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Title: Reading and Writing Chinese: A Guide to the Chinese Writing System by William McNaughton, Li Ying ISBN: 0-8048-3206-4 Publisher: Charles E Tuttle Co Pub. Date: September, 1999 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.21 (19 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Highly recommended as a reference source
Comment: This book systematically introduces the 2000 Chinese characters that McNaughton feels are the core of the language. Though it can be used this way, the book makes an even better reference source as a basic character dictionary. Its most helpful features are the dual-indexes of Romanized and original characters. Approximately half of the characters in the book (about 1000) have explanatory diagrams showing how to properly write them in the correct stroke-order. These are accompanied by etymologies explaining the origins of the character, the character's radical, and the simplified forms. A chart of all 214 radicals is also provided. The only drawback is that the romainization is Yale, not Pinyin, but a helpful conversion chart is provided.
Rating: 4
Summary: Useful for Learners
Comment: McNaughton's 'Reading and Writing Chinese' remains a very useful guide for learners attempting to acquire literacy in Chinese. It comprises two sections, the first listing some 1,062 elementary* characters with its stroke order, Mandarin pronunciation and meaning, as well as a few compound words using the character and the simplified version of the character if it exists. The second section comprises the remainder of the characters in the official list of 2,000 basic characters promulgated by the Chinese government, and gives much the same information as the first section, save the stroke order (which the learner should already be conversant with after learning the first section) and the compound words. The book contains a number of useful indices that may be used to look up unfamiliar characters by pronunciation, stroke-count, etc.
*McNaughton has adopted a largely pedagogical order in the presentation of characters. Unlike many books which present the most commonly-used characters first (although this is not to say that the characters he presents are not, in the main, common ones), characters that are geometrically simplest are first presented, and complex characters are built-up from the simpler parts already presented. This does, in many ways, aid the memorisation of complex characters, if their parts are already known, but it also has the effect of presenting some rare, obscure, archaic or otherwise obsolete characters early on, so that they may be used as a section of a more complex, but common, character later on. Similarly, the compound words are chosen so that they only use characters that have already been learnt.
One feature that I liked about this book is that it gives hints on learning the characters, and etymological information on the derivation of the character if it is useful for helping memorise the characters. As mentioned before, there is great emphasis placed on the building up of a character from its parts.
This edition is a revised version of the 1979 edition containing a number of changes. The most significant change is probably the switch from Yale romanisation to Pinyin. The former was designed for pedagogical purposes, and is perhaps more convenient for English speakers, but the latter is increasingly becoming standard and the switch was probably not unwise. The second notable change is the use of the kaishu (model script) in the head characters in place of the (often idiosyncratically) handwritten characters of the original edition. I thought there was some charm in the handwritten edition, but I suppose, for the sake of standardisation, the new format is better, for the kaishu script is something of a normative standard in Chinese. (The disadvantage is that it looks like it has been written with a brush rather than the pen, whereas most learners would probably use a pen. The differences between brush- and pen-written characters, however, are slight.) The compound words have also been increased in number, and chosen to better reflect the vocabulary of contemporary Chinese, an added bonus, although they really only illustrate the uses of the character, and does not constitute a resource for acquiring Chinese vocabulary.
All in all then, it is a very useful book for a learner beginning on the road to literacy in Chinese. I have not given five stars, not because I discovered any major flaws, but because I did not get the impression of outstanding excellence that merits it. I really have no complaint of note to make about the book. (Inclusion of Cantonese pronunciation in addition to the Mandarin, however, would be a welcome bonus.)
Rating: 3
Summary: A good supplement
Comment: This is NOT a dictionary. The book is really a collection of some 2000 characters with their English equivalents or close English equivalents. Each characters has some example character combinations (i.e., words) and the stroke order. Thus, the book is really geared towards the student who wants to learn all the essential 2000 and some odd characters (i.e., learn how to write them and their BASIC meaning; I say 'basic' because the meaning of each character is explained using English equivalents, as opposed to truly explaining what a particular character means). The book emphasizes traditional characters, but simplified forms are provided. So if you want a good supplement for learning Chinese character, buy this book. If you are looking for a Chinese/English dictionary this is NOT it (instead, try the Concise English-Chinese Chinese-English Dictionary (ISBN 0195911512) and Xinhua Zidian (ISBN 7801031989).
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Title: Chinese Characters: A Genealogy and Dictionary by Rick Harbaugh ISBN: 0966075005 Publisher: Zhongwen.com Pub. Date: 01 August, 1998 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
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Title: Beginner's Chinese by Yong Ho ISBN: 078180566X Publisher: Hippocrene Books Pub. Date: January, 2003 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: Learn to Write Chinese Characters (Yale Language Series) by Johan Bjorksten ISBN: 0300057717 Publisher: Yale Univ Pr Pub. Date: October, 1994 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
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Title: Concise English-Chinese Chinese-English Dictionary by Martin H. Manser, Oxford ISBN: 0195911512 Publisher: Oxford Press Pub. Date: July, 1999 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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Title: The Starter Oxford Chinese Dictionary by Boping Yuan, Sally Church ISBN: 0198602588 Publisher: Oxford Press Pub. Date: 15 December, 2000 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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