Mandarin Chinese Characters Made Easy: An Easy Step-by-Step Approach to Learn Chinese Characters (HSK Level 1)

Like the title states, this book is an easy step-by-step approach to learn Chinese Characters. From the history of the characters to the explanation of the strokes, stroke order and rules to the detailed pictures with each step numbered and illustrated for each stroke, this book captivates you and motivates you to learn to draw the characters. I actually found it fun from the very beginning. Each section has exercise sets which further instill and test your knowledge. Another plus is that each exercise set has a listening practice section where you listen to the accompanying audio files and circle what you heard. This augments and reinforces what you have learned. If you want to learn Chinese Characters, this is a great book to start with.

There's a lot of space to practice the characters, and I like that there are related words listed so that I can put the character in context. It helps the words stick in my brain better.

I absolutely love this book. It is very well rounded. There are many different types of learning exercises including some with pictures as well. It is a nice change from the dull and forboding look that most learning books have. Just flipping through it made me immediately want to jump in. I liked it so much that i bought the Japanese and Korean versions as well for my kids.

Lingo Mastery continues its mission – to make Chinese more accessible to a wider population. In the Introductory Note the goal is stated well: ‘Chinese characters are logograms developed for the writing of the Chinese language. First used in the late 2nd millennium BC, Chinese characters are the oldest continuously used writing system in the world. By number of users, it is the most widely accepted writing system in the world. Some characters are inspirations simply drawn from the surrounding natures: the sun, the moon, the rivers and the mountains, etc. They are usually stylized pictures of objects presented in horizontal, vertical, or curved lines. Other characters, which are composed of more than one part, tell stories about how Chinese ancestors look at the world and their philosophy on life. The use of brush and ink started the long history of Chinese character calligraphy writing… ‘With that degree of sensitivity, this excellent book provides one of the finest in depth studies of the history of Chinese character writing. In addition to the excellent style of the written format of this workbook (and it is indeed a WORK book in that the student is directly involved in the process of learning), the authors provide access to an audio file to download, allowing active interaction that greatly enhances the speed of learning Chinese characters.The technique is solid and the lessons well taught. This is a very fine active teaching (and learning!) experience Workbook to learn Chinese the practical and accessible way. Very strongly recommended. Grady Harp, April 22

I especially liked the tiny bit of history included about the origins of the script. The exercises are built to help you understand better. I think it's an excellent introduction to writing Hanzi.Of course you'll need more paper to practice if you want your characters to ever look elegant, but the amount of squares included to teach you the strokes is just right!I have found all their products are imbued with an obvious love of the languae, an intelligent, easy to understand approach, and a sense of fun.Excellent.

I think it is wonderful to learn new characters everyday in a fun new way! This illustrated text helps you do just that. Take it with you wherever you go and remember to see unique patterns that bring these characters to life in a new way! Enjoy!

I am a big fan of systematic and simplified learning—no extra fluff to confuse a beginning learner, straight to what I need to know. I appreciated this book for all of that!

This makes learning Mandarin very easy! The instruction is very clear and helps clarify what could otherwise be a very difficult language to learn. I highly recommend it!

I really appreciate this book. It even gives you the history of the evolution of the characters, from simple pictographs to characters.It's organised in small topics. There are a lot of exercises, in particular to practise writing the characters. The exercises enable you to write a full sentence in stages.The book also has one index from English to Chinese and another one for the Pinyin.All the audio files are online and you are given the link in the book.All the exercises have their answers at the end of the book.Overall a good acquisition.

This is a very good book for learning basic level Chinese characters, and quite a few two character words. As another reviewer has said, it does not help much with Chinese grammar & sentence building, but that was not the aim of the book in the first case so should not detract. There is plenty of space to practice writing the characters which are introduced in a logical order. I would have given 5 stars, but my copy has a strange printing error: the headings of the exercise sets have been replaced by gobbledegook (e.g. the second line of the heading for Exercise set 2 reads '<]; 0 '; = ]9 (phi)' before switching back into readable Chinese. The headings for the answer section are also of this form. I'm sure they will fix this in later editions.

This is a wonderful book to start learning Chinese, it has a a lot of information and easy to follow steps when writing the characters. I would definitely recommend this book

Lingo Mastery has made a name for itself by offering intelligent, well-thought out learning systems for different languages, and I have used a few of their Mandarin Chinese products.Their latest book is sure to become one of their most popular as well, because Mandarin Chinese Characters Made Easy: An Easy Step-by-Step Approach to Learn Chinese Characters (HSK Level 1) has 14 audio exercise sets (one for each workbook module) to help with your pronunciation , and plenty of space to work on your characters in the book itself.Starting the user off with numbers, simple everyday words, and common phrases, this workbook reinforces the lessons with their audio files with clear pronunciations by speakers whose first language is also Mandarin.Excellent for beginners, and a good re-introduction for anyone who once studied Mandarin but stopped because they felt it was too difficult. This series from Lingo Mastery will give you confidence, and install the desire to want to keep learning as well!Last point worth mentioning - this book is very affordable, compared to other offerings in the Mandarin language marketplace, so cost should not be a deterrent to this purchase!

Overall an amazing book I would definitely buy again. Just one downside, get something to teach proper grammar as well, this will not.This book is amazing to show how to write proper characters and what they mean. Although I've gotten half way through the book, and while it has review sessions (which are a great help), they will ask you to write sentences with the words you just learned without showing proper grammar beforehand.The book does have a answer key at the back that shows if you got it right but this doesn't really help me form more sentences than the ones it has spelled out.