About.com Rating



One of the standard textbooks for learning Chinese characters is William McNaughton's Reading and Writing Chinese. It's available in two editions - one for simplified characters and the other for traditional characters.

First published in 1979, this book has been revised to meet the needs of current students. It is based on the Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi (HSK) test of Chinese proficiency, covering the basic 800 characters for Level A, as well as the more than 1400 characters of Levels B and C.

Which Edition?

William McNaughton's Reading and Writing Chinese is available in two editions - simplified characters and traditional characters.

Simplified characters are used in Mainland China and traditional characters are used in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, and many overseas Chinese communities.

If your desire to read and write Chinese characters is to allow you to visit China or read publications from China, you will most likely gravitate towards the simplified version of Reading and Writing Chinese. But given the ease of converting from one system to the other by means of computer conversion programs, it is quite feasible to learn tradition characters even though your primary interest is in China.

Traditional characters maintain the beauty and logic of the Chinese writing system. Simplified characters often break the relationship between radical and phonetic, making it harder to memorize characters and distinguish between similar-looking characters.

As a Taiwan native, I have a bias towards traditional characters, but I recognize the practicality of students who wish to learn simplified characters.

When buying this excellent book, be sure to pick up the appropriate edition.

Learning Chinese Characters

My first exposure to William McNaughton's Reading and Writing Chinese was when I was teaching Mandarin in Taiwan. I had (and still have) the original 1979 version.

This first version had a major flaw: it used the Yale Romanization system. Thankfully the current edition has been revised so the pronunciations are given in Pinyin.

There are a few other differences between the early and current editions. The most noticeable is that the simplified version uses typeset characters, whereas the traditional version (as well as the original version) uses hand-written characters.

The stroke order diagrams are very helpful for learning how to write each character. The reference section for each character includes a definition and a few compound words, as well as the alternate form of the character (simplified or traditional).

The index at the back is arranged by Pinyin spelling as well as stroke count, making it relatively easy to look up characters.

Shortcomings

Is Reading and Writing Chinese the only text you need? Unfortunately no, as it falls short in a few areas.

The character definitions are quite limited, giving just a few examples of character compounds and no example sentences. Use this book together with a good dictionary to round out your knowledge of each character.

Similarly, the lack of example sentences limits your ability to use these characters in useful conversation. So a Mandarin textbook is needed for learning how to speak the language.

But for learning to read and write Chinese characters, this book does very well. The characters are presented in a clear and logical progression, with notes about the radical base, as well as alerts about look-alike characters.

So when using this book, round out your study of Mandarin Chinese with other textbooks and learning materials such as computer software and audio packages.

Is This Book For Me?

The study of Chinese characters gives you a better understanding of the Mandarin language and Chinese culture. Mandarin has many homonyms that can only be clearly understood by learning the associated characters. Learning to hand-write characters will enhance your grasp of the language.

It is possible, however, to learn Mandarin without learning to hand-write Chinese characters. Thanks to computer input methods, anyone who knows Pinyin can write Chinese on the computer. But since each character can have many homonyms, it is next to impossible to correctly write Chinese on the computer with out knowing which character to choose from.

So the important task for Mandarin students in the 21st century is to recognize characters. Learning how to write them by hand is one approach, but it is no longer the only way. However, learning how to write Chinese characters will provide a more thorough understanding of their structure and composition, as well as open the door to the world of Chinese calligraphy.

William McNaughton's Reading and Writing Chinese is an excellent introduction to this knowledge.