Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Although this book seems to please many reviewers, I think that it is too limited to be of great help to other serious learners. To begin with, the definitions are too limited and not really very accurate. To take two examples, their character 137 is xian1 which is defined as "ahead," but the central meanings are surely "first," "previous," and "before." "Ahead" is one of the meanings, but to single it out and present it all by itself is very misleading. Character 145 is dao4, which is defined as "way," and the little mnemonic story suggests that it is to be taken in the sense of "which way should you walk?" Again, the central meanings are surely "road" and "path." A second fault is the method itself. People may be able to learn characters fairly rapidly this way, and that might help them on exams, but they may also find that they have to go through the whole song and dance each time they want to bring a character to mind. I once taught myself Morse code using short sentences, as in "Sam Said So" to remember that "S" (...) is three short sounds (one-syllable words in the mnemonic). It was very hard to build up any speed because I had to bring the mnemonic to mind in order to access the code. I'm afraid that this would work in much the same way. Brute force has something to recommend it, and that something is an immediate connection. Moreover, to put this method to use, one must spend a lot of time reading and learning little mnemonic stories (and ridiculous ones at that) that have no real relevance to Chinese. I should also say that the "equations" they use to explain "composite" characters completely falsify the nature of the characters themselves. For example, the equation for li4 "stand" (which is their number 177) goes like this "lid + feet = stand." "Lid" is the colloquial name for radical 8; "feet" is their own invention; and "stand" is the colloquial name for radical 117, which is actually a pictograph of a standing man and needs no further clarification. (I have been referring to the traditional radical numbers here. In Chapter 24 they mention that they are using the system of 189 radicals--presumably the Xinhua system--and both "lid" and "stand" are a part of that system too. "Feet" is nowhere to be found.) To give just one more example, they say that number 195 xin1 (which they define as "spicy") "also means 'bitter' or 'acrid' and hence also "hardship." In fact, the character is a pictograph of an instrument used to mark the faces of prisoners and slaves, and the meaning "hardhsip" is basic. "Hot" (not really "spicy") is an extended meaning--not the reverse. Many of their explanations falsify the known etymology, which is very often more useful than their mnemonic stories. One more point. No book that teaches someone to write the characters should present them in a Song typeface or other face with serifs and ornamental distortions. A Kai face that resembles Chinese writing should be used. This is more than a mere quibble.