Average Rating: 
Rating: - Read It In China
I stumbled across Julie Mazel Sussman's wonderful little book in a local bookstore (sorry, Amazon), and not only read through it several times before going to China in October 2001, but took it with me. She selected for presentation about 70 Chinese characters that are relatively simple but commonly encountered in China. I saw every one of them on my trip and was tickled pink to be able to read them. (In places like Taiwan and Singapore the more complicated traditional characters are used, but Sussman's book provides a comparison on p. 132.) The book identifies a lot of other characters in passing so if you are attentive, you can probably learn 150 or 200 characters from this slim book of just 161 pages. Chinese has a strong tendency to use two characters for some unit of meaning, and the book provides many such pairs made from the characters learned. For example, zuo-you (left-right) means "approximately," which I recognized instantly in a Chinese subtitle in a movie shown on the plane. Being able to read, if just partially, the signs and other things you see in China adds to the enjoyment of your trip. But even if you never go to China, you will enjoy this fun book.
Rating: - A fun book to learn a few Chinese characters
For the most part, Chinese is really two languages - a written one and a spoken one. One really cannot "sound out" written Chinese Characters, like they can with English. Most books for travelers to China dwell on the spoken language. This is actually a very good idea, because it helps you communicate and get around. But this book is different and fun, because it concentrates on Chinese characters which are beautiful and interesting.I lived in the city of Shenyang, China for almost a year and a half. I dealt with a lot of Chinese people and Westerners that had been there for varying lengths of time. The Westerners had varying levels of oral Chinese language skills, but it was very rare for me to find a Westerner who knew how to read Chinese. The Westerners that I knew who could read Chinese were for the most part long time scholors on the topic or they learned it from their Chinese relatives. I read this book, and learned most of the characters in it. I could not even come close to reading a magazine or newspaper, even those for children. But, I knew more Chinese characters than 95% of the Westerners that I knew in China. Most of these foreigners would be impressed when I could read the little I did. For most of the Chinese people I met, I was the only Westerner that they ever met who could read even a few characters. I'd figure a sign out, and they could not believe it. This skill was a great conversation topic, and I soon learned several other characters in the conversations that I had with the locals. For the most part, this book is not required reading for someone who travels to China. In places where a lot of Westerners travel, many signs are in English, or pin-yin, or "Chinglish" (poor translations from Chinese to English.) But when I went to places less traveled, I can tell you that it was nice to be able to read the sign on the restroom door so I did not get into an embarrassing situation. (I had plenty of other embarrassing experiences without going into the wrong public toilet.) I highly recommend the book. Have fun!
Rating: - Delightful book
This book is intended for people traveling to China who want to master some basic characters so that they can find it easier to find their way around. The book is very enjoyable to read and the characters presented are rather easy to learn. Beside each character and character combinations, the author has provided mnemonic devices to make it easier to remember the character. At the end of the book the author has also provided a brief section with guidelines for writing Chinese characters. Some of what you'd be able to read by the time you're done with this little book are numbers, dates, currencies, public utilities, directions, names of public places, signs, tickets, and few other words. On a side note, if you want to get deeper into learning how to write Chinese characters easily, you may also want to check out Easy Chinese Tutor.
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