Learning How To Write: Analysing vs Copying. Characters vs Sentences

[chinopinyin]

I have just started to learn how to write by hand and wonder what's the more efficient way to do it

Most books (Björksten, Assimil, ...) focus on copying characters.

My impression (not independent of the posts I've read), though, is that learning is going to be much more efficient if:

1. I pay a lot of attention to the structure of a character (e.g radical,phonetic) before writing it

2. I translate from pinyin or English into Chinese, instead of copying several times each character

and

3. I focus on sentences rather than on isolated characters. (To me, characters are boring, sentences are not)

Those of you who already have a good command of Chinese may have different views. Comments welcome

[Scoobyqueen]

I agree with the above points.

I would also recommend the "audio-write" route which may come in handy later if you are planning to use your hanzi writing ability to take notes. This involves listening to whole sentences or texts and writing them out in hanzi. I feel this further improves spontaneous recall and at the same time it could also help you understand sentence structures better (analysis) plus improve your tingli (whilst practicing hanzi).

[Hofmann]

Probably. Writing only helps your handwriting.

[anonymoose]

2. I translate from pinyin or English into Chinese, instead of copying several times each character

I agree. I think in the end, actually putting pen to paper and writing the character is not difficult, especially if you have a model to copy from. The difficulty with writing is knowing which character to write, and how to write it, when you have nothing to prompt you. So translating from pinyin, or as Scoobyqueen suggested, transcribing audio, is probably the best form of practice.

[chinopinyin]

Scoobyqueen: what's the difference between your "audio-write" and a dictation?

[Scoobyqueen]

It is the same (but isnt a dictation normally given by someone who reads it out once), I wanted to emphasise you go directly from audio (not including pinyin) to writing which has other advantages (mentioned).

[chinopinyin]

Good idea Scoobyqueen. I just wanted to make sure. I plan to use mp3 dictations. I can control the speed with VLC media player

[Altair]

Remember that "learning to write a character" can generally refer to:

1. writing in an esthetic manner,

2. writing in an efficient manner,

3. writing in a recognizable manner,

4. being able to reproduce a character cued by the pronunciation and meaning/usage,

5. being able to reproduce a character cued only by meaning/usage, while being able to recall the pronunciation.

I think Chinese pupils need to be concerned with all five, whereas adult foreign learners should usually focus only on 3 and 5.

In learning to write, you can use brute force methods, you can use special techniques, or you can use a mix. I think most adult foreign learners need a mix, but which mix to use depends on your learning style, your goals in Chinese, and what will keep you motivated. By learning style, I refer to whether you are a visual, analytical, or other type of learner. If your goals include learning calligraphy, both traditional and simplified characters, or the ability to write publicly (e.g., in letters, on chalkboards/flip charts, etc.), that should affect your method.

To write in a recognizable manner, you must pay some attention to the mechanics of writing, but not necessarily as much as a Chinese child beginning school. How much you pay attention has to do with a cost-benefit analysis based on your goals. In my view, everyone should learn something initially about the mechanics of producing the basic strokes and how to differentiate them. It is probably worthwhile to also learn a little bit about some principles of character layout (E.g., 大 is usually not drawn symmetrically or the vertical stroke in 事 and 聿 is not the same) and the arrangement of character elements (E.g., 三 usually does not have lines of equal length or 木 or 车 are drawn differently as a radical on the left than as a radical on the bottom). I think these are things to learn, but are probably not worth practicing in any special way.

I also think it is advisable to learn at least 90% of the stroke orders correctly. 100% is not possible, since authorities differ. Less than 90% may lay up future trouble for you when you encounter situations where it is necessary to know about stroke orders. Practicing consistent stroke orders can also help recall.

Before I dismiss the importance of being able to writing esthetic characters, it is worthwhile noting that calligraphy probably has a higher social importance in China than in the West, maybe comparable to good spelling skills. Writing bad characters use to suggest that you had a bad character and might still suggest laziness. Foreigners probably get a little bit of a pass. On the other hand, to write like adult Chinese, you cannot stop at practicing regular characters. You must also learn and practice cursive characters, which is probably not a necessary goal for the vast majority of foreign learners.

In learning to produce characters, brute force and special techniques should complement each other. If you merely write characters over and over and do not engage yourself mentally, you may learn to write the characters, but still be unable to bring them to memory. This is my problem with mindless repetition. I can write a character ten times over, and still not remember how to initiate it or what differentiates from a very similar character. When writing characters as a learning method, you should as a minimum practice the pronunciation and meaning as you write and note every stroke and character element. Composing a character and recalling it are related, but different skills. If you compose a character often enough and engage your mind as you do it, you will probably be able to recall it. If you recall a character often enough and in sufficient detail, you should be able to compose it.

