The Bottom Line
Pros
- Logical progession for learning Chinese characters
- Covers the essential characters for Mandarin learners
- Stoke guide aids in learning the correct stroke order
Cons
- Limited translations and examples
- Includes some obscure characters that are rarely seen in modern writing
Description
- Paperback: 368 pages
- Publisher: Charles E. Tuttle Co.; Revised edition (September 1999)
- ISBN-10: 0804832064
- ISBN-13: 978-0804832069
Guide Review - Reading and Writing Chinese
Unlike many other texts on the subject, Reading and Writing Chinese presents characters in increasing complexity, rather than usage frequency. This allows students to become familiar with the individual components of complex characters before they are combined.
The first section of the book presents 1,062 elementary characters along with a translation and sample phrases. The second section presents the remaining characters from the official list of 2,000 basic characters devised by the Chinese government.
The book contains two indexes for looking up characters: pronunciation and stroke count. There are also interesting discussions about the history of Chinese characters and the various systems of Romanization.
This book is not a complete learning guide to the Mandarin language. Vocabulary examples are fairly limited, giving only a few of the many possible meanings of each character.
