If you're struggling with Chinese characters
or are not sure how to learn them,
you're in the right place.
This video will show you effective ways to learn
and help you set a goal that's right for you.
Let's go!
哈囉，大家好！ 哈啰，大家好！
I’m Grace.
In this video,
I’ll first talk about the characteristics of Chinese characters.
Understanding these aspects is crucial
for improving your ability
to learn and master characters effectively.
Then, I'll share 3 tips to help you learn Chinese characters
in a more efficient and effective way.
我們開始吧！ 我们开始吧！
Chinese characters are the written form
of the Chinese language.
One character corresponds to one syllable,
a syllable in Chinese is typically comprised of three elements —
an initial (consonant), a final (vowel),
which contains at least one vowel, and a tone.
Remember that a character usually has its own meaning too.
Although it might not be used as an individual word
understanding its general meaning is helpful
when learning new words.
For example,
智 has the meaning of “intelligence”,
so when it’s combined with another character
to form a word,
this new word usually has something to do with intelligence.
For instance, 智慧 (wisdom), 智商 (IQ) etc.
So remember,
to learn a Chinese character
is to learn its shape, its sounds, and its meaning.
Regarding their shapes,
many people might think Chinese characters
are each like unique drawings,
but imagine,
memorizing thousands of drawings,
recognizing them whenever they appear,
and even being able to draw them from memory.
We would have to be super intelligent to do that…
so luckily it’s not like that.
Chinese characters still have their own structures and patterns
so it’s easier for us to learn and remember them.
Here are 4 key points for you to
understand their structures and patterns:
[ Structures and Patterns in Chinese Characters ]
Number 1 - Strokes Are The Basic Unit of Chinese Characters
Strokes are the lines you see in characters,
and it might be intimidating to think that
you have to memorize so many strokes
in order to write Chinese characters.
Don’t worry, we’ll talk about it later
and I’ll show you how to learn it in an easier way.
Number 2 - Every Chinese Character Fits in a Square Shape
This doesn’t mean that
all Chinese characters look like a square,
but it means that
no matter how many strokes we use to write a character,
they can all fit in a square space.
And that’s what you need to pay attention to
when you’re writing Chinese characters,
don’t make them too tall or too wide.
Number 3 - Over 90% of Common Characters Are
Just The Combinations of a Small Same Elements
Simply put, there are two types of Chinese characters,
one is integral (single-component) characters,
which means that the character is inseparable,
like 人、山、大 etc.
Only less than 10% of characters are in this category.
The other type of Chinese characters is
compound (multi-component) characters,
including over 90% of all Chinese characters,
for instance, 他、花、餐.
These compound characters consist of
a limited amount of components,
from the research paper I read,
in the 3500 most frequently used Chinese characters,
which is roughly all of the characters we use in daily life,
there are only 132 components,
which means that
instead of learning 3500 Chinese characters from scratch,
you’re actually learning how to combine these 132 components
and what their meanings and sounds are.
It sounds less intimidating, right?
If you’re interested in knowing
why there are so many compound characters
and would like to understand them,
check out this video.
Number 4 - Around 90% of Chinese characters are written in 4 structures
As we mentioned,
more than 90% of common characters are compound characters.
When we learn them,
we’re not learning how to write them from scratch,
instead, we’re learning how to combine different components
to represent different sounds and meanings.
The ways to combine them
are actually very well established,
although there are more than ten ways to combine components,
around 90% of the characters use only these 4 structures:
So when you’re learning and analyzing Chinese characters,
these are the 4 structures to keep in mind.
Alright, now let’s move on and talk about 3 tips
that can help you learn Chinese characters
more efficiently and effectively.
#1 Prioritize Recognizing Chinese Characters
Many of you might be wondering
if you should practice writing Chinese characters
when you’re learning them.
Of course, learning to write them is a good thing,
but it’s very time-consuming.
So a better way to approach it is
first learning to recognize Chinese characters,
establishing the relationships
between the characters with their sounds
and meanings in your brain.
After you can recognize some Chinese characters,
you can start to integrate writing practice
into your learning.
This can help you memorize the characters better
and distinguish between similar looking characters.
I’ll talk about how to set goals for writing practice
in the next tip.
So in summary,
first focus on being able to read Chinese characters,
knowing their sounds and meanings,
and then move on to practicing writing them.
However, you don’t have to write
all of the words you’re learning,
you can be strategic about it, which is…
#2 Different Levels, Different Goals
Writing Chinese characters will help you
understand and remember the characters better,
however, practicing writing all the words you’re learning
might slow down your learning progress,
of course if you really enjoy doing that,
that’s totally awesome.
But if you’re not,
then you can practice writing them strategically.
If you’re a beginner,
I recommend you start from
writing the most simple and common characters
from your learning material,
which are those simple ones you see over and over again,
like 不、也、今天 etc.
When you practice writing them,
you should focus on their stroke order.
Because using regular stroke order to write characters
will help you develop muscle memory of them.
And to do that,
I highly recommend using Skritter.
It’s a wonderful tool to learn Chinese characters,
you can create your own list of words to study.
It not only provides you with the correct stroke orders,
it also helps you memorize
the sounds and meanings of the characters.
For those of you who want to try it,
I’ve put a link in the description and comments below.
So after you’ve learned enough characters,
you will start noticing some patterns and structures in them.
At this stage, you can apply a method
developed by the scholar 柳燕梅,
called “回憶默寫法 (Recall Writing Method).
One of the things this method emphasizes is that
before you start writing a new character,
you can first analyze it,
for example,
you can see how many components this character has,
and also try associating it
with the previous characters you’ve learned,
see if there is any familiar or unfamiliar parts.
For example,
when you learn 超,
you might notice that
this part looks like the 走 (to walk) you’ve learned,
and this is a 口 (mouth).
The remaining component is a 刀 (knife),
you may or may not have learned it before,
but now you notice it,
and then try remembering how they are arranged.
You can also relate the new character
to any similar characters you know.
You can put them together
to see how they are different.
Like, when you learn 已 (as in 已經),
if you’ve learned 己 (as in 自己),
you might notice they are similar,
you can put 己 next to 已
and figure out how they are different,
so you’ll be able to distinguish them in the future.
By analyzing the characters before you write them,
you’ll be able to remember them better.
#3 Consistency
I know this is so obvious,
but it’s also the hardest.
Since there are quite a lot of Chinese characters to learn,
it’s important to know what approach to use,
but it’s also very important
to make plans for consistent learning.
Your plan can actually be super simple,
for example,
commit to 30 minutes a day
in maybe reading Chinese characters,
practice writing 5 to 10 Chinese characters etc.
depending on your level.
But remember,
it’s also important to
review the characters you’ve learned,
so be sure to include that in your study plan as well.
Alright, those are all the tips I have for you today!
I hope these insights into Chinese characters
and the study advice are useful to you.
If you have any thoughts on learning Chinese characters,
whether it's challenges you've faced
or effective methods you've discovered,
feel free to share them in the comments.
Also, if you liked today’s video,
and would like to support me in making more content,
please visit my ko-fi page.
The link is in the description below.
Thank you so much!
Last but not least,
if you want to learn some daily Mandarin expressions,
check out my Instagram @gracemandarin
那我們就下次見囉！拜拜！ 那我们就下次见啰！拜拜！ I’ll see you next time! Bye!