How To Read Chinese With Ease [VIDEO]: TedX Talk

How to Read Chinese with Ease

For foreigners, learning to speak Chinese is a hard task. But learning to read the beautiful, often complex characters of the Chinese written language may be less difficult. ShaoLan walks through a simple lesson in recognizing the ideas behind the characters and their meaning — building from a few simple forms to more complex concepts. Call it Chineasy.

How to Read Chinese with EaseBorn in Taipei and now living in London, ShaoLan is an entrepreneur, investor, writer, traveller and dreamer. ShaoLan has had several dramatic changes of career in the past. While studying for an MBA she wrote four best-selling books on software, awarded “book of the year” in Taiwan. In her second semester she co-founded her first venture, pAsia Inc. Under her leadership pAsia became a major player in the internet sector in the Greater China area in the late 1990’s. After moving to London she began investing in and advising young technology companies through Caravel Capital, which she founded in 2005 whilst studying at the University of Cambridge. She has also been a director of five UK-based technology companies.

After taking a sabbatical, she is now focused on sharing a new method of learning Chinese:Chineasy, described as “a visual-based learning system that teaches Chinese characters, simple stories & phrases. Our aim is to bring down the great wall of Chinese language.”

ShaoLan is a member of several management and advisory boards of nonprofit organisations in the UK, including the Saïd Business School of Oxford University, The Victoria and Albert Museum, Asia House, and the New School Network, an organisation backed by the British Government promoting educational reform.