Some Tools and Tricks to help you learn to Read and Write Hanzi

Rev 3/8/10 -- One of the most frustrating things about learning Chinese (or Japanese, or traditionally written Korean, for that matter) is not only the mind-boggling number of characters (or variants, see previous post on dealing with both simplified and traditional characters), but the time and energy consuming difficulty of trying to look up something when you don't know the pronunciation.  It gets worse if you find you have difficulty identifying which of the components of a character is the classificatory radical, ones principal traditional recourse  for a non-phonetic look up!  Maybe the character was in the section for that radical, but you missed it amidst the forest of other small printed characters, or perhaps you were looking in the wrong subsection, because you miscounted the remaining number of strokes to complete the character after the radical. Aargh!!  What can you do? 

You have a lot more courses of action if the material you are trying to read is online or already on your computer in some form.  You can just copy and paste the expression into an online dictionary or annotator, among other choices.  But more on this in a moment. 

Before returning to online and other computer or electronic dictionary tools, let me just say that recently I have been trying to read some pages from a novel translated into Chinese.  I have been trying to do this intensively (that means looking up almost every word of which I am not 100% sure of the meaning or pronunciation, including tone!--and to keep a computer vocabulary log too), rather than extensively (that means reading to cover much more ground, getting the general gist, but definitely not every word or pronunciation).

It has been a challenging and exhausting trip, but most helpful, not only for learning vocabulary and grammar in context, but also for discovering and rediscovering how to manage.  It brought back memories of similar efforts and frustrations while trying to expand my knowledge of written Japanese over a number of year (but not recently) and briefly of traditionally written Korean while in graduate school.  The experience reminded me of the value of having a number of strategies ready, depending on what tools you have available, but also so you have something else to try, if the first methods you use do not bring you success.

WHAT DID I DO FOR PRINT MATERIALS: 

Can you make a guess at the pronunciation?

I found I could often guess one or two likely pronunciations because classifier/"phonetic" (phono-semantic compound characters, 形声字 xing2 sheng1 zi4) are by far the most common type of Chinese character.  (See Wikipedia Chinese Character Classification.)  Unfortuanately, there are several pitfalls in this method.  Even originally, the so-called phonetic components of such compounds were often only suggestive of a similarity in sound, called a "rime" (or rhyme).  Over the many centuries from then to modern Mandarin there have been major phonetic (and phonemic) changes.  Some of the newly substituted phonetic components of some simplified characters may be a somewhat less risky basis for a guess at general pronunciation, although none of these helps you with tone.

What if you know or can guess the meaning, even if you don't know the pronunciation?

Sometimes you can find the word with its pronunciation by looking up what you think the meaning is in English. 

Is the word is a compound beginning with a character you know?

If so, you can look in a character-based dictionary for compounds beginning with that character.  A traditional character dictionary would show the next character based on the number of strokes, which would probably be a bit easier than one in which placement is determined by the character by character pronunciation.  The latter would still be manageable in most cases, but you might have to scan a larger number of candidates, increasing the risk of overlooking the correct one.   A letter by letter pinyin phonetic based dictionary, such as the Pocket Langenscheidt, that I prefer for fast lookup for words I hear, would not be a good choice here, because it does not lump words beginning with the same character together.

What if the word is or starts with a character you don't know?

I already mentioned the traditional classificatory radical plus remaining stroke count method.  Even most phonetically based dictionaries have a radical index, followed by and index of characters beginning with each radical.  Many simply give a page or character reference number for the main entry, but I generally prefer an index that gives the pronunciation of the character right there.   A further cautionary note,  the radical lists found in traditional character dictionaries and simplified character dictionaries differ somewhat, so you have to be careful.  Also, several radicals have a full stroked version and a somewhat abbreviated version (with fewer strokes and altered appearance).  On some radical lists, you may have to look in the section for the full number of strokes to find the abbreviated version also.

Two other alternatives for when you don't know the first character can be tried using the print version of the dictionary Chinese Characters: A Genealogy and Dictionary 中文字谱.  This dictionary groups characters' main entries not by the traditional classifactory radical, but by some other component of the character, if there is one.  Given the prominence of phono-semantic characters, this would principally be the so-called phonetic component.  So if you know another character that shares that (traditional) component (because this dictionary is traditional character based), you should be able to find the unknown character near the main entry of the known one, and near its place on the "genealogical" tree located near the entries.  This dictionary is obviously a tremendous tool for students who can benefit from seeing characters grouped together that have annoyingly similar appearances and perhaps pronunciations, but differing meanings and usages.

This same dictionary has one other outstanding feature, that few others do.  Though character based dictionaries put words together that begin with the same character, almost none give more than perhaps an example or two of words in which the character is NOT the first character.  This dictionary (and one excellent one I had for Japanese [to be listed] ) list a number of words in which the character is not first, along with a reference number (or furigana phonetics for the Japanese dictionary) to help you find the main entries for those words.

What if you already know Japanese or Korean and can read the Chinese characters used in each, called kanji and hanja (=hanzi), respectively?

The Sino-Japanese (on-yomi) or Sino-Korean pronunciation of Chinese characters (as opposed to the native Japanese [kun-yomi] or native Korean readings) can also provide a rather rough basis for a guess at pronunciation and/or a relatively decent basis for a guess at meaning.  Some other tools may available.  I don't really have a good Japanese-Chinese dictionary, though that might be helpful.  However, I do have an old version of the Modern Chinese-Japanese Dictionary 現代中日辞典　（増訂版） put out by Kooseikan 光生館 that has an appendix that allows me to look up Chinese pronunciations of a number of characters from the Sino-Japanese pronunciation and from some native Japanese pronunciations.  Also the same Japanese Kanji (character) dictionary that allows me to find compounds that start with another character, also lists a Chinese pronunciation for each character contained (other than ones unique to Japan), shows historic kana (which are indicative of past phonetic changes), and also indicates which of a couple of historic periods the Sino-Japanese reading belong to.  There may be similar resources available to those with a knowledge of traditional written Korean.


WHAT IF YOU HAVE ACCESS TO ONLINE DICTIONARIES, ANNOTATORS, OR ELECTRONIC DICTIONARIES?

Online dictionaries such as MDBG or Yellow Bridge, some electronic dictionaries, and computer Chinese input methods IME's allow some additional alternative strategies. 

MDBG or Yellow Bridge, Mandarin Tools downloadable Dim Sum Chinese Tools, and some PDA electronic dictionaries, such as that of PLECO allow you to draw the character in a grid with you mouse or a stylus.  Software recognition of what you write is not bad but not perfect.

In these same sources, you can also try to do a search for compounds that contain (or begin or end with) a particular character or sound you know.

Another method is that if you have a Chinese input method set up on your computer, you can try to enter a pronunciation guess, particularly in combination with another character you know (which should greatly limit the possibilities), and see if the character comes up.  Although you may still want to copy it into an online dictionary for meaning and tone information, it may still be faster than a more open search or manually looking in a print dictionary.

As additional practice along the same lines, I have even tried to retype several pages in verbatim, from something I was reading in a print version.  This has the additional benefit of allowing me to do some things I could with text online or in a computer file.  For example, I could paste some of the content into an annotator (see the section on Annotators in my previous posting on Dealing with both Simplified  & Traditional Characters), or I could try pasting it into a translator (though I have words of caution to give about that, that will come in another entry.)

To summarize, I recommend having a number of tricks or strategies at the ready, depending partly on which tools you have at hand, which ones you are the best or fastest at using, and whether some methods have failed you, and so you still need something else!