Top 140 Chinese Characters Make Up 50% of Chinese Today

[@songtraveler]

What you say is true, but there is much more to reading Chinese than just learning the characters. I have learned close to 3,000 characters, and when reading, I can recognize almost all the characters in any given text. Even so, I am frequently baffled by the meaning. When I was beginning Chinese I (like most beginners) assumed that if I learned enough characters I would be able to read Chinese. What I didn't realize was that the characters are the building blocks of words, and I now had to develop a large working vocabulary using the characters I had learned. Add to that the fact that many, many characters have multiple meanings and pronunciations, the frequent use of classical Chinese (in more literary texts), the common use of traditional four character expressions, historical, geographical and cultural references, and transliterations of foreign names, and reading becomes a much broader and richer learning experience. Daunting? Yes. But I still find learning Chinese and Chinese culture a pure joy.

[@phen-themoogle7651]

It's the same for Japanese in that even though I can read 2000 characters I had to build a vocab of 10,000+ words before I could read easy level novels/books more comfortably in the language and I still only know 95%+ and probably need 30,000+ words to get through everything without second guessing myself. I'm barely literate. Reading and understanding fluently feel totally different at first, it takes a while to figure out wth is going on when it's unfamiliar subject matter especially lol

[@avelyn2740]

I noticed most of my Mandarin speaking friends to be very well versed with 名句精华, I speak Mandarin but my brain got messed up when we started 名句精华 most probably because I liked English more than Mandarin at that time. Maybe you can check that out?

[@avelyn2740]

I noticed most of my Mandarin speaking friends to be very well versed with 名句精华, I speak Mandarin but my brain got messed up when we started 名句精华 most probably because I liked English more than Mandarin at that time. Maybe you can check that out?

[@franklee663]

@@avelyn2740 The fact that China has 5000 years of history, if you really want to learn deep into Chinese, you have to learn a lot of history. Every four word idiom brings a lot of history and profound knowledge. That's why it is never easy to english subtitle a Chinese movie. But the good thing is that every thing is online right now, just have to google it.

[@synthstatic9889]

Yeah, there's no way you'd ever be able to guess that small + heart = careful. This is why claims like "if you know 3000 characters, you'll understand 99% of what you read are misleading". That said, learn your characters.

[@emilytran3918]

When only 26 characters make up 100% of English today, and I still struggle

[@foxkit69]

Your surname hints Vietnamese, whose spelling (at least in my experience), is pretty phonetic to the pronunciation rules of the language. English has countless exceptions to the EXCEPTIONS that make learning how to naturally pronounce English extremely difficult, so it's not your fault. x3 Plus, most languages don't borrow as many foreign loanwords as English seems to. We use words in everyday "English" conversation that are literally Arabic, Spanish, German, Japanese, Italian, Dutch words. And that's not even all!

[@AJLIM-q9c]

U just learn radical 36, u also know all

[@கோபிசுதாகர்]

I think it was a joke lol​@@foxkit69

[@pinkalienqueen6926]

@@foxkit6930% of English loanwords are from French!

[@k.c1126]

Every time I watch this again I realize how much I am gaining from the subtitles on Chinese TV/ web dramas. It's not like I'm constantly learning new words. It's the constant repetition of these high frequency characters that's building my familiarity with their use in relatively natural contexts.

[@MoraAdventist]

What show are watching??

[@k.c1126]

@@MoraAdventist Sorry for the late reply ... I'm currently watching "In Blossom", which is airing on Youku. You can watch on KZbin or at their site. However, it's the little microdramas that have been best for the repetition, since I can often see 3-5 different versions of the same play uploaded by different channels. The dialogue is basically the same in each version, so I get to hear / see the same words by different speakers. I also watched a video today that suggested turning off or ignoring the Eng subs to increase the immersive experience. I tried it for about 5 minutes with one of those microdramas and I was shocked at how much I understood without them. And I've seen / heard almost every one of Shuo's 140 characters used in the various dramas I watch.

