What other bodacious radicals would you like to see as guest stars on this rip-roaring new show?

Off topic: this morning I was in the waiting room of a Chinese dentist (first time and really nervous) and was reading a random magazine and there was an article about John’s (work) day. That was a pleasant distraction! CPod is everywhere ;-). Btw, nice show!

This works ok when you only know a few characters, but I've hit the 60ish character mark and I'm confusing characters all over the place.

Downloading now.

A quick note, though: this series is meant for Newbies, presented as an alternate way to look at characters.

You'll notice we never use the word "radical" in reference to parts of characters (which are called 部件 (bùjiàn)). This is because both the word "radical" in English and 偏旁 (piānpáng) in Chinese are historically linked with archaic classification systems rooted in a need for dictionary organization. Computers are changing everthing, however. "Radicals" are no longer essential for looking up characters; we have copy-paste and handwriting recognition. This is where the 部件 (bùjiàn) concept comes in: deconstructing characters for understanding rather than for pure conventional classification.

And yes, it is sort of a radical concept.

每个录像一个部件吗？ 哇。。。This show will be the "Gone With The Wind" of Chinese character writing.

Onward!