the simplest or most fundamental characters. Yin makes a helpful analogy: "Teaching students how to write these characters is like teaching students who have no knowledge of the English alphabet how to spell a multisyllabic English word" (xvii). In contrast, Yin recommends what he calls a "Dual-Track Approach" to teaching Chinese. Students begin with one course on spoken Chinese, and a second separate course on written Chinese. Only after students have proceeded to the second semester of Chinese (by which time they will know a large number of basic characters) are the spoken and written languages integrated into one course. Fundamentals of Chinese Characters is designed as the textbook for such a one-semester course on written Chinese.
I am very uncertain whether other Chinese language teachers will be adventurous enough to adopt this method. Language teachers are typically already overworked. Developing a new introductory course sequence is a huge investment of time, administratively difficult (these things have to be approved by curricular committees, of course) and potentially dangerous. (If it fails, you may lose students, and also the goodwill of your Dean.) However, this is a very imaginative approach, and Yin reports success in teaching this way at his own institution (xviii).
The book introduces a total of 229 characters. It uses Pinyin romanization for pronunciations and emphasizes "short-form" or "simplified" characters (those used in Mainland China), but "long-form" or "traditional" characters (those used in Taiwan) are also supplied. Chapter 1 is an introduction to the history of Chinese characters, including the six basic methods by which characters are constructed (first identified by Xu Shen in the early second century AD). (Note to novices: No, Chinese characters are not all just pictures of things. In fact, most of them are not pictures.) Chapter 2 explains the relationships between characters and sounds, syllables, words and "strokes."
Beginning with Chapter 3, every chapter has the same basic structure. The "Fundamental Knowledge" section of the chapter introduces a group of characters with a common theme (numbers in Chapter 3, "nature and plants" in Chapter 4, etc.). The historical development of each character is charted - from the oracle bone inscriptions of over 3,000 years ago to the simplified and cursive styles of today - and an etymological explanation of each character is given. Then there are four "Challenge" sections, organized from the easiest (for those with no previous exposure to Chinese) to more advanced challenges (for those with some knowledge of spoken Chinese). The first challenge is to write the characters. This section discusses which strokes occur in each character, and there are spaces in the book to copy each character several times. The second challenge includes quizzes to test the student's memory of the characters and get her used to identifying small differences between characters. This section also discusses the "complex" or "long-form" (traditional) versions of the characters, where these differ from the "simplified" (modern Mainland Chinese) versions. There is space to write the characters in their traditional forms. The third challenge is to pronounce the characters. There is a general explanation of Chinese pronunciation in Chapter 2, but of course pronunciation should not really be attempted unless one has, at the least, some language CD's. The fourth and final challenge is "dictation." This includes quizzes for writing the characters based on their pronunciations.
At the end of the book, Chapter 15 answers questions about how to use a Chinese dictionary, and about the differences between printed, hand-written and calligraphic characters. The Appendix to the book gives the People's Republic of China Ministry of Education's 1988 list of the 2,500 most commonly used "simplified" Chinese characters. (The Far East 3000 Chinese Character Dictionary, also available here on www.amazon.com, gives a similar list for the traditional characters used in Taiwan.) There is also a bibliography and an English subject index.
This is a very tightly organized and informative book. At times, I worry that it may give beginning students "information overload." Even I got dizzy from the discussion of the distinctions among "inherited characters," "simplified characters," "complex characters," "traditional Chinese characters," "normalized Chinese characters" and "modern Chinese characters" (7). And the four-page chart of Chinese syllables (13-16) is so complex that I'm not sure I understand it myself. There is a lot of emphasis on the "strokes" that make up each character. To a certain extent, this is quite necessary in any text teaching characters. However, they are frequently referred to using their Chinese names. I'm not sure how I feel about that in an introductory textbook.
Overall, I would say that, if you are someone who is seriously interested in Chinese characters, this is a good book to get. Even though I have been reading Chinese for years, I have found this to be a useful reference work on some of the fine points of character construction. If you do not know any Chinese and want to teach yourself some, this is one of the better books to get. (Just skip over parts that you find too hard or not appropriate for your needs.) If you are a language teacher, it might be worth experimenting with Yin's novel approach to see if it works as well for you as it has for him.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
History adds to character learning, October 3, 2010
This review is from: Fundamentals of Chinese Characters (Paperback)
This book provides historical, cultural and meaning-based context for learning simplified characters. It gives a good introduction to a variety of radicals and a large number of characters. The approach would suit learners with an academic disposition. The book suggests it be used as a stand-alone course for learning characters without learning their pronunciation. No doubt this would suit some learners but I would personally find it very hard to learn that way. Instead I am using it to reinforce and expand a course where character and pronunciation are taught simultaneously. In this context I find it very good, even exciting in the extra dimension it offers.
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3 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Biased translation and problematic focus, August 2, 2008
This review is from: Fundamentals of Chinese Characters (Paperback)
I agree with the previous reviewer that the author's idea of setting an individual class aside to focus on writing is not something that can be executed in many educational institutions. Also I don't think it is very practical for undergraduate classes in which students mostly look for more practical and basic knowledge of the Chinese language.
I disagree with several of the author's ideas. Above all, the translation of some core terms is not only confusing but biased. Translating traditional characters as "complex characters" actually ascribes a derogatory meaning to the traditional form. Translating "simplified" characters as "modern Chinese characters" actually disregards the current status of the traditional characters as a well-accepted form of characters in modern times. The traditional characters are the standardized form today in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and all over the overseas Chinese communities.
The choice of simplified characters as the main focus causes a problem. The foundation of Chinese characters are built upon the standard traditional form of Chinese characters. The simplified characters are the simplified form developed from the traditional form and should not be the fundamental form to be studied if one wants to learn about the original formation of Chinese characters. If one is truly serious about studying the origin of Chinese characters and their formation, I would not recommend this book. However, if one wants to learn an easy way to memorize simplified characters, this book does provide some creative strategies to memorize some of the basic simplified characters.
Last but not the least, the author says that simplified characters "are much easier to write than before." In fact, being easier to write does not mean that it is easier to learn.
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