[@ivanaranitovic9834]

@@k.c1126 Thanks for recommending, if you have some more that you think are good for learning Chinese, please share with us, wish you the best.

[@transmathematica]

One very good reason to learn Chinese characters is that there are an awful lot of Chinese words that sound exactly the same but have different characters. Knowing the characters helps keep the words separate in our minds. Native speakers can get by without this help, but we second language learners cannot. We would die of old age, long before our ears sorted out what is obvious to our eyes!

[@KoflerDavid]

I wonder what the experience would be with Vietnamese, but when I tried to learn Thai I immediately missed the characters to help the meanings of similar-sounding words and homophones apart!

[@HHH-nv9xb]

But they are continuously simplifying it. So it changes.

[@bodycoach2]

Practicing reading everyday (Mandarin Companion and DuChinese) has made a HUGE difference in helping me understand chinese sentence structure.

[@CultureNuggets]

Thanks for these resources

[@pinkitydinkity6550]

Is DuChinese premium worth buying ¿ I’ve been thinking for a little

[@questionsyoudidntask1383]

@@pinkitydinkity6550I bought it and I don’t regret it, but i recommend buying the 1 month (15 dollar one) see how u like it and read a ton during that time period and make ur decision from there

[@AMAR-lq2dg]

Thank you for NOT pronouncing the English meaning. this way I can just focus on imitating the sound with character. Excellent video and thanks for PDF.

[@israrguldurrani]

Presentation was excellent, voice was audible. Display was very clear. The characters were printed in large size; I did not have to use glasses. Simple and easy sentences were used. The slide time was proper. Background was simple. Good Work. Thank You.

[@unicyclechinese3125]

Good video! I've been studying Chinese for 4+ years and I can honestly say that learning the characters didn't scare me, even though I knew it was going to be a lot of work. I actually like Chinese better than a Roman alphabet-based language because the characters are actually a form of artwork. I write in a journal every day in 汉子, and I have filled up almost 3 books by now. Reading and writing are the easiest parts of learning Chinese for me, while listening comprehension is the most challenging. 加油！

[@aguaf]

汉字 vs 汉子 - "Chinese character" vs "man"

[@unicyclechinese3125]

@@aguaf 哇！ 我打错了！

[@nicoleraheem1195]

I agree. I've been learning for 2-3 years and reading and writing is the easiest for me.

[@David_Liu93]

Hmm, people are definitely different. I know lots of words when I hear them, but if you show me the 汉字 I would probably not recognize them.. 😭😅

[@Chillpillspill]

I agree it's visually more artistic. But don't you think it is less practical? With fewer than 30 symbols in the Roman alphabet one can create any word...far less to memorize allows for a larger vocabulary....?

[@cmnt-fi3bh]

I think that you should make more videos explaining different characters, their origins, what words they're used in, what their traditional versions are etc.!

[@JustJulia-qt9nh]

Oh wow! I didn’t realize how much more native and natural Shuo Shuo’s English sounds now! I’ve been following her for so long so I didn’t notice her gradual progress.

[@earnestlanguage4242]

this is soooo helpful as a review. I really appreciate that these are high-use characters that you see ALL THE TIME in sentences. i have always been frustrated that characters are often taught in an order that doesn't reflect their use frequency.

[@matthewheald8964]

It felt so good seeing how many of these I already knew, plus the PDF helps a lot. 谢谢你说老师！

[@dyong888]

Thank you for this video. I'm exactly the person this video is meant for. I can speak pretty well and people don't believe I can't read Mandarin. I will learn your 140 characters. One day when China opens up I will go there to study HSK.

