So I’m starting to learn Mandarin characters now. I know the numbers from 1-10, and I know a couple of others. Not a lot I know, but it’s a process and there are a LOT to learn. So far it’s easy but I’m sure once I get a lot more down I will be confusing them all over the place.
I’ve been learning with my one book The First 100 Characters. I love it. They give you the character, the number of strokes, what it means, some phrases/words that contain it, it’s traditional form (if applicable) then they give you the correct stroke order and the entire rest of the page is where you just continuously copy it down like 50 times so you ingrain it into your memory. I also bought two sets of flashcards. One just has the character on one side and the Pinyin transliteration and English translation on the other. The other set is by the same company that makes that book and it has the character on one side and bunch of info on the other like stroke order, word meaning, transliteration, words/phrases that use it…etc. Rather than make cards I decided to buy them to save time.
I’m having so much fun with this. I love learning characters, it makes me feel accomplished and they look cool and are fun to draw. I’m taking it slow at the moment. The one book I own says the average rate of character learning is about 30 a week. I’m obviously not up to that point yet but in time maybe!
I also started drawing some on MS Paint and will be posting them in a Facebook photo album. Check it out!
再见 zàijiàn! (Goodbye)
