Learn how to write (not draw) the form of all 220 word roots with the correct pen-stroke sequence

Memorize the meaning of all 220 word roots

Become aware that there are some similarities and small differences in forms:

• Form of the word root as a root
• Form of the word root as a variant
• Form of the word root as a stand-alone word (RTA word forms)
• Form of the word root when implemented as a radical

Become aware that there are some limitations in today’s computer-printing technology and therefore sometimes small details are lost that help to discern similar-looking word roots

Instructions:

 
Read through Lesson One (Chinese Etymology).
 
Practice writing each word root with the correct pen-stroke sequence and memorize the form and meaning for all 220 word roots.
 
Glance over (do not analyze) the words listed under each word root. As stated in the objectives, we notice that word roots can appear with slight differences in form. Remember that there is always a consistent form of the word root as a root. A word root may or may not have variants. Recall that some word roots are stand-alone words (RTA words) and may have a different form when used as stand-alone words. Also, be aware that when a word root is implemented as a radical of another word its implemented form may vary slightly from its original form. At this point, we do not want to try to memorize all of the differences in forms; Lesson Two will provide a greater understanding, and Lesson Three is almost entirely dedicated to sorting out these confusing differences. Simply be aware that some differences exist.
 
Our last objective is realizing that there are some limitations in today’s computer-printing technology. This is a technology problem and can otherwise be ignored. It is only mentioned here to clarify that some word roots in their “printed” form look identical; however, they are different word roots and have different meaning. The following lessons and our experience will help us to discern between similar-looking word roots.
 

Study Log:

 
I began my studies and Assignment 3 on March 17, 2008 and I completed Assignment 3 in only nine days on March 25, 2008.
 
Book 1, Page 1 — Book 1, Page 29

Book 2, Page 1
 
Below are a few picture examples from my notebook:
 

Example 1

Example 2

Comments:

 
Learning the 220 word roots was an amazing experience for me! I noticed that every time I learned a new word root, I began to see that root pop out or become visibly obvious to me when looking at several other Chinese words, even without being familiar with the remaining strokes of the words. The more word roots I learned, the less Chinese words looked like random scribbles. It was very fascinating to me that I could look at a Chinese word that I had never seen before and determine the word’s containing roots and also know that the word pertained to those roots in some way. I remember talking to a patron at the library where I was conducting my studies and explaining briefly to him about the word root system. He showed me a word and I recognized that it contained the word root variant for “water”. Although I did not know exactly what the word meant at the time (I had only studied for a few days), I told him that it was something relating to water or liquid. He was amazed because the word he had shown to me was “oil”. It was at that moment when I had a very strange sensation. I realized that for the native Chinese it normally takes years to learn what I was learning in hours and days. For a brief moment I felt a great pity come over me. I thought, why were so many people led to strife and struggle when presented with this language in years past? I concluded that before now, no one had ever known the truth that the Chinese language was a word root language, or if someone had known, it was never made public. The pity was then quickly replaced with determination and purpose! I knew that I was doing something unique and totally new! I wanted to make this system known to everyone who desired to learn Chinese and to prove the system’s validity. I knew that in order to do that I would have to learn Chinese faster than anyone in the world had ever imagined possible! And that is exactly what I planned to do!

Be able to read newspaper headlines

Instructions:

Pick up a current Chinese newspaper and begin reading and translating the headlines.

Study Log:

I began Assignment 15 on June 8, 2008 and I completed Assignment 15 in three days on June 10, 2008.

Approximate words learned in this lesson: 165
Approximate total words learned thus far: 2625
 

Comments:

Reading the newspaper headlines were slightly more difficult than simply reading sentences from Chinese school books. The biggest reason for this is because headlines typically use several names and proper nouns that just had to be learned outright. Another reason is because the headlines would not be complete thoughts, they would just pick certain catch phrases and group them together, so, sometimes I had to look a little beyond what was given to make sense of it. I was pleased that I could make any sense of it at all since many people thought that it was impossible having only studied for a little over eighty days.
 
This concludes my study log for this record attempt, the remaining days up to June 14, 2008 I spent reviewing and preparing myself for the proficiency test. I now look forward to continuing my studies and advancing into the verbal and speaking portion of the Chinese language!

