Transcription table according to the endings (韵母） to learn characters

[Pall]

There is a better solution to organize the Table: by correspondence between beginnings and endings of syllables, 声母 and 韵母. Then it can be done using pinyin, without resorting to mupin. I've found a very good version of such table. It's offten included in the fonetic section of textbooks, but versions vary. This one is the most suitable for such work.

 

In general with all endings, 韵母, the sequence of beginnings should be by the following blocks of them: (1) b, p, m , f; (2) d, t, n, l; (3) zh, sh, ch, r ; (4) j, q, x, s; (5) g, k, h. But some of these blocks will not work with some endings, as it's known, and sometimes particular beginnings, 声母, don't work with a given ending 韵母 despite the block is OK. In the above example of '-ai' ending, 韵母, neither the total block 4 will work, nor  'f' in the block 1 and 'r' in the block 3. 

 

To learn these blocks and how they correspond with endings is not difficult. The only problem may be if some syllables in the HSK5 aren't present. For convenience, probably one should look for at least one character from HSK6 or other rating of usage by frequency to fill the gap. 

 

And formulas, consequently, will be only for linking the meanings of the characters, without linkage to the vertical formula, which woun't be needed any more.

 

And it will be necessary to make a special section for syllables without 声母 - including those that are written with 'w' and 'y' as the beginning.

 

 

[Pall]

IMPORTANT! I was mistaken when wrote that mupin would not be useful under new conditions now that the table was arranged according to correspondence between syllable beginnings and endings. I wrote that the vertical formula woudn't be needed, and so horizontal formulas woun't be connected with the vertical formula. But if to express beginnings, 声母， in mupin, it's still possible to connect horizontal formulas with the vertical succession of syllables even without the vertical formula. It's necessary just to use such first word in the horizontal formila that begins with the same sound, which the 声母 has. Otherwise it'll be additional burden on one's memory when associating the characters in a line with the corresponding syllable. 

[Pall]

The milestone of 1,000 characters has been passed. It's 56% of the planned total at this stage. Although I measure my advancement in terms of syllables with accounting for tones and syllables without tones, in the two latter measures my achievement is more modest. 

 

All you need is to memorize some 1,200-1,300 macro-characters like in the upper picture for the entire Mandarine language! (In HSK5 only about 900.) "Macro-character' is a set of characters sounding the same arranged in order best suited for memorizing with the use of  visual memory. Of course, cards will look mostly like in the second picture when the whole language is concerned. But there are  good news. First, only 'shì' and  'jì'  have more than ten characters in the HSK5, the lion share of syllables being represented by 1-5 characters. Second, in the New York Times Mandarine version 9 of 10 characters are from the HSK5 (as to words, the HSK5 set is not enough to read the New York Times in Mandarine, but as to characters the situation as like that). The characters come in the succession as in the third picture, according to the formular used for its memorization. Only 7 characters are comprised by one formula, for all additional a new formula begins with the 7th character.

 

Memorization is provided by repeated redrawing of the 'macro-characters ' on an empty sheet. 
 

The cards are not enough, though. You need also the Table (two tables for better results). It has two sheets, one with the images of the cards and the other with meanings (only one of the meanings for each character-syllable is selected) and formulas linking them to each other. In the picture you can see the first sheet of the table organized by initial sounds, 声母, though。 But it's additional, secondary, for better intercrossed memorization. The principal Table must be arranged according to endings, 韵母。 Because it's rather difficult to remember the difference between za, zai, zan, zang, etc., whereas it's a way easier to memorize bai, pai, mai, etc. The endings should come in blocks mentioned above (1- b, p, m, f; 2 - d, t, n, l, etc.), reflecting the correspondence between initial sounds and endings in Mandarine. And formulas should begin with some word, starting with the same sound as the syllable, the other target words in foumulas being meanings of the characters. I use mupin version of the initial sounds, b - б, p - п  , m - м  , f- ф  , etc. , because formulas are in Russian. So, mupin is used only for the inital sounds in order to make association with the beginning word in formulas, and the table as a whole is based on pinyin, which is more suitable for different uses. 

 

Sorry, the pictures have changed their position, but it's all clear anyway.

 

 

 

[Pall]

Finally I got an idea to make 'mega-characters' by combination of 'macro-characters' according to initial sound (声母) blocks and endings (韵母) with respect to tones. It's the easiest way to remember characters. Since there is no initial sound 'f' for the ending '-ai' in the first block, I take as an example the second block, "d, t, n, l". Mega-characters are arranged by tones, so we need four cards (for each tone) for all combinations of initial sonds of the block with the ending '-ai', see pictures. As a result, the number of cards to remember is decreased by four times, and one needs to memorize only some 400 cards of 'mega-characters' for the entire language, making these as complete as he prefers.The pictures are for the HSK-5 set of characters.
 

[Pall]

1,300 characters are memorized. However, the most difficult part remains ahead - syllables, represented by one or two characters. There is a feeling that it will require some additional technique. Mega cards are not enough.

[Pall]

I was mistaken, mega-cards were quite enough to memorize syllables represented by one or two characters in the HSK5. Moreover, it's the best way to link them in memory to those, which are remembered firmly and often encountered in texts. If they are learnt in a traditional way they may be forgotten due to their infrequency.