Let me first thank all who have expressed an interest in my projected
Buddhist Chinese course -- your kind words are very encouraging. Also a big
thank-you to those who have uploaded the material onto their websites ! I
have been putting off the compilatiion of this introductory course for
years, but now I suppose I'll have to finish what I've started.
For those who are seriously thinking about learning a bit of Chinese to read
Buddhist texts, I would like to suggest the following:
1. Writing the characters: You will probably not be able to learn the
characters just by looking at them -- you will need to write them out over
and over again. Practice every day !!! But do not try to learn more than
6 characters max per day -- your brain will probably not be able to sustain
a higher volume than that rate for more than a week. This actually applies
to learning any language as an adult -- there have been studies about the
optimum pattern for learning vocabulary that corroborate this. There is
also a learning technique that combinese writing the words out and using
flashcards.
2. Anyway, to write Chinese characters, you have to know how to write
them. Also, East Asian cultures appreciate well-written characters. The
problem using materials specifically designed for modern Chinese is that
they all teach the simplified characters -- expect material from Taiwan and
overseas Chinese areas like Singapore. But if you are itching to start,
the rule is that characters are basically written from top to bottom and
left to right until you can get something visual to help you. If the first
stroke goes downwards, you write that first. Then you return to the top
left corner and write the next stroke whether it is horizontal or diagonal,
and so on in sequence. But it's a bit difficult to explain with words only.
There may be some internet resources that show you how.
My suggestion here is to use books that teach writing for Korean or
Japanese -- they use fewer simplified characters. I have one handy little
book that can also double up as a imtroductory dictionary: "A Guide to
Korean Characters" by Bruce Grant (ISBN 0-930878-13-2). It is quite
reasonably priced and can be easily bought over the internet. There are
similar books for Japanese learners. These books show you how to write all
the most common characters, many of which are used in BTC -- though the
menaings have sometimes changes. The only drawback with these books is that
they do not give the Chinese pronunciation -- but that can be found via
Chuck Muller's website or elsewhere.
3. There are several systems for romanizing Chinese. The one prefered by
most scholars these days in the official pinyin system used in the PRC. The
older Wade-Giles system will still be encountered in some books but is
increasingly only found in books by "amateurs". Actually, although pinyin
looks a bit odd, it is more rational than Wade-Giles as a guide to
pronunciation. But since we are trying to learn a from of medieval Chinese,
the exact pronunciation of the characters is less important. You could
easily learn the Cantonese pronunciations -- which are closer to the
medieval ones anyway.
4. You will also need to learn how to use dictionaries of Chinese
characters. The book I mention above explains how to use the traditional
system of 214 radicals.
5. Finally, though it is a bit dated, the Dictionary of Chinese Buddhism
Terms by H Soothill is still very useful. It is available in a number of
reprints since it went out of copyrighht years ago -- I imagine that you can
get it easily via the internet. -- it is also quite cheap because most
copies are produced in India or Taiwan.