Tips on How to Learn to Read Chinese

The Chinese language is not as hard as it looks at first glance. The system of writing does have a method to its madness. In written form it can be read by all Chinese, even though many dialects confound speaking and understanding the Chinese language. All Mandarin dialects, Taiwanese, and even Cantonese use the same basic system of writing. This makes it the most widely written and read language in the world. It's worth learning to read the Chinese language, or at least learning how to read some of it.


Written Chinese consists of characters, which represent words. This differs from our western alphabet, where we fit letters together to form the sounds that make up our words. We compose "love" from letters (l-o-v-e), while Chinese has one character: 愛.

Building Blocks
Understanding the characters comes from memorizing their form. Each character is made up of a few, or many, radicals. These radicals are the basis of all their words, and are building blocks. A radical is just a stroke, or a few strokes, consisting of a line or box or both. Looking at the separate blocks, which come together to form new words, may help you remember them. The radicals 立 plus 口 and 卩 form the character/word: 部 . However, don't get too involved in dissecting the language. Learn one character at a time, and the elements of Chinese will eventually appear to you.

Grammar
Unlike French or Japanese grammar, Chinese is very simple in its approach. Usually subject + verb, straight forward, will work. If you get it wrong, you'll still be understood. "I go ride train now" (the correct way), is just as easily understood as "Now go I ride train." Chinese grammar is not complex, and they do not conjugate verbs as French, Italian and other Romance languages do. It is more like English, where we add an "ed" to form the past tense, as in: play, played. They also do not have complicated word order, as Dutch and German have, and so your sentences will read logically - straight out. "I like to eat food."

Word by Word
Try learning the 50 most common words, and use them in many sentences. Learn a new word every few days, and gradually add to your vocabulary. Approach Chinese slowly, and learn each character completely, commit it to memory before trying a new word. Even if you do not intend to learn to write Chinese fluently, you must write new words, or even "trace" new characters, in order to remember them.

Pronouns
Many words, including pronouns have a single character. For example, I and me are one character: 我
This makes things easier, and logical to follow.

Compounds.
Some words are made from 2 other words to form a logical union. For example, the Chinese word for hotel comes from 旅 (travel) and 館 (a building) put together as 旅館. ...travel building, or "hotel."

Traditional vs. Simplified Chinese
In the 1950s, the Government of Mainland China created a simplified version of the written Chinese language. This is the new official version of the People's Republic of China. However, the traditional characters are still used in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Macau and in most Chinese communities abroad in the US and Canada. Singapore and Malaysia use a mixture of both.
Simplified Chinese is written as English is, from left to right. Traditional Chinese is written vertically, up and down (from right to left). Neither will pose any extra difficulty for you, after a few weeks of practice.
I would recommend learning the traditional characters first. This will make it easier for you to read both sets of characters later. If you become proficient in the traditional characters, you will be able to also read the simplified characters with some practice.
Most of the materials you will be able to access, such as Chinese movies and music, will be from Taiwan or Hong Kong. Therefore you will see the traditional characters more often in the US. You'll be able to get more practice materials in these characters.

Small Steps
Another tip, is to master a small portion of the language, but do it well. It is more helpful to fully understand 10% of the Chinese language with fluency, than to partly understand 30% of without proficiency. Spend up to 3 or 4 days on one word, if needed. Use it in dozens of sentences and learn to recognize it as soon as you see it. Learn simple words, like eggs, food and car, before uncommon words like aerobics and geology. I found a beginners book that was teaching tax lawyer and mathematics in chapter 7, and words like son and daughter in chapter 9. This is ridiculous; learn the basics first.

Chinese is visual.
Get used to seeing the characters as words. There is no spelling here, as mentioned earlier. It will come to you, over time. Eventually you will see the words and understand the sentences. Learn the radicals, which are just the smallest strokes that form the basis of all the words. Find good materials that suit your study habits. Short books with lots of exercises are best.

A recommended course is the Practical Chinese Reader series of four books from the Beijing Language
Institute Press. Also, Reading Chinese Newspapers is a good book for intermediate learners.
As for online resources, the Chinese Reading Practice is a recommended website for new students of the Chinese language.

Remember: 5 minutes a day, goes a long way toward learning any language.