just ugly!

[randall_flagg]

Hi there!

I know that writing beautifully is very important to the Chinese. When I write Chinese, everybody can read what I am writing, but I know that my characters stink! Ever since I started to learn Chinese, I never paid much attention to proportions and all that stuff. I thought it was going to be more important to learn more words than waste my time trying to make each character look like a piece of art.

I don’t want to do calligraphy or anything at this point, I just want my characters to look presentable. So here’s the question: Anybody got any recommendations to help me out of this predicament? How do you guys and gals make your characters look so nice? Do you just take your time (cause I don’t) or do you have a secret? Have you been using any special materials for that? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

BTW, when I use the Latin alphabet to handwrite stuff it’s not exactly a pretty thing to look at, either (most of the time people simply can’t read my handwriting), so the Chinese characters are not to blame.

Thanks,

Randall

[gougou]

BTW, when I use the Latin alphabet to handwrite stuff it’s not exactly a pretty thing to look at, either (most of the time people simply can’t read my handwriting), so the Chinese characters are not to blame.

Then these might be the wrong forums...

I have the same problem as you, though, but I have given up the thought of ever getting a nice handwriting. It would take an incredible amount of time, as it is not a problem of (re)training a few Chinese characters, but of completely adjusting the motorics of your hand. Definitely not worth it, in my eyes. Especially when considering how rarely I write the old-fashioned way...

[geraldc]

Go back to using squared paper, use 4 squares per character and pay attention to proportion and placement, and start copying out characters again.

When copying characters, always refer back to the printed character you are copying and not your previous attempt at the character. Hold your pen slightly more upright, than normal. Even if you do get nice handwriting, unless you learn to do running hand, everyone will still think you write like a kid...

I still write like a kid, my handwriting is appalling and I'm left handed too, so I just type these days.

[kudra]

When copying characters' date=' always refer back to the printed character you are copying and not your previous attempt at the character

[/quote']

If you are going to go down this tough road, you might also want to refer not to the printed character but to a standard handwriting example. IMO the proportions will be nicer, and the details will be clearer. I mean, there is a reason that those beginners books provided the standard handwriting examples in the first place and not just a magnified version of the printed character.

[studentyoung]

I know that writing beautifully is very important to the Chinese.

En, I think writing beautifully is important to the Chinese people in China mainland, not to foreigners.

When I write Chinese, everybody can read what I am writing, but I know that my characters stink!

I can tell you so sure that it is an unavoidable phase for even native speakers, and so many of them has not gone through this hard phase for their whole life, so I hope maybe you can release your stress on it.

I don’t want to do calligraphy or anything at this point, I just want my characters to look presentable. So here’s the question: Anybody got any recommendations to help me out of this predicament?

Ah, I think it might be a lot of people’s predicament. Since you tell me that you don’t want to do any calligraphy or things like that but simply wants to make your handwriting presentable, I think maybe I can help you a bit.

In my opinion, handwriting is a habit you have got used to, yet you can still change your previous habit by repeating another habit. In China, some children, especially those in kindergarten and in primary school, who have no idea on calligraphy but still want to practice their handwriting, use some kind of exercise books called 描红簿 miao2 hong2 bu4”. In 描红簿, all the example characters are printed in red for children to write directly on these red characters, which is called “描红”. Through this kind of repeating practice, children can naturally and unconsciously get used to write in a better way at the beginning,

I think maybe it is impossible for 描红簿 to appear in foreign countries, so I hope the text books might be useful. First, you can find some thin paper (the paper must be thin enough to let the characters on your text book visible when it is put on your text book), then you put it on your text book and write on the paper again and again, till you feel that you can write better.

I hope this easy way can help you improve your handwriting. But I think you should release the stress of worrying about whether the characters are written worse or better at first, but try to enjoy the course on the practice, and slightly learn how to compare why one is better than another.

Thanks!