Learning the Chinese writing system is a massive undertaking, and achieving mastery can take years. For some, it may not seem like it’s worth the effort when typing exists as an easy alternative, but increased dexterity is not the only benefit of learning to write by hand. The process itself of learning to write characters is a tool that will increase your understanding of the Chinese language on both a linguistic and cultural level.

The thought of learning a new writing system may feel like looking up at Mt. Everest, but you’re not alone. This article will provide you with an introduction to the fundamentals of Chinese handwriting and calligraphy, as well as strategies to help you improve your handwriting at any level.

If you’re ready to start, let’s talk about why learning this part of the language is so necessary.

• Why Is the Chinese Writing System Important?
• Components of the Written Chinese Language
• Learning to Write Chinese by Hand: The Tools You’ll Need
• Chinese Writing Practice for Beginner, Intermediate, And Advanced Learners
• A Personal Note: Learning to write Chinese if you’re left-handed
• The common characters practice sheets (PDF)

Why Is the Chinese Writing System Important?

Chinese handwriting is more than just a practical system for conveying information, the form of the characters themselves and the meaning embedded in each component provide insight into Chinese culture, history, and values.

Aesthetically, Chinese characters follow a flow that mirrors nature, a key theme in Chinese culture. The meticulously planned stroke order guides the brush smoothly from one end of the page to the other.

Furthermore, the cultural significance isn’t confined to artistic expression. The visual nature of the language allows the writing system to encapsulate historical perspectives and events. For example, looking at ancient script, the ancestor of the modern Chinese writing system, will allow you to view the world through the lens of the people who were first transcribed the world around them. You’ll see what they considered important, valuable, and beautiful.

Components of the Written Chinese Language

While many refer to Chinese as a pictographic script, only about 4% of characters are actually pictograms（象形字）. The remaining 96% consist of simple ideographs（指事字）, compound ideographs（会意字）, phonetic semantic compounds（形声字）, loanwords（假借字）, and derivative characters（转注字）. What does this mean for you as a learner? It means that written Chinese is a diverse ecosystem, where many different elements come together to create complex meanings and ideas. To gain a comprehensive understanding of the written language, you must first understand its basic components.

Developing an advanced understanding may seem daunting, but it takes time. There are many much smaller and much simpler steps you can take to put yourself on the right track. For example, while pictograms only make up a small number of characters in total, they constitute a significant portion of the characters beginners should learn first. From there, you can grow your vocabulary and build your understanding of the written language progressively.

Learning to Write Chinese by Hand: The Tools You’ll Need

First of all, you’ll need paper, but not just any blank paper. If you’re a beginner or you feel that your handwriting needs a lot of work, your best bet is to use character practice sheets, which provide larger, pre-sectioned boxes for you to write in. Once you can write more precisely and feel comfortable with smaller font, then it’s time to progress to graph paper. Office supply stores often carry graph paper with boxes as big as 1 centimeter each, or as small as ¼ inch each.

When it comes to writing utensils, there’s a major debate on whether pens or pencils are ideal. While pencils are more convenient because you can erase mistakes and try again, many argue that pens encourage you to write more diligently because each mark is permanent. You only have one chance to get it right. Ultimately, the choice will come down to your personal preference or your teacher’s requirement.

Thankfully, these tools are all readily accessible, and you likely already have everything you need at home. Once you have your supplies in front of you, let’s look at some key practice strategies for your level.

Chinese Handwriting Practice for Beginner, Intermediate, And Advanced Learners

Beginners and advanced learners alike can benefit from deliberate handwriting practice. The key is to find strategies that will develop your fine motor skills while also deepening your understanding of the language.

Practice tips for beginner learners

The first step is to familiarize yourself with the basics. Be sure to check out our quick guide to Chinese character stroke order, as it will provide you a clear map to follow. You may ask yourself why we need to bother with tedious things like stroke order. While it may feel quite foreign at first, with practice, you’ll find that writing Chinese characters is actually rather intuitive. The stroke order flows like a river, guiding you from each stroke to the next, and from each character to the next.

When it comes to selecting which characters to practice writing, you don’t need to overdo it. You can select a short list of words that contain all the elements you need to practice. As mentioned earlier, beginners can get ahead by focusing on pictographic characters and radicals.

For example, here is a list of 10 basic vocabulary words composed of the fundamental strokes that will no doubt come up countless times during your studies. Several of them, such as 人, 口, 日, and手, will also appear as radicals in other characters.

If possible, ask a teacher, friend, or language exchange partner to look at your writing and provide feedback. One of the best methods is to have your tutor watch you as you write each character, so they can make sure you’re following the proper order and direction for each stroke. You’ll also be able to correct yourself immediately and try again if they spot an error.

This early stage is crucial because it’s quite easy to develop bad habits that will be much harder to break later on. A bit of additional effort at the beginning can save you a lot of trouble in the long run. Consider different resources you can use to practice:

• Chinese handwriting apps
• specialized character books
• writing-focused online courses – Comprehensive Guide to Chinese Characters.

Practice tips for intermediate learners

When you reach an intermediate stage, you’ll be required to write not only single-element characters, like the ones listed above, but also characters composed of multiple elements. This means paying additional attention to the proportions of each character and ensuring that your handwriting is balanced. While you may be tempted to switch to a smaller size of graph paper or stop using character practice sheets entirely, there are still benefits to writing larger. Start with a larger font, and as you gain confidence writing more complex characters, then begin to scale it down.

The intermediate stage is also when you can progress from intensive practice, focusing on being able to write a small set of characters perfectly, to extensive practice, focusing on being able to write a wide variety of characters well. Many learners find that they can recognize a lot more characters than they can write, and this is normal. Even native speakers sometimes have trouble recalling how to write certain characters, especially ones that come up rarely in everyday life.

When it comes to picking which characters to focus on, it’s logical to start with the characters that you’ll need to use most often, such as common nouns and verbs, grammar particles, and simple adjectives. These are the words that you’ll find on HSK vocabulary lists or Mandarin Chinese frequency lists below. From there, you can start to add words that are important to you specifically, such as terms from the industry you work in or words that are related to your hobbies and interests.

Beginners and intermediate learners should start writing Chinese characters systematically. Courses like the Zero to Hundred Characters Building-up Course help learners explore the characters, their creation, formation, and evolution into modern forms. In each lesson, learners break down characters, learn their origins, use common grammar patterns, and follow a stroke-by-stroke writing tutorial. This deepens your understanding of writing Chinese characters. If interested in writing Chinese characters, you can check the course for more details.

Practice tips for advanced learners

At the advanced stage, you’ve no doubt already become quite an autonomous learner, so this is where you can start to focus on your individual weaknesses and push yourself even further.

But how do you know where your weaknesses lie? Similar to beginners, seeking feedback from native speakers is paramount. The only difference is that you’ll likely need to ask them to look at a longer text written by you, as the errors may be few and far between. They may notice individual characters that need attention, or they may even pick up on larger patterns, such as frequently mixing up the line proportions for characters like 土(tǔ) and 士(shì).

The combination of integrating feedback and extensive practice is what will help you achieve mastery. One of the best ways to see your progress over time is to write every day, each time challenging yourself to write neatly at a steady pace. You can choose to write about a selected topic every day or keep a diary where you write about your daily life. Over time, you should feel your proficiency increasing, and when you look back at previous texts you wrote, you should see a visual difference in the quality of your writing as well.

If you’re already quite confident with your ability to write in standard print, you may want to begin challenging yourself in new ways. You can aim for accuracy by trying to write a 1,000-character text in pen with zero errors. You can also aim for speed, such as seeing how fast you can copy a text. If you want to test your recall abilities, try doing a dictation while listening to a complex piece of audio, such as from a podcast or news announcement.

