The Second 100 Chinese Characters: Simplified Character Edition: The Quick and Easy Method to Learn the Second 100 Basic Chinese Characters

In general, this book delivers exactly what it claims. Though it only contains 100 characters, it’s slim and light weight so it’s easy to carry around so you can practice on it when you have a few moments to spare waiting for the train (or what have you). It’s rather wide though, so unless you’re carrying a large purse or a backpack, it’s weight is a moot issue.

The most redeeming aspect of this book is the way it presents each character. While Tuttle’s other series ‘250 Essential Chinese Characters for Everyday Use’ also provides the stroke order, it doesn’t indicate which direction the stroke should be drawn. In many cases this is actually quite important, especially for beginners aiming to gain proficiency. If you purchase an electronic Chinese-English translator, for example, you won’t be able to find the English definitions for Chinese characters with many models. I’m currently living in China, and I’ve had various people (some of them strangers) literally stop me in the middle of drawing a character and correct the direction of my pen.

Moreover, for students who have never drawn any of these characters before, the gridded boxes provided under each character are particularly helpful. The grids help with drawing the correct proportions, and this feature is absent in the ‘250 Essential Chinese Characters for Everyday Use’ series. However, the boxes are pretty big, so you’re learning how to draw the characters about 4 times the size you would normally write them. It’s like writing the letter ‘A’ in size 42 font. Still, for a beginner, that might be best.

That having been said, the ‘related compounds and phrases containing each character to assist vocabulary building’ included in this book are actually quite limited and of little practical use. For example, the word Hui in ‘The Second 100 Chinese Charcaters” gives the character and the definitions (1.return 2.turn around). Then the phrases and compounds are listed (in both chinese and English)

1. hui jia — return home; 2. hui lai — come back; 3. hui da — answer 4. hui xiang— recollect; 5. xia hui — next time; 6. na hui– take back/recover.

This is an example where the book is somewhat vague. Does ‘hui da’ mean TO answer (a verb) or AN answer (a noun)? There are no sentences in the book so you have to use other reference materials to find out for sure.

Moreover, I found that the characters selected for this book, while useful, aren’t necessarily the most common.

In general this is excellent for practicing and learning how to draw characters, but it doesn’t offer much practical help in knowing how to apply them. I purchased the First and Second ‘100 Chinese Characters’ in addition to ‘Volume 1 of 250 Essential Chinese Characters for Everyday Use’. I recommend buying both, but if you have to choose between one or the other, you get more for your money with ‘250 Essential Characters’. That book also includes stroke order (but not stroke direction) and moreover it includes other definitions with COMPLETE SENTENCES, quizzes, and review sections. Moreover I’ve found that ‘250 Essential Characters’ offers a better, more useful selection of characters.