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William McNaughton

Reading and Writing Chinese: Guide to the Chinese Writing System: A Comprehensive Guide to the Chinese Writing System Paperback – 6 Feb. 1998

by William McNaughton (Author), Li Ying (Author)

130 ratings

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There is a newer edition of this item:

Reading and Writing Chinese Traditional Character Edition: A Comprehensive Guide to the Chinese Writing System
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This is a compete and easy–to–use guide for reading and writing traditional Chinese characters.

Reading and Writing Chinese has been the leading text for foreign students and teachers of the Chinese writing system since it was first published in 1978. This completely revised edition draws on the lessons learnt from the use of the book in classrooms so as to provide a more convenient and up–to–date introduction to written Chinese. Over 1,100 new combinations of characters have been added, increasing the total vocabulary significantly to about 4,500 items. There are also new notes on usage to give students insight into the contemporary state of the Chinese language. The student's ability to read Chinese and write Chinese are reinforced throughout.

For each of the basic 1,062 characters, the pronunciation, definition and derivation are given, with examples of the use of most words and a chart showing how to write each character. Memorization tips and cautionary cross–reference to look–alike characters are also provided, as well as notes to help clarify those overlooked aspects of the Chinese writing system.

Key features of this book:

The Student's 1,020 List.
The Official 2,000 List.
Over 2,000 characters and 2,500 combinations.
Definitions and explanations.
Standard Hanyu Pinyin romanization.
Memorization hints and stroke–order diagrams.
Hong Kong/Taiwan and China/Singapore forms.
Traditional and modern radical systems.

ISBN-10

0804832064
ISBN-13

978-0804832069
Edition

New
Publisher

Tuttle Publishing
Publication date

6 Feb. 1998
Language

English
Dimensions

15.39 x 2.46 x 23.22 cm
Print length

352 pages
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Product description

Review

"Reading & Writing Chinese - Traditional Character Edition was of particular interest given that Hong Kong still uses it over the simplified Chinese employed in mainland China." Randal van de Woning, BWG blog"

"Excellent reference book for beginning and Intermediate–level Chinese. Well laid out with several ways to look up characters. Common phrases are also listed with each character." Goodreads"

Book Description

This is the quickest way to effectively learn written Japanese.

Japanese characters, called kanji, often intimidate potential students of the language with their complex and mysterious appearance. Read Japanese Today is a comprehensible and story–like approach to an often difficult language. Intended for people on the go, this book will teach you to recognize and read the 400 most commonly used Japanese kanji characters. Completely revised and expanded and featuring 25 percent more kanji than previous editions, Read Japanese Today is a fun way to demystify the beautiful Japanese language.

Far from being complex and mysterious, Japanese kanji are actually a simple and fascinating pictographic system, easily understood and readily mastered. With the approach used in this easy–to–read, entertaining book, you'll soon be able to recognize and read more than 400 kanji, whether or not you have any knowledge of Japanese grammar or the spoken language. The kanji characters stick in your mind thanks to an engaging text and illustrations that show how each character developed and what it represents. The description for each kanji explains its origin, its modern meaning, and how it is pronounced. Many examples of everyday usage are included. Read Japanese Today also includes:

A brief history of the Japanese writing system.
Explanations for how the parts of each kanji are related to the whole.
Guidelines for writing Kanji and pronouncing words using them.
An introduction to the Japanese hiragana and katakana syllabaries.
A complete index to English meanings and a summary table for all of the kanji that are introduced in the book.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Tuttle Publishing; New edition (6 Feb. 1998)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 352 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0804832064
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0804832069
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 15.39 x 2.46 x 23.22 cm

Best Sellers Rank: 1,764,771 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- 372 in Chinese
- 1,763 in Reading Skills Reference
- 2,055 in Handwriting Reference

Customer reviews:
130 ratings

About the author

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William McNaughton

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William McNaughton was the founding teacher of Chinese at Oberlin College. From 1986 he taught at Hong Kong’s City University, where he was the founding program leader of the BA (Honours) program in Translation and Interpretation.

Customer reviews

5 star		73%
4 star		16%
3 star		4%
2 star		2%
1 star		5%

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Lingering

Traditional Chinese Writing

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 7 November 2011

Verified Purchase

I am only a 100 pages in or so but so far the thing that I have found most useful is the helpful hints on how to remember characters. It has an easy to read format and works wonders for someone who likes to have a list of things to work through to learn something.

5 people found this helpful

Helpful

Paula Pérez Romero

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 25 April 2018

Verified Purchase

I really recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn traditional characters. Very well explain and completed.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 4 September 2014

Good!

Helpful

Eugene Nyunt

Way more characters than Phillip Yunkin Lee's 250 Essential Chinese Characters for Everyday Use.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 18 February 2008

At the outset you should realize that this book exists in two slightly differing forms. One provides instruction on simplified Chinese characters, and the other deals with traditional forms used in Hong Kong and Taiwan. This review is in relation to the latter 'traditional' version.
The volume isn't so much a dictionary as a handbook, although with the Pinyin index at the rear it'll be adequate for that purpose. That said the entries in the main body don't provide anything in the way of example sentence structures which you'd imagine is de rigueur for lexicons. What are included are variant meanings. And though initially tricky the additional stroke index also permits a search for characters where you don't yet know the attached pronunciation.
The multi-use value of McNaughton's public-transport friendly volume is the inclusion - on both the front and back inside covers - of radical lists. The front section presents the traditional ordering of roots; this is tied in with the Pinyin index and quite straightforward to use. The list at the back transcribes how the Han-Ying Cidian/The Chinese-English Dictionary arranges things. The author states that this latter group might be more useful for the learner. Incidentally, he recommends learning both.
As I suggested this isn't really a workbook, and you'll definitely struggle to cram in your calligraphy if that's what you're intending. Even so the book presents each character at a more than sufficient size, with the stroke order in separate boxes to aid learning.
Also for all characters here (several thousand in fact) there'll be - at the bottom right corner of each rectangular box - the simplified version should it differ from the traditional form.I have both versions of Reading and Writing Chinese, and for the most part it's this (traditional) version I take around with me. Obviously if you're just starting out you might like to obtain both, to avoid incorrect writing. I have noticed that my own teacher has on occasion written something down for me in a way which is slightly unfamiliar, so trusting any book as definitive might be a bit too much.
On a final note the author makes an interesting point; one which relates to - in his view - the relative ease of moving from the traditional Character forms to the simplified ones rather than vice versa. He also observes that an isolated focus on simplified writing will exclude so much of recent Chinese literature. From my own limited experience in this regard, and while shopping at my local Chinatown I did spot "newspaper" written in the stacked traditional.

11 people found this helpful

Helpful

John richard Clarke

at last chinese character large enough to study

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 28 April 2005

What so many books forget is how difficult it can be to read chinese characters in normal print size unless you have spent a few years in the subject. This is a catalogue which with a bit of practice will lead you swiftly you find what you need. I would consider it an essential for anyone learning to write the language.

24 people found this helpful

Helpful

Multilingual reader

Treat with caution

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 6 December 2012

Beware! This appears to be based on the simplified script version and, as so often happens, not all of the changes have been made as thoroughly as they should have been.

As an alternative, I suggest the FAr East 3000 Chinese Character Dictionary.

4 people found this helpful

Helpful

lyj_e1

Excellent guide to Chinese writing

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 8 December 2001

If you want a concise book on how to write Chinese then this is the book for you. The first 1062 Chinese words come complete with the definition and brushstroke diagrams to teach you the correct method of writing in Chinese. Great book for beginners or for those who have 'forgotten' over the years to write in Chinese.

29 people found this helpful

Helpful

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