Outlier Linguistics is teaching what most Chinese

courses dont how characters work

As more and more students begin learning Chinese in high school and college, the
hotshot foreign Mandarin speaker is no longer that rare. But many of the best
Chinese speakers will admit that their understanding of characters the visual
building blocks of the language is quite poor. Run into them at a bar, and theyll
explain to you how

means cart. But why does it show up in

or

? Does

cart have a field ( ) inside of it?

These are the questions that Outlier Linguistics wants to help students answer.
Based in Taipei, the team is building a very special kind of dictionary one thats
for characters, not words (theres a difference), and one thats for language learners

rather than academics (theres a huge difference).

Outlier offers a dictionary that breaks down characters into components rather
than radicals. It identifies which components give the character its sound, which
ones give it meaning, and how the multiple components function together.

In an upgrade addition, Outlier will also reveal tidbits about the history of each
character and component. The team aims to provide students enough paleography

to aid with memorization. But they also hope it will be valuable to scholars who
want accurate information compiled in an indexed format.

If this is all Greek to you, heres what you need to know: Outlier dives through
boring books and parses through esoteric, messy research about Chinese linguistics
and paleography. It then makes this information accessible to language learners
who just want to remember the characters for pepper or drivers license.
Language learners need this information in order to learn characters efficiently and
accurately which isnt always easy.
One professor told us that were basically trying to tell the truth about Chinese
characters, says Ash Henson, co-founder of Outlier. Thats a pretty accurate
summary.

Outlier is looking to raise US$75,000 on Kickstarter. The funding will primarily go

to data entry specifically, Outlier needs to hire people to input all of the research
inside boring books into a database, which can then be parsed through as the
dictionary entries get perfected.

For the love of the language

Outliers founders have each done their time in universities, but they are language
learners first, academics second. Ash Henson is an engineer by training whose love
for languages led him to spend nine years in Taiwan, ultimately getting into a PhD
program at National Taiwan Normal University. John Renfroe studied film scoring
at Berklee before arriving in Taiwan to cram characters, ultimately earning a spot at
a masters program at NTNUs Department of Chinese. Christian Schmidt
completed a BA and MBA in Taiwan, and like Renfroe and Henson, he spent many
years in Taiwan practicing, practicing, and practicing.
Henson says that their unconventional backgrounds have helped them devise their
novel approach to learning characters.
Ive always had a very logical and systematic training on problem solving, so i think
thats one reason why were solving problems in a way that others havent, says
Henson.

Drilling through the ivory tower

Its an exciting time to learn Chinese right now. Mobile devices and internet
connectivity are opening the door to new tools minimizing the grunt work that was
once necessary to master a non-phonetic, character-based language.
But many of the best language-learning tools are being created outside of
universities, not inside them. Moreover, theyre made by foreigners who
encountered Chinese as adults, rather than native speakers.
Pleco, a popular mobile dictionary, and Skriter, an app for writing exercises, were

both created by American students studying abroad. Expats in China flocked to

ChinesePod for John Pasdens breezy explanations of the languages nuances.
Compared to these companies, Outlier best highlights the unfortunate disconnect
between academia and the Chinese language-learning community. Universities in
the US and Asia are filled with graduate students studying the origins of Chinese
characters. But very little of this knowledge gets transferred to language learners
who want to know why

is in both

and

Most of the people that are trained to do this are only interested in doing their
research reading oracle bones strips or interpreting bamboo strips, says Henson.
Theyre not interested in helping foreigners learn Chinese.
Henson and Renfroe said they never once considered taking Outlier to a university,
even though such an arrangement might have its benefits. For one thing, theyd get
funding. Research departments would provide grants, and the team wouldnt have
to list Outlier on Kickstarter next to the Shower Case Smartphone Holder.
Credibility and distribution might also come more easily. But Henson says that
Outlier is seeing enough enthusiasm from publishers already.
I really dont want a bunch of professors having artistic control over this. Ive spent
nine years building the skill set to develop this dictionary, and I dont want to hand
that over to someone, says Henson. As for the money aspect, I never minded
putting any money into this because I believe in it.

Operating outside the ivory tower means that Outlier has to earn money like a real
business. The company hopes to integrate with Pleco soon, charging US$25 for a
basic addition and US$50 for an upgrade with more paleographic data. Henson also
hopes to distribute on other platforms, and possibly publish a book. Specialized
versions for Cantonese and Japanese are also on the horizon.
But the company is still figuring out how turn a niche pitch into something bigger.
Will Outlier have to sell flashcards and coloring books? Should they focus on tone
recognition software? How can they prove their legitimacy when so much garbage
already floods the market?
Average people cant look at junk science and real science and tell the difference.
But if people follow the tropes of real science [to stay healthy and in shape], it will
work for them whether they understand it or not. Were in this position that were

scientists, and people that are in the know are blown away, says Henson.
Editing by Michael Tegos, top image by Steve Webel