Other than the differences in word pronunciation and phonetic sounds, the written Chinese system is often said to be the most difficult learning task. The ability to recognize thousands of characters and do handwriting takes diligence to master on both ends.

Some common mistakes foreign students make when reading Chinese are confusing certain characters by not paying attention to specific strokes. Here are some example that are pessimist.

 

很 vs 银

A student might want to write 中国银行 “Bank of China”, but might mistakenly write 中国很行 which means “China is very good”.

 

大 vs 太

You might aim to call someone a boss, “老大” but could accidentally call them an old lady, “老太” if not paying attention to details.

Many foreigners think Chinese people use the following keybord when tying in front of the computer. They will know the truth when they come to China!

Contrary to popular belief, learning to read and write Chinese isn’t as difficult as one might think. All that is needed is the right attitude and sufficient study time. The human brain is capable of acquiring any new information as long as there is a willingness, effort and desire to learn. No worries though, as we will disclose 5 helpful tips to help guide you in learning written Chinese.

 

Pictographs

Pictographs, also known as pictograms, are a tried and true method in learning Chinese characters. As written Chinese originally was created and now defined as graphemes, glyphs and logograms made to depict the image of objects or represent abstract notions. It symbolizes certain meanings for basic communication. Illustrating pictures to accompany each character creates a vivid memory of that Chinese character’s overall meaning. Pictographs are drawn to closely resemble the character. It’s easy to recall what a written Chinese word means when there’s a pictograph that shows you the meaning without outwardly telling you, allowing your cognitive function to kick in.

 

OCR Scanners

For travelers in China or learners that haven’t quite mastered reading Chinese, will find OCR scanners a useful tool to help explain Chinese characters. Scanning Chinese characters with OCR will serve as your pocket-teacher. It works by being able to scan printed Chinese text in books, on flyers, computer screens, and street signs afterwards giving you what the scanned character’s definition, pinyin all are. Some popular software apps that have OCR scanners available for download to your phone are Pleco and Baidu Translator. For beginners, it will ease the difficulty in reading food menus in restaurants that don’t have English translations.

 

Learn Strokes And Radicals

Learning to write Chinese will also have two benefits, writing and reading. After learning the stroke orders and becoming familiar with radicals that build upon each other, you will later be able to recognize more complex characters you come across by realizing the radicals combined contribute to the overall meaning. For example, this hanzi is 木 (mu) which means tree, thus related words such as “forest = 森林 ”, becomes easier to recognize because of its use of the same radical found throughout its structure.

 

Mandarin House Instructional Books

The Mandarin House Characters book set, has a complete guide on how to write Chinese characters, the proper stroke order sequence, explanation of radicals, also including pictographs and clever origin stories behind the meaning of each character.

 

Flashcards

Two-sided flashcards are the oldest and trusted method used to remember vocabulary. By using flashcards in games and quizzes helps trigger your memory in word association. With many Chinese flashcard apps and language learning websites available nowadays. Some example apps are Skritter Chinese, Flashonary, and Written Chinese Characters by “Gigabud”. A recommended website for the use of premade flashcards, detailed breakdown of characters and quizzes is mdgb.net. For physical flash cards to use in classroom or to keep at home, Mandarin House has 500 practical Chinese card set available for learning purposes.

 

Signing up for lessons will have more advantages than strictly self-studying with the book or flash cards. Our teaching staff is excellent with student evaluation, and trained to give proper feedback on your handwriting skills and direct you in strokes as well as challenge and motivate students along the way. For more information about Chinese reading and writing lessons, visit us at www.mandarinhouse.com or contact us on Wechat.

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