Tuttle Learning Chinese Characters
Volume 1: A Revolutionary New Way
to Learn and Remember the 800 Most
Basic Chinese Characters by
Laurence Matthews
Very Happy With This Book!
Aimed at helping students of Chinese learn and remember Chinese
characters—including the pronunciation of characters—fast and effectively,
Learning Chinese Characters Volume 1 is a systematic study aid to this
difficult language.
Designed specifically to ease students into the daunting process of
learning Chinese characters, Learning Chinese Characters Volume 1
incorporates the key principle of visual imagery. A book for serious
learners of Chinese, it can be used alongside (or after, or even before) a

course in the Chinese language. Concise, clear and appealing, this
practical guide is well designed and includes an easy-to-use index.
Personal Review: Tuttle Learning Chinese Characters Volume 1:
A Revolutionary New Way to Learn and Remember the 800 Most
Basic Chinese Characters by Laurence Matthews
Like another reviewer, I started out with James Heisig's "Remembering the
Kanji". This book in and of itself was revolutionary. It taught characters in
an evolving method, focusing on creating a story in your mind to help
remember the characters. This approach was great, and I learned about
500 characters in that method.
However, I began to realize that I wanted to learn Chinese instead of
Japanese (the characters are fundamentally the same), and I also began
to realize most of the characters in the first half of Heisig's book were not
the most common characters - some were quite obscure - and may not
even have the exact meaning of the keyword put forth. I commend James
Heisig for pioneering that incredible method, but refinement was needed.
Then I found this gem. "Learning Chinese Characters" combines
everything you need to know to remember and pronounce the most
common Chinese characters. It uses a combination of pictographic
representations and plot nmemonics. It does cover pronunciation and tone
fully, including them in the story.
A basic character that cannot be dissected into any more parts is shown
with a pictograph, simply so you can remember how character looks, which
usually has something to do with the meaning (for example, the character
for "eight" has an octopus drawn over it).
More complex characters that are composed of other characters - the
majority - are not represented by pictures, but instead by mnemonic
stories, contrived using the elements that make up the character as actors
(for example, an OCTOPUS ("eight") cutting a pizza with a KNIFE is the
story for "division", which is composed of the elements for "eight" and
"knife"). Pictures do indeed accompany these characters, but only to help
you visualize the *story* (maybe it would show the octopus with a pizza
cutter and a chef's hat). Most characters also include a secondary, related
story to help you remember the pronunciation. In the end, you will know
the pronunciation (including tone), the writing, and the meaning of every
character in HSK A.
I realize this might be confusing for someone that doesn't understand the
Chinese writing system. If that is you, let me just say this: "it's easy!" Every
character in HSK A is included, and even some other characters are
included in a limited fashion in order to explain compounds including them.
Most characters have:

* A listing of the equation of elements (ie "eight+knife=division"), complete
with cross-references to elements used and the page number on which
they are more fully described.
* A list of some words using this character.
* A story to cement the meaning and pronunciation of the character in your
mind.
* A stroke-by-stroke guide.
* Comments on the usage of the character.
* The corresponding Traditional Chinese character (if the given character
is Simplified) - the book is optimized for Simplified, but the Traditional
character is always there if you'd like to learn them too. If you don't know
what Simplified/Traditional is, you probably want to choose to study the
Simplified characters (they are more common)... check out Wikipedia.
* The radical of the character, which is commonly used for dictionary
lookup.
In my opinion, this method is best paired with using the Leitner system of
flashcards (a quick Googling will find what I mean), so you can be sure you
do really remember the characters.
Simply, this is bar-none the best way to learn Chinese characters - as long
as you *concentrate on the story!* Don't just read without thinking.
Everything you need to know about every character in the book is right
there on the page, but you must concentrate. Etymology, the history of
each character, might be a good tool to remember characters once you
learn a lot of them, but this is by far the easiest, most painless way to learn
the characters and *remember* them. One thing, however; it won't teach
you grammar. You need to find another course to learn how to assemble
characters into meaningful patterns. This book just teaches you how to
write and remember those individual characters.
On another note, I was in contact with the publisher and saw that they are
not planning to publish a Volume 2 of this great book. This is sad news.
This is a great format, and if you like it, I'd recommend emailing the
publisher to let them know we want to see more like this!
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Tuttle Learning Chinese Characters Volume 1: A Revolutionary New Way to Learn and
Remember the 800 Most Basic Chinese Characters by Laurence Matthews 5 Star
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