On the other hand, if you use only special techniques, such as clever mnemonics (which I happen to strongly favor), you may be unable to recall the order of character elements （e.g., Is it 够 or 夠?), or you may conflate mnemonics (E.g, Are 刀，刂，弋，戈，戉，斤 so clearly different that they can never be confused? When you practice mnemonics, you also need to clearly form each stroke in your head or with your finger/pencil/pen/brush to avoid the temptation of short cuts.

If you do end up using home-made mnemonics based loosely on etymologies, I would recommend a few additional techniques.

First, do not be dogmatic about the first etymology you find if it does not serve you well. For instance, I heard 青 (green/blue of nature) first explained as something like 生 over 丹, meaning "the (red) color of something put in a kiln". Although I made this work, it would have been better for my way of thinking to use something like: "the color of lush growth 生 around a well 井/丼." For some people, the fact that the bottom of 青 now often looks like 月 would mean that they would need to get "moon" or "meat" into the mnemonic, such as "the color that 生 grows on meat 月/肉 when you leave it in the fridge too long.

Second, it may be best to learn characters in relation to each other and not just as isolated entities. 生 is actually not the same as the top of 青, but you can easily explain this by "reminding" yourself that the extra stroke is "necessary" to draw attention to the pure meaning of growth, like the hanging ear of grain in 禾 or the years 年 it takes for the growth to take place. These associations help to strengthen your ability to recall characters, since recalling or practicing one character has an effect on others.

Third, it is probably best to be open to learning characters in an order different from what you may happen to encounter. 我 is a character that is encountered early and is a little bit hard to remember. I think of it as "扌hand shaking a spear 戈 against all comers, showing the supreme arrogance of the ego (i.e., Latin for "I.")." You may not encounter the actual character 戈 (ge1) for a long time, but it is so useful for mnemonics that it is worth learning the meaning early, if maybe not the pronunciation.

Similarly, it might be a little hard to come up with mnemonics for 乃 and 般 at first; however, if you know that these characters may have changed meanings over the years, you may realize that learning the newer characters first might make it easier to learn the form of the originals. Once you know that 奶 (nai3) is milk (picture of a kneeling women next to a picture of breasts), remembering 乃 (nai3) is no longer so hard. Then you can go on to learn 秀 (not actually related to 乃) as something like "an excellent land may not have milk and honey, but it has at least milk and grain. Another option could be: "Things are so excellent in the promised land that even the grain gives milk. Now you can learn 扔 using: "When you use your own hands to milk a cow, you won't be so quick to throw it out (See an image in your mind of throwing a milk carton through the kitchen window). Or maybe "milk" and "breasts" are too hard for you to relate to "throwing." In that case, see 乃 as a picture of a boomerang. 扔 could then be: "throwing a boomerang around hills whose shape remind you of twin udders.

As for 般, the components are clear, but hard to relate to the meaning "kind" or "class." 搬, however, is fairly easy. It is using your hands 扌to paddle 殳 a small boat/canoe 舟 to transport all sorts of goods up and down the ancient waterways. 般 can then be something like: "the paddlers' hands should not touch any of the kinds or classes of merchandise during transport 搬." This method allows you to distinguish these characters from 船, which could be something like: "not just a small boat 舟, but a large one that can actually get you there dry along 㕣 （沿 minus 氵) your way.

Fourth, explore the various meanings of a character before you decide on the mental hook that you will use for your mnemonic. 的 is hard to memorize as "of," but not so hard to memorize as target. 没 is hard to memorize as "not," but easier to memorize as "sink."

As for learning characters in context, I see little value for learning to write, but great value for learning to read. Even after I reached a 3000 character level in my reading, I often could not recall how to write 的，没， or even 了 in isolation. I could easily recognize these characters in context and had little incentive to remember how to write them. I have studied many scripts and so shapes alone are not distinctive for me and do not stick in my mind without some other association.

[chinopinyin]

Altair, thanks a lot for your detailed and thoughtful reply

[martin_r]

I'm very much a beginner in this game but here's a tip I think works for me. When you're practicing your writing, stop every now and then, close your eyes and visualise yourself writing the character. See it forming stroke by stroke (like the stroke-order animations on MDBG). This is apparently the sort of thing that athletes do when they learn tricky techniques like hurdling. I'm not sure if learning involves quite the same processes, but i think it's working for me anyway. And of course you can do this when you don't actually have writing materials handy, like when you take your podcasts for a walk (you don't really have to close your eyes!).