Finally, the true way to take your Chinese handwriting to the next level is to study how native speakers write by hand, which can look quite different. They may take shortcuts, writing multiple strokes with a single continuous line or simplifying elements. This is how native speakers manage to write both fluidly and more quickly.

The fastest way to start writing like a native speaker is to imitate them. You can begin by watching others. There are many useful online resources, such as the Chinese Handwriting YouTube channel or the Chinese Handwriting community on Reddit, where you can see visual references or simple tutorials for writing in cursive script.

A Personal Note: Learning to write Chinese if you’re left-handed

If learning to write in Chinese is difficult for right-handed learners, it feels impossible for us lefties. As a young student, I was always the only left-handed person in my classes. I attended American public school, where it’s no longer considered acceptable to force left-handed students to use their right hand to write. However, I could tell that my Chinese teachers weren’t quite sure how to teach me proper Chinese handwriting.

I’ll admit that I found it discouraging initially. Training my hand to follow stroke order was a unique challenge because I wanted to write all of my horizontal strokes from right to left, instead of left to right. I also noticed that all of my characters were slanted, a consequence of how I was holding the pencil in my hand. My teachers would stand behind me and look over my shoulder as I wrote, trying to see if I was “cheating” or not.

When I was about three months into my studies, my mid-term exam was coming up, and I felt depressed because I felt that I was doomed to lose points on the handwriting section. I had to sit down with myself and say, “This is more difficult for me than the other students, and it’s not fair, but that doesn’t mean I have to give up. It only means that I need to work harder.”

From that point on, I sat down every day and practiced intentionally. I focused on writing the strokes and characters that felt most unnatural for me. After about a week, I started to see a difference in the quality of my handwriting. After three weeks, my teacher was writing positive notes on my worksheets about the improvement she saw in my writing.

So, if you’re also a leftie and you want to know if you can still learn to write in Chinese, I’m living proof that if you put in the work, it will come. It will be harder for you, and it’s not fair. But the only thing standing in the way is your doubt.

A Final Word

If you’ve made it this far, I commend you! The world of the Chinese writing system is so vast, and yet we’ve only scratched the surface here. There are so many cultural and linguistic nuances to explore, many of which are completely new to English speakers. While we do not have the time to look at them all together, I hope that this article encourages you to embark on your own journey. I encourage you to use the strategies laid out here to both help strengthen your connection to the language and improve your fluency at the same time. Keep studying, stay curious, and open yourself up to all that the Chinese language has to offer.

Here is the list of the 150 commonly used Chinese characters that you need to master. Learn to practice your handwriting by downloading the common characters practice sheets.

The post Chinese Handwriting Practice, One Stroke at A Time: A Comprehensive Guide appeared first on .

Fortunately, you don’t have to rely on brute memorization to expand your vocabulary and meet your learning goals. You can rely on the writing system’s surprisingly intuitive structure, expertly developed learning strategies, and even more creative approaches to associating characters with their corresponding pronunciations and meanings.

In this article, we’ll look at ways to establish a strong foundation and then build from there to help you develop a vocabulary that is both rich and authentic. While a lot of this content is geared towards helping beginners find their way to get over the initial hurdle of adapting to a new writing system, the learning strategies and resources provided below are suitable for learners of all levels, especially those aiming to expand their vocabulary and enhance their ability to memorize Chinese characters effectively.

• Step One: Learn How the Chinese Writing System Works
• Step Two: Build Your Chinese Vocabulary Through Repeated Exposure and Practice
• Step Three: Test Your Knowledge Regularly
• Key Resources for Learning Chinese Characters

Step One: Learn How the Chinese Writing System Works

The first major step to solving these little puzzles is to understand the different components they’re made of and how those components are arranged. This may sound like a major investment of time and energy, but it’s a lot easier than it seems at first glance.

While we already have a quite comprehensive article on the fundamentals of character structure and how to write them, I really want to emphasize the importance of two common components: radicals and phonetic components.

Radicals, also known as 部首(bùshǒu), are the most essential part of understanding the meaning of characters. Take 女(nǚ) for example; by itself, it means “woman” or “female” but can be combined with other pieces to create words like 妈妈(māmā, mother)，姐姐(jiějiě, older sister)，and 妹妹(mèimèi, younger sister). There are 189 radicals in simplified Chinese, but Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither is fluency. You can focus on the most common, most fundamental radicals and still see major payoff in your studies.

The next key piece of the puzzle is phonetic components. Going back to the three words we looked at earlier, you’ll notice the pieces added to the radical, 马(mǎ, horse), 且(qiě, even/moreover), and 未(wèi, not), have nothing to do with the meaning, BUT the pronunciation does match closely or exactly. These phonetic components do not add anything to the definition of the character, but rather they provide a clue to indicate how you should say it out loud.

This is just a taste of what the Chinese writing system looks like when you break it down, but can you already see the mystery of these characters starting to dissipate? If you want to keep going more in-depth, you can also check out these two courses that provide an in-depth overview of the writing system to help you find your footing and become more confident both reading and writing Chinese characters.

Once you feel you have a solid foundation, then it’s time to start building.

Step Two: Build Your Chinese Vocabulary Through Repeated Exposure and Practice

This is the stage where you can start to have more independence when it comes to choosing both the content that you want to study and the strategies you want to use. This is the stage in my own learning journey where I felt lost at sea, adrift with no real direction and nobody to help me. And while I can’t tell you exactly what to study and how, I can provide some of my own insights to set you off on the right path.

Let’s first answer the question of WHAT to study. The answer here is going to look very different depending on your learning level. Quite frankly, for beginners, there’s a very straightforward answer: learn the words that are used most often. Chinese character frequency lists will provide you with the characters you hear most often in daily life, or you can always refer to the classic HSK vocabulary lists.

As you become more advanced and feel confident with the words you hear on a daily basis, you may need to look at specializing based on your own interests and learning goals. For example, if you’ve been learning business Chinese for several years and you plan on putting that knowledge to use working with a software company, then naturally it would serve you to learn the specialized terminology of your field. Or if you don’t have any professional aspirations, you can merely focus on areas of interest. If you’re a literature fanatic, then you may even choose to learn some archaic Chinese words to help you understand classical works and poetry. The only limit here is your imagination.

Next comes an even bigger question. Once you have a list of words you want to learn, HOW do you learn them without feeling like your brain is completely overloaded? The first key is based on the Chengyu 锲而不舍(qiè ér bù shě)，persevere, and keep chipping away at it. The second key is to find the learning strategies that work for you.

Let’s take a look at some of the ways to make memorizing Chinese characters easier.

– Strategy 1: Flashcards and Spaced Repetition

We all know them, and we all have a love-hate relationship with them. Flashcards have remained one of the most common strategies for character memorization because they allow you to quickly check whether or not you can remember the meaning of a character. It’s also quite easy to find a spare 10 minutes for flashcards as opposed to sitting down for an intensive study session.

However, just doing flashcards doesn’t always guarantee results. It’s also hard to know how many times you should study a card before moving on, and what happens if you forget a word that you previously studied? This is where the concept of spaced repetition comes in.

Spaced repetition is an evidence-based study technique that is used by linguists, medical professionals, law school students, and more. This system is based around the concept of studying new terms more frequently and familiar terms less frequently. It focuses your attention on the words that are less familiar but still prompts you to return to words that you’ve already study, which strengthens your recall and makes you less likely to forget it.

While spaced repetition systems (SRS) can be difficult to manage with hand-made flashcards, many popular flashcard apps, such as Anki, already have an SRS baked into their code, making this strategy readily accessible to anyone.

– Strategy 2: Visual Cues

Do you consider yourself a visual learner? Then why not take advantage of the fact that many Chinese characters are based on pictograms. Radicals such as 口(kǒu) and 目(mù) pictorially represent the mouth and eyes, so they serve as visual cues to remind you of the meaning of words like 喝(hē, to drink) and 眼睛(yǎnjing, eyes). I’ve always found that making visual associations strengthens my memory more than anything else.

