World Record links to all the articles and posts that describe the world record attempt made by Jason.

New Method links to all the articles that explain what is Chinese Etymology, how it works and why it is now emerging as the BEST method to learn Chinese in the world!

Reviews shows a list of organizations and universities that have reviewed the Chinese Etymology methodology and Jason’s world record, among this list is the Premier of Taiwan Government.

The Tutorial Camp link continues to be one of our highest interests for our site visitors and we have left the link on the top menu for your convenience. If you have not looked yet, be sure to check out our online learning school and tutorial camp, you can learn Chinese fast online and follow the same study path as Jason did to achieve his world record!

Finally, we have added the Even more link that lists for you all of our other sites in the Chinese Etymology site network, including our online forums, online school and online bookstore.

We encourage you to take a look around and we hope you enjoy our new navigation.

In this “Words of the week” program, I will provide the theoretical framework on a new Chinese etymology which made Jason’s accomplishment possible. And, I will discuss a few words on their etymology in each post, of why they are written as they are and with the meanings as they are. The following words are teasers for the reader to contemplate about this new Chinese etymology. Can you get some ideas from this list? These few words encompass the entire points of this new Chinese etymology. Do spend some time to contemplate them.

1. 乎, 呼
2. 姊, 弟, 第
3. 前, 慈, 首
4. 叔, 椒
5. 卬, 迎 、 仰 、 抑 、 昂
6. 攸 , 絛 、 條 、 修 、 倏 、 悠 、 焂 、 筱 、 脩
7. 最
8. 鏡

However, we should get a proper perspective of what this new etymology is all about first.
This new Chinese etymology (CE) claims four revolutionary points.
a. All Chinese characters are composed of from only 220 word-roots.

b. The meaning of every Chinese character can be read out from its face by dissecting and decoding its composition.

c. Every Chinese character carries a sound tag either explicitly or implicitly.

d. By learning the three above, this new CE has transformed the most difficult language into the easiest one, from 6 years of humility to 90 days of enjoyment.

This new CE was presented at Annual Conference of CollegeBoard, http://www.chinese-word-roots.org/cw8.htm
Now, I should give a brief description about the humility of the old school ways first.

The Chinese written language was always viewed as the most difficult language to learn, even for the Chinese people themselves. In 1920s, it’s illogical character structure was viewed as the culprit for China’s demise at the time. The slogan at the time was “without abandoning the Chinese characters, the China as a nation will surely vanish.” Qian_Xuantong (錢 玄 同 , http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qian_Xuantong ), one of the greatest Chinese philologist in 1930s, even promoted the replacement of Chinese with Esperanto. Finally, in 1958, a major effort to simplify the Chinese word system was launched. That is, at that time, no one in China knew that Chinese written language is an 100% root word system which “is” the most logic and the easiest language to learn in the world.

Even with the above facts, one might still not get a sense of difference between this new etymology and the old schools. Thus, an article “Why Chinese Is So Damn Hard” (by David Moser, University of Michigan Center for Chinese Studies) can be of a help to know the difference between the two.

Moser wrote, “Someone once said that learning Chinese is “a five-year lesson in humility”. I used to think this meant that at the end of five years you will have mastered Chinese and learned humility along the way. However, now having studied Chinese for over six years, I have concluded that actually the phrase means that after five years your Chinese will still be abysmal, but at least you will have thoroughly learned humility.” His article is available at http://pinyin.info/readings/texts/moser.html

It is an excellent article to read. Please do read that article, and you will appreciate this blog much better.

Tienzen (Jeh-Tween) Gong

http://www.chinese-word-roots.org

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!

 
For learning a second language, a language environment of that language is very important on learning for almost all languages. The verbal part of a language not only is a great memory anchor for learning the written part of that language but is, often, non-separable from that written language. Chinese written language is, perhaps, the only exception from the above law. The Chinese verbal language helps very little on the learning of Chinese written language. In fact, 50% of native Chinese middle school graduates cannot write a comprehensive essay smoothly, and 85% of native Chinese college graduates cannot read Chinese classic writings easily. Thus, Chinese written language was and still is viewed as one of the most difficult written languages to learn. On the contrary, Chinese verbal language could be one of the easiest verbal languages to learn. In general, almost everyone can speak Chinese verbal language as the second language with ease after in that language environment in one year. Yet, the illiterate, by definition, is one who is able to speak and to listen but unable to read and to write.

However, the recent works of Jason and Henry have changed a 5,000 year old known fact and have proved that Chinese written language is, in fact, the easiest written language to learn in the world. Chinese written language can be learned not only without a language environment but without learning the verbal part at the same time. Thus, the curriculum on learning Chinese language can be divided into two parts, the verbal and the written. Although the Chinese verbal language is much easier than to learn speaking English (at least 50% easier), this Chinese-Etymology program will begin with learning the written language first (without learning any verbal parts), as it is easier than high school geometry or chemistry.

This is a 200 hour program which allows the students to gain the ability to read current Chinese newspaper from an initial state of not knowing a single Chinese word. This 200 hour can be divided into four stages.

