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Hudson Taylor

Hudson Taylor had great zeal for missionary work for China from his youth. When his soul became burdened for China, not having a Chinese grammar book nor a dictionary but only a little volume of the Gospel of Luke in Chinese, young Hudson, along with his cousin, began to painstakingly put together a chart of Chinese words. He writes to his sister:
 "The method we pursue is as follows. We find a short verse in the English version, and then look out a dozen or more (also in English) that have one word in common with it. We then turn up the first verse in Chinese, and search through all the others for some character in common that seems to stand for the English word. This we write down on a slip of papere as its probable equivalent. Then we look all through the Chinese Gospel for this same character in different connections. It occurs as a rule pretty frequently. And if in every case we find the same word in the English version, we copy the character in ink into our dictionary, adding the meaning in pencil. Afterwards, if further acquaintance shows it to be the true meaning, we ink that over also. At first we made slow progress, but now we can work much faster, as with few exceptions we know all the most common characters. In our dictionary we have four hundred and fifty-three put down as certain, and many others that are not fully proved. About two hundred more we know as certain that we have not copied into the dictionary yet, and many besides that are only probable.
 "I have begun to get up at five in the morning, and so find it necessary to go to bed eary at night. I must study if I mean to go to China. I am fully decided to go, and am making every preparation I can. I intend to rub up my Latin, to learn Greek and the rudiments of Hebrew, and to get as much general information as possible. I need all your prayers."
 Dr. and Mrs. Howard Taylor, Hudson Taylor In Early Years: The Growth of a Soul