Number of characters in Part 1 textbook

Submitted by Anonymous on Sat, 10/27/2007 - 10:01pm

Dear Outstanding Authors of IC Series,

The publisher website says that there are 350 characters to learn in Part 1. I am in an adult class and have created an Excel spreadsheet of all the characters in each chapter - some are single character words and some have more than one character. So far I have studied Chapters 1 to 7 and the first part of Chapter 8. In these alone I have counted 338 unique single characters. When I have completed the first 11 chapters I expect to have over 500 unique characters, so I think the statement about 350 characters is wrong. I would be glad to send the authors my spreadsheet that shows this.

Bernard, Gillette, New Jersey byaged@aol.com

NumChar	1

Item Count	IsDupl
Lesson	yes	no	Grand Total
_IC_01	5	34	39
_IC_02	21	34	55
_IC_03	16	51	67
_IC_04	10	44	54
_IC_05	16	42	58
_IC_06	22	35	57
_IC_07	34	33	67
_IC_08	24	18	42
_IC_Num	1	13	14
_IC_Rad	15	34	49
Total	164	338	502

Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 10/30/2007 - 12:06am.

I am guessing you mean words, however there are approximately 350 characters.

Submitted by bernard_nj on Sat, 03/01/2008 - 8:46pm.

Greetings,

My class just finished the first 11 chapters of Level 1 Part 1, and I have completed work on an Excel spreadsheet I created to do flash cards. I am able to do an accurate count of my word lists.

From a manual count of the Character Workbook, I see 396 unique characters (includes 10 numerals and 40 radicals). The list of characters by stroke count on page 161 shows 399 characters.

If I look at the Textbook, there are 396 unique SINGLE character words in List 1 and List 2. In addition there are 60 in the Supplementary Lists, 21 in the Notes and Grammar sections, and 6 more in the chapter titles and in the Workbook. This is 483 unique SINGLE character words.

If I look at the Textbook, there are 549 unique words with ONE OR MORE more characters in List 1 and List 2. In addition there are 135 in the Supplementary Lists, 45 in the Notes and Grammar sections, and 10 more in the chapter titles and in the Workbook. This is 739 unique words with ONE OR MORE characters.

I input all the characters throughout the year my adult class has spent on the textbook, and there may be some minor mistakes. If you would like to see a PDF list of the characters I found, sorted several different ways, send me your email address.

After my first year with the Chinese language I am very impressed with the way the authors have integrated the materials in the textbook and two workbooks. I think their estimate of 350 understates the true count.

Bernard, Gillette, NJ