1. Learning the Chinese word form — 30 hours. After 30 hours, students should be able to duplicate any Chinese character (however complex it is) with handwriting after glancing it for 10 seconds. This lesson can be learned by any fourth grade (or up) American student.
2. Learning the Chinese word meaning — 100 hours.
   • Learning to dissect 1,200 Chinese characters (Generation one words) — 20 hours. This lesson can be learned by any 4th grade student who has mastered the previous lesson.
   • Learning 300 Chinese sound modules —
     1. The sound of those sound modules — 0 hour, students must not waste time on this at this point.
     2. The dissection and the decoding of those 300 sound modules — 30 hours.
     3. The decoding of 1,200 G1 words (re-dissect them first) — 30 hours.
     4. The checking of your decoding results — 20 hours. Students should learn the use of a traditional Chinese dictionary (sorted by leading radicals, not pin-ying dictionary please) to help of verifying the decoding results.

     At this point, students should have learned over 2,000 Chinese words (characters) while they should feel at ease for all (58,000) Chinese words.
     These lessons can be learned by any 4th grade student who has mastered the previous lessons.

3. Learning the Chinese vocabularies — 50 hours. Although all Chinese words (characters) have meaning, the meaning of a Chinese written sentence is, often, composed of and by vocabularies which are word phrases (composed of 2 or more words).
   • Learning 2,000 commonly used two word phrases — 20 hours. As the meaning of word phrase is coming from its composing words, this is an easy lesson when students have mastered the knowledge of words (characters).
   • Learning 1,000 commonly used four word phrases (idioms) — 20 hours.
   • Learning to demarcate the Chinese phrases in newspaper — 10 hours.
4. Practicing to read Chinese newspaper — 20 hours.
5. Learning the Chinese verbal language — this part goes beyond this 200 hour program.
   • Learning the sound of 300 sound modules — 20 hours.
   • Learning the 4-tones of those 300 sound modules — 20 hours. At this point, students can discern 70% of all Chinese sounds.
   • Learning the daily conversation — unlimited.

Although the verbal part of lessons can be mixed in with the written language lessons, it is strongly recommended of not doing so with the lesson 1 and 2 (the first 130 hours) for two reasons.

1. These two lessons can be mastered without the verbal part, as all word roots are silent in their composed words.
2. Learning the verbal in these two lessons will cause a serious distraction and is a wasting of time on the objectives of those lessons.

However, if for any reason (regulation, standards or else) that verbal part must go together with the written part, such a verbal / written curriculum can be easily designed.

Furthermore, although the sequences of the written part lessons must be followed, each lesson or segment (sub-lesson) can be studied alone. That is, they can be easily spread across school semesters or years.

1. Question (from renzhe, Chinese forum): A true test of the system would be if you could devise the meanings of characters and words where you don’t know the meaning. … All you do is provide examples of the system in action on examples where you already know the answer, and each example uses a different explanation after you already know the answer.
   1. Answer (from the World Record Committee):

       
       

      On June 5th 2008, Jason had a media test. Not only were there many chinese reporters but also teachers from chinese schools in the LA area, and anyone who is interested in chinese was invited to that meeting. I was one of the people who attended that meeting. As a member of Testing committee, I was able to sense the atmosphere of the meeting.

       
       

      At the beginning, all news reporters were in a hostile mood and wanted to challenge Jason’s claim eagerly. They threw out the first test word 尷 with victorious smiles on their faces. Jason was able to duplicate the word with hand writing after glancing at it for only a few seconds. They were slightly surprised with this but still confident about their test word. After 30 seconds of silence, Jason said in english (as he was unable to speak a single Chinese word verbally) that the left radical means “the humpback” and the right radical means “supervision”. After another 30 seconds, Jason said, “The original meaning of this word is a man who does not know how to act under supervision,” meaning this person doesn’t know what to do. After this answer, I sensed right the way that the entire atmosphere in the room had changed from hostile to a state of shock. Later, I found out:

      • Although all the Chinese reporters know the meaning of 尷 which does mean that someone doesn’t know how to act, however, none of them knew that the left radical meant humpback.

      After this first test word, it took a few minutes discussion among the reporters to come up with the second test word 靈 . Again after just a few seconds, Jason dissected this word as follows.

      1. The top radical is rain
      2. The middle radicals are three mouths, meaning three or more persons.
      3. The bottom radical is shaman.

      Jason said that this word shows a scene of, at least, “3” shamans dancing for rain. It means channeling with rain spirits. Jason never did say that it means “spirit,” the fashionable meaning today.

      About 15 more words were tested after these first two. The following are two more examples:

      1. 藝 , Jason answered:
         • The top part is about plants. So, this word is either a name of a plant or something about plant.
         • The middle part 執 means holding something with hand.
         • The bottom part 云 means a great ability.

