Chinese handwriting courses

[GaoJinJie]

Hi everybody,

 

I've been learning Chinese on-and-off for a while now. I've just decided that I should learn how to write Chinese characters (I can read and type already).

 

I've found a few resources online but thought I'd ask the experts here: do you know any good video courses that teach students how to write Chinese characters?

 

Cheers!

[ChTTay]

Skritter or Inkstone. 

 

I learned how to write using skritter but it’s a bit expensive. Inkstone is a (I think) free alternative. 

[Shelley]

Agree with ChTTay  Skritter or Inkstone  also Hanzi Grids for that real pen and paper experience that in my opinion helps build "muscle memory" .

 

Skritter : https://skritter.com/

Inkstone : https://www.chinese-forums.com/forums/topic/52390-inkstone-my-free-open-source-chinese-writing-app/

Hanzi Grids : https://www.hanzigrids.com/

 

 

 

 

[somethingfunny]

Your Chinese textbook should have a bit at the end of each chapter where you can practice the stroke order of the new characters you have learnt.

 

Then, if you're in China, you could get a copy book.  I'm not sure if these are called 字帖 or not - if you ask for that in a bookshop you'll likely get a book of some old calligraphy master's writing.  What I mean is the kind where they have pieces of tracing paper between each page for you to trace over.

[Tomsima]

1 hour ago, somethingfunny said:

What I mean is the kind where they have pieces of tracing paper between each page for you to trace over.

钢笔字帖

[imron]

5 hours ago, somethingfunny said:

Then, if you're in China, you could get a copy book.

And if you're not in China, you can use a website I created - Hanzi Grids

[Shelley]

There is of course this wonderful blog written by a Chinese Forum member , @Hofmann

 

This is well worth a read and as a reference work to refer to as you progress. Lots of interesting things, but the minimum writing requirements (Parts 1,2,,3 etc) are what i was referring to for your question.

 

https://www.chinese-forums.com/blogs/blog/25-can-if-i-want/

[mlescano]

Besides Heisig's books, Anki (single payment for iPhone, free for other platforms, no subscriptions), and the "Can if I want" blog, I recommend:

 

-the imiwa? app for iPhone. It contains standard stroke order animations for the Japanese Kanji, which, according to Hofmann, are more historically accurate than other countries' standards.

-YouTube. You can find videos of people writing some characters if you search the character plus "书法", or something like that. For example, here are a few cursive style videos I've found:

 

出 https://youtu.be/ZYKtOTeCAtI

秋 https://youtu.be/PWDefZvOz5U 
掩 https://youtu.be/gHMERc3bV1E?t=2m35s
果 https://youtu.be/rge2-pshjTo?t=2s

此 https://youtu.be/-GZAPl_jw1Y?t=2m14s 
形 https://youtu.be/VDQ6D95Xk8M?t=1m
超 https://youtu.be/yB3sHCZdrdY

 

EDIT: This website is also fantastic. It has animated GIFs for a lot of characters. You can drag these directly from the browser to your Anki deck.

[Eric B]

Hi GaoJinJie

 

I'm also new to learning how to read and write Chinese and have been trying on and off for about 1.5 years. Personally, I love reading Chinese poetry from the Tang and Song dynasties... translated of course! :) But my goal is to read the original poems myself... someday.

 

Last fall I started creating some writing practice worksheets for myself and my classmates (Chinese class). They seemed to really like the worksheets so I decided to make them available to everyone.

 

But instead of just tracing characters over and over, there's also challenges like "fill in the missing stroke" which I think helps reinforces the character's strokes and forces you to look at the character more closely.

 

Anyway, you can check out what I've made so far here: writemandarin.com

 

Right now there's only 10 sets of words but I'll be adding more over the next few weeks.

 

Hope it helps! Sorry to toot my own horn but I do think they are useful and fun for learning how to write! They're fun for me anyway! :P

 

Eric

[大块头]

I recommend Inkstone. It is free and open-source, too.