Basic Written Chinese. Cornelius C. Kubler

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      The Tuttle Story: “Books to Span the East and West”

      Most people are surprised to learn that the world’s largest publisher of books on Asia had its beginnings in the tiny American state of Vermont. The company’s founder, Charles E. Tuttle, belonged to a New England family steeped in publishing. And his first love was naturally books—especially old and rare editions.

      Immediately after WW II, serving in Tokyo under General Douglas MacArthur, Tuttle was tasked with reviving the Japanese publishing industry, and founded the Charles E. Tuttle Publishing Company, which thrives today as one of the world’s leading independent publishers.

      Though a westerner, Charles was hugely instrumental in bringing knowledge of Japan and Asia to a world hungry for information about the East. By the time of his death in 1993, Tuttle had published over 6,000 books on Asian culture, history and art—a legacy honored by the Japanese emperor with the “Order of the Sacred Treasure,” the highest tribute Japan can bestow upon a non-Japanese.

      With a backlist of 1,500 titles, Tuttle Publishing is more active today than at any time in its past—inspired by Charles’ core mission to publish fine books to span the East and West and provide a greater understanding of each.

      Published by Tuttle Publishing, an imprint of Periplus Editions (HK) Ltd.

       www.tuttlepublishing.com

      Copyright © 2011 Cornelius C. Kubler All photos © Cornelius C. Kubler except for:

      Front cover/title page, top righthand image: © iStockphoto.com/Cecilia Lim. Pages 13 & 15: Library System of The Chinese University of Hong Kong.

      ISBN 978-0-8048-4016-3

       ISBN 978-1-4629-1646-7 (ebook)

       Interior design: Anne Bell Carter

      Assistance received from the following in the filming of conversations is gratefully acknowledged: Unit 2, Part 1: The Mandarin Training Center, National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei; Part 3: Shangrila Hotel, Beijing; Part 4: Hilton Hotel, Taipei. Unit 3, Part 4: Beijing West Railway Station, Beijing. Unit 4, Part 1: The Mandarin Training Center, National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei; Part 2: Jianquan Clinic, Taipei; Part 3: Swisshotel, Beijing. Unit 5, Part 3: Yuelong Restaurant, Beijing. Unit 7, Part 4: Fortune Garden Restaurant, North Adams, Massachusetts.

      All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior written permission from the publisher.

      Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data for this title is on record.

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      First edition

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      Printed in Hong Kong

      TUTTLE PUBLISHING^® is a registered trademark of Tuttle Publishing, a division of Periplus Editions (HK) Ltd.

      A Note to the Learner

      Welcome to this course in written Chinese!

      As a native English speaker, your working hard to learn Chinese is not enough; you have to work smart in order to learn this very different language efficiently. No matter why you’ve chosen to learn Chinese—for business, travel, cultural studies, or another goal—the Basic Chinese approach of two separate but integrated tracks in spoken and written Chinese will help you learn this language most efficiently and successfully.

      Basic Written Chinese is designed so it can be used in a class with an instructor or by independent learners working on their own.

       Basic Written Chinese systematically introduces 288 of the highest-frequency characters (in both their simplified and traditional forms) and over 700 common words written with them in context in sentences and a variety of reading passages, so as to help you master basic Chinese reading and writing.

       The structure of each new character is explained in detail to make the learning of characters easier, and “look-alike” characters are compared and contrasted.

       Many lessons include character differentiation drills and some lessons include realia such as name cards, street signs, or e-mail messages.

       Each lesson introduces 6 new characters and a number of words that are written using them. By dividing the learning into small tasks, you maintain a sense of accomplishment rather than getting bogged down.

       You’ll experience both printed and handwritten forms of characters, as well as several different printed fonts.

      Basic Written Chinese should be used in conjunction with the accompanying Basic Written Chinese Practice Essentials.

       Either before or at the same time that you study a lesson in Basic Written Chinese, you should study the same lesson in Basic Spoken Chinese and Basic Spoken Chinese Practice Essentials, so that you have access to all the relevant information and practice regarding Chinese pronunciation, grammar, and culture.

       The characters in each lesson are chosen, based on frequency of occurrence, from those used to write the Basic Conversation of the corresponding lesson in Basic Spoken Chinese. Thus, when you begin a new lesson of Basic Written Chinese, you already know the pronunciations, meanings and usages of the new characters and words, so you need only learn their written representations. This considerably lightens your learning load!

       Both simplified and traditional characters are taught in the same volume. This means students can learn either or both kinds of characters without having to purchase another book; and instructors have the flexibility to teach a combined class where some students read and write one type of characters and other students the other type.

       Includes an audio disc with with over 5 hours of