         In general, a plant’s name is often identified with one sound tag. As this word has two additional radicals, it might not be the name of a plant but must be something about or relating to plants. By decoding these parts, it must be a great ability handling plants.
         Again, Jason never did said that 藝 means art, the fashionable meaning today. While many Chinese reporters are looking at one another on deciding the validity of Jason’s answer, one Chinese scholar (Mr. Chou) said that Jason was correct as the original meaning of the word is about the great ability on farming.

      2. 摺 , Jason said:
         • The left part is about the hand action.
         • The right part is about practicing.

         So, it means a repeated hand action.
         Jason never did said that 摺 means folding, the fashionable meaning today.

      After these test words, there were some discussion among the Chinese news reporters. They concluded:

      • Jason did not know the fashionable meaning of those words.
      • Jason gets the meaning of those words by a new method which is unknown to all Chinese reporters (more than a dozen) and to all Chinese scholars (more than 5 in the room).

      In fact, after the first two test words, I could sense the mood in the room among the Chinese reporters which had changed from shocking to praising. In their reporting (5 newspapers and 6 TV stations), they all reported their awe about the first test word 尷 .

   2. Answer (from Jason):
      My study steps can answer this question or comment. It consists of the following steps. 
      • Step one: Learning 220 word roots from the text book Chinese Etymology. At this step, I was not allowed to learn any character. It took two days for this step.
      • Step two: Under each word root, there are 4 to 10 characters which are composed of that word root plus other parts. My task is to dissect those characters by using the word roots, such as, 貸 is 人 + 匕 + 貝 . At this point, I was not allowed to learn the meaning of those characters.Note: Besides the word roots, the entire Chinese character set is constructed in generations.
        1. Generation 1 (G1) words are composed of from word roots or sound modules, and they must be the progenitors of many descendant words.
        2. In lesson one, it lists about 1,200 G1 words.

        It took 5 days to dissect 1,200 G1 words.

      • Step three: In lesson two, it lists 300 sound modules, and it consists of three sub-lessons.
        1. Three hundred (300) sounds are encompassing 70% of all Chinese verbal sounds. However, I was not allowed to learn them at this point.
        2. The meaning of those three hundred sound modules (characters) are given, and I should learn them.
        3. Those 300 characters were dissected and decoded in the book, and I must learn them as examples of dissection and decoding of Chinese characters.

        Note: There are rules of dissection and decoding in the later lessons. However, I was not allowed to learn them at this step. I can only sense the two processes (dissection and decoding) from the examples of those 300 sound modules. It took a week (7 days) to complete this task.

      • Step four: Armed with the knowledge of 300 sound modules (characters) and the examples of dissection and decoding, I must go back to lesson one:
        1. To re-dissect those G1 words. And it was clear to me that my first time dissection was far from what it should be.
        2. To read the meaning of each word with decoding by simply read the meaning of dissected parts. If I dissected it wrong, I can never decoding the meaning correctly, such as, dissecting 查 as 木 + 旦 , and we will be in a big trouble.

        At this step, I am not allowed to use dictionary to find out the meaning of the word before I did the dissection and decoding.
        It took 10 days to complete this task.

      • Step five: I must look up the meaning of all (1,200) G1 words from a dictionary. Then, I must do two things. Was my decoding of the character matching with (or close to) the dictionary?
        1. If it is, I get one good point.
        2. If it is not, then I must find out who is wrong.
           • My dissection was wrong.
           • Dictionary lists only the fashionable meaning, not the original meaning. Eighty percent of time, the dictionary (not 康 熙 dictionary) lists only the fashionable meaning, such as, 來 (coming), 豆 (beans), 斤 (pound), etc..

        It took two weeks to complete this task.

      During these five steps, I “encountered” about 1,500 words (characters). The “key word” here is “encountering.” That is, I did not simply learn 1,500 words but am not encountering the other 57,000 words. When I encounter them, I should be able to dissect and to decode them. After these five steps, I should know all Chinese words regardless of whether I encountered them before or not.

   NOTE: If I learned a character without going through the process of dissection and decoding it would be wrong to this learning process.

2. Question (from imron, Chinese forum): They were reporting on it yes, but it would seem as a special interest story rather than a thorough investigation of the world record attempt, and what it actually meant.
   • Answer (from World Record Committee):
     If you are implying that those Chinese reporters are lacking journalist integrity, we think that it could happen for one or two such reporters. For all (more than a dozen) of them to be liars (in the sake of some interests) is way beyond our hearts to take. If it is the case, we are truly, truly, truly… sorry, although it is not a shame of ours. 

      
      

     However, we are truly shocked that anyone can contemplating that all Chinese reporters (who attended Jason’s meeting) are crooks. It will be truly, truly sad even if this is only a remote possibility (crooked reporters). If imron truly believes that there is such a possibility, he should ask the editor-in-chief of those newspapers to investigate this possibility, and we will follow his lead to demand an answer. Indeed, we should act right now instead of throwing cheap shots to smear a third party in a discussion forum.

