Learn to Read Chinese Fast! Simplified Characters: Master 2,197 Characters in No Time (An EZChinesey Guide) Paperback – January 2, 2014

I am living and working in China for about five years. Having decided to stay here many more years, I decided that being fluent in Chinese is a must. Therefore I started to learn to speak, read and write Chinese for about two years.I would say that I can manage some basic Chinese writing but I basically face the problem that I need a lot of context to understand the meaning of certain sentences. To recognize individual words or characters is often difficult.Adapting the often practiced way of simply reviewing the characters thousands of times was not too appealing to me. Since I have a fulltime job and a busy social life I was always looking for a more efficient way.By chance I figured out Dr. Alan Hoenig’s book. It was like discovering the Holy Grail to me.Having a complete list of the most important 2200 Characters and an “easy-to-memory-story” for every single one is a huge advantage.It is much faster, more fun and efficient way to learn the Chinese Characters than struggling with ordinary strategies.This book is suitable for all levels of Chinese learners – from being a beginner till advanced ones. All can benefit.For all the people who want a quick progress and have no time to waste. Absolute value for money!

In general I love the book, exept for the fact that it contains some mistakes that ought to be avoided specially in a learning tool. Ex: the chinese blood (血) symbol's pinyin is mistakenly xie instead of xue or the symbol universe (宙) is wrongly translated to "all the time" surprisingly even the story attached is also referring to the wrong meaning.

BUT.. the associated website has been hacked and could give you a nasty virus - disappointed that the author hasn't fixed this