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How to Use These Materials

Intermediate Written Chinese Practice Essentials is the workbook designed to accompany the textbook Intermediate Written Chinese. It offers you a wide variety of activities for learning both inside and outside of class, to help you reinforce and activate your learning of the vocabulary, grammar, characters, and related material introduced in the textbook. The pages of this workbook have been perforated to facilitate their removal for correction by an instructor (or by a tutor or native-speaking friend, in the case of independent learners). Furthermore, the pages have been three-hole punched so that, once they have been corrected and returned to the learner, they may conveniently be filed in a three-hole binder for future reference.

Character Practice Sheets

The first section of Intermediate Written Chinese Practice Essentials consists of character practice sheets for all the new characters from Units 11-24, for you to study, fill out, and hand in to your instructor or mentor for correction and comments. For each lesson, the first page contains the six characters in simplified form, followed by the same six characters in traditional form on the next page. Since both types of characters are frequently encountered throughout the Chinese-speaking world, we recommend that you eventually learn to recognize both, though it’s sufficient if you learn to write only one type.

Being able to handwrite characters is important not only for writing but also for reading, since if you can write a character correctly from memory, you’re more likely to be able to recognize it and distinguish it from other similar characters. Later on in your study of Chinese, you’ll also want to learn how to input Chinese characters on the computer, but we feel it’s important for beginning students to have experience in writing characters by hand.

On the practice sheets, there are two kinds of model characters for your reference. To the left, in the large boxes, are large versions of each character with small Arabic numbers indicating the order and direction of the strokes. Note that the location of each number indicates where that stroke begins. Then, to the right of the large characters, in the smaller boxes, there is a stroke-by-stroke build-up of each character which further clarifies the stroke order. The purpose of the handwritten characters is not to serve as examples of beautiful calligraphy, but rather to instruct learners in accurate and legible writing of the characters, as written with pencil or pen by ordinary Chinese writers today.

Be sure to follow the correct stroke order and direction. If you don’t, your characters will not only look wrong, but you might have difficulty using dictionaries, since these are traditionally based on the number of strokes in characters and character components. The accuracy of handwriting recognition software might also be affected if strokes are written in the wrong order and direction. Furthermore, if you’re not familiar with correct stroke order, you may in the future have problems reading and writing Chinese cursive script, since the way strokes are connected is closely related to the order and direction of the individual strokes.

Beginning with the first box after the end of the stroke-by-stroke build-up, you should write the entire character in each empty box until all the boxes for that character have been filled. Write slowly and carefully, often referring back to the stroke direction and stroke order of the models. We recommend that you use either a number 2 pencil, or a black or blue pen. As you write each character, say its pronunciation out loud and think of the meaning. You’ll probably want to have your textbook open for reference. Many learners find it helpful to write on the practice sheets the Pinyin and basic English meaning of each character to the left of the large character.

Even though there is an agreed-upon stroke order for the majority of characters, there exists a small number of characters that have common alternate stroke orders, for example, the character 方. For the sake of consistency, in the case of simplified characters we follow the stroke order promulgated by the Working Committee on National Language and Script, published in Beijing by Yuwen Chubanshe as 现代 汉语通用字笔顺规范 (5th printing 1999). In the case of traditional characters, we follow the stroke order promulgated by the Committee on the Promotion of Mandarin, published in Taipei by the Ministry of Education as 常用國字標準字筆順手冊 (3rd revised printing 2008).

Reading and Writing Exercises

This book includes reading and writing exercises for each of the four parts of every unit of Intermediate Written Chinese. The first section consists of three phrases or sentences for dictation^*. You should listen to the audio and transcribe what you hear using Chinese characters. Since this is for practice and not a test, you’re encouraged to listen as many times as you wish and, when needed, to consult your textbook or the glossaries at the end of the book.

The second section includes four questions that you should answer using Chinese characters. Some of the questions are based on portions of the corresponding lesson in Intermediate Written Chinese, which you should refer to as you answer the questions, while other questions are addressed to you, the learner, and may be answered any way you wish.

Translation Exercises

Ten phrases or sentences for translation from English to Chinese have been included for each unit of Intermediate Written Chinese. The purpose of the translation exercises is to provide you with additional practice in writing the characters, using the grammar patterns, and practicing the important vocabulary of the unit, and to serve as a check of mastery over the material. Completing the translation exercises will be helpful to you in reviewing for the unit tests.

The sentences should be translated into Chinese characters with correct punctuation in the blank space that has been left under each sentence. The English in the translation exercises is in some places purposely somewhat stilted, to guide you toward the correct Chinese translation. If you’ve forgotten the Chinese equivalent for an English word or grammar pattern, you can consult the various glossaries and indices in the back of Intermediate Written Chinese.

It’s recommended that the instructor correct and return the translation exercises to students before the test on the corresponding unit, so that any remaining problems can be identified and addressed in a timely manner. Students should carefully study the instructor’s corrections, making sure they understand the reason for any errors, and then file the corrected exercises for later reference.

Flash Cards

Flash cards are an excellent aid in memorization. They work based on the principle of spaced repetition, that is, gradually increasing the interval between each time that you recall information correctly. We recommend that you take along several dozen flash cards from Intermediate Written Chinese Practice Essentials wherever you go. Use the extra time you have while waiting in line, on a bus, or before classes to study the flash cards. You can look at the character side and test yourself on the pronunciation and meaning of the characters, or you can look at the English on the other side and test yourself on the correct spoken form and characters. Your goal should be to identify those characters and words you still have problems with and remove them from the larger set for special study.

The flash cards have been designed with Chinese characters (simplified and traditional) on one side, and Pinyin and English on the other side. Both the new characters of each lesson and the individual words written with those characters are included on the flash cards. The lower left-hand corner on both sides of every card has the unit and section number, while the lower right-hand corner has the character number. Due to page limitations and in an effort to control costs, the paper flash cards have been included on the for users to print out for themselves as needed. The flash cards should be carefully printed—first all the pages with Chinese characters, then, on the other side, the pages with Pinyin and English, after which each page of eight flash cards can be cut apart with a paper cutter or scissors.

* Scripts for the dictation exercises are included in the Instructor’s Guide for Intermediate Written Chinese.