To help non-Chinese readers learn written Chinese characters, entrepreneur and venture capitalist ShaoLan Hsueh has developed a learning system that aims to “penetrate the Great Wall of Chinese language”.
Called ‘Chineasy’, it features a series of works that forms the core characters from the Chinese language.
Students are taught to identify the eight core characters—fire, tree, sun, moon, person, mouth, door and mountain—after which, they can learn 64 different new words by combining the characters together or by adding new strokes.
“My methodology breaks down several thousand characters to identify the fundamental element behind each character,” said Hsueh. “I have combined that with a set of beautiful graphics that allow people to recognize patterns and therefore the meaning of symbols very quickly.”
“People look at Chinese and see this Great Wall of China. I want people to understand China, Chinese and Chinese culture without getting lost in translation,” she told Wired. “Asians make so much effort to learn English it’s embarrassing.”
[via Wired]