I have previously authored a number of books, such as “Fluent Chinese: the Complete Plan from Beginner to Advanced” and a series with language-learning resources for particular languages, called “72 Ways to Learn <Language> for Free“. Now I’m very proud to announce that Teach Yourself is publishing a series of alphabet courses that I’m authoring!!
Here finally was the chance to create alphabet courses according to the method and the algorithm I had developed a while back for my personal use (occasionally shared with others, e.g. participants of the IJK congress in Kyiv). Having learned 5 writing systems myself, what I found essential was:
- learning letters one by one rather than all at once
- using mnemonics
- lots and lots of practice after each letter. I can’t stress enough how essential it is not to learn all letters and then practice all, but to practice after 2 letters, after 3, after 4, after 5…
- practice that is meaningful and fun and which allows you to viscerally feel success. I was inspired by cryptograms, which people also solve for fun.
More about this in my next post. For now, please celebrate with me! (And get a copy for yourself)