![]() ![]() Unfortunately, I fear the challenge will be dominated by the western world. (Many European languages get 10 numbers all of their own, while all languages of East and Southeast Asia are in 495.) I initiated this challenge of reading books from across the Dewey Decimal categories in an attempt to broaden my horizons and read books about things I wouldn't normally choose to read things about. The 400s are the language category, and the 490s consist of pretty much every non-European language. I read this book as part of my personal challenge to read a book from every ten places of the Dewey Decimal System. I did find it interesting that even though I did learn a number of Chinese characters, I still have no idea how to say any of the words. Initially, I had fun trying to understand the characters and the meanings. Each character is incorporated into a drawing to help illustrate the meaning. So, great book if you want to appreciate the art or use it as a supplement with real Chinese textbooks, but forget about it if you think it will be an “easy” way to learn the language.Ĭhineasy is a book full of Chinese characters and illustrations designed to make learning to read Chinese characters fun and easy. “argument”, p.47) are extremely rare or archaic forms that nobody uses anymore, as more than one of my Chinese friends pointed out to me when they looked inside. ![]() Aside from presenting an extremely small sample of Chinese characters, there's also the fact that they're mostly all traditional forms (most learners of Chinese will want to simplified characters, but even those who are after the traditional characters will find that some of them in here are simplified, as the author/illustrator picks whatever looks best for her purposes). For these purposes, I couldn't recommend this book highly enough, and I've already memorised quite a few of the characters in its pages without applying any real effort.īut you can't possibly rely exclusively on this book to teach you the language. Secondly, if, like me, you are starting out on the nerve-wracking challenge of learning Chinese, this is a great way of demystifying the subject, presenting the logical thought processes behind what may seem like arbitrary and complicated symbols, and giving you an insight into the Chinese mentality. What this is, first and foremost, is an art book, something you can admire not just for the beautiful illustrations on the inside, but also for the way the book was put together and laid out. ![]() This fundamental misunderstanding of the purpose and function of this book can be blamed squarely on the author and publishers for promoting it as such (in TED talks, etc.), taking a charming little concept and hyping it up well out of proportion. 'Chineasy' is not, by any means, a book for learning Chinese, as most of its critics (judging from the negative reviews here and elsewhere) seem to believe. ![]()
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