You asked for it, we delivered. Visit the book page for any Mandarin Companion novel where you can download a word list for the book FREE. The word lists can be use to focus efforts on learning the words that will allow a person to read a Mandarin Companion book.

While each book uses a limited number of characters, you’ll quickly find that there are more words used than characters. For instance, The Monkey’s Paw uses exactly 271 characters, however the story is written using precisely 391 words. Using words with characters you already know is an excellent way to build on the knowledge you have already acquired and expand your vocabulary into words you are likely to retain.

We at Mandarin Companion want to assist in building the fluency of all Chinese learners. This is just one small step in that direction!

For your convenience, here is a link to the word list for every Mandarin Companion book published as of December 2015.

Level 1 word lists

• The Secret Garden
• Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Curly Haired Company
• The Sixty Year Dream
• The Monkeys Paw
• The Country of the Blind

Level 2 word lists

• Great Expectations Part 1
• Great Expectations Part 2

It has happened to all of us while learning Chinese: you are “attempting” to read a text in Chinese and then you inevitably stumble upon it, a black hole (a.k.a. an unknown character) and you’re instantly caught in its gravitational pull as it slowly sucks you in. Your eyes glaze over as you stare at it; it stares back at you like a spooky animal ready to pounce on its prey. You cycle through a database of possible pronunciations but absolutely nothing comes to mind. You can’t even attempt to pronounce it, and even if you did you’ve only got a 1 in 4 chance of getting the tone right. Nothing. You’ve got nothing. Sweat beads on your forehead, you start to scream, and your head explodes.

If this situation sounds familiar (minus the exploding head), fret not; you’re not alone. This is one of the things that makes Chinese so difficult. However, a fascinating study* published in Reading Research Quarterly offers insight into learning Chinese. The researchers studied how words are learned in context through reading, both by students in China and by students in the U.S.

A quick primer: learning words in context means being able to pick up the meaning of a word, term, or idea from the clues that are given in a sentence, paragraph, or article. For example, take the word “repugnant” in the following sentence.

You could see how repugnant the bitter medicine was by the way she shuddered and made a face as she swallowed it.

If you didn’t know the meaning of repugnant before, now you’ve got a much better idea. That’s because the context of the sentence gave you clues about the meaning. This is learning words in context.

Learning words from context is a universal phenomenon

The study found that both American and Chinese students are able to understand word meanings from context while reading normally. If you run across a word in a context that you understand, you’ve got a high probability of figuring out what that word means, even if you can’t say it. Even after controlling for cultural, family, educational, and language differences, the authors wrote “what is remarkable is not that there were some differences between Chinese and American children, but rather how similar the pattern of results is for the children from the two countries.”

What was even more interesting relating to Chinese, is how the individual components of characters, 部件 in Chinese, provide categorical information about the meaning of the character and often give a more transparent meaning than English. For example, the Chinese word for otter 水獭 has these two characters. The first character 水 is more commonly known and means water while the second character 獭 is more uncommon. However the character component 犭 conveys the meaning of a mammal or beast. Right away the reader can guess that this is some sort of animal, perhaps one that is amphibious. With the proper context the reader could probably guess this is an otter, since a native-speaking Chinese child may already know how to say “otter” in Chinese, and thus would now know how to pronounce both characters in the word 水獭.

“Knowing a Word” is not good enough for reading comprehension

You can do character flash cards? Great! But that’s only going to get you so far. A reader can improve reading comprehension if they can automatically recognize the words in a text. However, in order to build instant recognition of word meanings during reading, one must also have the opportunity to “meet” a new word repeatedly.

Interestingly enough, the study also cites that “knowing the definition of a word” is not enough for reading comprehension. In order to understand words correctly during reading, the words must be meaningfully used in context. When new words are integrated with existing knowledge, they are better understood and the new words move into the reader’s “comfort zone.”

