Sound Meaning Characters - Free Video Lesson on Chinese's best kept "non-secret"
Welcome to this free lesson by Sensible Chinese. We recommend that you turn off all notifications and distractions and take notes while watching the videos below. Putting into practice what you learn here will be well worth your time and attention.
This is one single lesson from our 7 hour long Sensible Chinese Character Course. If you like what you see here then check out the course at the bottom of this page.
VIDEO #1: What are Sound Meaning Characters?
In this video I introduce sound-meaning characters and explain why most learners don't know about them. Blame the awful official name!
VIDEO #2: Why are Sound Meaning Characters Important?
Sound meaning characters allow us to guess the meaning AND the pronunciation of 95% of Chinese characters! Knowing how to harness their power allows a quantum leap in your study of Chinese.
VIDEO #3 : Example of a Meaning Component in Action
Let's get stuck in with examples, the best way to show the true power of sound-meaning characters.
VIDEO #4 : Another Example + Quick Quiz
Let's look at an example with 心 and test what we've learned. You'll be surprised at your ability!
Like what you see?
Find out more about the full 7-hour step-by-step video course by hitting the button below.
VIDEO #5 : Sound Components and Hippopotamuses
What can this pygmy hippopotamus tells us about Chinese? Quite a lot it turns out.
VIDEO #6: Sound Components - the WOW factor
This is where everything starts to get funky. If you've struggled with Chinese characters before and this is the first time you've seen sound-components in action prepare to be annoyed with yourself.
VIDEO #7: Double Check
Quickly I want to show you that I didn't cherrypick examples to trick you. We'll loop back to earlier meaning examples and see how they stack up as sound examples.
Like what you see?
Find out more about the full 7-hour step-by-step video course by hitting the button below.
VIDEO #8 : Me and my Beans
How I realized the importance of sound-meaning characters and how they can help you actually communicate.
VIDEO #9 : How to Learn Sound Meaning Components
OK - now that you know about sound-meaning components how can you integrate this into your study. Let's look at some ways.
Downloadable PDF Character Checklist
Hanzicraft’s Phonetic Sets A complete list of sound components
Skritter 101 Start to add this in if comfortable with Radical list
Pleco Dictionary
