Learning how to read chinese FAST~

Does anyone know of a good way or a good place to learn how to read chinese fast and intensely?


Crazy as it seems, I know how to speak Cantonese quite well. Now its time to learn how to decipher those Chinese characters.


THankS!

Minimum of 4 years to read the front page of even a tabloid newspaper. Seven years to read legal contracts. (Two friends tried it at university and gave up after two years - they couldn't even read the kiddies menu in a restaurant. Children need less time as the brain retains a photo-memory function until puberty.)



For big bucks, spend the time training as a neuro-surgeon instead!

I am a native English speaker learning Mandarin and I'd say if you can't read any Chinese at all, with hard work, you're looking at 3-5 years, depending on what you want to read and how much time you put in per week.


You have an advantage in that you can already speak Cantonese, all you need to do is learn the characters that match the words you already know the meaning and usage of.


I have friends in a similar position as yourself, if you put in an hour a night I would say probably 2-3 years to be able to read the paper.


In terms of how many characters you need to learn, I can't agree with the figures given so far. My understanding is:

1,500 to read and write basic personal letters

3,500 to read simple news articles

5,000 to read almost any news article

8,000 - 10,000 = average native speaker level (of a person who has finished high school, but excl. literary and technical terms)


The above is what I've learned from my own Chinese teachers, the prefaces of my textbooks etc.

I'm in a similar position and would love to learn how to read Chinese.


But HOW and WHERE? Is a private tutor the best? Or using text books?

Of course there are various ways of learning Chinese. The YWCA and British Council offer beginner courses. Chinese University offers high quality intermediate courses (1-2 evenings a week, I think).


If you want to learn to read and write only, most of the above courses will not cater to that, so you may wish to either get a private tutor or teach yourself. On the other hand, being in a class is a great experience, if you're happy to go along with the group.


For private tutors, look on Wellcome noticeboards, the ads in HK magazine and I believe there's an ad on this website (see left hand column). Personally, I have a tutor from Timeswell New Mandarin. I've been using this company for 2 years and find their service very good. The tutors are all qualified teachers and I pay $260 per hour.


For cheaper private tuition, you could try to get yourself a university student or even a high school student. Then you could pay about $100 - 150 per hour.


With private tuition, beware of paying in advance for a lot of lessons. Many companies 'force' you to pay for 10 or even 20 lessons up front, and if you are not happy with the standard of tuition usually you can't get a refund.


In terms of books, Dymocks is now carrying 2 books called "500 characters for everyday use" (Volumes 1 & 2). These are great for people learning reading and writing only. Together they cover the 1000 characters you need to know, they teach stroke order and there is space for the student to copy the character repeatedly. The last time I looked the Dymocks in Prince's Building Central had this in stock.


As for whether to get a tutor or teach yourself, it depends on how motivated you are, what your budget is and whether you need any explanations / help. If you can't afford it, you could always do a language exchange with someone.

Thanks for the comments. Looks like "fast" will be done in a few years~


I've tried to look at books to learn. But raincatcher is right, cantonese is spoken! The mandarin and pin yin only works if I am learning Mandarin too! Hmmm, maybe its time to learn mandarin?