You can choose to draw these connections by yourself during your regular reading and writing practice, or you can do intentional visual association using an established guide, like Chineasy, designed to help visual learners memorize characters more effectively.

– Strategy 3: Storytelling and Mnemonics

Another strategy that is based around making external connections is storytelling. By creating a narrative around a new word, it can help you more effectively remember its meaning and importance in the language. You don’t have to write a novel. Even just writing a few short sentences can help your brain grasp a foreign term more strongly and more quickly.

This strategy is extremely effective for learning Chengyu, four-character idiomatic phrases that are often based on traditional fables. Learning the story behind these complex expressions makes a world of difference, and it’s truly inspiring to be able to learn more about Chinese history and culture while also expanding your practical knowledge of the language.

Mnemonic devices are a slightly more abstract strategy to remember the pronunciation and meaning of characters. These are often personal ideas or opinions that we assign to a specific character because it helps us recall more effectively and faster. Let’s look at one example together. I’ve been trying to learn the word 单独(dāndú, alone, singlehanded), and I have a coworker named Dan who recently quit. So now, when I see this character, I think of the fact that due to Dan, I now need to handle my work alone.

Personally, I have mixed feelings about this strategy because sometimes it can be very difficult to find a way to meaningfully link a character to a phrase in my native language. However, when you do find a solid mnemonic device, it can be extremely effective in helping you recognize the character later on.

– Strategy 4: Learning in Context

Sometimes the most effective way to pick up new terms is through learning on the job, which means learning new characters when you come across them while reading. Many linguists would say that this lines up with the strategy called Comprehensible Input, which is currently one of the most popular methods of learning a new language.

The reason why learning in context is so important is that it exposes you to the characters you will need most often in your day-to-day life, plus it adds additional insights about the word’s usage and cultural implications. Learning characters in isolation can teach you how to recognize and write them, but learning through real-life scenarios will help you turn passive understanding into active usage, which has a much higher impact on your fluency.

This strategy is one of the easiest to implement into your studies because it can be applied to any scenario where you are reading Chinese characters as part of a larger story or conversation, such as texting friends, reading books or manhua, and browsing social media.

When you come across a character that you don’t recognize, it’s important that you take note of its structure and components, plus the pronunciation and meaning. Thankfully, many popular reading apps like MandarinBean, DuChinese allow you to see a word’s pinyin and definition by tapping on it, or you can install a browser extension that will allow you to do the same on any website.

Step Three: Test Your Knowledge Regularly

No matter how you choose to go about memorizing characters, you need to ensure that you’re actually retaining the knowledge over time if you want to get the maximum benefit. There are a few different ways you can go about testing to see if you really remember all those words you studied.

– Test 1: Reading Comprehension

The first test is the easiest because reading only relies on recognizing characters and remembering their meaning. If you’re studying HSK-related vocabulary, then look at reading materials or mock tests that are aimed at your current level (or the one above!) and see if you are able to read through a passage smoothly, or if you feel like you’re hitting speedbumps in every sentence. Perhaps some words come back to you immediately, others you can figure out by looking at them for a minute, and some won’t come back to you at all. If you want to give yourself a grade, you can count how many characters fall into each of those three categories, but I find that you can most often intuitively get a sense of your performance just by going through the passage.

– Test 2: Written Expression

Now comes the real challenge. Can you both think of the character you want to use and then remember how to write it? If you’ve been studying vocabulary around a specific topic, such as how to order food, writing business emails, or describing a movie you saw, you can try to write a short paragraph or dialogue to demonstrate your knowledge. This will not only reinforce your knowledge of characters but also all of the grammar points you have studied. Don’t worry if you can write fewer characters than you can recognize, that’s completely natural and is even true of native speakers.

If you want to try this test but feel like your writing skills aren’t up to par, you can also consider typing your text. Different typing input methods can test your character recognition in different ways, such as inputs based on pronunciation, radicals, or stroke order. It isn’t as rigorous as handwriting everything, but it will still allow you to see if you’re retaining the information that you studied.

Key Resources for Learning Chinese Characters

Having the right tools to support your practice can often make the difference between finding success or falling short. This is a curated collection of apps, books, and courses designed to boost your Chinese vocabulary in ways that are extremely helpful, streamlined, and fun.

DigMandarin’s Chinese Character Courses

These courses are an extremely valuable resource for any student looking to familiarize themselves with the fundamentals of Chinese characters. I found that the instructor broke down complex concepts into digestible pieces, allowing me to learn without feeling overwhelmed. They’re also extremely affordable, and the format allowed me to access the course when it was convenient for me.

Pleco

Pleco is by far the best Chinese dictionary app you will ever use. It offers an extremely comprehensive database of terms and phrases. You can also use any input method you want: Chinese, English, Pinyin, handwriting, or simply taking a picture. Certain add-ons can be purchased to add additional features, such as a flashcard system, but they are very low-cost and are a one-time purchase instead of an ongoing subscription.

Anki

Anki is an extremely well-known SRS (spaced repetition system) app used to create and manage flashcard decks. While its interface is still stuck in the 90s, it can be learned fairly quickly and lends itself to being used creatively. You can create your own flashcards and add supplements like audio and images to improve retention, or you can download existing flashcard decks created by other users. I’m currently using this extensive HSK 3.0 vocabulary deck, which includes writing and stroke order practice.

Chineasy

This series originally hit the scene as a book with an innovative take on learning Chinese characters through drawings, and it now one of the most popular methods for learning characters intuitively. They also now have an app that makes it even more accessible.

Du Chinese

This app was a key piece for me when it came to learning characters in context. The interface is extremely intuitive, and it makes reading practice more engaging by offering a huge variety of content at different HSK levels. The premium subscription is quite expensive, but the free version is still very high quality.

Mandarin Bean

The website offers graded reading material organized by HSK levels, all available for free. Each article features a variety of types, including news, business, stories, fun, and culture, among others. The selection of vocabulary lists tailored to each level is an exceptionally convenient method to learn words that match your proficiency. Engaging and progressively challenging content ensures a stimulating and effective learning experience.

Final Thoughts

Learning a new language can be a daunting task, let alone tackling a new writing system with its own extensive history and specific nuances. However, many have treaded this path before you and are ready to offer their expertise and tips to help you navigate the language with both curiosity and a hunger for learning.

Characters are the most basic foundation of the Chinese language, and learning them, especially how to memorize Chinese characters, is a unique task that challenges your brain to think in new ways. We are all unique individuals, and we learn in different ways. I invite you to try the strategies laid out in this article and see if they spark something new for you. It may just be the thing that ignites your passion.

The post Rise to the Challenge: How to Memorize Chinese Characters Like A Pro appeared first on .

So, in total, you need to master 3000 Chinese characters. In other words, with these characters, you will be able to understand all words and sentences in daily life and even academic life. It requires you not only to be able to recognize them but also write them with the correct stroke order. Besides the definitions and pronunciation, writing speed is also something you need to pay attention to.

To help you better deal with this new challenge, we have collected some helpful resources to assist with learning and practicing Chinese characters, including books, videos, courses, apps, and tools.

Books for learning Chinese characters

《汉字有意思》 Hanzi Alive！

• Target audience: Adults; Children ages 3-6
• Learning stage: Beginning
• Purchase here: 汉字有意思 Hanzi Alive！

Review:

The authors of this book are Liu Yong and his son and daughter. Liu Yong is a very famous writer, artist, and educator in China. His teaching methodology is known for being very successful. So, he gathered the essence of his enlightening Chinese character teaching methodology in this book.