We learn best when we read at a high level of comprehension

“Learning from context is a process based on children’s prior knowledge. If a new word can be connected with children’s existing [knowledge], it is easy to learn. But when learning a new word requires building a new [branch of knowledge], it is less likely that this word will be acquired through one exposure during reading.”

This makes total sense. Basically, it’s easier to understand something when you understand everything around it. This is the precise reason the Extensive Reading Foundation calls reading at a 98% comprehension level the “sweet spot” for learning new words.

Independent reading will help you learn more new words

Children, in both China and America, who did a lot of out-of- school reading learned more unfamiliar words from context than children who did not do as much extra reading.

“Chinese children who read extensively at home learned many more unfamiliar words than the children who read less. The probability of learning a word from context for children who did a lot of reading was over three times as great as children who did some reading, and over seven times more for children who did little or no reading.”

Read more = learn more new words. Possibly seven times more.

Conclusion

The study concluded that only extensive reading can simultaneously meet the three criteria necessary to effectively learn words from context and build large vocabularies:

1. Integration of new words with other knowledge
2. Presentation of new words repeatedly in context
3. Meaningful usage of new words as many ways as possible

It’s no wonder why extensive reading is so effective at building meaningful vocabulary development. If one has a large vocabulary and knows how to use it, isn’t that the same thing as fluency?

Happy reading!

*”Incidental Learning of Word Meanings While Reading: A Chinese and American Cross-Cultural Study“, Hua Shu, Richard C. Anderson and Houcan Zhang, Reading Research Quarterly, Vol. 30, No. 1

After over a year of work, Mandarin Companion level 2 is now available! The first level 2 title is Charles Dickens masterpiece Great Expectations. However, we are not releasing only one book, this tale will be released in two volumes; Part 1 and 2. Each book is approximately 30% longer in length than Level 1 and represents a step up in vocabulary and grammar used. Furthermore, both volumes will be available in print and ebook at the same time! Traditional Chinese versions will come shortly.

The ebooks are available on Amazon (part 1 and part 2). The print books are available for purchase (part 1 and part 2). Check out the book pages of Great Expectations (part 1 and part 2) for an overview and a small sample.

Next Steps for Mandarin Companion

This is literally a new chapter for Mandarin Companion. With the experience we have gained in producing our first 7 books at two different levels, we are poised to increase the number of titles we will release in 2016 and beyond.
So many people have sent us emails wanting to know how they can help because they have found the magic of reading. You can help! Here are some things you can do.

• Write reviews on Amazon and other platforms.
• Tell friends and teachers about the series and what it has done for you.
• Become more familiar with the principles of extensive reading so that you can better understand what we are trying to do, how it affects you, and how to discuss it with others (it will also make you look pretty smart at dinner parties).

This poignant question was poised by an eager Chinese learner on Quora. The short answer; No, reading Chinese poems will do little to improve your Chinese.

The truth of the matter is that Chinese poetry can be very beautiful. Diligent students of hanzi know that many Chinese characters are full of meaning and nuance. When written as prose, the characters combined with words and context weave a story of deeper meaning, insight, and reflection. I must confess there have been occasions after reading, pondering, and ultimately comprehending a poem, it was as if I had uncovered a hidden treasure that brought not only peaceful satisfaction but seemed to convey wisdom of the ages.

With that in mind, it may be no wonder that some instructors with advanced Chinese levels may extol the virtues of Chinese poetry and even require their students to become diligent pupils of the classics. While the rewards can be sweet, reading Chinese poetry is not an optimal way to improve your Chinese.

For a very SIMPLE (and I emphasize simple) example, consider the following poem that is included in the first semester Chinese text books for 1st graders in Shanghai.

《画》

远看山有色，

近听水无声。

春去花还在，

人来鸟不惊。

If you could read this, congratulations! It’s a nice poem isn’t it? It causes you to stop for a moment and reflect on the beauty and tranquility of the scene with beautiful, colorful mountains, quiet streams, spring flowers still in bloom, and birds unfrightened by the approach of people. Amazingly, it is also one of the most simple poems in existence. Of the 20 characters in the poem, 18 are found within HSK level 3 while the other 2 are at HSK level 4 (无 and 惊). Despite the simplicity of this poem, here is why it it’s not very helpful to learning Chinese.

