Korean Reader for Chinese Characters will help students of Korean master basic Chinese characters that are frequently encountered in everyday situations. More than five hundred characters are targeted in exercises that aid in the efficient study of the forms, meanings, and sounds of individual characters and their compounds. Although the primary goal of the Reader is recognition of basic Chinese characters, students are encouraged to learn to write them properly by inclusion of a section on stroke order. The Reader is also designed to reinforce skills in reading and writing in Korean while studying Chinese characters. Forty lessons are preceded by an introductory chapter on the principles of Chinese character formation and reading and writing characters and followed by appendices on stroke order, English translations of the main reading text of each lesson, and an index of characters. The lessons are organized into seven parts: new characters, reading text, glossary, notes, new words in characters, more words in characters, and exercises. After every fifth lesson, there is a section reviewing all the characters introduced in the preceding five lessons.

The book describes how the three East Asian writing systems-Chinese, Korean, and Japanese- originated, developed, and are used today. Uniquely, this book: (1) examines the three East Asian scripts (and English) together in relation to each other, and (2) discusses how these scripts are, and historically have been, used in literacy and how they are learned, written, read, and processed by the eyes, the brain, and the mind. In this second edition, the authors have included recent research findings on the uses of the scripts, added several new sections, and rewritten several other sections. They have also added a new Part IV to deal with issues that similarly involve all the four languages/scripts of their interest. The book is intended both for the general public and for interested scholars. Technical terms (listed in a glossary) are used only when absolutely necessary.

Because Chinese characters are commonly known as pictograms, most Chinese learners wonder if they can possibly learn thousands of characters. Some give up altogether and choose to learn only Pinyin, the romanized form of Chinese characters and so their use of the language becomes very limited. However, considering that the people who devised the Chinese language and most of the people who write and speak it every day are not geniuses, we have found a shortcut, an easier way, that would help people appreciate and learn the Chinese characters. This book has been written to share that secret with you! Countries that still use Chinese characters in their vocabulary are China (including Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore), Korea and Japan. China, for obvious reasons, uses it most often. The simplified characters are used in China and Singapore, whereas Taiwan and Hong Kong use the original complicated characters. Japan uses a mix of both. Korea has her own alphabet Hangul, but up to 60% of the vocabulary has borrowed meaning from Chinese characters. Therefore, if you don't know them, it is very hard for you to understand their true meanings. For these reasons, many researches on Chinese characters have been carried out mostly in China, Korea and Japan. We have taken into account the opinions of scholars from these three countries and shortlisted 3,500 characters, which outnumbers the 2,633 characters in the HSK Level 1-6 characters list. This book contains 1,160 characters that explain about the most frequently-used 856 characters including 623 characters in the HSK Level 1-3 list. Chinese characters are based on inscriptions found on bones and tortoise carapaces used in the 14th and 12th century B.C. centuries. In the 6th and 7th centuries, they were said to have been passed on to nations in the Korean peninsula at that time, and then passed on to Japan. All languages change with time and Chinese was no exception. The usage of Chinese characters in Korea and Japan retain the original form and meaning of when they were passed on, so it was very helpful to have the input of scholars from the three countries. This book is an attempt to compile the opinions of scholars from these three countries, and the authors' personal interpretations of the inscriptions on bronze, bones and tortoise carapaces to explain the origin of the characters. The authors' aim is to help our readers understand the characters, not to become scholars in their own right. But that does not mean this book is a pet project. It is intended to help readers further understand the meanings of all Chinese characters.

Chinese, Japanese, South (and North) Koreans in East Asia have a long, intertwined and distinguished cultural history and have achieved, or are in the process of achieving, spectacular economic success. Together, these three peoples make up one quarter of the world population.They use a variety of unique and fascinating writing systems: logographic Chinese characters of ancient origin, as well as phonetic systems of syllabaries and alphabets. The book describes, often in comparison with English, how the Chinese, Korean and Japanese writing systems originated and developed; how each relates to its spoken language; how it is learned or taught; how it can be computerized; and how it relates to the past and present literacy, education, and culture of its users.Intimately familiar with the three East Asian cultures, Insup Taylor with the assistance of Martin Taylor, has written an accessible and highly readable book. Writing and Literacy in Chinese, Korean and Japanese is intended for academic readers (students in East Asian Studies, linguistics, education, psychology) as well as for the general public (parents, business, government). Readers of the book will learn about the interrelated cultural histories of China, Korea and Japan, but mainly about the various writing systems, some exotic, some familar, some simple, some complex, but all fascinating.