[@justinseagull3279]

Surprisingly for me it's not the characters that are hard it's getting the tones right

[@foxkit69]

If you're still a beginner, try nodding your head in the shape of the tone marks. Moving my head kind of forced me to partially emulate the correct tones, then after that, you just have to exaggerate the tone a bit, then you'll sound pretty close to her perfect pronunciations. For example, this tone [má], if you tilt your head up while you're saying it, you'll almost instinctually make your pitch rise. For [mǎ], drop your head down from a relatively low position and then pull it back up like with the first tone. For [mà], just drop your head down from a normal position. The "gist" of the tone will come out, and the more you practice it and get used to it, the more you can do it naturally without relying on tactics like that. But this is just something I discovered on my own, I never heard anyone else recommend following the shape of the tone marks with your head. I'd also like to point out, this is just a tool, it isn't something you should depend on indefinitely. Even I don't move my head anymore. I only did it for a few days before I got the hang of it. Don't bobble head at native speakers lol x3

[@missaisohee]

i first learned Chinese by copy-pasting Chinese text into machine translators like google-translate. More often than not i can recognise characters and know their meanings even though i have no idea how to read them. And yes the 140 characters you mentioned in this video are ones that i see so very often. Love your lesson, as always. Thank you.

[@dulmaria.d]

That's how I started to learn English, but can't understand google translator when it come to chinese I fear the translation is not accurate.

[@alantan9863]

Google translate is faster than dictionary.

[@k.c1126]

Reviewing this video has made me realize how much my Chinese has improved since I first saw it 6+ months ago. Then I recognized only half a dozen words orally and only a fewer numbers plus bu. Today I could match sounds and meanings to at least 50, and I recognized all but a handful. Videos like this that encourage us to associate the symbol with the sound and meaning are powerful tools...

[@AquaJV]

Why do people say “half a dozen” instead of just “six”?

[@k.c1126]

​@@AquaJVIt's what is known as an idiom... Half a dozen literally means 6, but using it suggests that the emphasis is not on precision... It's more of a 'fuzzy' number... Like between 5 and 7 instead of exactly 6....

[@AquaJV]

@@k.c1126 Ok… I think I understand now… Thanks…

[@predrag-peterilich900]

Good job ShuoShuo; thank you. Do you have that list of 90% of characters (1000, 2000,...) that we could download?

[@lynnd6422]

I tell my language students to use graded readers and read every day. When I started to study Chinese I bought 25 readers and I make sure to read every day. Plus Pleco has the same readers available for purchase as well. I prefer the actual paper book to read instead of staring at a screen though. 📚

[@gongdawa8925]

What are those readers you talking about?

[@lynnd6422]

@@gongdawa8925 The books I bought were by Mandarin Companion, Rainbow Bridge, and Chinese Breeze. There are many different titles available. It starts off with stories using 150 characters but moves to 300, then 500, and so on. I like the extensive reading approach because it shows a lot of vocabulary in proper context.

[@FlabbyAbi]

Yes great advice. Li Can's just published a book of intermediate stories so going to get that next month

[@lynnd6422]

@@FlabbyAbi Thanks for the heads up. Put it on my wish list. I also have books by B Y Leong and Yun Xian. They're pretty good, too, although at lower levels the stories are very short.

[@anonamatron]

Are there any places that have free stuff to read? I can't even find these pirated, which is what I'd like to get first to see how they are.

[@foxkit69]