1. Learn phrase demarcation within a sentence
2. Understand the complete sentence structure

Instructions:

Read through Chinese school books volume 2 to volume 7.

Study Log:

I began Assignment 14 on May 23, 2008 and I completed Assignment 14 in only eight days on May 30, 2008.
 
Book 7, Page 1 — Book 7, Page 50

Book 8, Page 1 — Book 8, Page 8
 
Approximate words learned in this lesson: 192
Approximate total words learned thus far: 2460
Approximate commonly used phrases (two or three-word phrases) learned in this lesson: 300
 
Below are a few examples of my notebook:
 

Example 1

Example 2

Comments:

 
This was the assignment I was anxious to get to from my very first day of study! I kept reminding myself that ultimately the goal was to become literate and I think that was a good point to focus on throughout my entire learning process. When I opened my first book and began to read and translate the short stories within it, I was overjoyed! I did not care that it was a book for a first grader, I knew I had to start somewhere, plus it was extremely fun. I felt like I was in grade school again reading about birds and butterflies, flowers and trees. As I progressed through the books surpassing a grade level each day, the stories, too, were longer and more detailed. I was amazed! I could read! On the technical side of things, the reading assignment continued to improve my ability to demarcate phrases, introduced me to Chinese sentence structure, and also taught me a lot of commonly used words in everyday situations.

Learn any new words introduced in Assignment 11 and Assignment 12

Instructions:

Dissect and Decode all the new words introduced in Assignment 11 and Assignment 12.

Study Log:

 
I began Assignment 13 on May 18, 2008 and I completed Assignment 13 in only five days on May 22, 2008.
 
Book 6, Page 1 — Book 6, Page 21
 
Approximate words learned in this lesson: 587
Approximate total words learned thus far: 2268
 
Below are a few examples of my notebook:

 

Example 1

Example 2

Comments:

 
Over the last couple assignments I had encountered a lot of new words. I decided to go ahead and dedicate a whole assignment to just going back over my study books and extracting those words and compiling them into a new word list. Then I just dissected and decoded them to help commit them to my long term memory. Guess what? It worked!

1. Learn the Chinese Idioms
2. Learn the binding properties of each word

Instructions:

1. Study the Chinese Idioms
2. Learn the binding properties of each word

Study Log:

 
I began Assignment 12 on May 11, 2008 and I completed Assignment 12 in only seven days May 17, 2008.
 
Note: There is a one day gap (May 10, 2008) between Assignment 11 and Assignment 12. Although it is not listed as an additional assignment, on May 10, 2008, I decided to do a full review of all my previous work before I began my study of Chinese Idioms.
 
Book 4, Page 29 — Book 4, Page 46

Book 5, Page 1 — Book 5, Page 28
 
Approximate words learned in this lesson: 0

Approximate total words learned thus far: 1681
Approximate Chinese Idioms (four-word phrases) learned in this lesson: 480
 
Below are a few examples of my notebook:

 

Example 1

Example 2

Comments:

 
This lesson was very challenging but paid off well in the end. It really took phrases to a new level. A key point to this lesson was learning how to demarcate a phrase. Of course there were only three possibilities, either the four word phrase contained two phrases, a single word and a three word phrase, or a three word phrase and ending with a single word. It did not take me too long before I could distinguish between the different demarcations because the four word phrase would only make sense if I demarcated it correctly. The most interesting part of this lesson was simply learning how similar Chinese idioms are to English ones. I just always assumed that idioms were unique to their respective languages. I was shocked and amused to see that I was utterly mistaken. Chinese not only had similar idioms, some of them were exactly the same, and often I found myself relating more readily to the Chinese way to say it than the English way. So, in fact, in this lesson I was learning, idioms, four word phrases, three word phrases, two word phrases, and how to demarcate the phrases all at once. It really went beyond killing “two birds with one stone”!

1. Learn the Sound Module Phrases
2. Learn the binding properties of each word
3. Understand the following phrase equations:
   a + a = a 

   a + b = a

   a + b = b

   a + b = c

Instructions:

1. Study the Sound Module Phrases
2. Learn the binding properties of each word

Study Log:

 
I began Assignment 11 on May 4, 2008 and I completed Assignment 11 in only five days on May 9, 2008.
 