• It’s too short. By nature poems are short and are intended to be slowly chewed and digested. Poems are not designed to be long, however reading longer texts greatly aide in language acquisition because there is greater repetition, leading to the next reason….
• No repetition. Research suggests that it requires 10-20 encounters with a word before they are truly learned and much more to learn how it is used with different word pairs and in different contexts. Poems cannot offer this type of repetition.
• It does not reflect how people talk or communicate in daily life. Do we speak English the same way poems are written in English? Not unless your name is Longfellow. The same goes for Chinese. It’s rich and beautiful, but people do not speak like this in everyday life.
• Low context. Usually there is little context given within the poem or the context is vague. As result, it becomes unclear if or how the words/characters/phrases are used in everyday life.
• Frequent use of obscure characters. This is more common when reading classical poetry. Characters arise that refer to very specific parts of a soldiers weapon or perhaps you’ll learn the very specific character for duckweed: “萍” (both true stories). The only time you will run across some of these characters is when you are reading “Romance of the Three Kingdoms” or… classical poetry. You frequently will spend more time with a dictionary and translating in order to comprehend the passage. In the end you may understand what you read, but you’ll likely forget the characters you were exposed to.

Being able to read Chinese poetry is wonderful! However instead of looking at Chinese poetry as a step to better Chinese, it would be better viewed as a reward for hard work.

Been waiting long enough for level 2 books? You need only wait a little longer. Production is under way for level 2 readers. We’ve already begun adapting the Charles Dickens classic story “Great Expectations”. Without giving too much away, this story will take place in modern China.

For Estella, the love interest with a heart of stone, finding an appropriate Chinese name was not difficult: 冰冰. But what about Pip? His name in the typical Chinese translation is 匹普, which is horrible, and we’re certainly not using. Suggestions welcome! This could be your chance to go down in the history of Mandarin Companion.

I was talking with a Chinese friend about her son who is enjoying his Summer vacation after his first year of college. “I helped him get an interview at a pizza restaurant for a summer job, but when he was in the interview and they asked him about his English, he said ‘My teacher always said from the time I was little that my English was not good.’ He blew the interview and now he is just sitting around the house with nothing to do.” Her son has shown great proficiency in math, science, and Chinese, but he seems to have trouble with English. He can speak a little bit, but not very well.

It just so turns out that this entire conversation I had with the mother was in Chinese. In fact, the mother has been working in an English environment for five years but can speak only about 10 words or phrases in English. I asked her why she hasn’t learned English after all these years. Her reply “Oh, I’m not smart, not like other people. I can’t learn English, it’s too hard!”

I’ve heard this one before; “I can’t learn [insert foreign language of choice], it’s too hard!” I’ve heard this from a German colleague about Chinese, an American friend about Spanish, and Chinese people about English. Curious enough, I have also heard this from individuals who can speak but not read Chinese; “I can’t learn Chinese characters, it’s too hard!”

Is it really that hard? To this dear lady, I pointed out that despite not even trying, she has learned a handful of English words and phrases: no, thank you, sorry, what are you doing, etc. When I first met this person, my Chinese was limited to “ni hao, xie xie, duoshao qian”. Fast forward 4 years later, despite my Chinese being nothing close to what you might think as fluent, we’re having a full conversation in Chinese.

“Imagine how much English you would be able to speak if you had only started to learn.” What was holding her back? The exact same thing holding back her son: believing you can.

You can learn Chinese. You can learn Spanish. You can learn French, Bulgarian, Russian, Zulu, or any other language. There is no ‘secret’ to learning a language. Having faith in yourself is the very first step in accomplishing anything worthwhile. All that it requires is consistent effort in the belief that you can learn. The perfect time to start is now.