I've been learning languages through what I call a passive acquiring method. I've been watching this specific video everyday multiple times to "pick up" on the characters, their meanings, their pronunciations (which I mimic aloud), their pinyin writings, and their use in the words used as examples. I've been doing this for about 2 and a half maybe 3 weeks, while also heavily studying JAPANESE (not Chinese, even though I'm fairly certain it's usually not recommended to take on multiple foreign languages at once?), and I HAVE in fact, retained a LOT of the hanzi (not kanji readings) characters from this video. Accomplishing this through such very little effort over not too terribly long of a time: that, at least in my opinion, is quite impressive. Sure others might could watch this video once and retain every character, but maybe others it would take a year. The point is, I'm not TRYING to do anything, I'm just doing. Watching. Using. I'm not consciously remembering anything, it's just getting stuck in my head. I've managed to pick up on Chinese grammar, Vietnamese grammar, and the intricacies I didn't before understand about Korean grammar (which I studied for years long before I started Japanese), a lot of those I can see in a more logical light. Through what is basically very minimal effort, I am conversational in four foreign languages to varying degrees. (i.e., I'm closest to fluency in Spanish, but I'm beginner-conversational in Chinese, but much, much better in Korean and Japanese. Basic conversational skills, right?) The crux of my point is, consuming content by competent native speakers such as Shuo from ShuoshuoChinese说说中文, is the fastest and easiest way to acquire a foreign language, in my experience. I subscribed to this channel before I even decided to learn Chinese. To whoever may see this, take from it what you will, and enjoy your foreign language learning journey, and best of luck on the path to whatever level of fluency is desired in your target language. :)

[@variatings]

Ok

[@Nadjingar]

Hi @foxkit69, could you list some of the names of the content you consume to passively acquire Chinese. I’ve recently adopted this methodology as well, but I’m looking for as many options as possible. I want to learn Spanish and Arabic at some point as well, so if you have suggestions for either one of those I’d greatly appreciate it. Cheers!

[@CharlesBender-or9mv]

Thank you, this video was so helpful!! Right now I am about to begin HSK 3 and feel more confident. Every Chinese teacher stresses something different and I am never sure what is most important. This really helped. 谢谢老师

[@nalaura2654]

hi does anyone has the pdf that she said on the video? she´s not accepting new subscribers anymore

[@SJ95111]

When you learn chinese characters ,you not only learn to read and write chinese but learn to communicate with other speakers of languages which use chinese characters like Cantonese,korean and japanese as they also use Hanzí and thus you'll be able to to communicate with them in written format.

[@Torgo63]

This is the first video of yours that I've seen, and while it wasn't the point of the video I think I learned more about tone pronunciation in this video than anywhere else. I look forward to watching more content from your channel. Thanks!

[@cassball7]

I knew about 130 characters! I love learning characters and reading Chinese. Thank you for the video

[@oscarernestoroberts4190]

140 times THANK you! I have to bow my head to all Chinese people who have to memorize but at the same time develop a form of art. Drawing by ourselves intead of just using translators with the already-done image allows you to learn how to master your drawing skills as well and pay attention to each one of the details of the ideograms. I realized there are many suffixes.

[@mimilovie-l5q]

I know about 2000 characters and I still find it difficult to understand when locals speak, because they love to use many difficult words and phrases. 😭

[@limedwardster]

I only know, i think 200 word of Chinese character. Yet can read all articles.and using it to send messages. 容易不容易？

[@a-sam8151]

谢谢老师！ 我一定会学这个PDF very nice lesson. I have been memorizing characters and still struggling until now.

[@charlesayache6801]

非常有用的视频。 多谢你说说老师!

[@JonMichael1087]

i love your videos! the music during the slides sounded so hopeful and sweet and made me happy too

[@pauleh1000]

The website for the pdf download is somehow broken. I tried several times. I get a green result to check email but don't get any. And, yes I checked spam. Help please.

[@videren]

One of the best Chinese teaching/learning videos I've seen so far. Thank you. 谢谢

[@asicpuppy]

Love your lessons. Doing the duolingo thing. Many times turn of the sound, to learn the characters. Loved this and other videos because you give the character meaning whereas they will put the combination with just the English translation. An example is for hello, Chinese is you good. keep up the good work and thank you

[@wildswan221]

Brilliant break down for beginners! I’m passing it along to friends who are starting to learn to read. I’m reviewing the pronunciation you provide with the characters…great feature of your video! I find many foreigners know tons of characters but they can’t pronounce things properly, defeating the purpose of learning a language. When I started Chinese, I did not use books to learn to speak because I found the pinyin messed up my Chinese. So now I am working on reading everything that I can speak. It works well. Thanks for everything you share!