Note: On May 6, 2008, I did not work on this assignment as the Testing and Verification Committee was formed on this date and held its first meeting. After the meeting, I decided to take the evening off and it was my first “real” break from my studies.
 
Book 4, Page 19 — Book 4, Page 28
 
Approximate words learned in this lesson: 0

Approximate total words learned thus far: 1681

Approximate two-word phrases learned in this lesson: 800
 
Below are a few examples of my notebook:
 

Example 1

Example 2

Comments:

 
When I first looked at sound module phrases, or just phrases in general, my progress seemed to be slow moving at first but improved quickly. In this particular assignment the phrase was given and of course the sound module I already knew, but the second word in the phrase was new to me. I had to determine the new word’s meaning by looking at the phrase and figuring out how the word was being applied, which I came to find out was not always precisely what the original meaning of the word suggested. Had it not been for my previous studies I think I would have struggled greatly with this assignment. I could not believe that this was the traditional way of learning Chinese, phrase by phrase, what a nightmare?! But since I was already able to decode the word from its containing roots and radicals the phrase just gave me another window through which to view and determine the word’s meaning.

1. In all lessons prior to Lesson Three, the 220 word roots are viewed as rock bottom anatomical units, especially visually. In an analogy, they are the atoms for chemistry. However, they do have some internal structures, similar to the atoms in physics. The first objective of this lesson is to understand these Chinese Etymology Physics.
2. The construction of the Chinese language was not only to achieve human communication but was derived from a preexisting cosmology. The second objective of this lesson is to understand this Chinese Cosmology.
3. The third objective is to understand the complete rules of decoding logic inference.

Instructions:

Read through Lesson Three (Chinese Etymology).

Study Log:

 
I began Assignment 10 on April 30, 2008 and I completed Assignment 10 in only four days on May 3, 2008.
 
Book 4, Page 9 — Book 4, Page 18
 
Approximate words learned in this lesson: 80

Approximate total words learned thus far: 1681
 
Below are a few examples of my notebook:
 

Example 1

Example 2

Comments:

 
Lesson Three might as well be called “The answers to all your previous questions”! It really cleared up all the confusion and filled the gaps about decoding logic inference, the word root etymology physics, and what part the phonetics played. It revealed all the tricky twist and turns about word forms and odd radicals such as variants, insertions, mutations, and fusions. It also described the concepts of Chinese cosmology, which really aided in my understanding of how the Chinese language developed in the way that it did. After completing this assignment I was able to look back over my previous work and see all my mistakes. Everything made sense in a whole new light!

Although without a deep genealogy, approximately eighty (80) Horizontal Modules accounts for over 60% of Chinese written words. Therefore, this lesson has the following two objectives: 
1. Learn the Horizontal Modules and their meanings
2. Understand the rules of how Horizontal Modules contributed to the meaning of their offspring words

Instructions:

Study the Horizontal Modules from the Workbook (Chinese Etymology).

Study Log:

 
I began Assignment 9 on April 28, 2008 and I completed Assignment 9 in only two days on April 29, 2008.
 
Book 4, Page 2 — Book 4, Page 8
 
Approximate words learned in this lesson: 80

Approximate total words learned thus far: 1601
 
Below are a few examples of my notebook:
 

Example 1

Comments:

 
After studying horizontal modules, I only had one outstanding question, why was not every language setup in this way? By learning just one module, such as “fish” for example, I know that any time I see that module in any other word that its meaning is some type of fish or relates to fishes in some way. In my opinion, that is a lot better than having to learn the difference between hundreds of different fish names, and that is not even to mention that after learning the differences in the name, we still have to remember it is a fish! Horizontal modules just make sense and after this assignment I found that I was more partial to the concepts of Chinese than I was to the concepts of English!

Re-familiarize ourselves with the covered material and harvest the our previous work.

Instructions:

Review all previously covered materials and work.

Study Log:

 
I began Assignment 8 on April 25, 2008 and I completed Assignment 8 in only three days on April 27, 2008.
 
