Chinese Characters Piece by Piece

This course is for absolute beginners taking their first steps in learning Chinese characters with the ultimate goal of reading popular modern Mandarin language materials, including books, newspapers, magazines, and of course, on-line materials. Even more specifically, it is geared toward those who may believe that Chinese characters are just to visually complex for them to ever master or for those who may have tried to learn characters in the past and failed. We focus on character recognition (rather than writing) and capitalize on the fact that Chinese characters are *not* each individual pictures, but are instead composed of repeating components that recur over and over again. By learning to identify these elements, we are able to break characters down into their parts, making the task of remembering them far simpler. In fact, by giving these components names, we actually change the problem of reading Chinese from a visual task into an essentially verbal one! In this first course, we'll be learning 150 fundamental high frequency characters and components (in their modern forms as used in the People's Republic of China). 

The course is organized around 15 video lessons that each teaches 10 characters and their components. Every lesson also has an accompanying .pdf file that both summarizes the lecture and provides additional hints and information. While a highly motivated learner could complete the entire course in 15 days by tackling 10 characters a day, there is absolutely no reason you must proceed that quickly. Most students will probably want to spend about 3-4 weeks completing the program. Once you have finished this first course, you should understand the characters typically found in most first term, or even first year, Chinese textbooks and have an excellent foundation for continuing your studies either in our subsequent courses or on your own.