Feeling Your Center of Gravity
$19.00
Minimum price
$29.00
Suggested price

Feeling Your Center of Gravity

A Chinese Reader-Using Traditional Chinese Characters

About the Book

This Chinese reader is designed to help you practice and improve speaking, reading, and typing (shape based input) Traditional Chinese characters in the context of learning to feel and control your center of gravity.

It's based on an article on my website called "feeling your center of gravity" which I had professionally translated. (I actually paid someone to do it.)

Since I had the English and Chinese version of the same article, I thought, why not use this to help people practice to reading (and understanding), typing and even speaking Chinese.

Learning to read Chinese is perhaps one of most challenging aspects of the language, mainly because the indexes for most Chinese dictionaries are not user friendly.

It's hard to lookup Chinese characters.

  • One way that this reader works around that problem is providing word by word translations for each part of every phrase.
  • Another way around that problem is a shape based indexing system that I've been working on for the last 15 years.
  • Yet another way around the lookup problem is that this book includes the cangjie input code for each character.

The cangjie input method is a shape based method for inputting Chinese characters that is included in most computer and smart device operating systems.

You don't have to know a characters pronunciation to use it. Learning the method makes it easy to input Chinese characters, whether or not you know their pronunciation. It also makes it easier to notice the elements of a character.

And more importantly, it makes it easy to type the character so that you can look it up on nearly any type of device.

Each sentence includes a word by word break-down with English meaning and Mandarin pronounciation using pinyin.

(An introduction to the cangjie input method is included at the end of the book. Note that instructions for installing or activating it are not included. However this method is free and generally included in most operating systems for phones, tablets and computers (pc, windows)).

An index of characters for each set of phrases is also included at the end of each section. Each character entry includes:

  • the character’s definition,
  • pronounciation,
  • cangjie code
  • phonetically related characters
  • any words that include that character.

The character index for each section is shape sorted and includes two indexes, an initial shape index and a final shape index. Below is a initial shape index which uses the top-most, left-most or outermost-element of each character to index them.

口: 呈單果易是關置

⺆: 體

?: 以狀能變如

乛: 承了習改

厂: 原所覺學與

丿: 衡得個何你位什受重動和移無然解制物簡

丶: 這過透就於部論讓感麼容實的身盤心

人: 會對其基

一: 到更可平形下而礎現理

十: 都靜本相在力控

The initial shape index has 12 main categories while the final shape index has 15.

Each section has its own character index. A cumulative or "all-characters" index is included at the end.

Word lists are also included at the end of each section. They include all words sorted by the rhyme of the first character so that you can practice similiar sounding words together. e.g.

words whose first character ends in an e:

什麼 sheˊ me˙ What?

學會 xueˊ huiˋ Institute || Successfully learn

學習 xueˊ xiˊ Study || Learn

words whose first character ends in a u:

無論 wuˊ lunˋ No matter || No matter what

如何 ruˊ heˊ What if || How || How to

如果 ruˊ guoˇ As if || If

words whose first character ends in an i:

移動 yiˊ dongˋ Moving || Adjusting || Shifting

其實 qiˊ shiˊ Really || Actually || In fact || As a matter of fact

The same words are then sorted and grouped by the tone of the second character so that you can practice tone patterns.

2nd tone-2nd tone

如何 ruˊ heˊ

其實 qiˊ shiˊ

然而 ranˊ erˊ

平衡 pingˊ hengˊ

2nd tone-3rd tone

如果 ruˊ guoˇ

原理 yuanˊ liˇ

2nd tone-4th tone

學會 xueˊ huiˋ

無論 wuˊ lunˋ

移動 yiˊ dongˋ

The original article is also included, with English alternating with Chinese.

What level is this designed for?

This is an open-level book. It doesn’t teach you the basics of how to read and pronounce pinyin. Nor does it show you how to hand-write Chinese characters.

It helps you learn Chinese in the context of learning to feel your center of gravity.

You can see the first free sections in the free preview pdf.

Note that a final character list includes all characters from all phrases and in addition in this final character index, each entry includes all words associated with that character. 

The actual pdf also includes a guide to the cangjie input system, how characters are broken down by shape. This can make it easier to learn the input system. But just as importantly it gives you a tool for recognizing some basic elements of Chinese characters. 

About the Author

Neil Keleher
Neil Keleher

Hi, I'm Neil Keleher

I’ve been a yoga teacher for about 20 years.

I have a degree in systems design engineering from the University of Waterloo.

Prior to that I served for five years in the British army as an armourer.

As a yoga teacher I teach my students how to feel and control their body. In this context I’m like a driving instructor for your body.

One of my other hats is “indexing specialist”. One of my current ongoing projects under this hat is designing an easy to use indexing system for Chinese characters.

The Leanpub 60 Day 100% Happiness Guarantee

Within 60 days of purchase you can get a 100% refund on any Leanpub purchase, in two clicks.

Now, this is technically risky for us, since you'll have the book or course files either way. But we're so confident in our products and services, and in our authors and readers, that we're happy to offer a full money back guarantee for everything we sell.

You can only find out how good something is by trying it, and because of our 100% money back guarantee there's literally no risk to do so!

So, there's no reason not to click the Add to Cart button, is there?

See full terms...

Earn $8 on a $10 Purchase, and $16 on a $20 Purchase

We pay 80% royalties on purchases of $7.99 or more, and 80% royalties minus a 50 cent flat fee on purchases between $0.99 and $7.98. You earn $8 on a $10 sale, and $16 on a $20 sale. So, if we sell 5000 non-refunded copies of your book for $20, you'll earn $80,000.

(Yes, some authors have already earned much more than that on Leanpub.)

In fact, authors have earnedover $13 millionwriting, publishing and selling on Leanpub.

Learn more about writing on Leanpub

Free Updates. DRM Free.

If you buy a Leanpub book, you get free updates for as long as the author updates the book! Many authors use Leanpub to publish their books in-progress, while they are writing them. All readers get free updates, regardless of when they bought the book or how much they paid (including free).

Most Leanpub books are available in PDF (for computers) and EPUB (for phones, tablets and Kindle). The formats that a book includes are shown at the top right corner of this page.

Finally, Leanpub books don't have any DRM copy-protection nonsense, so you can easily read them on any supported device.

Learn more about Leanpub's ebook formats and where to read them

Write and Publish on Leanpub

You can use Leanpub to easily write, publish and sell in-progress and completed ebooks and online courses!

Leanpub is a powerful platform for serious authors, combining a simple, elegant writing and publishing workflow with a store focused on selling in-progress ebooks.

Leanpub is a magical typewriter for authors: just write in plain text, and to publish your ebook, just click a button. (Or, if you are producing your ebook your own way, you can even upload your own PDF and/or EPUB files and then publish with one click!) It really is that easy.

Learn more about writing on Leanpub