The app is awarded as Editor's Choice and has reached number 2 in the UK and number 6 in the US Apple App Store's education category. Ĭhineasy's first app, Chineasy, launched in 2018, makes it fun and easy to learn Chinese words on-the-go through flashcards and quizzes. While the book introduces common Chinese characters, it does not teach pronunciation or grammar, and thus does not teach how to read or use the language, although it does use voice recordings for the users to mimic. It was based on her 2013 TED talk and funded via a crowdfunding campaign through Kickstarter. The 2014 book Chineasy: The New Way to Read Chinese contains about 400 characters. The approach is to learn Chinese characters with the help of illustrations to help memorize Chinese characters better. For visual learners the human brain is able to memorize information better if it is put into a visual context. It was created by entrepreneur Shaolan Hsueh, and the teams operate from the UK and Taiwan. This makes sense in business, and crucially, in language learning too.Online education, Chinese Language, Graphic Design, EducationĬhineasy is an internet startup founded with the mission of teaching Chinese. And throughout her campaign – in TED talks, Kickstarter campaigns, video lessons – she has been consistently doing her thing: making Chinese look easy and beautiful making people come back for more. And although it contains a useful index and lists the basic blocks clearly, I doubt whether these phrases are the first ones you absolutely, positively need to learn.īut it’s still too early to decide where Chineasy will go next. The book won’t guide you through all the phrases in survival Chinese courses. The approach will not help you “hack” the language in the most effective way. You don’t see exactly how the entirety of the language works today – but you see, in a glimpse, how it came to be that way. There are plenty of cultural references, there’s commentary, some historical background as well. The book does what it’s supposed to do: it draws you in and tells you a story about the language. It would fail as a complete guide to all the important phrases and words. It would never be a panaceum for Chinese learners. It’s good, also, that the book plays to its strengths. You want to interrupt everyone around you just to tell them “look at the symbol for sheep, just look at it, it looks like a bloody sheep!” – you want to come back to the book to browse again, and to learn more – and the creative strain within you wants to recreate the symbols as best it can. I’m happy to say that 9 times out of 10, this has been achieved. If the design worked, it would make users want more – it would help them remember better – and recognize the symbols / phrases in real life. The illustrations for the basic characters – called “building blocks” in Chineasy philosophy – would always be the mainstay of the entire concept. The team seems to have realized that it’s the little things that make a language palatable or somehow unbearable – and everything seems to be obsessively planned to achieve a nice effect. The book is just about the prettiest language learning publication I’ve come in contact with – and if you know me, you know that means an awful lot! Everything about it – the cover, the font, the layout – denotes good and meticulous work on the little details that matter. If it was Chineasy‘s only merit, this alone would make the book worth buying.įortunately, there’s more. Shaolan Hsueh resists this narrative with a story of her own – a perfectly and beautifully crafted narrative in which learning Chinese is placed within a well-designed, friendly and attractive context. And in the long run, this stereotypical image becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy: you’re not learning Chinese because it’s hard, and when it shows up in your life, it’s hard because you haven’t learned it. The myth of Chinese language is nearly always the same: the learning process is arduous, the speech itself – shrouded in mystery and unforgiving for beginners. There are very few beautiful language learning tools out there. Chineasy: The New Way to Read Chinese by Shaolan Hsueh
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