Beginning with the first empty box after the end of the stroke-by-stroke build-up, you should write the entire character in each empty box until all the boxes for that character have been filled. Write slowly and carefully, referring back often to the stroke direction and stroke order of the models. We recommend that you use either number 2 pencil or black or blue pen. As you write each character, say its pronunciation out loud and think of the meaning. You’ll probably want to have your textbook open for reference. Many learners find it helpful to write the Pinyin and basic English meaning of each character to the left of the large character on the practice sheets.
Even though there is an agreed upon stroke order for the majority of characters, there exists a small number of characters that have common alternate stroke orders, e.g., 方. For the sake of consistency, in the case of simplified characters we follow the stroke order promulgated by the Working Committee on National Language and Script and published in Beijing by Yuwen Chubanshe as 现代汉语通用字笔顺规范 (5th printing 1999). In the case of traditional characters, we follow the stroke order promulgated by the Committee on the Promotion of Mandarin and published in Taipei by the Ministry of Education as 常用國字標準字筆順手冊 (3rd revised printing 2008).
Reading and Writing Exercises
This book includes two pages of reading and writing exercises for each of the four parts of every unit of Basic Written Chinese. The first section of the reading and writing exercises consists of three phrases or sentences for dictation.* You should listen to the corresponding section of the included disc and transcribe what you hear into Chinese characters. Since this is for practice and not a test, you’re encouraged to listen as many times as you wish and, when needed, to consult your textbook or its glossaries.
Beginning with Unit 1, the second section of the reading and writing exercises includes four questions that you should answer in Chinese characters. The first two questions are always based on portions of the corresponding lesson in Basic Written Chinese, to which you should refer as you answer the questions, while the last two questions are addressed to you, the learner, and may be answered any way you wish.
The last section of the reading and writing exercises includes a wide variety of exercises involving scrambled sentences, dialog completion, fill-in-the blank, answering questions, word study, map reading, converting written style to spoken style, distinguishing different usages of characters, punctuating sentences, stroke order, radicals, and phonetics, as well as a number of exercises based on printed realia from mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong.
Translation Exercises
Ten phrases or sentences for translation from English to Chinese have been included for each unit of Basic Written Chinese. The purpose of the translation exercises is to provide you with additional practice in writing the characters, using the grammar patterns, and practicing the important vocabulary of the unit, and to serve as a check of mastery over the material. Completing the translation exercises will be helpful to you in reviewing for the unit tests.
The sentences should be translated into Chinese characters with correct punctuation in the blank space that has been left under each sentence. The English in the translation exercises is in some places purposely somewhat stilted, to guide you toward the correct Chinese translation. In certain cases, additional instructions have been added in parentheses within or after the English sentence, for example, to be polite or to use or not use certain words. If you’ve forgotten the Chinese equivalent for an English word or grammar pattern, you can consult the various glossaries and indices in the back of Basic Written Chinese and Basic Spoken Chinese.
It’s recommended that the instructor correct and return the translation exercises to students before the test on the corresponding unit, so that any remaining problems can be identified and addressed in a timely manner. Students should carefully study the instructor’s corrections, making sure they understand the reason for any errors, and then file the corrected exercises for later reference.
Flash Cards
Flash cards are an excellent aid in memorization. They work based on the principle of spaced repetition, that is, gradually increasing the interval between each time that you recall information correctly. We recommend that you take along a couple of dozen flash cards from Basic Written Chinese Practice Essentials wherever you go. Use “empty” time you spend waiting in line, on a bus, or before classes begin to study the flash cards. You can look at the character side and test yourself on the pronunciation and meaning of the characters, or you can look at the English side and try to reconstruct from that the correct pronunciation and characters. Your goal should be to identify those characters and words you still have problems with and remove them from the larger set for special study.
Two types of flash cards are available for Basic Written Chinese. The first type consists of traditional paper flash cards, one card for each of the 288 new characters. The paper flash cards have been designed with Chinese characters (simplified and traditional) on one side, and Pinyin and English on the other side. Both the new characters of each lesson and the individual words written with those characters are included on the flash cards. In the lower left-hand corner on both sides of every card are given the unit and part number, while in the lower right-hand corner is given the number of the character in this course. Due to page limitations and in an effort to control costs, the paper flash cards have been included on the enclosed disc for users to print out themselves as needed. The flash cards should be carefully printed—first all the pages with Chinese characters, then, on the other side, the pages with Pinyin and English, after which each page of eight flash cards can be cut apart with a paper cutter or scissors.
In addition to the paper flash cards, you also have access to a digital flash card program written specially for Basic Written Chinese. That program, developed by one of the author’s former students, Daniel Nelson, is called “My3x5” and provides “intelligent” flash cards for efficient study of all the characters and words introduced in Basic Written Chinese. The special features of the “My3x5” program include choice of simplified or traditional characters; presentation of characters in multiple fonts; keyboard entry of Pinyin; card-by-card scoring system that encourages success without discouraging errors; and flexibility to select for study different subsets of the material in Basic Written Chinese, for example, a specific part of a unit, the whole unit, or several units together. To access the “My3x5” electronic flash cards for Basic Written Chinese, visit http://my3x5.com/signup
Footnote
* Scripts for the dictation exercises are included in the Instructor’s Guide for Basic Chinese.
Unit A, Part 1: Character Practice Sheet (Simplified Characters)
Unit A, Part 1: Character Practice Sheet (Traditional Characters)
Unit A, Part 2: Character Practice Sheet (Simplified Characters)
Unit A, Part 2: Character Practice Sheet (Traditional Characters)
Unit A, Part 3: Character Practice Sheet (Simplified Characters)