Reinforce your written Chinese with this practice book for the best-selling Tuttle Learning Chinese Characters. Learning Mandarin Chinese Characters helps students quickly learn the essential Chinese characters that are fundamental to the language. This character workbook presents 178 Chinese characters and over 534 standard words using these characters. It is intended for self-study and classroom use and includes the characters and words students need to know if they plan to take the official Chinese government HSK Level 1 Exam or the Advanced Placement (AP) Chinese Language and Culture Exam. Each character is presented plainly and transparently. A step-by-step diagram shows how to write the character, and boxes are provided for freehand writing practice. The meaning and pronunciation are given along with the critical vocabulary compounds and an example sentence. Review exercises reinforce the learning process, and an index at the back allows you to look up the characters according to their English meanings or romanized Hanyu Pinyin pronunciation. Key features of this Chinese workbook include: Designed for HSK Level 1 and AP exam prep Learn the 178 most essential Chinese characters Example sentences and over 534 vocabulary items Step-by-step writing diagrams and practice boxes

This user-friendly book is aimed at helping students of Mandarin Chinese learn and remember Chinese characters. At last--there is a truly effective and enjoyable way to learn Chinese characters! This book helps students to learn and remember both the meanings and the pronunciations of over 800 characters. This otherwise daunting task is made easier by the use of techniques based on the psychology of learning and memory. key principles include the use of visual imagery, the visualization of short "stories," and the systematic building up of more complicated characters from basic building blocks. Although Learning Chinese Characters is primarily a book for serious learners of Mandarin Chinese, it can be used by anyone with interest in Chinese characters, without any prior knowledge of Chinese. It can be used alongside (or after, or even before) a course in the Chinese language. All characters are simplified (as in mainland China), but traditional characters are also given, when available. Key features: Specially designed pictures and stories are used in a structured way to make the learning process more enjoyable and effective, reducing the need for rote learning to the absolute minimum. The emphasis throughout is on learning and remembering the meanings and pronunciations of the characters. Tips are also included on learning techniques and how to avoid common problems. Characters are introduced in a logical sequence, which also gives priority to learning the most common characters first. Modern, simplified characters are used, with pronunciations given in pinyin. Key information is given for each character, including radical, stroke-count, traditional form, compounds, and guidance on writing the character. This is a practical guide with a clear, concise and appealing layout, and it is well-indexed with easy lookup methods. The 800 Chinese characters and 1,033 compounds specified for the original HSK Level A proficiency test are covered.

Modern Korean breaks new ground in the field of Korean studies by providing students at last with an intermediate-level language text. The volume emphasizes the development of reading proficiency, but the exercises reinforce skills learned through conversation practice. They use a communicative approach emphasizing student-student and student-teacher interactions in real-life scenarios. Twenty-four lessons are divided into two groups of twelve lessons each. A single lesson consists of a main text, written in expository or descriptive prose that often incorporates a conversational style; a dialogue; a discussion of new word usage and structural patterns; substitution and grammar drills; exercises; and a vocabulary list. The second half of the book introduces Chinese characters found in each lesson. Modern Korean may be used for classroom instruction or self-study. Main text topics cover a wide range of subjects including Korean history, geography, holidays, literature, customs, and people, allowing students to develop a better understanding of Korean society and culture while improving their language skills.

Blood and Daring will change our views not just of Canada's relationship with the United States, but of the Civil War, Confederation and Canada itself. In Blood and Daring, lauded historian John Boyko makes a compelling argument that Confederation occurred when and as it did largely because of the pressures of the Civil War. Many readers will be shocked by Canada's deep connection to the war—Canadians fought in every major battle, supplied arms to the South, and many key Confederate meetings took place on Canadian soil. Filled with engaging stories and astonishing facts from previously unaccessed primary sources, Boyko's fascinating new interpretation of the war will appeal to all readers of history.

This book refutes the common Western belief that non-alphabetic writing systems (Chinese, Japanese. Korean) are hard to learn or to use, and offers practical theory-based methodology for the teaching of literacy in these languages to first and second language learners.

Advanced Korean offers a complete, systematic, and streamlined third-year course in Korean. It is ideal for university students and adult learners with plentiful reading texts and written exercises, all in Korean Hangul. Concise Korean grammar notes in English, extensive glossaries, and an answer key make this book suitable for those studying alone, as well as for classroom use. There are 20 comprehensive lessons, each with a reading text in which new language is introduced in context, followed by vocabulary, grammar points, and exercises. Lessons 5, 10, 15 and 20 are short reviews of the key structural patterns introduced. The focus is on written Korean, but the reading texts are not academic, they are breezy, chatty, and amusing, with illustrations. The textbook comes with a downloadable supplement entitled Sino-Korean Companion. It is for those learners wishing to commence the study of Chinese characters as they are used in the Korean language. The 20 lessons build on the content of the lessons in the main textbook to introduce 500 Chinese characters in their Sino-Korean readings. The emphasis is on giving students the tools they need to decipher unfamiliar Chinese characters on their own, and also on Sino-Korean vocabulary acquisition. Each lesson introduces approximately 25-30 new Chinese characters along with related vocabulary items and builds on previous characters and vocabulary introduced, demonstrating the cumulative effect on one's vocabulary of paying systematic attention to Sino-Korean.