Update 0: 大家好!

Hello everyone!

My name is Jess, and this blog is meant to document a six-week process through which I teach myself 300 Chinese characters - and, no, I don't regret this. Yet.

got Chinese?

For those of you who don't know, I am Chinese. Luckily, I already have some background "native" knowledge in the language, which gives me an advantage over completely unfamiliar learners. That being said, I don't need to start at the most basic of building blocks - simple words like 大，小，火， 上，etc. These building blocks are useful, though. This is the theory the theory of one Chinese-learning website, Chineasy.

Building Blocks + Pictorials
Chineasy begins its Chinese lessons starting with its building blocks. These are simple characters that often appear in other characters. For example, this is the character for fire (huǒ)

Building block for "fire" from Chineasy

And here is the character for flames (yàn). As you can see, it's a bunch of little "fires" stacked on top of each other.

"Flames" from Chineasy

This makes it a little easier to learn some Chinese characters, but the visual cues can only tell you so much. If I didn't know the word above was "flames", I could guess that it was related to fire. Beyond that, I wouldn't be able to say. In English, the Latin alphabet gives speakers an advantage. The word "antidisestablishmentarianism" is a mouthful. But if speakers dissect the prefixes and suffixes, they know that it has to do with getting rid of something. Therefore, Chinese learners need to use rote memorization to learn most of their characters.

Motivation

So, we've established that reading and writing Chinese is a bit of a challenge. And I already know how to speak and understand the language so...why learn more? The truth is, I've always felt a little estranged from my family members. Growing up in America has forced me to reconcile two cultures that are sometimes completely incompatible - even the littlest things remind me that I'm not quite American. When I go over to a friend's house for dinner, I stop and consider whether I should take off my shoes, and then I eat a meal without a bowl of rice. Despite this, I speak English better than Chinese; I use a fork more often than chopsticks; and I dress in American clothing. As all my relatives in China say, I'm American - but not quite. Learning how to read and write Chinese will hopefully bring me closer to my family and culture. After all, I'd like to actually write a birthday card to my grandparents, or read a menu in Chinatown every now and then.

Measuring Achievement & Resources

Each week, my blog post will feature a different post about an aspect of the Chinese language:

• Week 1: Building blocks
• Week 2: Radicals
• Week 3: Simplified/Traditional
• Week 4: Pinyin & Tones
• Week 5: Dialects
• Week 6: None

Scallion pancakes (葱油饼) - yum!

Along with these bits of information, I will also be documenting my progress. These are the progress sheets I plan on using to practice writing. I'll scan a few of the sheets each week and upload them for you to see. Additionally, I plan on writing a few sentences to actually apply my knowledge (those will be uploaded too). I don't have specific goals regarding the characters, as they are difficult to divide into different "levels". Some are more complex to write than others, but they all correspond to certain words, and it takes the same amount of effort to learn and memorize them. As far as the sentences, I will only be looking into grammatical structure minimally, given that I already speak the language. I just hope that the sentences I write will eventually become more detailed/precise as I learn more words. My plan is to work up to the final product: a written recipe for scallion pancakes (and my TEDtalk may also feature the actual dish...). I'm also grateful for my family - I'm surrounded by native speakers who are probably more excited than I am that I'm finally taking the time to learn some Chinese.

Goal

When this project is over, I will have learned 300 Chinese characters. Additionally, I hope to write a recipe for scallion pancakes, or 葱油饼. But, most importantly, I will have a deeper connection to my family and culture. According to some, learning Chinese is a lifelong effort - the BBC estimates that the average Chinese person will know around 8,000 characters, and one needs 2,000 to 3,000 to read a newspaper article. Hopefully, this beginning will motivate me to continue my pursuit later.

I already have this week's practice worksheets printed out. Now I'm off to practice and do English homework!

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Resources

• BBC
• Chineasy
• Practice sheets