Interesting site for character breakdowns

[Hofmann]

tch

[Tianjin42]

I like the Heisig method but I feel it depends very much on the type of person - we all learn differently.

Ridiculous stories are part of the fun. I remember when for some reason I kept mistaking 老公and老婆 in conversation (just one of those stupid thoughtless things). My Chinese colleague said he would help me remember and launched into an absurd description of how the 公 should remind us of buses (公共汽车）and that in many ways husbands are like buses if I only cared to think about it.

It was so illogical and ridiculous that I never made the 老婆/老公 mistake again.

[Tianjin42]

Anyway - the site useful to me - and nice interface.

[tooironic]

I think it would be more helpful for learners if they called components by what native speakers actually call them, not just by the pinyin reading in the dictionary. For example:

 

这 - 辶 is called 走之旁, no one calls it chuò.

叩 - 卩 is called 单耳旁 or 单耳刀, no one understands what a jié is.

防 - 阝 is a 左耳旁 or 左耳刀, no one knows what a yì is. In 邦 it's called 右耳旁 or 右耳刀.

 

There are many more examples. 纟 is 绞丝旁, not sī;氵is 三点水, not shuǐ; 宀 is 宝盖, not mián; 犭 is 反犬旁, not quǎn, etc, etc.

 

Knowing the common term for the character component means you can reference them in real life when talking about characters with other Chinese.

 

I also think it's misleading how the site doesn't present the components according to stroke order.

 

As for downright errors, one mistake I just spotted - 囱 - it's 一撇 (丿, piě) not 丶 zhǔ/diǎn.

[Guest realmayo]

I think it would be more helpful for learners if they called components by what native speakers actually call them, not just by the pinyin reading in the dictionary. 

 

I think you are right if they are going to be chatting right away about characters with native speakers.

But if they are just going to be learning these damned things on their own, I don't see the point.

[Shelley]

I think if they are going to learn them at all, then they might as well learn the common term.

 

It is also more descriptive and easier to remember, I think "left ear and right ear" are much more self explanatory than yi.

 

It won't just be chatting with native speakers that you will come across these, my text book NPCR uses them and I imagine quite a lot of other teaching and reference material uses them.