Aims:
This weblog has been designed to help learners of Mandarin Chinese, providing them with a powerful memorization tool for Hanzi, the intricate characters the Chinese writing system comprises of. Despite their elegance, they are very difficult to keep in mind, especially if you also want to be able to write them instead of “merely” recognizing them. I will try to help you with mnemonics, insights on etymology and funny stories. Children acquire their writing skills through pure rote learning. This approach doesn’t work for teenagers and adults anymore.
Each day, we will take a close look at 20 characters, their reading, translation compounds and radicals. This
way, you will hypothetically be able to learn the 6000 most common characters within a single year. But it
doesn’t matter if you can’t keep up with that speed, although I am sure you’ll be able to retain most of them
even without writing them for hundreds of times (but that would make your handwriting more fluent). Concentrate on the ones that are appropriate and useful at your level. The HSK level indicates when knowledge of a certain Hanzi is required, and the frequency with which they appear can be measured, at least for the 2000 most common ones, so they can be ranked in several ways.
On Sundays, additional material will be posted for your enjoyment, like song lyrics, subtitled movies, excerpts, poems, Chengyu, the 101 of studying Chinese, select online lessons and critiques of books and other learning material.
It is sometimes not advisable to learn the characters from the very start and congest your brain with loads of abstract information, but it can be a very fulfilling endeavour. I recommend to learn a few important
characters even if you’re just a tourist because it will faciliate communication and enable you to find
restaurant and the right bathroom.
Even a little knowledge will go a long way!
I wish you all the best for your studies!
Feel welcome to leave comments and let me know about any questions or suggestions. If you have a story or mnemonic to share, do not hesitate.
If you have any questions concerning grammar, I refer you to the community at chinesepod.com, where you can also find excellent, professionally done podcasts and materials. Since I am not affiliated with them, I will introduce and review other resources and books,too.
A few pieces of information about myself:
My name is Zhang Lihua (张 莉花, zhang1 li4hua1), I sometimes go by the English name Jasmine Zhang. Born in 1980, I am a native of Hunan 湖南 province, therefore Chinese (Mandarin) is my mother tongue. I started learning English properly and intensively when I was 12. After graduating from high school, I spent two years in the army, receiving vocational training as an engineer. During that time, I realized that my true calling was teaching. So I studied education and now I work as a regular teacher for Physics and English at a local high
school in Wuhan 武汉 , Hubei 湖北 province, occasionally for Biology as well. I also tutor foreigner trying to come to terms with the Chinese
language and culture, whether they need it for business, exploration of personal heritage, family or leisure.
From that aspect of my profession arose the idea of providing you with memorization hints for the characters. I married in 2005 and with my husband, who currently works in Beijing, I have a little daughter. I enjoy reading, watching movies, music and photography.
The website:
The title 真善美 (zhen1shan4mei3) is a poetic term which means “truth, virtue and beauty”. You will need Chinese language support in order to display the characters properly. Since I live in the PRC, I will teach you the simplified characters. This blog might not be accessible all the time, but I think have found a good method.
