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We have often noted how much easier it is to learn Chinese now than it was just ten or twenty years ago. That's because of all the new digital resources that have become available in recent years:

Of course, there are a lot quick fix programs out there, and one should be wary of them:

But every so often a really good resource comes along, and I should like to introduce one such in this post.

It's The Outlier Dictionary of Chinese Characters (ODCC). Here's a brief description:

A dictionary for learners of Chinese who want to learn characters more efficiently, without being distracted by nonessential information. Unlike other products for learning characters, the ODCC is based on the most up-to-date academic research on the Chinese writing system and teaches Chinese characters as they actually work.

ODCC covers the 1500 most frequently-used characters (Traditional and Simplified) — enough for full-fledged literacy in Chinese. More entries will be added in the future.

For each character, the dictionary contains:

– Character form explanation, so you understand why each character looks the way it does. An ancient form is included for characters which were originally pictographic, which function as semantic components, or which cannot be broken down into components.

– Component breakdown and analysis: what are the functional components in the character, and how do they function?

– Mandarin pronunciation according to PRC and ROC standards. Cantonese pronunciation.

– Meaning chart showing the logical relationships among the character’s different meanings — this helps students remember the meanings more easily via association.

– Stroke order diagram (simplified according to PRC standards; ROC for traditional).

– Citations for the academic publications which most inform the analysis of the

character in question.

Benefits:

– Shows how Chinese characters actually work.

– Clears up confusion caused by similar-looking components.

– Helps the student make intelligent predictions about characters they haven’t even

learned yet.

– Helps the student remember how to write characters.

– Opens a whole new world of sound connections between characters.

Expert assessments:

• “This is not just some ordinary Chinese learning app, like you see flooding the web right now, but it's really a very powerful and useful comprehensive tool for the understanding of Chinese characters.”

—Prof. David Moser, Associate Dean at the Yenching Academy of Peking University in Beijing

• “They are building a dictionary that enables a strong understanding of the system of functional components behind characters, while also enabling curious learners to go as deep as they want in their character studies. This is exactly how it should be done.”

—John Pasden, AllSet Learning (and former ChinesePod host)

Student reactions:

• “I bought this. It has helped me recognise and even pronounce characters I have never seen before thanks to my recognition of patterns from the explanations.”

—Soroush Torkian (Canada)

• “After a lot (really a lot) of failed tests with different books, apps and methods, the only way that the hanzi sticks in my mind is ODCC's brief, concise and REAL explanation!”

—Alessandro Agostinetti (Italy)

• “This project is exactly what i was wishing for since i started learning Chinese with pleco years ago”

—Wieland Schultz (Germany)

Here are screen shots of the treatment of three sample characters:







ODCC is a Pleco add-on; it's available for purchase within Pleco itself or via Outlier's website. Similarly, the Japanese version will be an add-on for the dictionary app Japanese by Renzo, and once it's released it will be available both within the Japanese app and via Outlier's other website (it's currently available for pre-order).

The Chinese version of the dictionary has been released, and it contains full entries for roughly the 1,500 most common characters, plus about 300 semantic components. It covers the characters in HSK (Modern Standard Mandarin proficiency test) levels 1-4 and most of HSK5 (out of a total of 6 levels). Outlier will continue to expand their dictionary in the future, but it's already enough to carry learners well into intermediate territory, which covers the bulk of Chinese characters occurring in typical texts that one might encounter in daily usage.

The creators of ODCC came to see me about five (maybe more) years ago, and I was convinced already then that they would eventually produce something of superior quality, so I supported them as much as I could. What impressed me most about the members of the team was that they were not being dilettantish about their project, but were approaching it with the full knowledge that it would not be an easy task. They were taking serious philology courses at National Taiwan University and elsewhere, and were becoming intimately acquainted with the actual history of Chinese character development, not some fanciful tales based on popular folk "etymologies". Instead, they were familiarizing themselves with the nitty-gritty of the progression of individual characters from the stage of Oracle Bone Inscriptions (ca. 1200 BC) to Bronze Inscriptions (roughly first half of the first millennium BC) and then to the Seal forms (latter half of the first millennium BC). It is only when one understands the changes that occurred in each of these stages that one can be clear about the underlying meaning of the individual characters, and that is one of the beauties of ODCC. Although the editors' explanations of the origins and meanings of the Sinographs in their dictionary are written in simple, straightforward language, they are based on a wealth of learning, and that includes a correct understanding of the nature and construction of the characters and their components — a rare commodity in Chinese lexicography.

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