Chinese Characters - Learn and Remember 2,178 Characters and Their Meanings

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Chinese Characters: Learn & Remember 2,178 Characters and Their Meanings is a book compiled and written by Dr. Alan Hoenig with the goal of teaching the 2,178 most common Chinese characters. He states in the Preface that the book was inspired by James W. Heisig and Michael Rowley works dealing with Japanese kanji. In it, you will find the same concepts of breaking down the characters into smaller parts (called components), ordering them based on the components that are presented and using them as building blocks, and using stories as a mnemonic device to remember them all. There are also some of Hoenig's own ideas about what else should be included in a book with the goal of teaching Chinese characters.

What's the difference?

It's not unusual to want to compare this book to the ones Heisig & Richardson have written about basically the same thing. So, here's a list of things that Hoenig's book do that Heisig & Richardson's don't:

  • It covers 2,178 characters (RTH/RSH now covers 3,000+ in two volumes);
  • It gives stories for every character;
  • It tends to use the most common meaning, not necessarily the most visual or the root meaning which Heisig prefers;
  • When necessary, the author gives multiple meanings for a character (not just as a primitive like Heisig does but as the main keyword);
  • The pronunciation for the character is given in the same frame where the character is presented;
  • Next to the character, there is a small diagram that shows where each component is being used;
  • It indicates if a character is a bound form (that is, if the character never stands for itself).

Negative points:

  • It doesn't give any form of stroke order indication, only the number of strokes;
  • There are many duplicated definitions for components, which can cause some confusion; for example: 哥 (elder brother), 兄 (elder brother*), 昆 (elder brother**) | 给 (give), 予 (give*), 与 (give**) | 彗 (broom), 帚 (broom*) | 里 (inside), 内 (inside*) and so on;
  • It's available only in English, while Heisig's books are available also in Spanish and German;
  • It covers only simplified characters (a negative point for those interested in the traditional set.)

Links

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