🌍 Read this README in: English | Español
📘 Course content:
This course is designed for Spanish speakers who want to learn how to read a logographic writing system—without needing to learn how to speak the associated language.
The course uses a progressive, scaffolded learning approach:
- One word at a time: Each new word is introduced with its English translation.
- Sentences with known words: All practice sentences contain only words you have already learned.
- Continuous story: Vocabulary is presented within a progressive story about a boy named Ming (小明).
- No romanization: This course focuses exclusively on reading logographic characters, with no romanization.
| Chapter | Title | Words | Link |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Boy and the Cat | 1–40 | chapter_1.md |
| 2 | Ming's Adventure | 41–100 | chapter_2.md |
| 3 | Ming Makes a New Friend | 101–200 | chapter_3.md |
| 4 | A Day with Friends | 201–300 | chapter_4.md |
| 5 | The Rainy Day Adventure | 301–400 | chapter_5.md |
| 6 | The Birthday Surprise | 401–500 | chapter_6.md |
- Start with Chapter 1.
- Read each new word and its translation.
- Practice reading the example sentences.
- Once you finish all the words in the chapter, read the complete story.
- Continue with the next chapter.
- Review previous chapters regularly.
- Read the full story of each chapter several times.
The story follows 小明 (Xiǎo Míng), a ten-year-old boy:
- Chapter 1: Ming meets a small white cat and they become friends.
- Chapter 2: Ming and the cat spend a day exploring together.
- Chapter 3: Ming meets 小兰 (Xiǎo Lán) in the park.
- Chapter 4: Ming meets 阿强 (Ā Qiáng) and learns to play soccer.
- Chapter 5: A rainy day brings a rainbow and a beautiful legend.
- Chapter 6: Ming's friends and family throw him a surprise birthday party.
✅ 500 core vocabulary words ✅ Logographic characters ✅ No romanization (reading-only focus) ✅ Clear English translations ✅ Complete stories per chapter ✅ Vocabulary lists for quick reference
Logographic writing systems use symbols to represent words or morphemes rather than sounds. This course uses the simplified form of these characters (简体字), which are widely used in:
- Mainland China
- Singapore
- Malaysia
The traditional form (used in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau) shares the same underlying meanings and can be learned after mastering the simplified form, as the meanings remain consistent across both variants.
祝你学习愉快！ (Wishing you an enjoyable learning journey!)