Each of the selected Chinese characters in this book includes a vivid hand-painted picture, a black and white silhouette, the evolvement from ancient versions to the present simplified and traditional versions, as well as a real-life photo game. There are also illustrative texts both in Chinese and English, so that learners from different language backgrounds can easily understand. With the hardback edition, there are also matching notebooks included for learners to imitate and practice. In general, it’s a very good and enlightening book for all beginners and kids. 

《神奇的汉字——汉字启蒙互动立体书》Magic Chinese Characters

• Target audience: 3-8 year-old Chinese kids; 3-15 year-old foreign learners with help from parents or tutors
• Learning stage: Beginning
• Purchase here: 神奇的汉字

Review:

This series of books is designed for kids who need to learn and inspire their interest in and passion for Chinese characters. There are around 650 characters that were selected because of their strong connection. The key feature of this series is that it makes good use of the inner connection between similarly constructed Chinese characters. As we all know, pictographs are the base in the construction of Chinese characters. Here in this series of books, the 3D movable design for each character can be very interesting. It not only presents the Chinese pictographs, but also the process of combining them with radicals. The learning by playing method can easily draw kids’ attention. With the illustrations and corresponding activities, learners can acquire more characters and easily distinguish similar characters.   The shortcoming is that it only has written explanations in Chinese. So, it’s better to have a tutor with a background in Chinese so that the learners can understand it.

More books: Recommended Chinese Characters Books

Videos for learning Chinese characters

三十六个字 36 Chinese characters

• Target audience: Adults, Kids
• Learning stage: Beginning
• Watch here: 三十六个字

Review:

This is an ink animation made in 1984, a very typical Chinese-style cartoon. The pictures may seem a bit old, but the content is still very appealing and educational now. Within 11 minutes, it tells the story of how Chinese characters were created by illustrating 36 Chinese pictographs.

If you look closely at these characters, you may find that most of them are the characters that beginners need to learn in their very first few Chinese character lessons. It’s quite a good introductory video for all Chinese beginners.

The 36 Chinese characters are 日，山，水，鸟，象，森，林，草，夫，马，竹，田，刀，舟，鱼，网，燕，云，雨，伞，石，火，龟，虎，鹿，豕，叟，弓，舍，羊，花，门，犬，子，女，月。

字从遇见你 (zì cóng yùjiàn nǐ)

• Target audience: Adults, Kids
• Learning stage: Beginning, Intermediate, Advanced
• Watch here: 字从遇见你

Review:

This is an official educational documentary that introduces 25 Chinese characters, including each one’s origin and evolution, as well as corresponding Chinese culture. Each episode is around 5 minutes. Learners can not only learn more about the character, but its culture and uses. Since the content is so rich and dense, you might need to watch it over and over again to digest it. The whole evolution process covers from thousands of years ago to modern China. So only if you have more previous background knowledge, can you fully understand it. Still, it’s quite high-quality introductory content for Chinese characters. 

The characters include: 舟，车，行，中，鼎，卜，天，福，犬，虎，马，牛，象，文，郭，陶，教，丝，甑，贝，走，图，典，册，笔

神奇的汉字故事

• Target audience: 3-12 year-old kids who are able to listen to Mandarin
• Learning stage: Beginning
• Watch here: 神奇的汉字故事

Review:

There are 20 episodes in total. Each episode introduces where a character came from, what it means, and its evolution process. Then there is a short story about the character so that it can be made more interesting, while still educational. However, the problem is that there are no English subtitles; it’s all in Chinese. So, it’s better if the kids are able to understand spoken Mandarin.  

一起画汉字

• Target audience: 3-12 year-old kids who need to learn writing
• Learning stage: Beginning
• Watch here: 一起画汉字

Review:

Writing Chinese characters is always a tough task for all learners. Especially kids, who are more impatient to practice. Based on kids’ aptitudes and the features of Chinese characters, 一起画汉字  eases the difficulty. It creates a lovely, simple painting based on each character’s shape. In this case, learners can memorize characters more easily by painting. But note that it’s not the real origin of each character. It’s just a method to help memorize and write them.

Courses for learning Chinese characters

Comprehensive Guide to Chinese Characters

• Target audience: People who are new to learning Chinese；People who want to learn the basics of Chinese Characters
• Learning stage: Beginning
• Learn here: Character Course A

Review:

Apart from the tons of introductory content we’ve presented so far, here are courses for learners who are ready to learn Chinese characters properly and in an organized way.

Course A is a comprehensive guide to Chinese characters, which helps you understand the rules and theories. From basic strokes to character construction, you can find everything you need to know before you dive into the sea of Chinese characters. It not only illustrates the basic information about and logic behind characters, but also the fundamental rules and methods. Good preparation brings you halfway to mastery. Then, this is the course for those who have just gotten started with learning Chinese characters.  

Building-up from zero to hundreds Chinese Characters

• Target audience: Elementary level learners who are interested in learning more Chinese characters.
• Learning stage: Beginning
• Learn here: Character Course B

Review:

Course B is a build-up from zero characters to hundreds. You can learn about 250 Chinese characters in this course. They are categorized by topic, ranging from weather to plants. Each video lesson consists of a breakdown of the characters, their origin, commonly used grammar patterns, and then a stroke-by-stroke writing tutorial of the character.

In addition to the tutorial content, there are also supplementary quizzes and exercises to do. After watching each lesson, you can practice with their writing sheets to strengthen your knowledge.

Apps for learning Chinese characters

Chineasy

• Target audience: Adults, Kids
• Learning stage: Beginning
• Download here: iOS
• Price: Partly free

Review:

Dig Mandarin has introduced Chineasy and its founder Shao Lan years ago. Now not only is there the book, but they also used their advantage to create a Chinese character learning app. With its featured vivid illustrations, it divides thousands of Chinese characters into hundreds of short lessons. You can choose either the simplified or traditional version. After learning the basic characters, there is a follow-up lesson to make these characters into daily words. The quizzes contain tests for pinyin, listening, character shape, and meaning. If you would like to get more functions, you can pay to learn characters by HSK level and practice writing them. For elementary learners, this is a method you should definitely try.

Skritter: Write Chinese

• Target audience: Adults, Kids 6 years old and above
• Learning stage: Beginning
• Download here: Skritter
• Price: Partly free; 1 month $14.99, 6 months $59.99, 1 year $99.99

Review:

Unlike many apps’ fancy interfaces, Skritter is designed to be very direct and simple. For learners who are strongly self-driven, it can be quite efficient. There are vocabulary lists for hundreds of Chinese books, and you can choose any one of them as your target book. For those who already have a particular textbook, this app can be very useful as your character review helper. Its quiz part also contains various elements. Apart from the definition, pronunciation, tone, and example sentences, it also strengthens stroke order. You can learn to write and memorize characters with it.

Zizzle

• Target audience: Adults, Kids
• Learning stage: Beginning, Intermediate
• Download here: Zizzle  
• Price: Partly free; Use the promo code “DIGMANDARIN10” to save 10% on all three-month and annual subscriptions, as well as packs.

Review:

Zizzle has already collected over 850 key Chinese characters from the HSK basic and intermediate levels. Zizzle has created a very different character memorizing method from other apps. Each character has a particularly ridiculous short story to help you learn the pronunciation as well as the meaning. It also uses pictograph characters to make pictures that will help you better memorize the shape of the character. They basically put everything together in a short story. No matter whether you are an adult or a child, you will have fun in the learning process.   

悟空识字

• Target audience: 4-8 year-old kids who are able to listen to Mandarin
• Learning stage: Beginning
• Download here: iOS, Android
• Price: 198 yuan

Review:

Sun Wukong is a very well-known monkey character in Chinese culture. All Chinese kids know him. This app is designed based on Wukong’s little stories. Each lesson is a story-based game that helps teach several characters. There is also a distinguishing part for learning characters, which is quite helpful for memorizing them. This app contains 1200 Chinese characters in all lessons. A lesson per day for 10 minutes sounds reasonable for kids. Plus, cute stories can be very interesting for kids.

