Dictionaries I've used in learning Chinese

Start with small dictionaries, learn all the words, then get bigger ones!
I could speak, read & write Chinese in 14 months having learned 5000 characters. How? Systematic progress every day. Every day I added 20 new characters to learn + reviewed 200 more, with a big review of everything every Sunday. At the same time I read as much as I could and wrote down anything I couldn't understand to look up later. I asked people to write down what they said if I didn't understand it.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• how to learn Chinese

[4545454545asp]

Do you, or anyone else watching this video, feel that the book version of zhongwen.com is somewhat definitive? I'm often confused by the way that site differs from other etymology sites, as well as from a Taiwanese book I have. Perhaps there's no definitive interpretation?

Thanks

[Glossika]

@4545454545asp That dictionary is based on how the characters were created by rhyme, the 諧聲字, rather than by reason (radical). It's a thousands-of-year-old method, but also very useful if you want to remember characters for their sounds rather than their meanings. I find the method more effective because I always train to speak a language (sound+meaning) before tackling script (sound+writing, but meaning+writing in the case of Chinese).

[Babybluebird1]

great work, admire you!

[Jate0000]

I would really like you to make a video with resources for beginners. Thanks

[StevenArbuthnot]

Hi, Mike

I have recently just started to learn Mandarin Chinese, so I am not to familiar with what books are good for Chinese. I am curious, What books would you recommend to buy that are available on the internet; as in Dictionaries, writing guides, grammar books etc.

I noticed some "langenscheidt" dictionaries in the background of your video, would you recommend those?

Thank you for your help.

Steven