How do you read Chinese?

[HashiriKata]

Some Chinese native speakers told me that because of the characters, it's very quick for Chinese speakers to get the approximate meaning of what they're looking at without actually reading it. Is this also true with other Chinese native speakers?

And for non-native Chinese speakers, how do you read Chinese? I'm a non-native speaker and I notice that I often try to avoid reading Chinese (but thanks to the 中文角, I think this will change ). This is because in order to understand what's written, I have to delibrately and carefully read each word one by one in my head, otherwise I would not have a clue of what I'm looking at (despite of the fact that I'm familiar with the characters used!). Is it the same with you, or can you get by by just scanning through?

Also, any fast tips for reading Chinese faster ???

[zhenhui]

Hey HashiriKata,

You're quite right when you say "scan", sometimes i get lazy when reading Chinese stories and there are definately some words that I won't be able to read (i did try to go to the dictionary but got more lazy afterwards). Often at times when that happen I just scan through, pick up the easy words and get an idea of what that paragraph is talking about instead of reading word by word. It's kind of like when you want to read an English paragraph quickly, but it's easier for me to say that because i've started young ... so i guess the best way for non native Chinese speakers is practice practice practice!

good luck!

[Quest]

I don't think there's much difference between Chinese characters and English in that regard. Its just a matter of training. However, Chinese characters vs Pinyin would be a different story . It would be interesting to test reading speeds in Vietnamese vs Chinese.

[Lu]

How I read Chinese: very slowly. I tend to read very fast in my native language (one long afternoon for a novel) and also pretty fast in English (two afternoons for a novel) but if I try to read with that speed in Chinese I miss more than half of what is said. I have to really read every word to follow the text.

The same goes for pinyin, or maybe that's even slower, because for many words I have to think 'what would the character be for this one...'.

[HashiriKata]

I have to really read every word to follow the text.

This is also how I read Chinese (and with my penchant for being a perfectionist, things get even slower! ).

It would be interesting to test reading speeds in Vietnamese vs Chinese.

I'll probably try this, but my different levels of competence in the two languages may give predictable results.

[nipponman]

And for non-native Chinese speakers, how do you read Chinese? I'm a non-native speaker and I notice that I often try to avoid reading Chinese (but thanks to the 中文角, I think this will change ). This is because in order to understand what's written, I have to delibrately and carefully read each word one by one in my head, otherwise I would not have a clue of what I'm looking at (despite of the fact that I'm familiar with the characters used!). Is it the same with you, or can you get by by just scanning through?

I agree, I often tried to avoid reading chinese for some odd reason even though i can. I find that I read a pretty slowly however, not because I can't recognize the characters, but because I take some time to understand the sentences. But I find that when I can recognize the sentence pattern, I read at a normal speed. However, I can scan chinese texts and gain the overall meaning without actually reading it all. I chalk this up to being able to recognize certain characters before others. Any one else?

[wushijiao]

I agree with Quest that the process of becoming a fast reader in Chinese isn’t all that different from that in one’s native language.

My friend used to teach speed reading classes, and he told me the course had numerous techniques and exercises and whatnot. At the end of the day, he said that most students felt that their reading speed at the end of the course did indeed improve. My friend attributed this mainly to the fact that the students just had to read in massive volumes. I think he’s right. Practice, practice, practice, combined with a ton of volume of reading is the only way to get good.

However, I think, at least for me, there are a few other things that have helped:

1) Read with specific goals in mind. I think it’s good to speed read texts, with the aim of getting the main gist, not the details. When extensive reading for pleasure in a non-native language with the goal of increasing reading speed, I think research suggest that one should read something at one’s “level” or “level + 1”, just a bit more difficult than your used to, but still understandable. I think some people get discouraged when they try to browse through stuff that’s realistically way beyond what they are able to understand. Finding a text that’s appropriate to one’s needs at a particular time and place is often a frustrating experience. Stuff is either too easy, and thus a waste of time. Or the texts make you feel like an idiot. But whenever I find a good text that meets my needs, I feel a geeky sort of exhilaration.

I also think timed readings that force you to speed read are also useful.

2) Read for detailed understanding. I think most textbooks, in any language, emphasize or over-emphasize this skill.

3) As far as Chinese, it’s really useful to learn the grammatical patterns. For example, when a sentence starts with 尽管 there will usually be a comma, and then the second clause will start with 但 or 但是. So, because Chinese has so many of these fixed sentences patterns, once you recognize one, it’s like waiting for the other shoe to drop.

4) Read stuff with a lot of pictures. Somehow pictures and visuals always seem to make the readings easier and more interesting.

5) I would also say that at one point I put a little too much emphasis on seeing how many characters I could recognize, as if I could get to 1,800 and then all the other difficulties with learning Chinese would magically resolve themselves. Recognizing characters is a vital skill, but I’d still put a bit more emphasis on word recognition.

I suppose for people with backgrounds in Japanese (nippoman, Hashiri Kata, right?) reading in Chinese must have certain unique advantages and disadvantages.

[mrtoga]

I have a book of 500 Chengyu with one-page stories about how the chengyu came about (it is therefore a 500 page book!). I find it is great to improve my reading speed. A lot of the stories refer to the same period in history and even the same people, so after a while they become easy to understand. There are often several other chengyu within the stories too. Each story is quite simple, but most have about 10 new characters that I do not recognise and another 10 or so that I will have to check the reading.

Not only does this format make reading manageable (three or four pages a day does not take long), you pick up a lot of new chengyu, new characters / words and historical information. In addition, there are both narrative passages and passages of speech, so there is plenty of opportunity to see how words are used within different types of sentences.

I have it in front of me now - 成语典故故事　ｂｙ　商务印书馆国际有限公司. Highly recommended if you have learnt over 1,000 (??) or so characters

[skylee]

A lot of the stories refer to the same period in history and even the same people, so after a while they become easy to understand.

I envy you. I think I would mix up everything after a while if I were to read these stories ...

[Xiao Kui]

I found that the secret for me was reading short articles or stories that I could finish in a few hours (or a few hours each day for a few days, when i was having to look up every 10th word in the dictionary.) or so. Finishing each article gave me a sense of accomplishment. The materials i used at the time were mostly Duzhe (sort of Chinese Reader´s digest that has excerpts from magazines around China. It comes out once every 2 weeks and can be picked up at almost any newstand in the mainland for 3 yuan) and Yilin ( another 3 yuan compilation filled with silly inspirational/motivational stories, articles, but loads easier than Duzhe).

Now I can plough through a novel no prob. However I also like pasting online material from www.shuku.net and other sources into my NJStar word processor so I can mouseover for definitions and then highlight new words. The more I read, the less necessary it is to copy, write new words and commit the definitions to memorization because most of them appear often enough to reinforce my memory. So now I´m adopting a read more, look up less approach.