Help with Hanzi Spreadsheet

[leosmith]

Hi,

I’m new to this website. I’m studying Japanese now, but beginning in 2006, I will study Chinese. If there’s one thing I’ve learned from my Japanese study, it’s that having a well organized plan is crucial. So I’m organizing things already.

My hope is to use the same technique for studying hanzi that I used for studying kanji – the method spelled out in Remembering The Kanji, Book 1 (RTK).

Unfortunately there is no RTK book for Chinese (although there is a paper out there for 1000 characters). So I’m trying to compile all the info I need into a master spreadsheet. The spreadsheet needs to have: the traditional character, meaning, radical and pronunciation. I’d also like to have the simplified character, stroke count and frequency. I’ve been unsuccessfully looking all over the web trying to dig this info up.

1. Does anybody know where I can find such a spreadsheet, or where I can get pieces of the info? I’d like it in some sort of list form if possible. Dictionaries and flashcards are great, but not too helpful for this exercise.

2. What are your opinions on the number of characters to study? I’ve heard everything from 2000 to 5000. I’m starting out with traditional, if that helps.

Thanks,

Leo

(ps - I realize this isn't the standard way to learn, but anybody who wants a copy when I'm finished is welcome to it)

[roddy]

This site has a database including simplified character, meaning, radical, pronunciation, stroke count (but not order) and frequency. I'm not sure if the database is available to download though. Unihan may also be useful.

As for how many characters to study - I realise you might be aware of this from Japanese (not sure how Japanese works to be honest) - but I really think you are better off studying words, not characters. If you like list based learning, look at the HSK lists (search on here for more info, we have the HSK database on here, and the site linked above also has them.

For my money, you're better off primarily learning new words, and learning new characters when you come across them in those words, than learning characters and then trying to learn how they fit together to make words.

Roddy

[chinesetools]

There's some data on this available at http://www.chinesecomputing.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=12

[hanabi]

Well, I'm currently learning Japanese language as well.

And in my opinion, the only similarity between the 2 is some of the kanji/hanzi

Other than that, grammer and vocab is different.

So you might want to take previous posts' suggestions and learn words instead of just characters.

Good luck!

[roddy]

Split a new topic off, Learning Chinese after Japanese.

[leosmith]

Thanks everybody. I no longer need to create the list because the author of Remembering the Kanji (James Heisig) says the new book, Remembering the Hanzi, will most likely be available in November. To understand how the method works, this pdf contains the first 100 or so pages of RTK.

http://www.nanzan-u.ac.jp/SHUBUNKEN/publications/miscPublications/pdf/RK4/RK4-00.pdf

Cheers,

Leo

[雅各]

There has been an adaptation of Heisig's Remembering the Kanji book.

See http://www.kanjiclinic.com/richardson.htm

雅各

[leosmith]

Thanks 雅各. Also, FYI, the guy who wrote the dissertation, Dr. Timothy W. Richardson, is the co-author of RTH. The adaption covers 1000 characters, but RTH will cover 3000+.

[jonny]

Hi,

Has anyone actually bought Richardson's thesis to learn Hanzi?

It looks like the section covering the 1000 words is only 40 or so pages long. Heisig had about 4 kanji per page in the free PDF. So unless the font is compressed to give you Hanzi + Keyword + Story + Strokes in a much more compressed format, I'm not sure you can learn from the dissertation?

Anyone want to tell me the answer and save me 30 bucks? Thanks!

[hlk123]

Don't buy it. It is not to learn the 1000 Hanzi.