Tools for learning Chinese characters

Meaningfully learning Chinese characters

• Target audience: Adults, Kids
• Learning stage: Beginning, Intermediate, Advanced
• Use it here: Meaningfully learning Chinese characters

Review:

This is a kind of Chinese character dictionary. Besides Pinyin, there are also etymological explanations in Chinese, English, and French. It also shows you the ancient versions of each character. The fun part is that it generates a graph with branches of related characters. You might find several other related characters to learn and distinguish between.

汉典网 (hàn diǎn wǎng)

• Target audience: Adults and kids who are beyond the basic level
• Learning stage: Intermediate, Advanced
• Use it here: 汉典网

Review:

This online dictionary is not only for Chinese learners but also for native Chinese speakers. It lists all pronunciations, simple explanations, detailed explanations, and character origins. The stroke order of each character is also represented. Sometimes it might be too comprehensive and thorough to quickly locate the item you need to know. And it’s mainly explained in Chinese with very simple English definitions. So using this website is already a sign that your level is intermediate or advanced.

Writing sheet generating tool

• Target audience: Adults, Kids
• Learning stage: Beginning, Intermediate, Advanced
• Use it here: 字帖生成器

Review:

If you’ve ever learned writing Chinese characters, you are definitely familiar with character writing sheets. It’s either with a 田 square (田字格) or a 米square（米字格）so that you can write each character in the right place properly. With this tool, you can generate your own practice sheets. Input the target character, and it can even show you its stroke order so that you can better practice and imitate.

The post A Collection of Resources for Learning Chinese Characters– Books, Videos, Courses, Apps, Tools appeared first on .

1. For food
2. For fruit and seasoning
3. For people
4. For relationships
5. For feelings and characteristics

For food

• 猪肉 /zhūròu/ pork
• 牛肉 /niúròu/ beef
• 鸡肉 /jīròu/ chicken
• 羊肉 /yángròu/ lamb
• 肉食动物 /ròushí dòngwù/ carnivorous animal

Note that when you say “肉” without specifying the type of meat, most people will assume you mean “猪肉” (pork) because it’s the most commonly consumed meat in China. But what about other types of meat? If you want to order beef, chicken, lamb, or other meats in a restaurant, simply use the appropriate attribute words like “牛” (niú) for beef, “鸡” (jī) for chicken, and “羊” (yáng) for lamb before the character “肉” to form “牛肉” (niúròu), “鸡肉” (jīròu), “羊肉” (yángròu), and so on.

When discussing a specific dish, you may be familiar with the famous food “烤鸭” (kǎo yā) roasted duck, but you won’t hear “duck meat” in Chinese as often. Instead, people usually refer to the meat as “鸭” (yā) alone, without adding “肉” after it. This practice is not unique to duck meat. People also use “鱼” (yú) to refer to fish meat without adding “肉”. Furthermore, for carnivorous animals, you can simply say “肉食动物” (ròushí dòngwù) to describe them.

For example:

早点儿去菜市场，早上的猪肉会新鲜点儿。(Zǎo diǎn’r qù càishìchǎnɡ, zǎoshɑnɡ de zhūròu huì xīnxiān diǎn’r.) Go to the market early because the pork in the morning is fresher.

吃火锅的时候，他特别喜欢吃牛肉。(Chī huǒɡuō de shíhou, tā tèbié xǐhuɑn chī niúròu.) He likes eating beef while eating hotpot.

这碗米线的浇头是鸡肉做的。(Zhè wǎn mǐxiàn de jiāotóu shì jīròu zuò de.) The topping of this rice noodle dish is made of chicken.

For fruit and seasoning

• 果肉 /guǒròu/ pulp
• 肉桂 /ròuguì/ cinnamon

As its name suggests, “果肉” (guǒròu) literally refers to the “meat” of a fruit, which is actually the pulp. When discussing “肉桂” (ròuguì), it’s important to first mention its counterpart “桂皮” (guìpí). In China, “桂皮” is not only a popular seasoning in cooking, but also a commonly used Chinese herbal medicine. “肉桂” is a species in the Lauraceous family, and it’s named so because it’s thicker than “桂皮”.

e.g.

这个饮料里真的有果肉吗？(Zhèɡe yǐnliàolǐ zhēnde yǒu ɡuǒròu mɑ?) Does this drink really have pulp in it?

他喝咖啡的时候喜欢加肉桂。(Tā hē kāfēi de shíhou xǐhuɑn jiā ròuɡuì.) He likes to add cinnamon when drinking coffee.

For people

• 肌肉 /jīròu/ muscle
• 肉眼 /ròu yǎn/ unaided eye
• 肉身 /ròu shēn/ mortal body
• 血肉 /xuè ròu/ blood and flesh
• 有血有肉 /yǒuxuè yǒuròu/ true to life
• 行尸走肉 /xíng shī zǒu ròu/ an utterly useless person
• 肉票 /ròu piào/ hostages

People often use “肉” to describe human attributes. For muscles, we use “肌肉” (jīròu), which sounds similar to “鸡肉” (jīròu) but uses a different character. “肉眼” (ròuyǎn) and “肉身” (ròushēn) emphasize the use of our eyes and body alone, without any external help. “血肉” (xiěròu) emphasizes our blood and flesh. The phrase “有血有肉” (yǒu xiě yǒu ròu) means to be “real” or “true to life,” and is often used in literary works.

There are two interesting expressions to describe people: “行尸走肉” (xíngshīzǒuròu) and “肉票” (ròupiào). “行尸走肉” literally means “walking corpse and running flesh,” but it’s a metaphor for a person who doesn’t use their brain, doesn’t work, and lives a confused life. “肉票” means “meat tickets” literally, but it usually refers to hostages who are taken for ransom.

e.g.

刚运动完要拉伸一下肌肉。(Gānɡ yùndònɡ wán yào lāshēn yí xià jīròu.) You need to stretch your muscles after exercising.

这里太脏了，桌子上的灰都肉眼可见。(Zhèlǐ tài zānɡ le, zhuōzishànɡ de huī dōu ròu yǎn kě jiàn.) It’s so dirty here that the ashes on the table are visible to my naked eye.

我太喜欢这本小说里的主角了，有血有肉很生动。(Wǒ tài xǐhuɑn zhè běn xiǎoshuōlǐ de zhǔjué le, yǒu xuè yǒu ròu hěn shēnɡdònɡ.) I like the protagonists in this novel so much because he is true to life and very vivid.

能不能多思考一下，别像个行尸走肉一样。(Nénɡ bu nénɡ duō sīkǎo yí xià, bié xiànɡ ɡè xínɡ shī zǒu ròu yíyànɡ.) Can you think about it a little more? Don’t act like an utterly useless person.

他被绑了，会被当作肉票向他家里要赎金。(Tā bèi bǎnɡ le, huì bèi dànɡzuò ròupiào xiànɡ tā jiālǐ yào shújīn.) He was kidnapped and would be used as a hostage to ask his family for ransom.

For relationships

• 眼中钉，肉中刺 /yǎn zhōng dīng, ròu zhōng cì/ (of someone) to be hated very much
• 手心手背都是肉 /shǒuxīn shuǒbèi dōu shì ròu/ to value both equally
• 骨肉 /gǔròu/ blood relation

The word “骨肉” is used to express blood relation and means bones and flesh literally. The saying “眼中钉，肉中刺” literally translates to “a sting in the eye and a thorn in one’s flesh” and means a person is extremely hated in the heart of another. “手心手背都是肉”, literally meaning “the palms and backs of the hands are meat,” means all things involved are relative, so they should be treated equally, and you can’t choose to abandon anyone.

e.g.

