Does using Wubi help stop you forgetting how to write?

[Guest realmayo]

Lots of Chinese people say that with pinyin input on computers they can produce Chinese text without needing to remember how to write each character, and this is a big contributor to their forgetting how to write characters. So I wondered about Wubi users: how does typing with Wubi compare with writing out a character long-hand, in terms of needing to remember the correct strokes? Is there lots of 'fuzziness' built in that means you can produce the right character even if you forget parts of how it's written? Or is it much stricter, meaning a regular Wubi who knows how to type a character would also be able to write it long-hand?

[edelweis]

If a character contains more than 4 wubi shapes, the middle ones are ignored (for instance when writing 微, you write 彳山一攵 but not 几).

Inside a character, 用, 月 and other similar looking shapes, are all assigned to the same key “e”. Wubi does not tell you that in 前 the left leg of the 月 shape is straight etc. The same happens with many other sets of similar looking but slightly different shapes, just look at a wubi keyboard mapping image. (BTW the one on the wubi tutorial page is not complete, but it already shows how some shapes can be confused).

These are perhaps not totally convincing examples, I am sure people who know more characters can produce better ones.

So, yes there is some fuzziness, you still have to learn to hand-write the finer details of many characters. But it does help to avoid totally forgetting characters.

[imron]

There is quite a bit of fuzziness and imprecision, especially once you start using multi-character shortcuts where you only type the first two shapes (or sometimes only the first shape) of a character in a two (or three/four) character word. Despite this, I think it does help you to remember characters as often that first shape or two is enough to trigger what the rest of the character looks like.

I've certainly found it to be helpful for learning characters.

[Guest realmayo]

Interesting. The only Chinese people I know who use Wubi are those who speak rather dodgy Putonghua and so despite being otherwise perfectly literate have an uncomfortable relationship with pinyin. But perhaps, thanks to Wubi, dodgy putonghua = better character-writing?

Am tempted to learn Wubi in order to firm up my character recognition -- yes, I know, but just recognising characters doesn't seem to drill some of them deep enough into my head, so I an going to have to start writing them again. Trouble is I rarely type Chinese these days either so there's probably no point spending all that time re-learning the keyboard if I'm not going to use it. Maybe have to go back to SRS testing me on writing again....

[Matty]

I'm not so sure about Wu Bi as I haven't learnt it yet, however I have found that using Bi Hua on my phone has made it much simpler to memorise the characters.

Bi Hua involves typing the stroke types one by one which makes you consider the structure of the character.

I feel it does have some inconsistencies, though this may just be because of my way of thinking.

It's well worth looking into for when you're writing text messages.

Inconsistencies aside, you really practice your knowledge of characters when using it.

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This morning I really can't write in English ><

[yialanliu]

If using Bihua, you need the correct stroke order or else you will get the inconsistency. I find it to be over 99% accurate when I use it. However, inputting it with the wrong stroke order will crew it up pretty badly.