One of the most common questions asked by beginning learners of Chinese is that of how many characters should the learner know in order to gain some sort of basic understanding and conversational ability of Chinese. As the language contains over 50,000 characters, it’s understandable that this is often a worry that beginner learners express, and a reason why many find the idea of learning the language to be a difficult task that prevents them from starting with the learning process. There is no easy answer to this question overall, and it depends on what your aim is. If we were to exclude some specific letters commonly found in store signs, street names, restaurant menus and the like, the adequate number that is often considered appropriate for beginning level Chinese language learners usually ranges from 250 to 500. The lower number on this range is used for the learner to be able to construct simple sentences while the higher number is used if one wants to convey meaning and express themselves in regards to everyday things.
The first volume of this lesson will show you the basic skills associated with writing Chinese characters. Each unit that is presented in this lesson will introduce you to to 10 new characters that are presented in a simplified style, also known as jiantizi, alongside Pinyin Romanization as well as their translation in English. A third of the characters presented contain traditional styles, also known as fantizi, that are listed side by side after their respective simplified counterparts. There will be notes that attempt to explain the origin of a character, in addition to how the simplified form is constructed, as well as a guide to pronunciation that will break down each character and make the task of learning them less difficult and tiring.
While we will also give you the definition of each character, we will provide you with combinations of other characters to create compounds, and context is given to convey the meaning of these compounds by using them in sentences. These example sentences will also be put next to Pinyin Romanization that will provide you with the ability to identify which words are being used and to pronounce them as an aide. Keep in mind that the English translation is given as a clue to the meaning of the words only.