I have an interesting observation about Chinese writing skills

[Erez Shmerling]

I am learning to write Chinese characters and I am doing OK.

However, I have an observation that may help both foreigners trying to learn writing Chinese and for native Chinese people who have trouble with writing.

The observation is as follows:

If your strength of forearm, wrist and palm muscles is in the lowest third of the population( regardless of gender) it can interfere with the writing process.

What is recommended for such people, is to try to strengthen their palm, wrist and forearm muscles and then their capacity to write Chinese characters will improve.

I definitely feel it is true for me, meaning that( also given my weak hand muscles) if I strengthen the appropriate muscles it will improve my writing skills.

[Asha]

Hi Erez,

Thanks for the observation!

Looks really interesting. I'll give it a try!

[JF]

Yeah, I defiinitely remember not having the appropriate muscles used to writing by hand making things more difficult for me at the beginning. Also, lot of cheeky comments by co-workers when I complained that my wrist hurts because I spent the evening writing Chinese characters.

[Takeshi]

Writing Chinese definitely uses different muscles than English, for English arm/shoulder muscles are more important, but these are completely unused in Chinese.