Question-fastest way to learn to read simplified Mandarin (in my situation)?

[raymond2]

I have been learning Mandarin off and on for 15 years. I speak it fairly well (B2 ish?), but don’t read it well. I speak/read Japanese at a slightly better level. I have a so-so grasp of Chinese characters, both traditional and simplified, and completed RTK1 for Japanese many years ago. Because reading Mandarin is my weakest point in all my languages, about a month ago I decided to buckle down and study it more intensely. I’m a bit old school, and I did this in a very conservative way. I would read some, then memorize/review the unknown words. My reviews are both L2 to L1 and L1 to L2. Progress is slow, and maybe that is how it should be, but I have heard rumors that some people drop the L1 to L2 reviews and learn much faster.

 

A few more details that may influence your answer. I only read until I get 20 new words, because more than that tends to make the reviews overwhelming. I read the previous 2 days passages before reading the current one, to better review the new stuff in context. Although I’m old school, I use some modern tools. I use a pop-up dictionary to read, and an SRS to review.

 

Assuming that my only goal here is to read better, do you recommend that I drop the L1 to L2 review? Do you have any other suggestions for learning to read Mandarin faster?

[litcandle]

How much time do you spend reading per day?

 

I am very good at reading Mandarin. I would estimate my passive vocabulary at about 20,000 words.

 

The most important two skills needed to read are 1) an extensive passive vocabulary and 2) an ability to make sense of the logic of Chinese sentences. In my opinion, the first skill is primary and should be the focus of your efforts. Just as a child must learn to crawl before walking, you need to learn to recognize the most common Chinese words before you can grasp the various idiomatic combinations in which they appear. 

 

My advice is to drop the L1 to L2 reviews. Think about what this is training you to do - translate from your native language to Chinese. What is this skill useful for? Perhaps providing translating services or writing essays in Chinese, both of which I doubt you are training to do. I personally never trained L1 to L2 and learning Chinese quite successfully in a short period of time. (Caveat: I recommend training L1 to L2 for certain idiomatic phrases in your native language. These phrases can often become stumbling blocks in conversation and writing in Chinese; however, notice that these two activities (speaking and writing) are active. If your goal is merely to improve reading as effectively as possible then even this is a waste of time.)

 

If you really want to learn Chinese fast, I also recommend giving up your "conservative" approach. Choose reading material that is as easy as possible yet still enjoyable to read is the most effective approach. Your time spent reading should exceed your time spent studying vocabulary (at a high-intermediate level).

Two caveats:

1) Beginners should spend more time studying than reading until reading graded readers becomes practical.

2) Studying flash cards are still necessary at higher levels in order to remember some of the less common words. 

[raymond2]

Thanks for your interesting post. A couple questions:

1) Did you ever learn pronunciations of single characters/radicals while you were learning to read?

2) Can you recommend free/online "easy" (upper beginner to lower intermediate) reading material? 

[litcandle]

@raymond2

1) When you read, you'll natural learn words, which generally come in either 2-character or 4-character groupings. For learning to read, it is generally unnecessary to learn the characters individually/out of context of the words they are used in. This is especially true for the upper beginner to lower intermediate levels. With that being said, at a bear minimum you should be able to recognize the individual characters and be able to pronounce them when they appear in words. So for example you may not recognize 待 individually, but you can recognize that 等待 is pronounced deng3dai4.

 

2) I personally used Mandarin Companion Graded Readers Breakthrough Level followed by the simplified Journey to the West series by Jeff Pepper. They were both pretty good. At higher levels, I went over textbooks (Boya Chinese series) with the help of Chinese tutors. That textbook series is pretty good and goes up to a very high level.