[@sbrgm]

Wow, thank you so much! I'm a German and lived for 3 years in Shanghai, and I absolutely loved it! I learned to read Chinese and was back then not that bad. But now I forgot so many things, so thank you very much! 你太厉害了，谢谢！

[@davidlericain]

I knew almost all of those characters but I can still barely read a sentence. So far to go. I'll keep at it.

[@joenevin3746]

The title to this video gave me so much hope.

[@tedcrowley6080]

Very good advice. Thank you. I'm HSK3+ and (even though I can read many words) I recently started working on improving my reading. It's so important!

[@ahmedrafi2048]

when i go for the pdf file it say "Account is cancelled and can not accept new subscribers."

[@someoneelse6934]

The form on your website to download the list is not working. It says the account is closed when I put in my email.

[@yurypisar347]

So helpful lesson! Would be great if you make another video with these words included in completed sentences.

[@ponlatepp.4056]

谢谢老师的努力、您对社会很有用。

[@nitaseely6830]

我对社会也有用

[@SnakeAndTurtleQigong]

Sending gratitude from a Daoist monastery near Seattle (USA)

[@tatyanaparakhina6356]

It's not that these radicals are difficult to remember, not at all, but their endless combinations in words.

[@ShuoshuoChinese]

Agreed! But it’s a good start for anyone who think Chinese characters are daunting to start 😃

[@Lerppunen]

But the radicals make things easier, not harder.

[@SalveteOmnes1]

Think in a positive way, it’s not a torture, it’s medicine for your brain. You’re creating new neuronal connection.

[@earnestlanguage4242]

so true!

[@tatyanaparakhina6356]

@@SalveteOmnes1 yes, in fact, I really enjoy it. It feels such a different way for the brain to function.

[@ГЕННАДИЙМИХАЙЛОВИЧ-в5м]

Спасибо за обучающее видео, очень доходчиво , есть примеры.

[@Michimichi333...]

I LOVE UR ENGLISH TRANSLATION.... ❤❤❤ SO CLEARLY AND GOOD...🎉🎉🎉

[@Maxiu72]

My two year old son was repeating the sounds while I watched this 🤣

[@ShuoshuoChinese]

That’s so cuteee

[@johnkalfman6375]

Wow so serious

[@k.c1126]

You may be raising a bilingual / multilingual child without realizing it ... 2 years old is optimum language learning time for most children ...

[@cmaven4762]

When I saw this video for the first time just over a year ago, I only recognised 5 or 6 of these characters. Today I counted only 36 that I didn't recognise based on character, sound and meaning. Of those 36, I recognise another 20 visually, but haven't fully associated both the sound and meaning with each. I feel very encouraged by the fact that I haven't had to "memorize" words in order to become familiar. As stated at the beginning of the video, these characters are used so commonly to form words and sentences that just regular interaction with Chinese videos can build recognition. In turn that's fueling my understanding of new words and expressions. Thanks again for posting this video. It's both helpful and encouraging for beginners!

[@loveifeoluwa2062]

Really helpful, and detailed, thank you. Could you please do a video showing the different tones and how to make use of it or get use to it, something easy please, thank you.😊

[@lindamaynard4275]

In my work with Chinese characters, I have found the handwritten ones written stylistically, and as a result the individual strokes are run in together , and the machine produced ones extremely small to discern all the correct spacing between the strokes. The on-screen versions are much easier to discern. (Note, I am sure there are those that will say the same thing about handwritten English )

[@houghwhite411]

Probably akin to written cursive in English

[@johnkalfman6375]

Okay 😂😂

[@sesinhosantos5047]

From the entire 140 I counted 50 that I can not read if I see them, but most of the characters in the list, like 120 of them, I have already seen them enough to aknowledge their existence. There must be like 50 or 70 that I can read and listen and write the pinyin. The rest, no clue for the most part. As for writing, I think I can write like 20. My chinese level is: Complete noob.

