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Posts: 3868

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Q: Can you read Chinese, and if so, how did you learn?

Following on from the "Do you have a Chinese name..." topic I was wondering how many of you on here can read (& even write) Chinese?

 

My spoken Chinese is above survival level but still not great. I started taking real notice of Characters when I first started to drive about 2 years ago. I'd use GPS at first to get around Guangzhou & drive to places like Zhongshan, Zhuhai, etc and started to memorise the places name characters as i read the pinyin on the road signs. I then started to notice some of these same characters used in other place and started top ask my wife.

 

For the last year or so I've been playing around with the Memrise app on my iPhone. I'll be honest and state I've been very lazy as even now I can only read about 150 characters but do notice more now how other more compicated characters are built up of combinations of ones I already know,.

 

My aim at the moment is to build up my reading so I can read a menu...you know, the ones in small restaurants that don't have pictures!

 

So how are your Chinese reading skills?

 

What tips do you have for relative beginners?

9 years 30 weeks ago in  Teaching & Learning - China

 
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Governor

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When learning Chinese I prioritized characters from the start, told my teacher I wanted to read and write and not only speak. Also chatting on wechat, from the beginning I forced my self to use Chinese characters when chatting with Chinese.

 

Sadly lately I work in my English and my native language in an international environment so I don't have as much time to learn more characters. But on the subway I use Pleco flash cards to build my vocab, or if I see a new character and have time I scribble it in Pleco to find out what it is.

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9 years 30 weeks ago
 
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I can read pretty well. Cant fully understand but could pick up a news paper and have an idea of the story or I can hold conversations on qq or wechat or whatever unless its super deep.

No apps no classes. I learnt the same way you did. Driving. I also remembered those few and built up my vocab by learning the various charactors that have the same characteristics of the words i knew before.

This means there are some really wierd or difficult words i can read. And some super simple ones i cant.

No idea how many characters i know, but i can usually read about 50-70 percent of everything depending on how professional it is. So im guessing a few thousand.

Its good enough now so ill just osmosis do the rest.

Hotwater:

Quick reply, thanks. Don't understand why some f***wit would downvote you though!

 

I've struggled (& been lazy) with Chinese last couple of years but have just changed jobs & will have 2 hours a day extra to myself. I pick up bits by osmosis but know I also need to study, hence the request for tips. 

9 years 30 weeks ago
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9 years 30 weeks ago
 
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This is a difficult one.

 

I can just about get by in spoken Mandarin.

 

Reading and writing.... no clue what at all. Just the basics such as entrance and exit.

 

There was an interesting article today on China daily today.

 

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2014-09/02/content_18527144.htm

 

800 foreigners used the free Government translation service for court cases in the past year.  But wait a minute, the free service only applies to cases involving life or death sentences.

 

So, for a less than capital offence, you will get no translation service.

 

What's the name of that app you use hotwater?

Hotwater:

The app i play with is called Memrise. Definitely get it on iPhones, they also have an android app in the google (blocked!) play store. I did a quick search and it is available on other android app websites.

 

Website is here: http://www.memrise.com. Create a profile there and it synchronises with your phone app.

 

9 years 30 weeks ago
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9 years 30 weeks ago
 
Posts: 364

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When learning Chinese I prioritized characters from the start, told my teacher I wanted to read and write and not only speak. Also chatting on wechat, from the beginning I forced my self to use Chinese characters when chatting with Chinese.

 

Sadly lately I work in my English and my native language in an international environment so I don't have as much time to learn more characters. But on the subway I use Pleco flash cards to build my vocab, or if I see a new character and have time I scribble it in Pleco to find out what it is.

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9 years 30 weeks ago
 
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Governor

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As per my opinion if somebody already invests the time and effort into learning spoken Chinese so my advice would be to learn characters straight from the beginning as well.
Reasons for that would be:
- I find it nearly impossible to immerse into the Chinese environment and life without being able to read and write Chinese (this also thanks to incredible popularity of chatting apps like Wechat, QQ etc.)
- I assume learning characters helps to learn and especially remember the new vocabulary
- Imagine yourself in your home environment being illiterate (it’s not just about newspapers); same applies for China
Nevertheless I would also like to mention that the return of investment may not be worthy because:
- You really need a lot of time and effort to master at least basic level (basic level I would call something about 1,500 characters as anything less than this does not allow you to have a reasonable chat on chatting apps and qualifies you maximally for reading of some of the simplest signs)
- If you find yourself out of China your knowledge becomes the most probably useless or at least of minor importance unless your profession has something to do with Chinese language
- Even if in China so unless you reach the advanced fluency level in reading and writing so the advantage is just minor as being able to read just children books is probably not your aim
- If you would invest the same time and effort into your own profession so without any doubts you will excel
Saying all of this I still find it worthy to learn Chinese as I find the language beautiful and having the chance to get to know this amazing country with its incredibly rich history and philosophy I find the good reason for time and effort investment.
Nevertheless I would highly recommend for anyone to seriously consider all pros and cons from the personal perspective as I know many people who do find worthy learning Chinese and when they mention their reasons so I can agree with them.

DrMonkey:

I skipped the whole writing thing, because it was not addressing my immediate need : being autonomous in my daily life in China. In a short time, I had to be able to buy things, name what I wanted to buy, ask my way, this kind of things. The less clutter, the better... And all those interactions are oral.

 

- Imagine yourself in your home environment being illiterate

With this argument, one would try to master the language of each place he/she works for a significant amount of time. If it is so, I would have to speak & read 6 different languages. On a personal note, I'm at 3 languages now, Chinese being the 4th I'm learning (very sloppily). I have other interests out of learning languages... I like to read, program, do sport etc. Days have only 24 hours :)

- I assume learning characters helps to learn and especially remember the new vocabulary

Different people have different ways to remember words. I don't remember the pinyin or the character, I remember sounds with some memories attached to it. So for me, the best way to remember a word is to go outside and listen. For instance, I go to the vegetable market, do the groceries with someone, and then I will remember the names of the vegetables, because I will remember that trip to the grocery, that lady who sold us the vegetables, the weather of that day, the mood of that day, etc.

9 years 29 weeks ago
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gouxiong:

I do not think that the original question was aiming at quick mastering of language basics. OP clearly states that he/she can speak Chinese well above survival level. Different people may define survival level differently but I would still assume that such a person shall not have a trouble to arrange the shopping and other things in Chinese without any big trouble. I also never indicated it's a must to learn the language of your country - actually if you would not skip all the writing you could notice that I pointed out that for many people it may make no sense. I was just trying to comment on the point what is my point of view about learning the charaters for someone who is already, more or less, almost fluent in spoken Chinese. Nevertheless I totally support your freedom of choice :)

9 years 29 weeks ago
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9 years 29 weeks ago
 
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I got very lucky and was given the opportunity to start learning Chinese at a young age, so I think for me the repetition, ample time, and slow speed of learning characters made it possible to continue later on when I actually moved here. 

 

At the moment though it is just writing out characters all the time, over and over, until you remember them. For those of us that do not have photographic memories (I've come across so many in my various Chinese classes over the years), the repetition is the only way! 

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