![]() It would never be a panaceum for Chinese learners. It’s good, also, that the book plays to its strengths. You want to interrupt everyone around you just to tell them “look at the symbol for sheep, just look at it, it looks like a bloody sheep!” – you want to come back to the book to browse again, and to learn more – and the creative strain within you wants to recreate the symbols as best it can. I’m happy to say that 9 times out of 10, this has been achieved. If the design worked, it would make users want more – it would help them remember better – and recognize the symbols / phrases in real life. The illustrations for the basic characters – called “building blocks” in Chineasy philosophy – would always be the mainstay of the entire concept. The team seems to have realized that it’s the little things that make a language palatable or somehow unbearable – and everything seems to be obsessively planned to achieve a nice effect. The book is just about the prettiest language learning publication I’ve come in contact with – and if you know me, you know that means an awful lot! Everything about it – the cover, the font, the layout – denotes good and meticulous work on the little details that matter. If it was Chineasy‘s only merit, this alone would make the book worth buying.įortunately, there’s more. Shaolan Hsueh resists this narrative with a story of her own – a perfectly and beautifully crafted narrative in which learning Chinese is placed within a well-designed, friendly and attractive context. And in the long run, this stereotypical image becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy: you’re not learning Chinese because it’s hard, and when it shows up in your life, it’s hard because you haven’t learned it. The myth of Chinese language is nearly always the same: the learning process is arduous, the speech itself – shrouded in mystery and unforgiving for beginners. There are very few beautiful language learning tools out there. Each begins with an overview of key characters before a presentation of the subject using those characters as a basis, providing insight into how Chinese thinking has shaped its language and civilization in a way that anyone can understand and appreciate.Īs children are increasingly taking up Mandarin, and as business exchange with China develops, this is a single-volume encyclopedia on China that will stimulate young minds, enchant the culturally minded and inspire everyone who seeks new experiences and a wider understanding of the world we live in.Chineasy: The New Way to Read Chinese by Shaolan Hsueh ![]() This follow-up volume, which requires no experience of the first, expands the scope to include all facets of Chinese life and culture in twelve central sections. The first volume of Chineasy introduced the method and visual language. ![]() But it marks only the beginning of a larger ambition to educate the world about the richness and character of China's people, its customs and its heritage. Its special building-block learning method brought to life by highly recognizable and appealing graphic illustrations has attracted a substantial online following and has been published in fifteen languages. Chineasy, the brainchild of entrepreneur ShaoLan Hsueh, has been a publishing phenomenon.
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