List of important characters (in addition to radicals)

[Dana123]

Dear all,

 

I am very happy that there is this forum.

This because I have been studying Chinese for  two years and it took my pretty long to understand that the right method makes a huge difference for the effectiveness.

 

Amongst many other question, I would like to ask you the following:

 

Is there a list of fundamental characters which

- serve either as phoneticum or radical for HSK characters 

- but which are NOT comprised in the 214 Kangxi radical list

- (and which themselves might be a combination of the 214 Kangx radicals)

 

Meanwhile, I have found a great book for grammar and good resources to practise my pronunciation. However, the only problem for my is to learn the HSK3 characters by heart. I therefore need mnemonics and I realized many characters are built of same characters which are not radicals.

 

Does anyone have a list of these "most important building block characters"?

 

Thanx in advance!

[Moshen]

First I would ask you, are you sure that memorizing a list of characters or character components is the best learning method for you?  From HSK3 on, instead of studying isolated words or character components, I primarily went through HSK courses and learned the characters IN CONTEXT.  For me, this worked great and involved next to no tedious memorization.  I have studied French, Spanish, Latin, German, Hebrew and Chinese while spending very little time on memorization.

 

Maybe you enjoy memorization, though, or believe that's the fastest route for you.  Everyone is different.

[Dana123]

Toda  Moshen!

Really appreciating your answer.

 

I am super interested in new study methods.  And I am actually a good learner. However, I cannot learn without structure. There needs to be some logic behind for me.

Quote

  From HSK3 on, instead of studying isolated words or character components, I primarily went through HSK courses and learned the characters IN CONTEXT. 

 

What does "learning characters in context" mean?

 

 

[Moshen]

Quote

What does "learning characters in context" mean?

 

I took the HSK 3 and HSK 4 courses on Coursera, then the HSK 4 course and part of the HSK5 course on From Zero to Hero.  Plus I read a lot of articles on The Chairman's Bao.  So what this meant for me was: Typically a lesson begins by introducing you to vocabulary with a story or article.  The instructor then defines all the new words and gives you exercises using them.  You are never asked to master any bare lists of characters, words or character components, only with stories or exercise sentences.  Just by learning and reviewing a lesson, you are ready to go on, having learned most of the words/characters in that lesson.

 

I don't believe I ever sat down with flashcards or a vocabulary list with any of the languages I learned, to try to memorize them.

 

When you encounter words repeatedly (visually and aurally) in a context that makes sense and is not way above your level, you will tend to remember them, over time.  That's what I meant by "learning characters in context."  It works for me.

[Dana123]

Hi.. Moshe

 

Thanks for mentioning three company products explicitely  ??

 

So what you were practically saying is that you simply did not study vocabs.

Yes..this might work with many people. But I still don't understand how people can separate characters where there are tiny little "dots" which distinguish the character from one another.

 

For example like kangxi radical 113 and 145.

Would yo memorize this difference only visually??

礻

衤

[Lu]

On 3/18/2022 at 3:28 PM, Dana123 said:

I still don't understand how people can separate characters where there are tiny little "dots" which distinguish the character from one another.

 

For example like kangxi radical 113 and 145.

Would yo memorize this difference only visually??

礻

衤

That's certainly a difficult aspect of Chinese, but it's not the same problem as you asked about!

 

In this particular case, 礻is the 'ghost' radical, and 衤the 'clothes' radical. 衤is derived from 衣, you can see that it's basically the same character, just squished. It has almost the same lines in the same places, except smaller.

[Moshen]

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For example like kangxi radical 113 and 145.

Would yo memorize this difference only visually??

 

Honestly, I never learned the radicals, let alone tried to memorize them.  Just as with English I never memorized the difference between B and E or between g and q.  You see it often enough, you learn it.

 

But don't let me derail your quest to learn all the radicals and other components.  If you believe that will help you, you have lots of company.  And there are courses specifically on learning characters the way you are inclined to do so.  Outlier has such a course and Yoyo Chinese has one also, I believe.  Good luck.

[vellocet]

On 3/18/2022 at 6:44 PM, Moshen said:

no tedious memorization. 

We mere mortals have to use it, though.  You seem naturally talented.  The rest of us don't just absorb vocabulary.

 

Quote

 

I have studied French, Spanish, Latin, German, Hebrew and Chinese while spending very little time on memorization.

 

Six, eh? Yeah, I think I understand why you learn languages so easily now.  

 

On 3/18/2022 at 5:33 PM, Dana123 said:

However, the only problem for my is to learn the HSK3 characters by heart.

This is literally why Anki exists.  Get it, use it.  It works by manipulating the brain's ability to transfer knowledge from short-term to long-term memory.  When you see the characters every day, they become like your friends.  Anki hammers the knowledge into your head without you having a choice about it.  

[Dana123]

Hi all,

 

Let me re-iterate again that I think it is remarkable that Moshen seems somehow to be enjoying emphasizing company and product names.  ?

 

I think it is important to exchange methods and experience rather than guiding sales decisions here ?

The beauty about the Chinese language is that we can study it, quite independent of commercial structures and mighty big tech companies

 

To ask my question again:

Let us look at the character

成 cheng

 

it is so often used, but I would not find it in the Kangxi radical list as it is a composition of different elements.

However, it would be helpful to just learn this element by heart from the beginning.

 

Getting a list with all these frequently used elementary characters which are NOT part of the Kangxi radicals would make studying Chinese easier.

 

 

 

 

[Lu]

Moshen is not selling anything, and is listing courses that specifically help with what you're trying to do. You are of course free to not use any courses and forge your own path, but it's not very nice to cast suspicions on people who are trying to help you and answer your questions.

[OneEye]

On 3/18/2022 at 11:46 PM, Moshen said:

Outlier has such a course

 

On 4/21/2022 at 9:45 PM, Dana123 said:

mighty big tech companies

 

Lol.

[phoneticsem]

Please check this link the URL inside and Anki deck might be helpful.