Taming the Chinese Words Monster: Conjuring Up a Solid Chinese Vocabulary Through 22 Magical Rules (Full Color Edition)

It has been suggested that Chinese, Arabic, Japanese, and Korean are the most difficult languages to learn in this world. In Times magazine (2006, 6th Issue) , an essay about learning Mandarin Chinese alleged that for English-speaking students, it would take about 800 learning-hours to reach an intermediate level in French or Spanish, while it would take 2,200 hours to do so in Chinese.If you want to be a proficient speaker of Mandarin Chinese, one of the first things you need to do is to grasp at least 3,000 basic words. A small number of these basic words appear as single characters. For example, each of the following characters is a basic word:人 (rén, human; people) 家 (ji, home) 世 (shì, century; history) 道 (dào, way; sense) At the same time, a huge number of basic words are built by combining the independent characters based on a set of 22 rules. These rules are very easy to understand and apply, and once you know them you can easily identify thousands of basic words without any painful rote memorization! That will save you hundreds of hours in learning Mandarin Chinese.Let's have a try here: Can you guess how many words can be generated by combining the above four characters? Eleven!1. 人 (rén, human; people) + 家 (ji, home) = 人家 (rén ji, residents; me; someone) 2. 人 (rén, human; people) + 世 (shì, world) = 人世 (rén shì, the world) 3. 人 (rén, human; people) + 道 (dào, sense; way) = 人道 (rén dào, humanity) 4. 家 (ji, home) + 人 (rén, human; people) = 家人 (ji rén, family member) 5. 家 (ji, home) + 世 (shì, history) = 家世 (ji shì, family background) 6. 家 (ji, home) + 道 (dào, sense; way) = 家道 (ji dào, family statuses) 7. 世 (shì, world) + 人 (rén, human; people) = 世人 (shì ordinary people) 8. 世 (shì, history) + 家 (ji, home) = 世家 (shì ji, a family with famous reputation) 9. 世 (shì, world) + 道 (dào, sense; way) = 世道 (shì dào, social manners) 10. 道 (dào, Tao) + 人 (rén, human; people) = 道人 (dào rén, Taoist priest) 11. 道 (dào, Tao) + 家 (ji, family) = 道家 (dào ji, Taoist) Other highlights of this book include:(1) Easy and Fun for EveryoneThere are no abstruse grammar terms or obscure theories. You don't need to have any special background knowledge to follow the contents. This book is written in the style of everyday language, and you will find that going through it is like taking part in a fun discussion.(2) A New Path to Extend Your Knowledge and SkillsBased on a new and innovative language acquisition theory system, this book sets out the essential mechanisms, principles, and methods behind the Chinese vocabulary system. (3) Photos and ChartsYou will find many real-life photos showing how Chinese people use the tricks outlined in this book in everyday language, as well as charts to help you understand the information and skills presented.