[@inthenebula92]

Honestly Chinese is easier than I thought, and I think at the root of the example you used it's that so much says that Chinese is super hard to learn and it causes people to be too intimidated, and they cut corners to "get to the finish line" sooner. Except you miss out on a lot of important parts of the language if you do so! Yes, it can be challenging, but I always tell myself if native speakers can get it, if children can speak it, so can I. They have an advantage, but don't we have an advantage in our own native tongue too where we just "get" it or found ways to keep it all organized? People who speak other languages do the same thing; if you pay attention, you can figure out their thinking. One of the things that makes Chinese easier IS the characters, you can get a lot of meaning from them even if you don't know how to say it. It's too bad there are people who don't want to get the full experience because they fear the challenge. I like the challenge because I feel accomplished when I've made progress, and that's what has kept me engaged learning Chinese. I think in part the "image" of Chinese needs to change so people aren't so daunted in giving it an honest go.

[@limedwardster]

Using drawing method, If u know how to speak likely recognize the character. Using Sogou keyboard, voice input method. Using tooth- pick sticks to form 人‘ after that add a small stick 一 to 人 became 大 Add 二 to 人 became天 . Add two small sticks to 大 became头....买卖 灾火🔥火灭灾火土 太犬 头. From 人 ，move two sticks apart became 八入 then bend two sticks became 儿, add a small piece together to form 又叉 又 write using two u, u and add l, 山出出 凹 巨 叵 匠 臣 尺层.using handphone software, as long write 70% similar word will appear

[@franklee663]

I agree with you in a way, you know now people are all talking about life-long learning? Chinese is exactly the life-long learning that you need and it has been brought down with 5000 years of history. To learn Chinese, maybe you need a year or two, but to master it, you need life-long.

[@RizalBudiLeksono]

When I learning Chinese, I realized it's easier than Japanese

[@KVSulinom]

Shuoshuo, I'm not able to get the pdf, no email, I've checked my junk mail there was nothing. Thanks 😁

[@patrickstar1164]

I know all these words and characters, yet when a Chinese person speaks, I don't understand most of the things they say.

[@平凡之鹿]

Listen to native content constantly. When you're eating, showering, at the gym, etc. Do this every day for a few years in combination with other study and you will be able to understand almost everything Chinese people say.

[@patrickstar1164]

@@平凡之鹿 I live in China

[@平凡之鹿]

@@patrickstar1164 That's great, so you can also get some real-life practice. But you should still be listening to native content constantly too. Unless you're in an intensive environment, the natural opportunities to practice with other people won't give you the necessary volume to make rapid gains.

[@franklee663]

Watch more chinese drama, it will help

[@k.c1126]

​@@franklee663 I support this. I've made huge progress by doing so.

[@wildswan221]

Your video reminds me of my Chinese friend who memorized the English dictionary when she was in high school. She went to Wharton, worked at Goldman, then I showed her little kid that most words can be sounded out or categorized into sound, so he didn’t have to do all that work.

[@Oliviabaileys]

Hi Can’t get the pdf… says something wrong with account

[@orange_tea]

Ooh I'm early! I new them all! So I'm proud of myself, tho I need to practice my writing. Thanks for the lesson and pdf!

[@d.s.q.2gaming446]

Hey can you guide me i want to learn chinese but i dont understand that whether i should learn to speak first or should i learn both writing and speaking

[@orange_tea]

@@d.s.q.2gaming446 both writing and speaking! As you would di with any language! Chinese is not that hard you just need practice! Good luck!

[@Neilcourtwalker]

While that may be true, the important information is in the rest of the Characters. Unfortunately there is no "magical" short cut to being able to comunicate with everybody in every situation.

[@平凡之鹿]

Came here to say this. In fact, there are diminishing returns so once you get to over 6000 words and 90+% comprehension rates, you still need to learn thousands more to get to 99%. Then that last 1% of words on a page are so rare and seldom-repeated that you need a couple more thousand just to cover most of the possibilities. Still, it's worth it because by that point you can just read extensively for fun. The few words you don't know won't severely affect your understanding of the major events and themes you're reading about.