3. Question (from imron): This is easily demonstrated by the fact that the majority of the Chinese media reports shown on the chinese-etymology.com site claim that this is a Guinness Record (????), when in fact it is not Guinness Records conducting or verifying the test but rather a self-styled World Record Committee.
   • Answer (from World Record Committee):
     1. Jason has never claimed it to be a Guinness record. Our understanding was that Jason did contact Guinness Record. It replied that the key interest of Guinness is about the “reflect the general interest”. The World record of learning Chinese is neither in the scope of their interest nor in their ability to verify.
     2. After checking many times over, we did not find any news report which stated that Jason’s record “is” a Guinness record. They used two words, 創 (creating) or 破 (breaking). They reported that Jason was “trying” to 創 or to 破 Guinness record (of course, if there is such a record). Without such a Guinness record, any such a record is a 破 and a 創 relating to Guinness record. The bottom line is that not a single report stated that Jason’s record is or will be a Guinness record.
4. Question (from roddy, Chinese forum): I also suggest he takes that world record thing down, as it’s a bit of an embarrassment.
   • Answer (from World Record Committee):
     As the possibility that all Chinese reporters are crooks has been brought up, we could accept that Jason’s site is nothing but a hoax, putting up by some con artists, such as Chinese reporters, Chinese scholars (members of testing committee) and Jason himself. 

      
      

     However, before the World Record Committee awarded Jason his World Record, we did invite the world to review and to challenge his work and claims, that is, he was and still is putting himself on the “spot” (the 的, 眾 矢 之 「 的 」 , the target of all arrows). Even if Jason were a con artist, he has the right to stand tall and high when he has the courage to be the 的 of all investigations.

      
      

     Note: from the posts of your discussion forum, we noticed that no member of that forum knows that 的 means the “target.” There is a Chinese idiom, 無 「 的 」 放 矢 (shooting without knowing the target). That is, that who does the 無 「 的 」 放 矢 should be embarrassed.

      
      

     In fact, many institutions did investigate into Jason’s work and claims.

     1. The Execute Yuan (行 政 院 ) of Taiwan did issue a directive to the Ministry of Education (教 育 部 ) of Taiwan to review Jason’s claim.
     2. Many American university presidents (Harvard, Yale, the UC system, USC, Cal State — Northridge, etc.) are directing their linguistics department to review Jason’s work.
     3. Dr. Chris Golston (Chair of Department of Linguistics, Cal State, Fresno) did challenge Jason. However, the Provost of the university (Dr. Jeri Echeverria) wrote a letter of apology right the way.

     The above facts and documents (their directives and letters) are available on Jason’s site.

     Under so many powerful reviews, Jason’s claim should stand before he is discredited. We think that the “embarrassment” belongs to those by throwing cheap shots. If we have no ability to discredit Jason ourselves, we, at least, can demand those powerful institutes (Taiwan government, Harvard University, Yale University, USC, etc.) to release their investigations as soon as possible. We are doing such demand right here and are asking you to join us to do the same in your future posts.

5. Question (from renzhe, Chinese forum): It is widely known that characters are composed of parts and that parts of characters carry meanings and that other parts carry phonetic information.
   • Answer (from Jason):
     The 康 熙 leading radicals (部 首 ) were known for two thousand years. Can we read out the meaning of Chinese characters by using the 康 熙 radicals? Of course, you cannot. In fact, no one could. If anyone wants to argue this point with me, please decode the meaning of the following words with the 康 熙 radicals.
     侯 、 候 、 修 、 倉 , they all have 人 as the 康 熙 leading radicals.
     With 康 熙 radicals, Chinese words can never be dissected correctly, and there is no chance to decode them correctly. 

      
      

     In 1920s (during the May 4th movement), the slogan in China was 漢 字 不 廢 、 中 國 必 亡 (if not abandon Chinese character system, China as a nation will disappear from the Earth). Chinese character system was deemed as the culprit for China’s backwardness and high illiteracy rate at that time. This was why Chinese characters were simplified in 1958. If 康 熙 radicals allow Chinese character system to be learned in 90 days, then it had no reason to do the simplification. If you are a native Chinese and say that Chinese character system is easy to learn because that all characters are composed of parts, you will be the first person saying so, as all the great scholars during the 1950s in China did not know that.

      
      

     No, the fact that characters are composed of parts (especially in terms of 康 熙 radicals) will not make learning Chinese character system any easier. In fact, with the 康 熙 radicals there is no chance of any kind that we can dissect and decode Chinese characters correctly. Only a right set of word roots can lead to a right way of dissecting characters and a right path of decoding them.

      
      

     If you don’t know how to dissect a word correctly, you can never decode the meaning of that word correctly. Then, you must learn every character independently (not knowing it with a process), and it takes 4 to 5 school years for native Chinese children to learn 3,000 characters.

6. Question (from renzhe): The problem is that you are using a secret system that claims all sorts of great things, and you don’t want to tell us what it is. Yes, we haven’t read the book, because the book costs $400.
   • Answer (from Jason):
     1. Obviously, you know that the text book I used is available on Internet. It is not a secret.
     2. It can also be found in some university libraries, such as, Harvard, Yale, Stanford, etc..
     3. It’s Chinese edition can be found in some public libraries in California.