她就是我的“眼中钉，肉中刺”，我永远都不会原谅她的。(Tā jiù shì wǒde “yǎn zhōnɡ dìnɡ, ròu zhōnɡ cì“, wǒ yónɡyuǎn dōu bú huì yuánliànɡ tā de.) She is a thorn in my eye, and I will never forgive her.

你们都是她的女儿，手心手背都是肉，你让她帮谁？(Nǐmen dōu shì tā de nǚ’r, shǒuxīn shǒubèi dōu shì ròu, nǐ rànɡ tā bānɡ shuí?) You are all her daughters, so she should be equal to you all, and she will help nobody.

因为一场意外，王先生一家骨肉离散，直到五年后大家才相聚。(Yīnwèi yì chǎnɡ yìwài,Wánɡ xiānshenɡ yì jiā ɡǔròu lísàn, zhídào wǔ nián hòu dàjiā cái xiānɡjù.) Because of an accident, Mr. Wang’s family was separated and did not get together until five years later.

For feelings and characteristics

• 肉麻 /ròu má/ cheesy
• 性格很肉 /xìnggé hěn ròu/ introversion and reticence

“肉麻,” literally meaning numb flesh, means someone is excessively romantic to the point of making others feel uncomfortable and creeped out. “性格很肉” originates from a dialect and means someone is unresponsive and slow, causing others to feel anxious

e.g.

看他们俩在那里互相喂东西就觉得肉麻。(Kàn tāmenliǎnɡ zài nàlǐ hùxiānɡ wèi dōnɡxi jiù juéde ròu má.) Watching the two of them feed each other there gave me goosebumps.

她性格很肉，你跟她说十句话，她才会回你一句。(Tā xìnɡɡé hěn ròu, nǐ ɡēn tā shuō shí jù huà, tā cái huì huí nǐ yí jù.) She is reticent, and if you say ten words to her, she will just reply with one.

The word “肉” forms many words and expressions, which are practical and useful in daily life. They can improve your spoken language and help you understand Chinese dramas and literature, so don’t underestimate their utility.

The post Meat is not always meat – The most common expressions with “肉” in Chinese appeared first on .

Besides the most common definition (the large flat object that you open and close at the entrance of a building or a room), “门” (door) in Chinese has several other meanings that you should know.

1. Door-like things or objects:

• 冰箱门 (bīng xiāng mén) Fridge door
• 柜门 (guì mén) Cupboard door
• 心门 (xīn mén) This word refers to the ostium. It also refers to the metaphorical door of one’s heart.

e.g.

为了打开她的心门，我每天都陪她散步，送她回家。但为什么她还是不能告诉我她的秘密？(Wèile dǎkāi tā de xīn mén, wǒ měitiān dōu péi tā sànbù, sòng tā huí jiā. Dàn wèishénme tā háishì bùnéng gàosù wǒ tā de mìmì?) In order to open her heart, I walk with her every day and take her home. But why can’t she still tell me her secret?

2. Entrance or doorway:

• 门可罗雀 (mén kě luó què) This idiom indicates a place where it is rare that people or guests come, very desolate.
• 门庭若市 (méntíng ruò shì) This idiom indicates a place that is very lively and bustling. There are many people. It’s often used in family and business situations.  

e.g.

这家饭店20年前门庭若市，很多人排队来这吃饭。但是后来换了一批厨师，生意就慢慢不好了，现在门可罗雀。可惜呀！(Zhè jiā fàndiàn 20 nián qián méntíngruòshì, hěnduō rén páiduì lái zhè chīfàn. Dànshì hòulái huànle yī pī chúshī, shēngyì jiù mànman bù hǎole, xiànzài ménkěluóquè. Kěxī ya!) 20 years ago, this restaurant was very popular, and many people lined up to eat here. But then a group of chefs were replaced, and the business slowly deteriorated, and now there is rare guests. What a pity!

3. Describing a certain family:

• 豪门 (háo mén) refers to a family with power and influence.
• 朱门 (zhū mén) refers to a family with great power and fortune.
• 名门 (míng mén) refers to a famous family. There are usually one or more celebrities who come from this family.  
• 寒门 (hán mén) Contrary to the words above, this word refers to a poor family without fortune or influence.
• 门风 (mén fēng) The ethics and moral standards that a family / clan has kept for generations.
• 门当户对 (mén dāng hù duì) A marriage between families that are of equal social standing.
• 双喜临门 (shuāng xǐ lín mén) It indicates that two joyous events come simultaneously.

e.g.

他家大儿子马上要和一位门当户对的姑娘结婚，小女儿又考上了全国最好的大学，真是双喜临门啊！(Tā jiā dà érzi mǎshàng yào hé yī wèi méndānghùduì de gūniáng jiéhūn, xiǎo nǚ’ér yòu kǎo shàngle quánguó zuì hǎo de dàxué, zhēn shì shuāngxǐlínmén a!) The eldest son of his family is about to marry a well-matched girl, and the youngest daughter has been admitted to the best university in the country. It is double happiness!

4. A certain school of thought or religious sect, sometimes referring to a teacher’s or master’s entrance hall:

• 佛门弟子 (fó mén dì zǐ) Buddhist disciple
• 门生(mén shēng) / 门徒(mén tú)  Disciple, follower of a famous master
• 同门（弟子）(tóng mén dì zǐ) Disciples / pupils of the same master
• 关门弟子 (guān mén dì zǐ) refers to the last student or disciple that the master enrolled.
• 入门 (rù mén) indicates that one knows the basic principles and knowledge when learning an art form or technology.
• 门外汉 (mén wài hàn) layman, outsider

e.g.

我来介绍一下，这位是李先生的得意门生小张，这一位是赵先生的关门弟子小陈。两位的老师原来也是同门师兄弟，你们可以互相认识一下。(Wǒ lái jièshào yīxià, zhè wèi shì Lǐ xiānsheng de déyì ménshēng xiǎo Zhāng, zhè yī wèi shì Zhào xiānsheng de guānmén dìzǐ xiǎo Chén. Liǎng wèi de lǎoshī yuánlái yěshì tóngmén shī xiōngdì, nǐmen kěyǐ hùxiāng rènshi yīxià.) Let me introduce, this is Mr. Li’s favorite student Xiao Zhang, and this one is Mr. Zhao’s close disciple Xiao Chen. The two teachers turned out to be fellow apprentices from the same master, so you can get to know each other.

音乐方面，我只是个门外汉，还没有入门，请各位老师多多指教。(Yīnyuè fāngmiàn, wǒ zhǐshì gè ménwàihàn, hái méiyǒu rùmén, qǐng gèwèi lǎoshī duōduō zhǐjiào.) In terms of music, I’m just a layman, and I haven’t gotten started yet. Please give me more advice, teachers.

5. A measurement word, usually for subjects of study or branches of science, a marriage, or relatives:

• 一门外语 (yì mén wài yǔ) A foreign language
• 一门亲戚 (yì mén qīn qi) A set of relatives
• 一门技术 (yì mén jìshù) A kind of skills
• 一门艺术 (yì mén yìshù) A type of arts

e.g.

你必须要学会一门外语或者一门技术，这样找工作更容易。(Nǐ bìxū yào xuéhuì yī mén wàiyǔ huòzhě yī mén jìshù, zhèyàng zhǎo gōngzuò gèng róngyì.) You have to learn a foreign language or technology to make it easier to find a job.

6. A way to do something:

• 窍门 (qiào mén) Knack or key to a problem
• 门路 (mén lù) The way to do something
• 没门儿 (méi ménr) No way!

e.g.

A: 你能告诉我打开这个盒子的窍门吗？(Nǐ néng gàosù wǒ dǎkāi zhège hézi de qiàomén ma?) Can you tell me the trick to open this box?

B: 没门儿！(méi ménr) No way!

