Introduction

1. Introduction Chinese characters are one of the world’s oldest written languages that can be traced back to as early as 3,500 years ago when they were first used. The character is the basic unit of the Chinese language and each character constitutes a single syllable. In earlier times, since they were carved on tortoise shells and animal bones, it was called oracle bone script, and most of these characters were pictures called pictographs.

2. 日 Evolution of Chinese characters oracle bonebronze vessel seal styleclerical stylestandard form 月 oracle bone script (1765-1122B.C.), bronze vessel style (1122-249B.C.), seal style(221-206B.C.), clerical style(221B.C.-220A.D.), standard form (220A.D.-present)

3. Evolutionof Chinese characters oracle bone script (1765-1122B.C.), bronze vessel style (1122-249B.C.), seal style(221-206B.C.), clerical style(221B.C.-220A.D.), standard form (220A.D.-present). 日 月

4. Four major ways of forming Chinese characters – • Pictography originated from pictures; • e.g. 日(sun) 月(moon) 馬 马(horse) 目(eye) 木(tree) • Ideography or self-explanatory; Through the formation of the characters to express the meaning; e.g. 上(up) 中(center) 下(down) 安(peace) 刃(blade) • Compound ideography • combines two or more symbols to represent a new word; e.g. 休(rest) 囚 (prisoner) 看(look) 尖(sharp) • Phonetic compound • The combination of sound and meaning; • e.g. 爸(father) 媽妈(mother) 罵骂(scold) 忠(loyal)

5. Eight basic strokes Being familiar with the eight basic strokes will help reducethe chance of miswritten characters, while helping in getting started with writing new characters. • Horizontal line: • Vertical line: • Dot: • Left falling: • Right falling: • Rising stroke: • Turning stroke: • Hook: 一 二 三 十 六 八, 大 八, 大 我 五 小

6. Principles of writing Chinese characters • Left first, then right 女 她 • Top first, then bottom 三 三三 • Horizontal first, then vertical 一 十 • Left falling first, then right falling 八 八 • Outside first, then inside 同 同 • Complete inside, then close 回 回 • Middle first, then left wing, and then right wing 小 小小

7. 八 入 人 • 日 曰 • 未 末 • 才 寸 • 可 叮 • 土 士 • 大 丈 • 犬 太 • 刀 力 刁 • 王 壬 • 李 季 秀 • 名 各 • 兄 只 • 首 貝見

8. 月 • 日 • 明 • 生日 • 女生 • 姓 • 木 • 林 • 森 • 星星

9. 筆 劃 順 序 的 重 要 人、八、入 刀、刁 見、貝 土、士 申、甲 干、千 未、末 日、曰 千、于 古、右 兄、只 大、丈 七、匕 名、各 夭、天 午、牛 子、孓 失、先

10. Pinyin(Pronunciation) Pinyin is a Chinese word that means using the English alphabet to spell the sounds of Chinese characters. Character, the basic unit of Chinese written language, is mostly single syllable. Many of characters share the same pinyin but have different tones. In order to differentiate meanings, Chinese relies on tones. For example, 買 măi means to buy, 賣 mài means to sell, and 花 huā means flower, 畫 huà means painting. Let’s use these four characters to make up some phrases: Măihuāmàihuāmàihuàmăihuà (buy flowers) (sell flowers) (buy paintings) (sell paintings) Different tones completely changed the meaning of the whole word. Therefore, the accuracy of the tone is extremely important.

11. Most pinyin syllables consist of three parts: an initial (beginning sound) and a final (ending sound) and a tone. ( In English, there are over 8,000 syllables, while in Chinese, there are only about 400 basic syllables. ) Initials: There are 21 initials— b, p, m, f, d, t, n, l, g, k, h, j, q, x, z, c, s, r, zh, ch, sh Finals: There are 35 finals— i, u, ü, a, o, e, ie, ai, ei, ao, ou, an, en, ang, eng, ong, ia, iao, iou, ian, in, iang, ing, iong, ua, uo, uai,uei, uan, uen, uang, ueng, üe, üan, ün Tones: There are 5 tones— Tone marks For example 1sttone mā 2nd tone má 3rd tone mă 4th tone mà short sound (no tone marks) ma

12. Characters and pinyin in Youtube • Chinese characters • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VhOCX5WLpw&feature=related • Chinese pinyin in 6 minutes • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9Ayvjy-Dgs • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4y44tldTy0&feature=related • Vows and • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6jX4oZrlwo