Learn to Write Chinese
Article by Samuel
If you are trying to learn to write Chinese, it can be hard to know where to begin. Given the abundance of programs allowing you to write Chinese characters on your computer, you might argue that it is not actually necessary to learn to physically be able to put the characters on paper.
However, I would argue that in learning to read and write Chinese characters, the ability to write them by hand is a huge advantage, and learning to do so can make the learning process quicker and make it easier to remember new characters that you learn, especially if you are a kinesthetic learner.
Another advantage to learning to put pen to paper and write Chinese, is that you can eventually apply the skill to Chinese calligraphy, an ancient art form essential to Chinese culture, that can deepen your knowledge and appreciation for the culture surrounding the language that you are learning.
The first step then, in learning to write Chinese characters, is learning the different kinds and order of strokes. This is not as difficult as it may sound, and once you have mastered this step, learning more characters will be a lot easier.
Next, studying and memorizing radicals, parts of characters that indicate the meaning and/or pronunciation of complex characters, will allow you to work out the meaning of characters you have never seen before.
Then, you just need to practice. And practice. And practice. To continue to be able to produce and recognize characters you have learned, you will need to practice writing them repeatedly every day. Even ten minutes a day will go a long way to help you remember long-ago learned characters, and keep new ones fresh in your mind.
Obviously, you should not try learning to read and write any Chinese characters if you also can not speak or understand any spoken Chinese (Cantonese or Mandarin; they both use the same characters, and are mutually intelligible when written, thus a Mandarin speaker from Beijing can read without any problems a newspaper from ! Hong Kon g, written by Cantonese speakers). All four skills of reading, writing, listening and speaking go together. If you are a complete beginner in any form of Chinese, I would recommend a course such as Pimsleur's audio course, which does not include any reading or writing at all, in order to give you a foundation in the spoken language, which you will then be able to apply to the written language as you begin your study of that.
About the AuthorI've been learning Mandarin Chinese for about 2 years, and I'm now beginning to learn to write Chinese. I write about ways to do this, and resources to help you at my blog Learn to Write Chinese.
How to Write Chinese Characters: "Seeking The Hermit But No Meeting" : How to Write in Chinese: Putting Words Together Pt 10
STICK - Mnemonics for 1600 Chinese simplified characters
How can it be made easier to remember a Chinese character? This volume offers a collection of over 1600 mnemonics that were built by Chinese native speakers (teachers, translators and others) in cooperation with Chinese learners. The way of making Chinese characters easy to memorize is here to divide the characters into smaller components. Each of them has already a meaning of its own. These parts were combined into short one-phrase-stories that can be easily remembered and provide you a fascinating impression of the pictorial language of Chinese characters. For more information on Chinese characters, their stroke orders and interactive exercises please consult mandarinstrokes.com, a Stroke Order Dictionary for over 6000 Chinese simplified characters. This volume is available in English, Spanish, French and German.(Attention: For Kindle-DX users: The Chinese characters in this ebook are only displayed by the Kindle for PC-version or the Mobipocket Reader (free online software). The Kindle DX device is technically not able to display Chinese characters.
For Kindle 3 users: The Chinese characters are displayed by the Kindle for PC-version, Mobipocket reader AND the Kindle device.
For better display of the tables please use the landscape position.
For all users: Please make sure that the font Arial MS Unicode is saved on your computer.How can it be made easier to remember a Chinese character? This volume offers a collection of over 1600 mnemonics that were built by Chinese native speakers (teachers, translators and others) in cooperation with Chinese learners. The way of making Chinese characters easy to memorize is here to divide the characters into smaller components. Each of them has already a meaning of its own. These parts were combined into short one-phrase-stories that can be easily remembered and provide you a fascinating impression of the pictorial language of Chinese characters. For more information on Chinese characters, their stroke orders and interactive exercises ! please c onsult mandarinstrokes.com, a Stroke Order Dictionary for over 6000 Chinese simplified characters. This volume is available in English, Spanish, French and German.
(Attention: For Kindle-DX users: The Chinese characters in this ebook are only displayed by the Kindle for PC-version or the Mobipocket Reader (free online software). The Kindle DX device is technically not able to display Chinese characters.
For Kindle 3 users: The Chinese characters are displayed by the Kindle for PC-version, Mobipocket reader AND the Kindle device.
For better display of the tables please use the landscape position.
For all users: Please make sure that the font Arial MS Unicode is saved on your computer.
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