Simplification Tables for Remembering the Hanzi

Simplification Tables for Remembering the Hanzi - Printable Version

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Simplification Tables for Remembering the Hanzi - gdaxeman - 2011-08-03

Hey RevTKers, I've just added to the wiki something that might interest some of you: tables comparing the characters from the Remembering the Traditional and Simplified hanzi which have clearly distinguishable simplifications! Here's a sample of what you'll find in there:

Those tables can be helpful for those who've started with one book and want to know what shortcuts they can take to learn the other form faster. For now I haven't added yet the characters that are completely unrelated, but maybe I'll do that if I find that useful. Check it out (if you're interested)!

Simplification Tables for Remembering the Hanzi - mizunooto - 2011-08-16

Thanks - exactly what I wanted!

Simplification Tables for Remembering the Hanzi - Unfadeable - 2011-09-06

This is hugely helpful, thanks much. I had a look around but couldn't seem to find much on strategies from going from simplified to traditional (or viceversa) using Heisig's method. Anyone have any thoughts/advice? I'm kind of going by brute force right now, embroidering with stories where I can, but it's certainly less systematized than my progress through RTH.

Simplification Tables for Remembering the Hanzi - gdaxeman - 2011-09-06

Unfadeable Wrote:I had a look around but couldn't seem to find much on strategies from going from simplified to traditional (or viceversa) using Heisig's method. Anyone have any thoughts/advice? I'm kind of going by brute force right now, embroidering with stories where I can, but it's certainly less systematized than my progress through RTH.

Just an observation, that table I made only deals partially with the Heisig's books, so it's not exhaustive; if you're already at a point where it makes sense to learn both sets, you might need something else to supplement (or replace) it. Anyway, I'll give you an outline of a step-by-step plan I've been thinking about that may or may not help you in the process; remember that's just an idea, as I'm still focusing on the simplified characters myself. Here it is:

1. Read about the simplification process, how and what was done and such, so you can understand it better and not just brute-force it haphazardly; knowing this is very important if you want to do it more efficiently:
⇒ Simplified Chinese characters: Method of simplification

Note that there are charts linked in that article that will help you on the later steps. Actually, you might only need this to get you started. Nevertheless, I'll offer some other steps, now concerning how to learn* them:

2. Start learning all the radicals that were simplified, which will give you the most 'bang for the buck'. They are ~23 in total, and you can see them in here:
⇒ List of Kangxi radicals: Table of radicals

3. Learn the components that are not radicals but were also simplified, e.g., 䜌 → 亦 | 區 → 区 | 僉 → 佥;

With the steps 2 and 3 you'll be able to infer many (thousands of) simplified ↔ traditional characters, being able to go to and from them with much more ease. Now continuing, dealing with the "exceptions"...

4. Learn the characters that had parts removed when simplified, e.g., 雖 → 虽 | 準 → 准 | 諮 → 咨 | 獨 → 独;

5. Learn the characters that have completely different traditional and simplified forms (structural simplification); things like 隻 → 只 |專 → 专 | 護 → 护 and so on.

6. Learn the characters that have multiple traditional forms but only a single simplified one (many of them, but not all, you'll may have learned in the previous steps.) This list will guide you:
⇒ Ambiguities in Chinese character simplification.

* But how to learn them?
Perhaps you can use roughly the same process you used to learn the other form, such as Heisig's primitives, keywords and stories where it makes sense, and use additional things such as having a model with the traditional component/character as a question and the simplified version as the answer or vice versa (T→S is straightforward, but when doing S→T don't forget you'll have to deal with ambiguities, maybe by using a different question format.) In case of T↔S reviews, if the keywords are different and don't clash with others in the same set, you can relate them with a story. Maybe you can also add an additional mnemonic to differentiate T and S, but that needs to be well thought out.

Also, one thing I do differently than many others, and which can help so much while studying and reviewing multiple sets, is that I put the story on the front of my cards, together with the keyword and additional primitive meaning. That's because my goal with the reviews is not to memorize the keywords nor to be able to produce the characters from often loosely-related keywords, but to develop a deeper relationship with the characters and primitives, writing them all carefully by hand and such (the real production and meanings I derive from other places.) And I was annoyed at making so many mistakes because of similar keywords and synonyms; now things are much more fun.

That's all I can say for now; now I pass the ball.

Simplification Tables for Remembering the Hanzi - Unfadeable - 2011-09-19

Epic post gdaxeman, thanks so much for corralling all this info. I've looked into all the links you posted; they make for a great start. The problem, as you noted, is the "exceptions," which can be a bit tricky. Many have different components than those seen in RTSH, and while I could certainly start making up keywords I have decided to take a more laissez-faire attitude. Recognizing them is more important to me than writing them, so I acquired an anki deck with about 500 traditional characters that constitute the exceptions (sorry, forgot the link, I think it was on http://www.chinese-forums.com) and I'm just drilling for recognition for now. And really only about 3-400 are characters one comes across often, so it's really not all that daunting after all. I think after a bit more reading in traditional it will all start to coalesce.

Oh and your method for RTH SRS is very intriguing...most of the time when I fail cards it's because I was thinking of a very similar keyword, might have to try your way...

Simplification Tables for Remembering the Hanzi - yudantaiteki - 2011-09-19

Nice list. Since you went that far, you might as well add a final section listing the cases where a character was replaced with a totally different character unrelated in form (i.e. 後 to 后)...if you have time, that is.

Simplification Tables for Remembering the Hanzi - KanjiDevourer - 2011-09-19

yudantaiteki Wrote:Since you went that far, you might as well add a final section listing the cases where a character was replaced with a totally different character unrelated in form (i.e. 後 to 后)...if you have time, that is.

This (Simplified Characters Not Used As Components) might be a handy source even though not in database form.