Chinese Character Fast Finder: Simplified Characters

This Chinese character reference book employs a revolutionary and user–friendly new way to look up characters by appearance rather than radical.

In order to completely learn Chinese, a knowledge of characters is necessary. Chinese characters are fascinating, but can be frustrating. In particular, looking them up in a typical Chinese dictionary can be a nightmare, as there is no 'alphabetical order.' Reading Chinese as well as writing Chinese requires referencing dozens of characters. Typical Chinese–English Dictionaries and Chinese character dictionaries often take a long time to look up a particular character. With Chinese Character Fast Finder you can find a character in seconds from its appearance alone. From the finder chart inside the front cover, you can turn to the correct page immediately, and finding the character on that page has also been made as simple as possible. As an optional feature you can make a double thumbnail index to speed things up even more. The fast finder is designed primarily for serious Chinese language learners of modern simplified Chinese (Mandarin Chinese) and serves as a quick reference for experts, but is also well suited for beginners with no previous experience, or people who wish to dip into characters, browse, or simply discover what a street sign means. With this book you can:

• Find characters quickly, reliably and intuitively– from their visual appearance alone.
• Quickly check the meanings, pronunciations, stroke–counts and radical characters.
• Look up traditional characters to see how they have been simplified.
• Look up newly encountered characters or check on those you have temporarily forgotten.
• Find elusive characters more easily in large character dictionaries.
• Simply browse and explore, comparing similar characters.
• Lists 3,200 characters, including all those prescribed for the Chinese government's official HSK Language Proficiency Test (Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi).

This book contains hints and suggestions on finding kanji but the system is so intuitive that you will be able to use it immediately and with very little guidance. By the time you have looked up half a dozen characters, you will appreciate the speed with which you can locate kanji in the Fast Finder.