[@eunyog]

Thank you so muchhhh. The examples you gave are greattttttt

[@davidlegeros1914]

This is very useful information given by a stunningly knowledgable and beautiful professor!

[@TheStrataminor]

Sigh...there's always one...

[@citizen6458]

@@TheStrataminor let him simp

[@limedwardster]

This Chinese character 彡 Word with 彡. Redraw into手,look at 彡 ，three finger with hand, so 丟,拿,.看 is three finger with a 目，other similar character 须, 參(加) 训 毛 修,家 豹爪抓，汤

[@DANNY-724]

这些是汉语的高频率词汇，是必须掌握的。对于刚刚开始学习的初级的学生，可以有效提高学习的效率和兴趣。喜欢中文的朋友们加油吧：）

[@ngpoulos]

despite requesting a copy of your free pdf I did not receive the link. can you help in any way

[@brendaeq236]

Do you have a list of the 1000 Chinese characters that make up 90% of the language as well?

[@foxkit69]

Look up the 1000 most common Chinese words and ignore duplicate hanzi. :3 Logic dictates if the characters are the most common, they'd likely appear in the most common words.

[@petermhart]

Thanks. Great lesson. Very useful! Really useful for pronunciation too!

[@mohammadhoseyni1455]

So generous of you! 谢谢老师

[@theedtechcoach]

Love this video to accompany my radicals learning :)

[@hasangazi6658]

Thank you so much

[@eddted2876]

Enjoyed, do more!!

[@ivan-nm1xn]

Thanks! 我还在学中文! Greetings from 🇧🇷

[@abdulazizsayed5464]

Where is the PDF?

[@aries7999]

If you can memorize 2500 characters(HSK 5) perhaps you can read newspaper/ article..better to memorise minimum 3000 would be better..

[@RalphDratman]

You are very kind! Thank you.

[@chatephucharoen2284]

Thanks for your sharing,it inspired me.

[@amarug]

I heard a similar statement about Japanese and whits its true and good to know, it's still just a broad statistical truth that doesn't translate that well into "practice". I am fluent in speech but I was always very lazy with writing and essentially never studied Kanji. So I can only read about 1500 of them now (which sounds like much, but it's very little considering my speech level), and while that sounds like a lot, I have huge trouble essentially reading anything that is not everyday chitchat and banter with friends on Line/Whatsapp. Newspaper? Zero chance. I might be able to read 95% of the "total text" but it's the remaining 5% that carries all the true meaning..

[@rorychivers8769]

So that leaves you with 5% you have to look up, instead of 95%. Way to frame it negatively.

[@amarug]

@@rorychivers8769 fair enough 😂

[@reggiedaniels6920]

I love what you've done here, the problem for me is that the rate at which you progress to the next character is much too fast for me to capture and comprehend all of what you have displayed on the screen. Of course, I can pause the screen to take more time to read what is there. However, that adds another level of work and complexity to the process of learning a difficult subject. Likewise, I could repeat the video several times to capture what is presented. I think though that if you slowed the speed at which you proceed through the lesson would make this a more manageable process for learners. The person "@songtraveler who commented has made an unnecessary comment. Everyone knows without question that there is more needed than is presented here to reading Chinese. What you have present is just an introduction to that overall process of communicating in the Chinese language. There is no intent to present the entire language study in this one video.

[@Tom-pb2es]

When I try to sign up for the PDF it says account cancelled

[@Henry-teach-Chinese-in-jokes]

I’ve made many videos teaching Chinese language vividly and in a humorous way. I hope somebody can recommend my videos to those who want to learn Chinese. For beginners, Chinese characters may look complicated. But once you learn about 100 basic radicals, most characters become easy.