1. Rules for a person who learns a second language in the least amount of time from the initial condition of knowing not a single word of that language to the proficiency of being able to read a current newspaper published in that language: 
   1. In this competition, any two languages that share the same language genealogy will not be a second language to each other, such as, Spanish will not be a second language to a person with English being his or her first language while Arabic, Chinese or Japanese would be his or her second language. At here, the second language must be a major world language: Indo-European languages (English, Spanish, French, etc), Arabic, Chinese language system (Chinese, Japanese, etc), and it can not be a primitive aboriginal language that is used in a primitive social order.
   2. This competition is consisting of the following three major parts: 
      1. This competition is only on the written language for the selected second language,
         and the verbal (speaking) language is not a part of this competition.
      2. The one who enters into this competition, the attempter, must not know a single word of his or
         her selected second language at the point of entering into this competition.
      3. The standard for success and completion of this competition is that the attempter must be able to read a current newspaper published in the selected second language at the proficiency equivalent to the native people of that language. The way to test this proficiency is described in II.B.
2. Proof and Verification:
   1. Proof of initial condition:
      1. Testimony from friends, former co-workers and family to prove that the attempter knew not a single written word of the selected qualified second language at the initial condition.
      2. Eye witness, verification committee
      3. Any other supporting documents
   2. The method of verification of proficiency:
      1. Fifty (50) words from a current newspaper of the selected language will be randomly selected. Each word will be presented for ten seconds and the attempter will duplicate each word by hand writing and will provide its meaning.
          

         Note: This is not a timed section. However, one hundred twenty (120) minutes could be a reasonable estimate.

      2. Three (3) headlines will be randomly selected and the attempter will translate each headline into his or her native language.
          

         Note: This is a language proficiency test and not a culture knowledge test.  
         Therefore, any cultural-laden phrase shall be excluded from this proficiency test. This is not a timed section. However, forty five (45) minutes could be a reasonable estimate.

      3. Test on the proficiency of using a dictionary:Knowing how to use a dictionary is a very important part for literacy. In this section, twenty (20) minutes is allowed for the attempter to use a dictionary to check his or her previous test sections.
          

         Note: The dictionary used by the attempter shall be examined and approved by the testing and verification committee.

      4. Standard for success and completion: The way of point calculation is as follows: 
         1. Each word of the fifty (50) word section accounts for 2 points, and the total section accounts for one hundred (100) points. In this section, each question has a two part answer, duplication of a word by hand writing and the meaning of that word. An error in either part of each answer will result in a 0.80 point deduction.
         2. Each answer for the headline translation section accounts for 5 points. This section of the test accounts for fifteen (15) points.
         3. For the dictionary section, no point is given directly. Any point gain through corrections of the two above test sections by using a dictionary will be the score of this section.

         A test score of eighty (80) or greater (from the sum of all three sections) will be success and completion for this test.

   3. The party who will conduct the verification of proficiency test:
      1. This testing and verification committee must be composed of, at least, three persons who are:
         1. Reputable and in good-standing within their community
         2. Not all within the same organization
      2. The operations of this testing and verification committee must be fully transparent, such as under the review of public media.
3. To Issue the World Record CertificatesFor issuing a World Record certificate, the testing and verification committee must adhere to the following procedure:
   1. The testing and verification committee must issue two certificates.
      1. Certificate of proof of the initial condition
      2. Certificate of proof of success and completion of the proficiency test
   2. The above two certificates must be placed in the public eye for review for thirty days. If there is no challenge made, then the first confirmation certificate can be issued.
   3. The methodology used by the atemptee must be placed in the public eye for examination for thirty days. If there is no challenge made, then the second confirmation certificate can be issued.

   Ten days after two confirmation certificates are issued, the certificate of the World Record can be issued to the attempter.

1. 50 words were randomly selected by the members of the Testing and Verification Committee from current newspapers.

 
The words circled by the blue or red markings are tested words. More samples of the test question sheets are available here.

1. Jason Tyler Gong‘s Test Answer Sheets

The entire test answer sheets are available here.

1. Pictures of the Official Test

More pictures are available here.

Pictures of the Public Test

The words circled in red are public tested words. 
 

The two pictures below are still-Frames of Sky Link News broadcast:

The three pictures below are newspaper press coverages:

中 國 日 報 (China Daily), April, 4, 2008 

星 島 日 報 (Singtao Daily), April, 4, 2008

台 灣 時 報 (Taiwan Times), April, 4, 2008

The methodology on mastering Chinese written language in three months

On April 23, 2008, Chinese Daily News (1588 Corporate Center Dr., Monterey Park, CA 91754) which is the largest circulated Chinese newspaper in the United States reported the annual conference of Chinese Language Association of USA Secondary-Elementary Schools, which was held in New York with over 700 teachers who teach the Chinese language. The picture below is the report, and it stated three facts:

1. After the initial enthusiasm wears off, most American students drop out of a Chinese-learning program and never return.
2. One conference attendee reported that one parents spent 6,000 USD for their child to learn the Chinese language while the child learned only six Chinese characters, and she emphasized that this was not an isolated case.
3. That parents blamed not on their child but on the teaching method for this result.

