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justin9213
Apr 8, 2006, 09:15
How many characters do chinese contains and if I learn 10 a day when will I learn them all?

20/24hr,3/24hr,30/24hr?

nice gaijin
Apr 8, 2006, 13:05
the problem isn't learning the characters, it's retention. You've got to remember the characters after you learn them.

As for pace, 5-10 chracters a day is probably ideal for a beginner, but every day as you learn new characters you need to practice the ones you've already studied.

Glenn
Apr 8, 2006, 16:37
If you count all of the characters throughout history then about 70,000 or so. The government says that 3500 are what you need to be literate (Chinese version of the 常用漢字 -- chang2yong4 han4zi4), but according to my roommate, who estimates he knows about 5000 without counting variants (7000 or so if you do), that's a load of ****. He says he constantly comes across characters he doesn't know, and it seems that children's books are the worst offenders.

justin9213
Apr 9, 2006, 10:45
If you count all of the characters throughout history then about 70,000 or so.
is it even posible to learn them all?!


The government says that 3500 are what you need to be literate (Chinese version of the 常用漢字 -- chang2yong4 han4zi4),

They say 3500 is enough to read a news paper, but people say that is lies!




according to my roommate, who estimates he knows about 5000 without counting variants (7000 or so if you do), that's a load of ****. He says he constantly comes across characters he doesn't know, and it seems that children's books are the worst offenders.
You confused me...

bossel
Apr 9, 2006, 11:03
You confused me...
Why? It's pretty clear, actually. Even if you know 3500 character you won't come very far. You may be able to read some basic sentences, but in every other news article you will come across quite a number of unknown characters (which will take you ages to look up in a dictionary).

What's worse: there are numerous character combinations which you will only understand if you know these particular combinations, knowing the individual characters won't suffice.

justin9213
Apr 9, 2006, 13:03
there are numerous character combinations which you will only understand if you know these particular combinations, knowing the individual characters won't suffice.
OMG!!! how can I memorize ALL of the chinese(simpplified & simplified) + the combinations?
there are over 8000 chinese characters and must learn them ALL!
but how long do you think it will take?
In 2 day I`ve learn these characters:
你, 好, 美 ,是,小,中,我,

nice gaijin
Apr 9, 2006, 16:04
you only have one lifetime. the race is on!

justin9213
Apr 10, 2006, 00:55
It will take a life time to learn all 8,000 chinese characters?!
then every day I will do home work, and learn the characters the rest of the day.

bossel
Apr 10, 2006, 10:06
OMG!!! how can I memorize ALL of the chinese(simpplified & simplified) + the combinations?
You probably can't. But neither can most Chinese. It's simply because many symbols are used only rarely, a matter of memory. Just like Germans don't know all German words, Chinese don't know all Chinese characters (although there is a difference between words & characters, but it's a valid comparison, I think).


but how long do you think it will take?
Don't know, if you really need to know 8000. I wouldn't worry.
Lower your aims, don't think of what might be at the end (if there is one), but concentrate on what is now. IMO, it's enough to learn 200 characters in the 1st half year. Later on you can/will learn more per 1/2 year, as it will get easier.

demoore
Apr 20, 2006, 12:54
In the chinese dictionary (http://www.chinese-tools.com/tools/dictionary.html) there are about 6000 unique characters. That's far enough to read litterature, and far more than 95% of the chinese people know...

justin9213
May 27, 2006, 13:56
60,000 characters in all, it was concluded.

nice gaijin
May 27, 2006, 14:16
60,000 characters in all, it was concluded.
sorry, who concluded this?

justin9213
Jun 10, 2006, 13:08
I do not know

osias
Jun 10, 2006, 16:54
How many characters do chinese contains and if I learn 10 a day when will I learn them all?
20/24hr,3/24hr,30/24hr?
3500 is considered quite good for a foreigner studying Chinese.

Mike Cash
Jun 10, 2006, 19:47
3500 is considered quite good for a foreigner studying Chinese.

3500-7 = 3493

Glenn
Jun 11, 2006, 14:34
Wow, you won't believe the line of thinking that I went through before I realized what you were saying. The answer was so simple!

justin9213
Jun 16, 2006, 10:56
3500-7 = 3493

I do not understand.

Glenn
Jun 16, 2006, 13:43
You know 7, you need to know 3500, so you only have 3493 more to go.

japkorengchi
Jun 17, 2006, 17:31
Hi, as a native speaker of Chinese, I think a wordbank of 3500 is only necessary when you read Chinese Classical works.

In general, about 19xx will be very enough for daily usage and general academic researches.

Maybe 19xx characters will be considered too few for other peoples, but Chinese enables its users to form many phrases similar to the fashion of the German language. For example, 車(car) can be combined with 票(ticket)、� (box)、門(door)、長(leader) to form 車票(a ticket for a public transport)、車� (compartments)、車門(the door of a car)、車長(the captain/driver of a car), etc.

Just imagine the way the Germans coin numerous words by combination, you will then understand how many words are coined in a similar fashion in Chinese~~

i hope my opinion will be useful to you^^

Glenn
Jun 17, 2006, 17:35
We weren't talking about words.

JimmySeal
Jun 17, 2006, 17:47
According to Wikipedia,

In China, literacy for the working citizen is defined as knowledge of 2000 characters.
Personally, I find that surprising and would think the number would be more but maybe they have low expectations for "working citizens." After all, the average Japanese person needs to be able to read quite a bit more than 2000, and Chinese doesn't typically use a phonetic system to spell out words with tricky hanzi.