characters occur together, simplified characters always come first, with traditional characters following, enclosed in parentheses.
4. Pinyin. The Pinyin transcription follows on the same line after the character.
5. English. The last item on the first line of each new character section is an English translation of the basic meaning of the character. The translation here is for reference only and does not need to be learned. The meaning of the individual character may be different from the meanings of words containing the character. Moreover, the English translation is not meant to be complete and includes only those meanings that are judged to be pedagogically useful for learners at this point in their study of Chinese.
6. Radical. Beginning on the second line of each new character section, the radical for the new character is given. If the character differs in its simplified and traditional forms, and if those two forms have different radicals, then both radicals are indicated. If the radical has a common colloquial name, that also is given.
7. Phonetic. If there is a pedagogically useful phonetic, it is indicated. If the character itself is a common phonetic, examples are given of characters in which the phonetic occurs.
8. Other components. Any other components of the character are mentioned and discussed.
9. Structural explanation. When something pedagogically useful can be said about the history and development of the character, it is included. Our primary consideration is helping students remember the character, so some explanations that have mnemonic value are mentioned even if they may not be historically accurate. On the other hand, explanations that are excessively complex and would not be helpful to the average learner have been omitted.
10. Similar characters. At the end of the new character section are listed any “look-alike” characters with which the new character should be contrasted.
11. New words written with the character. Indented under the section for each new character is a list of new words that are written with the character. These are given in simplified characters, traditional characters (if different from simplified), Pinyin transcription, and English translation. They are also recorded on the accompanying audio disc.4
12. New words written with characters you already know. This section, which is also recorded on the accompanying audio disc, presents new words occurring in the corresponding lesson of Basic Mandarin Chinese Speaking & Listening that happen to be written with characters that have already been introduced in connection with other words in previous lessons of Basic Mandarin Chinese Reading & Writing.
IMPORTANT NOTE TO LEARNERS: What you must learn before beginning the Reading Exercises and proceeding to the next lesson is those new words in sections (11) and (12) that are followed by word class abbreviations in bolded brackets. Everything else is for reference only.
READING EXERCISES
The next section of each lesson is the Reading Exercises. These should be the focus of study and practice, since they present the new characters, words, and other features of written Chinese in context. When working with the Reading Exercises, you should practice both oral and silent reading. Be sure to make frequent use of the accompanying audio disc to hear and practice correct pronunciation, phrasing, and intonation.
The Reading Exercises are presented twice: first in simplified characters in horizontal format, and then again in traditional characters in vertical format.5 This is done to provide learners with practice in reading both types of characters and both formats. Of course, learners may choose to read only one version of the Reading Exercises, or they may read one version first and the other version several months later.
The Reading Exercises for Units 1 to 10 consist of the following components:
1. Sentences. These illustrate the use of the new characters and words in context. There are always ten sentences in this section, and they exemplify all the new characters and most of the new words of the lesson.
2. Conversations. The conversations are in spoken style. The name or role of each person speaking is included and should be studied along with the conversation itself. During class or practice sessions, you should find a partner or partners, and each of you should take a role. Then switch roles, so you get practice reading all of the lines.
3. Character Differentiation Drills. In the same way that drills can be useful for teaching spoken language, they can also help teach written language. The purpose of the character differentiation drills is to give you practice in differentiating “look-alike” characters that learners new to Chinese might confuse. Pronounce each drill out loud and think of the meaning of the character you’re pronouncing.
4. Narratives. The purpose of the narratives is to give you practice in reading connected prose, which is different in a number of ways from a series of independent sentences. A few of the narratives include some elements of written-style Chinese. The first time you read a narrative, you should read it out loud; the second time, read silently and try gradually to increase your reading speed. Always think of the meaning of what you’re reading.
5. Notes. These are miscellaneous comments to help you understand the meaning, structure, and cultural background of the material in the Reading Exercises. No attempt is made to provide systematic treatment of grammar, since that is provided in Basic Mandarin Chinese Speaking & Listening.
Some of the lessons include additional sections on special topics such as numbers, personal and place names, money, times, and dates. There are also a total of 18 supplements presenting examples of popular culture and realia ranging from tongue twisters and riddles to tables and handwritten notes.
An Overview of the Chinese Writing System
Most people equate the Chinese writing system with Chinese characters. Characters are certainly the most prominent feature of written Chinese, but the Chinese writing system actually consists of a whole lot more. In addition to simplified characters, traditional characters, and unofficial but often encountered alternate characters, the Chinese writing system also includes the uppercase and lowercase letters of the Roman alphabet (as in X光 “X-ray,” B型肝炎 “Hepatitis B,” 卡拉OK “Karaoke,” and e世代 “digital generation”); the Pinyin romanization system (for computer entry or to indicate the pronunciations of rare characters); the Arabic numbers plus the Chinese symbol 〇; mathematical symbols such as +–× ÷ = and %; the Chinese currency sign ¥; the reduplication sign 々; punctuation; use of smaller characters for humility; and spacing conventions. Of course, as an educated reader and writer of English, you already know some of the preceding, so not everything will be new for you.
Chinese characters are variously termed “ideograms,” “ideographs,” “logographs,” or “graphs.” In this book, we shall simply call them “Chinese characters” or just “characters.” It’s important to keep in mind that, as is true of all languages, in Chinese speech is primary, the standard Chinese writing system of today essentially being a set of written symbols for recording Chinese speech; Chinese characters certainly do not, as claimed by some, constitute a “language-independent system of logical symbols.” It’s best to think of a Chinese character as standing for a meaningful syllable of a spoken word, a little as if in English we had one symbol for “auto,” another for “bio,” and yet another for “graph,” so that we could then put them together in different combinations like “autograph,” “biography,” and “autobiographer.”
