Product Review

Sensible Chinese: Foundations of Chinese Characters

This is the newest book from the top Mandarin Chinese learning blog Sensible Chinese

Learning the Chinese characters can be tough. In fact it's the hardest aspect of learning the Chinese language.

Part of the problem here though is the way that characters are taught. The traditional methods are inefficient and time-consuming.

We know have access to far more sophisticated methods and tools for working through the Chinese characters. These methods and tools are well known to intermediate and advanced learners of Chinese but have never been explained in a step-by-step easy to understand way to beginners of the Chinese language.

This short eBook seeks to not only give you your first Chinese written phrases but to more importantly help you build up the SKILLS you need to continue your study of the Chinese characters.

What sort of skills are we talking about? In this book you'll learn:

- how to build confidence actually using the characters from day 1
- how characters are structured and how we can use this to learn and remember characters
- how to break down characters into their components
- how to understand the meaning of these smaller components
- how to use a Chinese dictionary to look up unknown characters
- how to type in Chinese characters on your phone or computer
- how to start texting with native Chinese speakers to practice written Chinese
- how to start speaking your phrases RIGHT now using a free tool to connect with native speakers
- how to get a Chinese name
- how to move beyond this guide and continue your study

What material will you learn? We'll cover:

- basic greetings
- introducing yourself
- asking after someone's health
- stating your nationality

This is really basic material that you can indeed find in any traditional textbook! So what's so special about this book?

We'll be using different, smarter methods to help you understand the material rather than relying on brute-force memorization. We use this material to introduce the Chinese language and teach the foundation skills and knowledge required to move ahead in your study.

You'll learn how to learn Mandarin Chinese characters, saving yourself countless months or even years of frustrated effort using old fashioned learning techniques.

Companion Website

In addition to the text of the book there's a set of free online companion resources that you can access.

The website contains:
- audio recordings of the phrases and sentences used in the book
- a complete 2 hour long pinyin pronunciation lesson with native recordings and interactive tests
- useful beginner's articles about learning Chinese
- detailed guides about how to set up Chinese keyboards on your phone and computer
- how to use a Chinese digital dictionary
- a complete Chinese language resource list
- lists of the most common 1500 characters and the most common Chinese words
- additional free eBooks for beginners
- and a bunch more! A treasure trove for early learners of the Chinese language!

Who is this book for?

If you are just starting to learn the Chinese characters then you are very lucky! Having a resource like this book (and the companion resources on the website) will make your life a lot easier over the coming weeks, months and years. I wish I had had access to this information when I learned the characters!

Even if you have started learning the Chinese characters and have a fair few under your belt this guide will be helpful. The emphasis here is on the understanding of how characters work and the skills required to learn characters. The actual characters and phrases used in this book are not as important as this knowledge and these skills. I've found that even high-intermediate Chinese language learners have had "oh, I didn't know that" moments with this short book!