Every illiterate Chinese can speak very well in Chinese. In fact, the definition of illiteracy is that a person is able to speak well while is unable to read and to write. The current method of teaching Chinese language in the United State is a way to produce illiterates, not literacy in Chinese. For the old way of teaching Chinese language, especially as a second language, there are three damned birth defects.

1. Every Chinese written word is viewed as a stand alone character without any logic connection to any other words. That is, there is no association memory at the character level available for memorizing any of those characters. Thus, every word must be learned in sentences, and the true meaning of a word is not learned. Only its application in that particular sentence was learned. This pathway causes three major problems.
   • As a word’s application in different sentences changes, students will have a hard time to grasp the meaning of a word.
   • The true meaning of a word is, often, lost in this process, and students do not truly know a learned word when it appears at a different application. In fact, 99% of native Chinese college graduates cannot comprehend the old Chinese classic writings while they know most of those words.
     Every (100%) native Chinese knows the word 台 and some of its applications, such as 台 灣 、 台 階 . What is the true meaning of the word 台 ? It means a person with a great speaking ability, and its extended meaning becomes “podium.” That is, 台 is a word for salutation, such as in 兄 台 、 台 端 . Yet, how many native Chinese knows about this? Probably, none or almost none.
   • Without a logic memory anchor for any individual Chinese character, students must learn hundred-thousands sentences in order to harvest a few thousands (3,000 is the minimum for reading Chinese Newspaper) Chinese characters, and this is a gigantic task for any young person, including the young folk of native Chinese. Thus, most of young Americans who tried to learn Chinese will turn out to be an illiterate (might be able to speak somewhat) in Chinese even after he has invested a few years (3 to 5 years) in studying it.
2. The pronunciation of many Chinese characters cannot be read out loud from its word form. That is, the sound of a character is not a memory anchor for it but is an additional burden for the memory.
3. In terms of illiteracy on Chinese, reading Chinese characters is not an easy task. Yet, the most difficult task is to write Chinese characters which have unique forms for every and each Chinese character. Writing every Chinese character correctly is a major task even for the native Chinese, let alone for someone who learns them as a second language.

Because of these birth defects of the Chinese written language, it takes 6 to 7 years for native Chinese to learn three to four thousand words (just being able to read newspaper), 12 to 16 years to learn five to six thousand words (still below a true literacy in terms of Chinese literature, which needs over twelve thousand words). However, if Chinese written language (words) has a chemistry-like logical structure, from atoms to molecule to higher chemical compounds to bio-chemistry to organs to lives, then Chinese written language can be learned just by learning a few atoms and a few bonding rules. As these atoms and rules are few, its entirety can be learned in a few months, perhaps, in three months. As the entire Chinese written language universe is described and encompassed by these few atoms and rules, the entire Chinese written language can be learned in three months. In fact, this is the case; the Chinese written language, indeed, has a chemistry-like logical structure. The following is a brief description on that fact.

The logic structure of Chinese written language

In order to master Chinese language as a second language while without living in that language environment, it must be learned as a knowledge, not as a living habit.

There are two major differences between Chinese and English words. Some English words are having root words, such as:

• cad-, cid-, cas-; happen
  • accident, casual, decadent, incident, Occident,…
• fus-, fund-, found-; flow
  • confuse, foundry, fusion, refund, diffuse, effusion,…
• plic-, plicit, plex-, ply-; to fold, twist, tangle, connect
  • complex, complexion, complicate, explicit, implicate, …
• ……

However, the majority of English words are stand alone words, such as, book and love. Although most of them do have an origin of some sort (Latin, Greek, etc.), their meanings cannot be read out loud from their faces.

Thus, the followings are the two major differences between English and Chinese words.

1. While some of English words have root words, 100% (not a single exception) of Chinese words is composed of word roots.
2. The original meaning of every Chinese word can be read out loud from its face, such as:
   • 書 (book) is 聿 (things made by hand) + 曰 (intelligent speaks). Thus, book is that some intelligent speaks have been transformed into a thing by hand.
   • 愛 (love) is the composite of
     1. Top part of 受 (receiving) which means holding hands,
     2. 心 (hearts)
     3. Bottom part of 夏 (Summer) which means walking slowly.

     So, love is that hearts hold hands and walk slowly together.

Yet, no one ever learns Chinese written words in this way for the past 5,000 years. Chinese words were always learned as stand-alone words which must be learned one at a time. Of course, for native Chinese, they have a life-time to learn them. Seemingly, this is a great strategy to prevent any foreigner to master Chinese written language before he is Sinicized.

For the past two thousand years, there were only six sentences describing the Chinese Etymology. For the following reasons, they did not provide a foundation for a word root Etymology.

• There were only titles ( 六 書 , six ways of constructing Chinese written words) without a detailed explanation text.
• These six titles do give an external-view outline about Chinese written word system. They do not give a detailed view about their internal dynamics. In short, they are not complete.
• For the past two thousand years, no one was able to elaborate those six titles further and to construct a system.