7. The categories or arrangements of things or objects:

• 五花八门 (wǔ huā bā mén) many and manifold; all kinds of things
• 分门别类 (fēn mén bié lèi) be divided into classes and divisions; classify according to subject

e.g.

这个书店的书五花八门的，你们能帮我把这边的书分门别类放在书架上吗？(Zhège shūdiàn de shū wǔhuābāmén de, nǐmen néng bāng wǒ bǎ zhè biān de shū fēnménbiélèi fàng zài shūjià shàng ma?) This bookstore has a variety of books, can you help me sort the books here and put them on the shelves?

8. As a suffix, indicating a negative event that got public attention:

• 水门事件 (Shuǐmén shìjiàn) Watergate scandal
• 艳照门 (Yànzhào mén) Sexy Photo Gate (China’s first big internet celebrity sex scandal)

Bonus word:

• 走后门 (zǒu hòu mén) Originally, this term refers to going through the back door. Now it also often indicates that someone secures advantages through pull or influence.

e.g.

A：他的能力那么差，为什么可以当领导？(Tā de nénglì nàme chà, wèishénme kěyǐ dāng lǐngdǎo?) His ability is so poor, why can he be a leader?

B：走后门呗。(Zǒu hòumén bei.) By the back door.

There is a famous story related to门 (mén) – 程门立雪 (chéng mén lì xuě). It is the story of Yang Shi and You Zuo, two students in the Song Dynasty. Patiently and respectfully, they waited in the snow outside the house of their teacher, Cheng Yi, until the snow piled one-chi deep. This phrase now means to revere a teacher and respect his or her teachings, with 门 (mén) referring to the door of someone’s house.

Do you have any questions about the various uses of门 (mén)? Are there any other Chinese characters you want to see a deep dive for? Let me know in the comments!

The post The Uses of “Door” in Chinese – All about “门” appeared first on .

Why Are You Learning Chinese?

Before you decide whether to learn to handwrite characters or not, pause for a moment and ask yourself another question: “Why am I learning Chinese?” Depending on your learning goals, you might choose a different path.

If you study Chinese just to manage as a tourist on a trip to China, then handwriting characters isn’t the most efficient way to spend your time. You can enjoy your trip with basic Chinese and a phone with a translation app.

If you learn Chinese for business reasons, being able to handwrite Chinese characters will impress your business partners, but you might prefer to focus on developing your speaking and listening comprehension skills, instead of spending hours on learning stroke order.

If you are interested in Chinese culture and history and think that learning Chinese might be useful for you in future, then you could still reach a low-intermediate Chinese level and manage by typing characters using pinyin input.

As you can see, you don’t need to learn how to handwrite characters to be able to speak Chinese, understand it, work using it (to a certain extent) and even live in China! But there is always a “but”.

Why Learn To Write Characters By Hand

Before we talk more about the “but”, let’s see why anyone would decide to learn to handwrite Chinese characters? Why spend time and effort on something that you can manage without?

Well, there are a few good reasons to learn handwriting Chinese characters:

• First of all, knowing how to handwrite Chinese characters is just cool. It feels like magic when you write a few strokes on paper, that don’t normally make sense, but they suddenly come together and create a meaning, a word. And amazingly, you can understand it.
• Second, handwriting characters is a form of meditation. Once you learn how to stay focused, you will not only notice that your concentration skills improve, but you will also find yourself feeling calm and relaxed when writing characters. Seriously!
• Third, handwriting characters trains your muscle memory, making characters stay longer in your memory and improving your reading and speaking skills. And here lies aforementioned “but”. You can manage without handwriting characters and learn Chinese to a certain level, but without knowing how to write characters by hand, you are very unlikely to reach level above intermediate.

✓ 快 vs 块, never mess them up again

Many characters look the same and only have a different radical. For example, 快 and 块. They have the exact same pronunciation, kuài, but the meanings have nothing to do with each other. One means “fast”, and another one is “a piece”. You might originally memorise them as separate pictures, but would you still remember them in a month or two, or a year? When you handwrite a character, you learn the parts it consists of, you memorise it by those parts, and so you are more likely to remember the character much later and see the difference between similar characters.

✓ Use dictionaries faster

Another bonus of knowing how to handwrite characters is that you can easily use electronic dictionaries to look up characters you’ve never seen before. Just write it on your phone and a dictionary like pleco will recognize it and give you the meaning.

How to start handwriting characters

So you’ve decided to learn to write characters by hand, what’s next? The most important thing is getting basics right from the very start. Here is a brief guide on how you can do it.

– Understand the structure of a character

A character consists of one or more components, called radicals. Spend some time figuring out how characters are structured because understanding that will help you in future. Simply put, a radical on the left side of a character is (often, but not always) connected to the meaning, whereas, a radical on the right is connected to the pronunciation of the whole character (again, often, but not always).

– Get familiar with strokes

Characters are similar to legos; they can be broken down into pieces. They consist of radicals, while radicals consist of strokes. There are eight traditional fundamental strokes, but only five of them are considered modern modular strokes, called “’札字法” （zházìfǎ).

Take some time and practice writing each of the strokes separately. Keep in mind that it does make a difference if you draw a line top to bottom or bottom to top. I recommend drawing each stroke about 30 times. It might sound strange, but it will help you in future – you’ll see a character, recognize the strokes, and your hand will just write them correctly.

– Learn the radicals

Now that you know how to write strokes, learn the radicals. There are 214 radicals in the original Kangxi radical list, but a few of them are no longer used in simplified Chinese. It is highly recommended to learn them all, but realistically, you should memorize the most common ones and then, once you advance in your studies, learn the others.

– Get the stroke order right

Now that you can deconstruct a character into separate pieces, learn how to write it correctly. The proper stroke order for writing characters has been developed for over thousands of years, and Chinese people are very attentive to it. And to be honest, when you write a character with the correct stroke order, it just flows naturally, as if there is no other right way to write it.

There are some general rules, such as writing from top to bottom and left to right. However, the exact stroke order of each character should be learned and memorized individually, especially when you just start learning handwriting characters. Later, you don’t need to memorize each new character’s stroke order. In most cases, you will already know the order based on previously learned characters. Just remember, it is ok not to be sure about the stroke order, you can always check in a dictionary. 

There is another more detailed article on how to write Chinese characters and get the stroke order correct. It will give you a better overview of character composition and provide some insights on stroke order. You can check it out here:

How to Write Chinese Characters (Quick Start Guide + Free Mini Course)

Tips to practice writing Chinese characters

What’s next? Well, here comes the hard part. There isn’t really a workaround to learn   to handwrite characters without spending time on it. In the very beginning, handwriting characters is exciting. You start something completely new, and it’s exciting. After writing 50 lines of characters, none of which look pretty or similar to ones in the book, you get bored and tired. my advice? Be persistent, and don’t give up. The more you practice, the easier it becomes, and the faster you memorize characters.

– Use worksheets

Find or print out some Chinese writing worksheets. If you are totally new to handwriting characters, I recommend getting worksheets with character stroke order and gridlines. You can even create a worksheet of your own, with characters that you want to practise. There are many websites that have worksheets, archchinese being one of them where you can customize your own practise sheets.

– Deconstructing a character

When feeling bored of writing characters in worksheets, try another exercise. Select a character from your textbook, and don’t check pronunciation or meaning. Try to analyze it. What radicals does the character consist of? Can you guess its meaning? Can you guess its pronunciation? Think of its stroke order. Write it. And finally, look up the character in a dictionary.

The online dictionary MDBG not only provides the meaning of a character but also shows the number of strokes in it, its radical, the radical’s pronunciation and the stroke order. But there are plenty of other dictionaries, choose whichever one suits you best.