[@jonwharton6747]

正好我真的喜欢写得汉字。。。一儿三真的有意思

[@清-u5o]

一二三亖😆

[@HHH-nv9xb]

It is amazing to me that late 1800 Chinese scholars have already identified that the Chinese language and written language is a major roadblock in China's modernization.

[@NickvonZ]

EXCELLENT, as always! Thank you!

[@ravinosaurus]

ahh yes after 2 months being clean, I got Rickrolled, and in a Chinese Language tutorial video nonetheless 😆😭 Anyways, this is a very good video for someone who's still on the very first step of learning Mandarin. 💯

[@withoutpassid]

Cool! It’s time to learn Chinese :”>

[@שלומימשאט]

it is very good to know the top 140 characters, but it is just the first step in a long journey. What gives this 140 characters?. After mastering them when you read a sentence you will know that there is something in the sentence that is in relation to these characters. In short, it will give a vague idea about the sentence, you won't get anything besides a vague idea. For a basic understanding or basic conversation, someone needs at least 1000 characters.

[@martinphipps2]

Chinese character is definitely important. I just taught a speech class and I had students stare at the ceiling or read from their script and I said "Sorry but you will lose marks for being boring. Your character is important."

[@SilverC3ll]

Thank you.

[@PiaoZheng]

👍 great minds think alike! I also love frequency analysis.

[@treks6486]

老师 can you please explain the difference between 说 and 讲 and are they interchangeable? Thank you.

[@Kotsuyosama]

Both 说 and 讲 are very common in daily Chinese, and most of the time, the scenario when you can say 说, it's also ok to use 讲. eg: 说个笑话/讲个笑话（说/讲：tell） 你说什么？/你讲什么？（说/讲：say） 能和我说一下这道题吗？/能和我讲一下这道题吗？（说/讲：explain） 这孩子太不听话了，你好好说说他。/这孩子太不听话了，你好好讲讲他。（说/讲：blame） But for some phrases with 说/讲, the nuance is slightly different. Generally speaking, 说 is focused more on describing the thing itself, while usually, 讲 has some subjective intentions. But to be honest, it's very hard to list all the uses of 说 and 讲（in fact, there are more characters with similar meanings of 说 and 讲, such as 谈 , 论, etc.）, just like it very difficult to list all the uses of "say", "tell" and "speak", and explain the similarities and differences.

[@treks6486]

@@Kotsuyosama 原來如此，謝謝老師

[@comicrecap3003]

I mean like, i can't thank you enough. when i get demotivated i always end up seeing your video and it somehow makes me want to try more harder. i am someone who can already engage in a conversation with Chinese people but somehow i can barely read and forget about writing 😭 and as of now i am pursuing my studies in a different field too so i am having a hard time with my career building option and my passion and yeah that is learning chinese

[@jennasang]

Wow, this was a great video!

[@yeha7242]

Thank you for the video and the PDF.

[@angsohui2647]

謝謝，但是不能download, 没送到。

[@abiramagrotech]

I am very happy to watch this video though my exam is ongoing.

[@martinneumeyer9282]

A great list!

[@和蘭芹かりかり]

谢谢老师！I'm happy to find out I knew most of them!😆 I'll write down the words I didn't now, so I can remember them. 位子(座席、地位)，一位老师(位は助数詞)，知识(知識)，记者(記者)，进去，因此(because of this)，与(“的”のフォーマル版)

[@yosvaniquiala6036]

Where we can download the list with the 1000??? Thanks

[@dashong8912]

Ah the PDF no longer available.☹

[@joecostner1246]

- children learn to understand and talk before they learn to write the characters and then read them in words, that s logical.

[@-yt3364]

我学习hsk5级，所以我知道很多字。我很高兴。我看中国人的时候，我跟他们说话

[@Mikalu0514]

這樣進步速度會很快

[@yixingbalance9595]

谢谢ShuoShuo老师，这个视频好用得！我已经给你了订阅，也有点赞！

[@HuaWen]

Thanks

[@LW78321]

Thank you for this helpful video 😊