Teach Yourself Beginners Chinese Script : An Introduction to Reading and Writing Chinese [Paperback]

Liz Scurfield (Author), Lianyi Song (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0658000810 | ISBN-13: 978-0658000812 | Publication Date: March 1, 2000 | Edition: 1

Learners are practically taken by the hand and instructed on the Chinese script. Opening the door to the fundamentals of reading and writing, this book includes 100 line drawings, self-testing activities and exercises, and examples taken from signs, menus, and other real-life situations.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Elizabeth Scurfield is a founder member of the Chinese Department at the University of Westminister.
Song Lianyi is Lecturer in Chinese ath the School of Oriental African Studies London. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill; 1 edition (March 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0658000810
• ISBN-13: 978-0658000812
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,549,995 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Understanding - not Memorizing, January 1, 2003

By 

avid_reader_techie "avid_reader_techie" (Castro Valley, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Teach Yourself Beginners Chinese Script : An Introduction to Reading and Writing Chinese (Paperback)

This book is the first I have come across that teaches Chinese characters by helping the reader to understand how they are formed. Other books plunge right into the presentation of characters that must be memorized, quickly overwhelming the reader.

In this book you will understand the logic behind the evolution of the characters, the use of radicals in compound characters, the composition of multiple character words, interpretation of characters in context, and how to correctly write these characters yourself. Elizabeth Scurfield explains the rules behind stroke order and gives many examples as the characters progress from simple to more complex. Each unit builds logically on the preceding unit, so learning is gradual and easy.

If you are just beginning to learn Chinese writing, I couldn't recommend this book more highly. You will need to look elsewhere to learn the spoken language, not much help here (although Elizabeth Scurfield does have another very good book that teaches both reading and speaking Mandarin). Once you have mastered the material in this book, you will need to find a more advanced book if you wish to become proficient. This truly is just a beginning - but a very good one.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Teaches the basic for a tourist., April 17, 2001

By 

"leprofgmm" (Greece) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Teach Yourself Beginners Chinese Script : An Introduction to Reading and Writing Chinese (Paperback)

This book is really fantastic. It shows you the basics for the chinese script origin and gives you a basic understanding of the written language by associating it with everyday situations. Through the numerous examples from real chinese setrtings it teaches you how to guess a possible meaning for a character by noticing its background (e.g. if it is on a restaurant menu, airport lounge information etc.) and compounds. This is particularily important for the everyday traveller to China who doesn't have the time to learn a lot of characters but has the basic intelligence to associate a character with its possible meaning. It also has a very practical pronounciation guide and a guide to chinese computer input methods at the end of the book but unfortunately doesn't give the pinyin for all the characters that are presented in the book.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Guide to Chinese Characters, November 5, 2000

By 

"sl_ong" (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Teach Yourself Beginners Chinese Script : An Introduction to Reading and Writing Chinese (Paperback)

I am a beginner to learning Chinese and I find this book an excellent guide to understanding chinese characters, its components and why. I recommend this book to anyone who wish to be able to recognize and read chinese characters. The author has provided an excellent description regarding the radicals and phonetic components of chinese characters.