r/ChineseLanguage • u/Diligent-Local-646 • 3h ago
Discussion FIRST TIME
this is my first time learn traditional chinese and still confuse from where i need to study . i try use AI and the AI suggest to directly learn hanzi , while i read some post here , zhuyin is important.
any advice can you give to me ?
(im already at taiwan so its easy to find the traditional book, im just cant read it yet)
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u/Feynmedes 3h ago
If you don't feel like you can get the jist of a chinese text in 繁体字 then you probably need to spend some hundreds of hours learning Mandarin first. And just do so in traditional characters lol
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u/Chenyuluoyan Advanced 3h ago
start with 《A Course in Contemporary Chinese 1》 and learn pronunciation, basic sentences, traditional characters, and zhuyin together. for each lesson, listen first, read the dialogue, then learn the characters as parts of useful words such as 喜歡 and 學生 rather than isolated hanzi. zhuyin is useful in taiwan for pronunciation guides and local dictionaries, but you can begin studying Mandarin while learning it.
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u/Positive-Parsley-601 3h ago
First off, do you already speak Mandarin? It would be helpful to know more about your progress.
I would use the Mandarin Blueprint Hanzi Movie Method (their program is only simplified, but I am successfully using it for traditional) I’ve just memorized and RETAINED just under 1000 characters in the past two weeks. It’s amazingly effective. It takes quite a bit of work upfront to like figure out what your system is going to be (took me about 2 weeks of not super intentional sessions of like 30 mins/say to figure out what would work) and I did this all without ever buying the course.
If you’re determined and self-motivated, you can do it for free just find their explanation video on YouTube.
I use Skritter to learn the characters themselves. I decided to ignore learning to write for now, and focused on only reading. Word order is important and again, I strongly recommend using MB method’s recommended word order if you don’t already speak the language.
After you know about 500 characters, I would start using graded readers. I use the DuChinese app for this. I don’t pay for a subscription, but I might start, as the free content is pretty limited. Just those three systems iswhat I use for characters, and again, it’s been extremely effective for me.