Making Chinese easier by dissecting its pictographic roots

Woman (女) depicts a woman squatting down with her arms folded across the front of her body in an act of submission. Women were the possessions of men, their only function was to produce sons and serve their family. I loathe the origin of this character. So in Chineasy you see a charming, independent, intellectual and decisive lady to express this symbol.[Photo/chineasy.org]

The daunting Chinese language barrier may not be all it's cracked up to be. Charismatic, attractive Taiwan-born Shao Lan has invented a new way for Westerners to find their way around it, one that goes beyond the rigors of rote memorization and instead explores the ancient artful roots of Chinese calligraphy.

A new way to learn Chinese goes back to pictographic roots

Let's learn Chinese

The system is called Chineasy, its website and facebook page are up and running, the English-language book was just unveiled in London and New York, and books in Spanish, Portuguese, German, French, Dutch are due shortly.

"Chinese is not the easiest language, for sure," Shao Lan said. "But at the same time it's not as hard as people think."

The beauty of Chineasy is that is penetrates the enigmatic language by taking apart its pictographic construction and making people understand how it works piece by piece before trying to dive in.

Shao Lan — who studied chemistry and business in Taiwan and international studies at Cambridge — said she has an analytical mind.

Now living in London, she said Chineasy all started when she realized that her British-born children were not all that interested in learning Chinese. After trying several different methods — all she found extremely challenging — she decided to do it for herself.