pietymoon wrote:I must thank Mr. Tienzen for clarifying some of my doubts apropos T.K.Ann's work.
The concerns remaining are mostly on the book "Chinese etymology" itself.
1. I have found some highly critical review on this book at chinese-forums.com from user
mwaynewalter who claims having read the whole "Chinese Etymology" (Post #65):
http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php ... ntry216568mwaynewalter wrote:"...The only part in English (which is most interesting and informative) is the reference and discussion of the individual "root words".
That is, it has tons of examples of characters and exercises to demonstrate and teach the method of learning the "root words" that make up the characters. But it has zero explanation of the example characters or exercise. They're just pages and pages of Chinese characters... "
Are derivative characters in the book really given without pinyin and english translation?
I guess it really takes a huge time to look all those 8000 characters up in dictionary one by one.
Thanks for being interested in my work.
This book "Chinese Etymology" is intended for 10 years old kid who learns Chinese characters as the second language. So, besides some explanation text is in English, all learning material of Chinese characters is Chinese only, indeed.
To clarify the above quote from Mr. Wayne Walter, his email to me is attached below.
Wayne Walter wrote:
From: Wayne Walter <xxxx@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, Aug 18, 2009 at 10:27 AM
Subject: Re: How are you doing now!
To: Jeh-Tween Gong <xxxxxxx@gmail.com>
Thank you.
We have returned from Europe and will begin on this project to both study your material and also develop a more user-friendly guide.
NOTE: I now have an electronic dictionary which allows me to draw characters on the screen in order to lookup in the dictionary. That makes your book usable. It was virtually useless until this. That's because I couldn't find hardly any of the characters in the dictionary. The standard stroke counting system is very confusing. And I don't know the PinYin for the characters to look them via PinYin. Now if I draw it carefully, I get the full definition and pronunciation.
I think we well tell our friends that an electronic dictionary is a prerequisite for studying Chinese characters.
That's another reason why we must make a more user-friendly version which will include cross references with the definitions of the example characters, etc.
NOTE: We will be careful to avoid any copyright issues by never copying anything word-for-word from your books.
Also, I have a friend just decided last week that he's very determined to learn Chinese and he's single and young so he has a lot more time. He wants to work on this project several hours per day creating the character set of root word characters for use in creating flash cards and writing exercises.
He is also ordering an electronic pocket dictionary for characters.
We will both be learning your system while doing this and get a rough draft up on the website for you to consider.
We are very excited at the hope you will collaborate with us on this and will show our gratitude in any way you request including granting you equal copyright ownership if you assist in editing and wish to use it in your business. Of course, our work will certainly give credit to you and your book as the inspiration.
Keep in mind, this is not a commercial endeavor. We're doing this purely to assist our volunteer group and no-one else unless you wish to use it--then you're welcome, if you assist in editing it.
Sincerely,
Wayne
pietymoon wrote:2. at
http://www.prebabel.info/bab015.htm among other things you also write:
Tienzen wrote:"
Book 4: "Chinese Etymology" (in English, 326 pages, intended as a textbook for American kid who knows not a single Chinese at the beginning) which has three Lessons and one character list (about 8,000 words). This book is copyright with US # TX 6-917-909, on January 16, 2008. This book is available in many university libraries. Please visit
http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/318075862 for details.
.....
Note: as a textbook for a beginner,
it contains only about 10% the etymology theory in comparison to the Book 1."
so if it gives only 10% of knowledge needed, where the student is supposed to pick up the rest?
Kids are not taught about the linguistic reason or theory of Chinese etymology but are taught the discovered results as they are. All Chinese words (8,000 in the book) are learned by knowing only 220 roots and 300 sound modules together with the methods of dissection and decoding those words. Indeed, the background theory is mentioned as little as possible to lighten kids workload.
For anyone (including students) who is interested in the theory of this Chinese etymology, there are some free material available at,
1. Chinese Language & Etymology
http://www.chinese-word-roots.org/ 2. Chinese Language & Etymology Blog
http://chineselanguageetymology.blogspot.com/ For more advanced material, they are available for purchasing at,
3. "Chinese Word Roots and Grammar" (中 文 的 字 根 與 文 法) at
http://www.chinese-word-roots.org/cw3.htm 4. Linguistics Manifesto (ISBN 978-3-8383-9722-1), available at amazon and Barnes & Noble at’
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Lingui ... +manifesto pietymoon wrote:3. Are there any non-chinese students having succeed with this system?
There are only chinese students on all photos we see at chineseetymology.com website
so it makes one think only chinese could succeed with Mr.Tienzen system.
Most of my non-Chinese students are on-line students.