Note: In addition to the date range above, I reviewed the Sound Modules and their “child” words on April 13, 2008 and April 15, 2008. Also, note that there is a gap in my study dates between Assignment 7 and Assignment 8, April 22, 2008 through April 24, 2008. I spent these three days designing and mastering this website.
 
Approximate words learned in this lesson: 0

Approximate total words learned thus far: 1521
 
There are no notebook pages to correspond to this assignment as I did not write anything down but just retraced my previous work.
 

Comments:

 
The most interesting point to note regarding this assignment was that I was amazed at how many words I was able to remember as I did my review. It seemed like I could remember nearly all of them! I realized that the only reason I could remember that many words having only looked at several of them once before was due to the methodology of my study. I remembered the forms because the words had recognizable parts and radicals comprised of the roots, which I knew well, and I remembered the meanings because of the decoding and logic inference. Even though my decoding was often slightly amiss or sometimes totally absurd, it still aided me in my memorization of the words! It was a shocking reality that I would have argued had I not experienced it first hand. In fact, the words I did not decode during Assignment 7 for whatever reason were the majority of the words that I could not remember directly. This made absolutely clear to me the power and genius of the word root system!

To read out the meaning of a word from its face by dissecting to its proper containing radicals and learning its decoding inference logic.

Instructions:

Return to Lesson One where we completed the Generation 1 (G1) dissection and decode each (G1) word’s meaning and correct any dissection mistakes that we can.

Study Log:

 
I began Assignment 7 on April 6, 2008 and I completed Assignment 7 in only fourteen days on April 21, 2008.
 
Note: The work I did on the following two days are outside the date range of this assignment: April 13, 2008 and April 15, 2008. The work I did for these two days are part of Assignment 8.
 
Book 1, Page 30 — Book 1, Page 42

Book 2, Page 2 — Book 2, Page 41
 
Approximate words learned in this lesson: 1000

Approximate total words learned thus far: 1521
 
Below are a few examples of my notebook:
 

Example 1

Example 2

Comments:

 
G1 decoding was without a doubt the biggest hurdle in my learning race and I believe, thus far, was also my greatest accomplishment. There was the fact and frustration that initially I was not very good at decoding a word. I would see the root for “night” over the root for “mouth” and think “lullaby” when really it means “name”. Or I would see the root for “cow” over the root for “mouth” and think, yes of course, a “cow’s mouth” but in fact it means to “tell or sue”. I knew that there were sometimes cultural knowledge that played a role in the logic inference of some words, but I had yet to learn a great deal about the culture. Also, I did not know at that time that the phonetics of a word could sometimes play a role in its logic inference. Although, it would not have assisted me too much considering that I was not learning any of the phonetics. Another challenge was using the Chinese dictionary. It was not easy to use because I had to guess the leading radical for each word and my first, second, and third guesses were frequently wrong. I felt confident about my pen-strokes, yet I often still had difficulties locating certain words. Moreover, sometimes the dictionary did not even have English translation so I would have to continue to look up more words just to understand what it meant in regards to my first sought definition. But, I had to check my decoding to see how close I was to the modern usage or latest fashion of how a word is used so this was a tedious task I had to bear. Sometimes my decoding would hit the target but miss the bullseye, most of the time I was far off like the examples I stated above, and only very rarely was I ever completely right or had a more accurate definition than the dictionary. I learned very quickly that for a word there is an original meaning and then possibly many derived, extended, and even borrowed meanings. For example, the original meaning for the root “transformation” placed to the right of its mirror image is “two opposing forces back-to-back” but its extended meaning is “North”. This, too, was another obstacle to overcome. Truthfully, there were a couple times that I was so irritated that I had to change things up a little bit, and that is why there is a shift in my study pattern on the dates noted above (April 13, 2008 and April 15, 2008). I did come to terms though, I knew that I would have to press forward and get through it, so I did. I wrote the words and decoded them and even if my decoding was wrong or absurd I continued to attack each word one at a time. And then, very similar to my experience during the G1 dissection, something clicked and I just began to overcome the barriers. I became savvy with the dictionary to the point that I could almost simply open it directly to my sought word. My decoding was hitting that target and the bullseye more and more often. I was covering more ground much faster than I had when I began, and then before I knew it I had completed all the G1 words from the assignment! I was thrilled!