How To Learn Chinese Characters
If you’re interested in learning Chinese, or if you’re already learning, I strongly recommend that you learn how to write Chinese characters.
And by writing, I mean writing by hand.
My wife works part time as a Chinese instructor. She tells me that she has her students write by hand.
She’s from Taiwan, and has told me that she learned Chinese characters by hand when she grew up. Everybody does this in Taiwan, as well as mainland China and Hong Kong.
I learned Chinese characters largely through writing them by hand, and I continue to practice every day.
I know there are some people online who claim that they can learn to read Chinese without praticing writing. I hate to say that I don’t believe you, but, honestly, I have never met anybody in real life who could read Chinese who did not practice writing by hand.
Now, the best way to practice writing Chinese characters by hand is to use some sort of graph paper or paper with boxes to practice writing.
You technically don’t need specialized paper, though I really recommend it. Characters are supposed to be square, and it’s a lot easier to see the square if you use paper with squares.
I routinely print out dozens of copies of this scan from a Chinese practice notebook intended for children:
In fact, I’ll give you a PDF copy of the exact paper I use for free. Click here to download it.
Anyway, I strongly recommend starting a habit of writing Chinese characters every day. The video above can help you, especially if you decide to use Anki.
It takes a little while, but if you seriously practice and truly test yourself, you’ll find that progress is much faster than if you just try to remember the characters. You want to do everything you can to help the process be as easy and smooth as it can possibly be.