{"id":13018,"date":"2020-08-19T22:15:52","date_gmt":"2020-08-19T20:15:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/?p=13018"},"modified":"2024-02-11T15:40:19","modified_gmt":"2024-02-11T14:40:19","slug":"review-the-outlier-linguistics-dictionary-of-chinese-characters-with-discount-code","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/review-the-outlier-linguistics-dictionary-of-chinese-characters-with-discount-code\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: The Outlier Dictionary of Chinese Characters"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Chinese characters are both loved and dreaded at the same time. Some people start learning Chinese mostly because of the beautiful characters, but the fact that you need to learn thousands of them to become literate in Chinese can be daunting as well.<\/p>\n

The challenge also shifts in nature over time. As a beginner, you might struggle with stroke order, basic components and the structure of characters, but this problem grows less serious as you learn more.<\/p>\n

I have studied Chinese for thirteen years now, and I can tell you that I still spend time learning characters, even if I know almost all the components and stroke order is automatic. The challenge is there, but it’s not the same as it was when I started learning.<\/p>\n

I know maybe 5,000 characters passively, and I seldom encounter characters I don\u2019t know, at least when reading ordinary text in a modern context. The problem for me, and most other advanced learners (and indeed native speakers), is that when writing, we mix characters up, choose the wrong sound component or just plain forget how to even start (extra embarrassing as a teacher).<\/p>\n

In this article, I will introduce and recommend a resource for helping you make sense of Chinese characters that I have been using for years, but before I do that, I want to provide some background. However, feel free to navigate this article as you see fit. Here’s what I will discuss:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. What you need to learn Chinese characters<\/a><\/li>\n
  2. Introduction of Outlier Dictionary of Chinese Characters<\/a><\/li>\n
  3. Why the Outlier Dictionary is awesome<\/a><\/li>\n
  4. Outlier Linguistics Dictionary contents<\/a><\/li>\n
  5. Outlier Linguistics Dictionary Essentials edition<\/a><\/li>\n
  6. Outlier Linguistics Dictionary expert edition<\/a><\/li>\n
  7. Room for improvement<\/a><\/li>\n
  8. More products from Outlier Linguistics<\/a><\/li>\n
  9. Interview with Ash Henson from Outlier Linguistics<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    <\/a><\/p>\n

    What you need to learn Chinese characters<\/h3>\n

    Regardless if you\u2019re a beginner or an advanced learner, I think there are two things you need to do to learn Chinese characters successfully, provided you\u2019re not willing to spend a few thousand hours on mindless handwriting practice.<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. You need to understand Chinese characters<\/li>\n
    2. You need to do constant but low-intensity reviewing<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Let me explain these briefly. The first item should be obvious to anyone who knows anything about cognitive psychology and learning: Understanding makes learning easier.<\/p>\n

      Studying something you don\u2019t understand is hard because you\u2019re resigned to learning superficial facts, without having access to the deeper structure that leads to those superficial forms. It\u2019s like learning the names of muscles without having a skeleton to attach them to. The more things make sense, the easier they are to learn and remember.<\/p>\n

      The second thing you need to learn Chinese characters is constant but low-intensity effort. This is straightforward too, but sometimes misunderstood by new learners. Learning Chinese characters is not hard because it requires a herculean effort over a short period, it\u2019s hard because it requires low-intensity studying and reviewing over a long time. I believe that the best way to learn and maintain characters long-term is to use spaced repetition apps specifically aimed at Chinese characters, but since I have already covered this in another article<\/a>, I will move on to understanding characters.
      \n      <\/a><\/p>\n

      Review: Outlier Linguistics Dictionary of Chinese Characters<\/h3>\n

      \"\"<\/a>Today, we\u2019re going to look closer at the Outlier Linguistics Dictionary of Chinese Characters<\/a>, which is the best available resource for finding reliable and clear information about Chinese characters as a student.<\/p>\n

      It is a once-off investment that will pay off handsomely over the entirety of your Chinese-learning experience. With the discount code \u201chacking25\u201d (without quotation marks), you\u2019ll get 25% off anything from Outlier Linguistics<\/a>.<\/p>\n

      If you find something interesting on their site, please use the links in this article, as that also helps support Hacking Chinese and enables me to keep writing free articles (there are currently more than 500 of them<\/a>).<\/p>\n

      Outlier Linguistic Dictionary: Your guide to understanding Chinese characters<\/h3>\n

      \"\"As I said in the introduction, the Chinese writing system is much more complex than people who haven\u2019t learnt it often think. The amount of information you need to internalise to make sense of it is huge.<\/p>\n

      And here many students encounter a problem: Out of all the resources available for learning Chinese characters, whom should you trust? Who provides enough information for you to learn the characters, presented in a way that also makes sense and is easy to access?<\/p>\n

      Most beginners simply rely on what their teachers recommend or what they can find by searching online. This can vary wildly from not even breaking characters down into components, to reasonably good resources talking about sound and meaning in Chinese characters.<\/p>\n

      If you don\u2019t know what I\u2019m talking about, you should probably check my twin articles about phonetic components, without which you can\u2019t hope to make sense of much when it comes to Chinese characters:<\/p>\n