The First 100 Chinese Characters book adopts a structural approach that helps students to learn, recognize and write 100 Chinese characters. Intended for beginning students, the characters listed have been carefully selected and sequenced for rapid and effective learning.

For effective learning, memorization and practice, each Chinese character is shown separately on a single page, along with its English definitions, pinyin romanization, alternate form (if any), a stroke-order guide and ample space for writing practice. Printed in gray lines, the stroke-order guides introduce the student to the standard stroke sequence used in writing the characters, by tracing them. After learning the correct stroke order, the student can then practice writing the characters on their own, thus reinforcing the recognition and memorization. Large boxes with grid lines for correct proportions are provided.

Related compounds and phrases containing each character are also included to assist in vocabulary building. Three indexes—alphabetically arranged by the English meanings, by pinyin romanization, and by radicals—are provided at the back of the book for quick and easy reference.

Features:

• The first 100 most frequently-used characters
• Foundation characters for HSK Level 1 test
• Standard pinyin romanizations
• Step-by-step stroke order guides and ample space for writing practice
• Special practice boxes with grid lines
• Lots of extra practice sheets
• Over 500 words and phrases containing the basic characters
• Concise English definitions

Alison Matthews is a statistician who has worked in the oil, aviation, tourism, medical and software industries, and also as a university lecturer.

Laurence Matthews has worked as an aviation consultant in Asia, including both China and Japan, and is the author of the Kanji Fast Finder and Chinese Character Fast Finder books. Both authors have wide experience in organizing and presenting complex information to a variety of audiences and are co-authors of the highly acclaimed Tuttle Learning Chinese Characters.