Articles tagged with ‘Building blocks’
-
Student Q&A, December 2023: How many words to learn, if it’s good to learn radicals, and whether to learn simplified or traditional characters
How many words is reasonable to learn in a day? Will focusing on radicals make learning characters easier? And should you learn simplified or traditional characters, or maybe both?
Read → -
The building blocks of Chinese, part 6: Learning and remembering compound words
Compound words in Chinese can look confusing at first, but once you see the patterns, learning and remembering them becomes much easier.
Read → -
The building blocks of Chinese, part 5: Making sense of Chinese words
How many characters do you need to know to be able to read Chinese? The truth is that characters only provide a foundation, so regardless of how many you know, you won’t be able to read much unless you also know many words.
Read → -
The building blocks of Chinese, part 1: Chinese characters and words in a nutshell
Learning to read and write Chinese is a daunting task, but the challenge becomes more manageable if you focus on learning the building blocks, learning how components form characters and how characters form words. This article is the first part in a series helping adult students make sens of Chinese characters.
Read → -
Same building blocks, different characters: How component placement changes meaning in Chinese
Chinese character components are usually placed in predictable ways. If you remember the components, you can often write the character. But not always. Some characters share components but differ only in how they’re arranged.
Read → -
Focusing on radicals, character components and building blocks
How much should you focus on learning building blocks? If you don’t focus enough, you will remain in the tourist phrase book. If you focus too much on building blocks, you will end up living in brick yard rather than a house.
Read →