For Your Opinion: Do we need to be able to write 汉字 at

[HashiriKata]

Hi,

Here is a serious question which I have been thinking about for a long time until I found this site. Given that it takes an enormous amount of time for foreigners to learn and it is so difficult to reproduce Chinese characters correctly, I wonder if the learning of Chinese would be more effective if we abandon learning to WRITE Chinese characters altogether and concentrate only on learning to RECOGNIZE them. As a speaker of Japanese, I have problems with remembering even just a few thousands characters and my situation's now getting worse because I've been relying on the computer for most of my writing (It's a vicious circle!). So the questions are:

- With the help of the computer for outputting Chinese when needed, do we still need to learn how to write? Will the ability to recognize characters correctly alone be sufficient?

- How many non-native speakers of Chinese find that they can't function adequately in Chinese without using handwriting? How often do they (teachers of Chinese excepted) feel that they have to use the pen for Chinese?

- Assuming that there will be some inconvenience in not being able to use the pen, is it still worth it with the amount of time saved from not having to learn how to write?

Hope to hear your view!

HK

[skylee]

I think if you don't learn to write it it may be difficult to remember/recognise it. But I am not a non-native speaker.

[yonglan]

Since you speak Japanese, you likely know that even educated Japanese have in recent years been forgetting how to write more complicated and less frequently used kanji. Japan has had a wider use of computers for longer than either China or Taiwan. Of course, Japan also has kana to fall back on, and they increasingly do.

I do think it will become like being able to use a brush: fine for people (myself included) who enjoy it, but not of great importance. Someone who's very good with one of the popular input methods for Chinese on a computer can now input well over 100 characters per minute. I forget the exact number, but it's 120+ I think.

How many educated native speakers can write 鬱金香？None that I've tested so far. My Chinese teacher could (though I didn't test her, it came up in class one day because we had a Dutch classmate), but she was a Chinese literature major and lived and breathed Chinese. Ok, it's an extreme example, but I've known a lot of well educated Chinese speakers who write common but complex characters wrong because they don't write anymore. Maybe this is not happening so much yet in China?

Last time I was in Taiwan, through a mutual Taiwanse friend I met an American woman who had worked as a professional translator for many years, including for the US State Department. She literally laughed at me for my fondness of writing characters, calligraphy, and etymology. She said no job as ever required her to write Chinese characters with a pen. She types.

Of course, I think one remembers characters better and can tell look alike characters apart more easily if one writes with a pen.

[thepokergod]

It's an interesting topic. Having studied for two years I have rarely had to use a pen and paper (class and exams aside) to communicate. However I often use a computer to type Chinese.

Having said that I do enjoy the struggle. To be able to recognise and understand characters I have to pratice writing them, and this then furthers my understanding of the word, the character pronunciation and other such things.

It's a bitch to do but I reckon we should not just give up!

[HashiriKata]

Thank you for replying.

The question arises from the fact that many people who are well-versed in characters have lost their original ability to write correctly due to the help of the computer; and as the computer will be even more popular now, the question of whether we should spend that much time to learn just to forget later seems to have been a practical one.

Regards,

HK

[amperel]

i haven't had much chance to write chinese characters anymore. but there are times when i'm bored and if there's a pen/pencil nearby i will automatically start doodling words and idioms and sentences... it feels rather therapeutic and soothing. and 禪.

incidentally 鬱 is one of my favourite word to "doodle" about no doubt because i'm a moody person. plus it's beautiful to look at.

[skylee]

I remember the last time I really wrote (with a pen) in Chinese was to write a complaint letter to the hotel management in Jiuzhaigou a few months ago. Under those circumstances and in such places, I think one could only write in longhand and in Chinese. And I got a not-bad apology from the hotel. So learning to write Chinese characters is not unuseful.

[wushijiao]

When I first came to China I planned to learn how to write, but then I found I could just write pinyin and recognize. This has seemed to work well for me, but at some point it becomes limiting. If you want to become a scholar you need to learn to write. And, as skylee pointed out, you can't write with a computer in many typical daily-life activities.

With that said, I don't think not learning to write has slowed my recognition abilities at all.

[ala]

You'll be fine if you can write everything that is on a bank account form and a medical form (allergies, conditions, histories, etc). For most other daily purposes you would probably have the convenience of a word processor.

[ChouDoufu]

I think it's definitely something that should be pursued. To not learn how to write is leaving out the aspect of a language. Obviously given the realities of today's society (computers, etc) being able to write all those obscure chinese characters would be difficult, but it's worth the effort to do so for it's own sake, isn't it?