How many characters teh least i need to know to be so called literate?

I'm just curious because i'm studying Chinese Characters right now and plan to learn about 8 characters a week.

I'm interested in knowing the answer to that too. I've already learnt a number of characters and words. Basic stuff mostly ... numbers, everyday concepts and objects. I would continue, but I am currently preparing myself for an important entrance exam, part of which requires very in-depth knowledge of English. So I don't think it is good to get involved with a new language right now.
In any case, when I do resume my study of the Chinese language, should I switch to simplified or stick with traditional script?

Both.

This is a difficult question to answer. Are you counting bound morphemes in the answer? For example, two of the first words you learn will be 明 and 白. Seperately, the mean 'bright' and 'white' but in combination they mean 'understand'. Sometimes, you can figure out basically what the new word means just by knowing both of the discreet words, but other times, no way Jose.

I think also think it depends on what type of literacy you are looking for when asking about character count. Newspaper Chinese is very difficult and requires a lot of specialized words. It is a combination of spoken and literary Chinese. Even in the same article, the author may use slang and set phrases which up the requirement a lot. But conversationally, there are a lot of work arounds. If you don't know the particular word you are using, for example 'tank' 坦克 you can describe it as a large metal vehicle used for war. The person you are speaking to can do this as well if s/he uses a word you are unfamiliar with. For TV Chinese, especially news, work on your speed of comprehention.

As far as which character set to learn, I suggest working with simplified mainly. Be able to read, write, pronounce, and understand the simplified set. At the same time though, you should familiarize yourself with traditional. This is still used in the mainland today for some purposes mostly artistic such as calligraphy and paintings.

i think 2000 characters will be enough for basic day to day language. but i think the basic unit for chinese should be "word". So, by the time you get 2k characters, you'll be able to use... i donno, 5k to 10k words? i guess.
over 4k or 4.5k characters you will have excellent languange skill to study classic chinese.

in china, leagally, 1500 characters = literate, however everyone in china know how to speak which is different foreign speakers who do not know how to speak in the first place.

as far as my opinion, i think 2000 would be a good number for daily use and essay writing.

basic read =about 1,800 characters

advance read=about 15,000 characters

If you already speak Chinese, maybe 2,00-2,500. If you don't know spoken Chinese, I'd say, to be literate, 2,500-4,000.

I know studies have been done on this. 100 characters covers 45% of the most commonly used words. It's learning the other 55% that's tough. 1500 words would allow you to read 70-80% of what's in newspapers. Then it gets really tough.

yeh, like the above poster suggested, it depends if you already speak chinese or not. but then again, it might be kinda hard to assess your own level of spoken chinese. also, knowing spoken cantonese is probably not going to help you *that* much.

i know some ppl from college who were either born in the states or moved here when they were 1-12 years of age. it is amazing how varied their level of chinese is. some guys who immigrated when they were 1 or 2 speak cantonese like a native, read newspaper articles, novels, can even write letters, etc. some guys who immigrated 10-12 can't read the menu at a chinese restaurant and are slowly losing their spoken chinese.

some ppl think they know more than they do. some born here claim they are fluent in cantonese but "don't understand the news on tv or canto songs"

i usually try to test them with a word that is somewhat common in english but something they might not know in chinese... ya know, like 'republic' or 'peninsula' or food terms like 'carbohydrate' 'protein' 'cholesterol' or 'soccer' or 'push-up' regular words that common ppl would likely know.

Alot of chinese-illeterate dialect speakers I've met are like that. Truth is - can't blame them 'cause they probably didn't receive a proper chinese education. Only when one is educated will he realise how trully inadequate he is.

800-1000 characters to be able to speak in daily conversation (getting around).

3000 characters to be able to read chinese newspaper.

4,000 or above characters to be engage in higher level discussion

To try to answer the original question "the number of characters you need to know" depends entirely on your purpose. Which characters you learn will also depend on your ultimate goal.

As general guidelines, I would say 1,500 characters represent basic literacy, 3,000 are enough to read most non-technical publications (magazines, newspapers, modern books, etc.) fluently without a dictionary, and 5,000 will give you college-level literacy. Historians of China whose native language is Chinese may know as many as 10,000 characters (though not all of them do), and some (but few) know even more.

Someone mentioned "advanced read = 15,000 characters." Fortunately for potential learners, this figure is exaggerated. This kind of knowledge would actually make you one of the most educated people in China!

Some posters also mentioned that newspaper Chinese is difficult. This is true of Taiwanese newspapers, which tend to be written in a highly literate style that uses a lot of terse proverbs and specialized vocabulary. But most mainland newspapers are simpler because they were designed to be easily understood by the masses. This is of course a simplification, but I think it holds true in general.

I would say the first 1000 characters are the hardest to learn, not because they're inherenty difficult, but because you have no reference in your mind to tell you how they are composed or pronounced. They might therefore look completely arbitrary. But once you know more than a thousand characters, you will easily recognize the components of the new characters you learn, and in many cases you will even be able to guess their pronunciation.

The good thing to know is that no matter what level you're at, you can always learn more because there are about 45,000 known characters in the Chinese language.

Cheers,
Madalibi

This observation is correct. I've compared the reading of Taiwanese newspaper and PRC newspaper before. I generally feel that Taiwanese newspaper tends to be 'tougher' to read due to more specialised vocabulary (such as those technical jargon/terms used by politics, economics) as well as more proverbs/idioms used in context, even though all of them are written in modern chinese.

Sorry but how does the level of written chinese in hong kong compare to Taiwan?

The level of written chinese in Hongkong is not too bad. But of course, the language is very much influenced by cantonese.

Ok,I have a link to Chinese online source indicates average high achool educated Chinese have knowledge of 3000 plus 漢字 ( Kanji ).They generally should read and understand 98% written content of book or any publication.

Elementary through secondary education levels,students learn 3000 to 4500 Kanji.

China's 2 major standard reference dictionaries 《漢語大字典》 recorded 54,000 Kanji & 《中華字海》 has 85,000 Kanji.


* 一般人至中學畢業時雖僅認識3000多個漢字，但已夠看懂一般書刊98%內容。

中小學生所識的漢字約應有3000至4500個。

國內較通行的大型字典《漢語大字典》收錄5.4萬字，《中華字海》更達8.5萬個

http://big5.xinhuanet.com/gate/big5/news.x...ent_6921948.htm

How about the Thousand Character Essay? If it taught basic literacy for 15 centuries (?), is it still relevant today as a tool for the same basic goal?

I am one of those Overseas Chinese who did not have an education in Chinese when young and can barely carry on a conversation in Cantonese.

no, the thousand characters essay was the old method to teach basic characters for kids. It contains the most often used characters so when kids keep reading them, they memorize the writing forms and the sound of those characters. It is a simple way to teach kids to recognize characters.

we now use pinyin to learn pronouncing characters, and we do not use the thousand character essay any more.

No more ㄅㄆㄇㄈ(I think those are the correct characters)? I would think that would be an easier way to learn than pinyin.