Now, I will give a scientific description of Chinese Etymology here. As ideographs, every Chinese written word can be viewed as a kind of birds. Thus, the following description (the genealogy and the internal dynamics of those birds) can be understood by someone who knows not a single Chinese word. There are four steps to construct the Chinese word system.

1. 字 根 (Word roots) — word root is the rock bottom building block for Chinese written words. It cannot be reduced any further as a composite of some constituent parts. There are a total of 220 Chinese word roots, and there are two kinds of word root.
   • Root type A (RTA) — it is also a stand-alone word. There are about 75 such word roots.
     Note: A word can often have more than one meaning. However, when it acts as a word root, it has only one meaning, its original meaning.
   • Root type B (RTB) — about 145 word roots are not stand-alone words.
     Note: As not stand-alone words, they are often not implemented in the computer, and there is no way to print them out as a character. They are printed out in this book as jpg-graph files.

   Note: The definition of word root here is similar to atom in chemistry, which is the rock bottom building block to build up molecules and the higher structures. Of course, every atom is still having a sub-structure. However, it is a subject of physics, not chemistry. Similarly, these 220 word roots also have substructures which will be discussed in lesson three. Before then, these 220 word roots are viewed as rock bottom units for dissecting Chinese words anatomically and syntactically.

2. 字 符 (Modules) — module is composed of, at least, two word roots. There are about 300 important modules, and there are two types of them.
   • Module type A (MTA) — compound roots, they are not stand alone words. Again, they are often not implemented in the computer and cannot be printed out as characters.
   • Module type B (MTB) — they are stand alone words.
     Note: Again, as a stand alone word, it can often have more than one meaning. However, when it acts as a module (a part of other words), it returns to its original meaning.

   By definition, a module always can be a part of other words. In this book, I have chosen 300 modules which are also sound roots.Note: 部 首 (leading radical) — While word roots and modules are not explicitly described in the ancient Chinese Etymology, the 部 首 (leading radical) is the central pillar of it. In 康 熙 字 典 (dictionary), it lists 214 leading radicals. It consists of two groups:

   • 43 RTB (roots not as stand alone words)
   • 171 stand alone words (RTA or MTB)

   Obviously, 部 首 alone cannot construct a word root Etymology, as word roots (220) + modules (300) is much larger than leading radicals (214).

3. 文 字 (Chinese written words):
   • Generation zero (G0) word — RTA words (word roots, yet as stand alone words) .
   • Generation one (G1) word — MTB words (modules, yet as stand alone words) or all stand alone words of leading radical are G1 words. Any stand alone word which is composed of only from word roots (no modules) is also a G1 word, such as, 左 、 右 、 友 、 反 、 祭 … .
   • Generation two (G2) word — G1 word + something (root, module or leading radical). Or, module + something.
   • Generation three (G3) word — G2 word + something
   • Higher generation words — G3 + …+ …

   Thus, theoretically, every Chinese written word can be as a module.

4. 詞 彙 (word phrase);

The entire Chinese written word system is constructed with the above procedure. The following is some examples of the above structure.

Examples

Example one:

1. Word root (king’s seal), [ 卬 、 卯 、 危 、 怨 、 令 、 命 、 卷 、 卻 …]. In this list, we can see that this word root has three different variants, such as ( 卯 、 危 、 令 ).
   Note: This word root itself might not be implemented in some computers, and it cannot be printed out. In this case, it is the right radical of the word 卯 or the bottom radical of the word 危 .
2. Module:
   • 卬 , as a stand alone word, it is also a G1 word.
     • G2 (second generation) words: 迎 、 仰 、 抑 、 昂
   • 卯 , also a G1 word.
     • G2 words: 卵 、 柳 、 貿 、 昴 、 鉚 、 泖 、 珋 、 茆 、 奅 、 窌 、 卿 、聊 、 留 、 劉
       • G3 words: 留 、 劉 have a module 卯 , not a radical 刀 .
         1. 留 ： 嵧 、 遛 、 廇 、 瘤 、 餾 、 飀 、 塯 、 溜 、 榴 、 霤 、 媹 …
            • G4 words: 籀 …
         2. 劉 ： 嬼 、 懰 、 瀏 .
   • The shared radical of ( 怨 、 鴛 、 宛 ), this module is not implemented as a stand alone word in many computer systems. Thus, there is no stand alone G1 word for this module.
     • G2 words: 宛 、 妴 、 怨 、 苑 、 駌 、 鴛 …
       • G3 words: 宛 ： 碗 、 捥 、 菀 、 蜿 、 豌 、 琬 、 涴 、 倇 、 婉 、 腕 、 睕 、 晼 、 鋺 、 綩、 剜 、 惋 、…

Example two:

1. Word root 八 , a G0 word.
2. Module ( 卷 、 拳 、 券 ). This module is not a stand alone word.
3. Words,
   • G2 words: 卷 、 拳 、 弮 、 帣 、 券 、 眷 … …
     • G3 words, 卷 ： 婘 、 倦 、 惓 、 埢 、 犈 、 捲 、 睠 、 綣 、 棬 、 腃 、 圈 、 菤 … …

Example three:

1. 小 , a G1 word.
2. Module ( 寮 、 僚 ), this module is not a stand alone word.
3. Words,
   • G2 words: 嘹 、 寮 、 繚 、 潦 、 僚 、 撩 、 嫽 、 橑 、 獠 、 療 、 遼 、 轑 、 瞭 、 暸 、 膫 、 鐐 、 蟟 、 簝 … …

Example four:

1. Word root , this root is not a stand alone word, and it is not implemented in computer.
2. Module ( 攸 、 候 ), they are stand alone words, G1 words.
3. Words:
   • G2 words, 攸 ： 絛 、 條 、 修 、 倏 、 悠 、 焂 、 筱 、 脩 …

Example five:

1. Word root 隹 , this root is also a stand alone word, a G0 word.
2. Module 雚 , this module is also a stand alone word, a G1 word.
3. Words:
   • G2 words: 灌 、 罐 、 鸛 、 觀 、 歡 、 懽 、 權 、 勸 …

Example six:

1. Word root 人 , this root is a stand alone word, a G0 word.
2. Module 僉 , this module is also a stand alone word, a G1 word.
3. Words,
   • G2 words, 僉 ： 儉 、 簽 、 憸 、 噞 、 獫 、 殮 、 澰 、 撿 、 檢 、 嶮 、 臉 、 險 、 劍 、 歛 、 斂 、 顩 、 譣 、 鹼 、 驗 、 鐱 …

With only one example, it can be an incidence. With only two examples, it can still be an coincidence. With more than three examples, it happens as accidence becoming very unlikely. There must be a underlying system driving the phenomena. In fact, the Chinese written word system is almost identical to a chemical compound system.

1. By knowing all names of chemical elements, the names of chemical compounds can be read out loud easily. The word roots are the chemical elements in Chinese written language.
2. By knowing all functions of Chemical modules (such as, benzene, enzyme, etc.), the functions of most chemical compounds can be again read out loud easily. It is the same for Chinese written words.

The recent history of Chinese Written Language

After May fourth movement of 1919, Chinese scholars unanimously agreed that, being a denotative solitary and non-logical language, Chinese written language was the culprit for China’s demise at that time. For over five thousand years, not only was Chinese government advocated learning as the only pathway to participate in politics but the tradition of countryside also viewed that studying was the only way to a personal prosperity. Yet, by 1950, over 85% of Chinese people were still illiterate because that Chinese written language was too hard to learn even for the native Chinese. Thus, the calling for converting Chinese characters into Roman alphabets was the slogan for China’s culture elite in the 1950s. By 1958, this alphabetizing of Chinese characters was not yet successful. The Chinese government launched simplified Chinese character system as an interim measure to reduce the illiteracy in the country. By 2006, the illiteracy in the country was less than 15%. Thus, the simplification of Chinese characters was viewed as the greatest achievement of Chinese government. In April 2006, Chinese government issued The law of using the Standard (simplified) Chinese Characters in public place, which encompasses all the publications (books and newspaper) and all the street signs. Any way of violating this law is prohibited and will be fined severely.

In May 2006, Chinese Etymology was published. By only learning 220 root words and 300 sound modules, one can master all (60,000) Chinese characters. The meaning of each and every (100%) Chinese word can be read out loud from its face according to that book. That is, someone who knows not a single Chinese word can master the entire Chinese written language in six months as that course can be easily scheduled as a 200 hour course. After this fact was known, a news report (on November 4, 2007 by Chinese Daily News, P.O. Box 2032, Monterey Park, CA 91754) stated that Chinese government is now contemplating of going back to the traditional Chinese characters. The graph on the left is the copy of that news report.

On March 12, 2008, Chinese Daily News reported a news conference which was hosted by the Foreign Minister of China, and it was the first news conference in his three years in the office. In that news conference, he popped out a strange statement that Chinese written language is one of the easiest language to learn in the world. His statement was immediately rebuked by an Italian reporter. She said, “Minister, I must ask you question in English as I am one of those who is unable to learn that easiest language.” Of course, Minister Yang did not retract his strange statement, and it was reported as a cold joke by all Chinese newspapers. The picture on the left is a copy of that news report.

On March 15, 2008, Chinese Daily News again reported that one branch of Chinese Parliament (similar to US Senate, composed of from different political parties) initiated a bill for teaching the traditional (not simplified) Chinese character in the grade school (see picture on the left). This is a major reversal for its policy a year ago, and it is an outright putting down China’s greatest achievement, the revolution of Chinese written word system which was attributed as the major force for eradicating the illiteracy in China. That is, this act could be viewed as treason, unless it has become the policy of the government. Seemingly, someone in China has realized that the simplified written language system did not truly simplify it, and Chinese written language can be learned in a much easier manner, in three months.

More detailed methodology explanation