Chineasy: The New Way to Read Chinese - Shao Lan (BOOK)
- Simona
- May 24, 2023
- 2 min read
TYPE - BOOK
LANGUAGE - ENGLISH / CHINESE
I LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE the book! I love it love it love it!
You know, there are different ways of learning: Visual, Auditory, Read/Write, and Kinesthetic. I learn mostly in the read/write and visual methods, where the logic plays a fundamental role.
The author basically rules down a good game, which one of my professors, Alessandra, also did (in a smaller version) once with us.
All the Chinese characters are words, there's no alphabet (yep, a moment of silence for all the impressive students of Chinese language out there in the world... and this is only one of the many complex elements of it!). Every character has a component that, somehow, describes the reality. Like a MAN is represented by a stylized standing figure. A HUSBAND is a man wearing a hat, because it refers to antique cultural traditions. The SKY is a man with a line above his head, as the sky is, in fact, above us! And the game continues, getting more complicated when the characters start combining more simple ones in once, to indicate concepts, for instance. Some elements of the character, at that point, indicate the meaning, some others might give an hint about the pronunciation...
I always thought that the Chinese characters were poetic and artsy, and this book made me rediscover that allure that I see in this language. It unveils the fascinating world of Chinese writing and reading. They say that beautiful things don't come for free, and Chinese is definitely a good example of it: you don't learn it without pain, hours on books and practicing writing... but when you get there, you enter a great place: satisfaction for yourself and greater love and respect for this language. This book can help you further in keeping that love alive or in increasing it.
I totally suggest to buy it. I'd say that even a person who's not learning Chinese, and who's potentially not even interested in the complexity of it, would find the book still a good reading, that would open your mind and creativity up!
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