– Checking the origins of a character

Another way to learn characters is to look up their origins. Understanding why the character for water looks like this 水 will help you memorize it. Of course, you can’t do it for every single character, but again, in the beginning, it can help you a great deal. And by looking into the etymology of a character, you will better understand Chinese culture. Check out another article here to dive deeper into the etymology of characters.

Handwriting characters is difficult. And if you are like many others, you may want to give up at some point. Because it requires a lot of time, a lot of concentration and a lot of patience. And it’s ok if you quit. But if you choose to continue, remember, it gets easier the more you practise. I remember when I just started handwriting characters, I needed to write a character at least 20-30 times before I could remember both how to read and write it. Later I could memorize a character after writing it 5-7 times. But you need to practise continuously. Now, after years of only typing in Chinese, I find that writing a character 5 times is not enough. Handwriting doesn’t feel natural anymore, and sometimes I struggle to write even simple characters. So don’t repeat my mistakes, be consistent in your practice. 加油！

The post Why You Should Learn to Write Chinese Characters by Hand and How to Start appeared first on .

The formation of words is strongly linked to culture; it reflects the mindset of Chinese speakers. So here is a guide to several frequently-used prefixes and suffixes to help you explore this part of Chinese. We hope this guide will help your understanding of Chinese words and culture.

• Prefixes in Chinese
• Suffixes in Chinese

Prefixes in Chinese

In Chinese, prefixes are a grammatical element added to the beginning of a word, such as 老，小，阿, 第，and 初. These prefixes must be combined with other characters to form a word and can’t be used alone.

For clarity and convenient reading, a chart of prefixes is provided below.

Prefix in Chinese

老 lǎo

* Original meaning and use:

As an adjective, 老 means old or elder and can be used as a predicate in a sentence or to describe other elements.

e.g.

爸爸妈妈老了。（Bàbɑ māmɑ lǎo le.）My parents are old.

老人 (lǎo rén) old man

老奶奶 (lǎo nǎinɑi) old woman

* As a prefix in Chinese:

老is a dummy prefix. In a word, it either has no meaning or indicates respect, an amiable feeling or  seniority among a group of people.

Rule：

Goes before animal names, people, monosyllabic family names or numbers.

Structure：

老 + animal name/person/monosyllabic family name/number

i. no meaning

老虎 (lǎo hǔ)  tiger

老鼠（lǎo shǔ）mouse

老鹰（lǎo yīnɡ）eagle

ii. respect

老师 (lǎoshī.)  teacher

老板（lǎobǎn）boss; shopkeeper

iii. amiable feeling

老张啊，好久不见！(Lǎo zhānɡ a, hǎo jiǔ bú jiàn!) Zhang, long time no see! 

老公（lǎoɡōnɡ）husband

老婆（lǎopó）wife

iv. seniority

老大（lǎo dà）big brother；big cheese

老二（lǎo’èr）the second child；ranking second

老三（lǎo sān）the third child; ranking third

小 xiǎo

* Original meaning and use:

As an adjective, 小 means young or small and can be used as a predicate in a sentence or to describe other elements.

e.g.

这件衣服太小了。（Zhè jiàn yīfu tài xiǎo le.）This clothes is too small.

小朋友 (xiǎo pénɡyou) little boy or girl

小孩子 (xiǎo háizi) little child

* As a prefix in Chinese:

小 is also a dummy prefix. In a word, it either shows no meaning or  affection. When indicating affection, it is usually used by a senior towards their subordinates or by an elder towards younger people.

Rule：

Goes before people, adjectives or monosyllabic family names.

Structure：

小 + person/monosyllabic family name/other elements

i. no meaning

小姐（xiǎo jiě）Miss

小心（xiǎo xīn）to be careful

小丑（xiǎo chǒu）Joker; clown

小住（xiǎo zhù）to live for a while

小气（xiǎo qi）to be mean

ii. affection

小李，帮我打印一下。（Xiǎo Lǐ, bānɡ wǒ dǎyìn yí xià.）Lee, help me to print it.

小贺啊，回来啦！(Xiǎo Hè ā, huí lái lā!) He, you’re back!

阿 ā

* Original meaning and use:

阿 is usually combined with other elements to form a word. By itself, 阿 doesn’t mean anything.

* As a prefix in Chinese:

As a very common prefix, 阿is usually used as a greeting and indicates affection.

Rule：

Goes before numbers, monosyllabic family names, nicknames or relative nouns.

Structure：

阿 + number/monosyllabic family name/nickname/relative noun

• • • affection

阿四（ā sì）the fourth child；ranking fourth

阿六（ā liù）the sixth child；ranking sixth

阿王（ā wánɡ）Wang (family name)

阿武（ā wǔ）Wu (family name)

阿丽（ā lì）li (nickname)

阿姨（ā yí）antie; a calling to other woman with similar age as your mother

阿婆（ā pó）grandma; a calling to other elder woman

第 dì

* Original meaning and use:

第 is usually combined with other elements to form a word. By itself, 第  doesn’t mean anything.

* As a prefix in Chinese:

As a prefix, 第is usually used to indicate order.

Rule：

Goes before an integer.

Structure：

第 + integer

• • • ordinal

第一（dì yī）first

第二（dì èr）second

第十（dì shí）tenth

初 chū

* Original meaning and use:

初 means beginning or start. In modern Chinese, when 初 is used alone, it is usually a part of a fixed expression. Otherwise, it is part of a word.

e.g.

初来乍到（chū lái zhà dào）to be new here

他在学初级汉语。（Tā zài xué chūjí hànyǔ.）He is learning elementary Chinese.

我最初是想去北京的，最后却来了上海。

（Wǒ zuì chū shì xiǎnɡ qù Běijīnɡ de, zuì hòu què lái le Shànɡhǎi.）

At the beginning, I wanted to go to Beijing, however I came to Shanghai at last.

* As a prefix in Chinese:

As a prefix, 初is usually used to indicate sequence in Chinese lunar time.

Rule：

Goes before numbers less than or equal to ten.

Structure：

初 + number(≤10)

• • • sequence in Chinese lunar time

初一（chū yī）first day（lunar year）

初二（chū èr）second day (lunar year)

初十（chū shí）tenth day (lunar year)

Suffixes in Chinese

In modern Chinese, there are significantly more suffixes than prefixes, so, in this part, we will go over several important suffixes, such as 子, 儿，生，头，然，者，家，and 员, which will help you express a wide variety of ideas. These suffixes either show people’s affection, distinguish a group of people, or change the part of speech when added after other elements. So, let’s see how they work.

For clarity and convenient reading, a chart of suffixes is provided below.

Suffixes in Chinese

子 zi

* Original meaning and use:

In ancient Chinese, 子(zǐ) with third tone is an expression showing respect to honorable people.

e.g.

孔子（Kǒnɡ zǐ）Confucius, a Chinese philosopher

荀子（Xún zǐ）Xunzi, a Chinese philosopher

老子（Lǎo zǐ）Laozi, a Chinese philosopher

孟子（Mènɡ zǐ）Mengzi, a Chinese philosopher

* As a suffix in Chinese:

A very common suffix, 子（zi）pronounced with neutral tone is only a grammatical particle in modern Chinese. It is always used as a nominal suffix, added after another character.

Rule：

Goes after a partial noun, verb, or adjective to make it into a noun

Structure：

Partial noun/verb/adjective + 子

i. noun +子

桌子 (zhuō zi) desk; table

椅子 (yǐ zi) chair

凳子 (dènɡ zi) stool

杯子 (bēi zi) cup

筷子 (kuài zi) chopsticks

本子 (běn zi) notebook

箱子 (xiānɡ zi) box

盒子 (hé zi) case; box

橙子 (chénɡ zi) orange

橘子 (jú zi) tangerine

桃子 (táo zi) peach

儿子 (ér zi) sun

沙子 (shā zi) sand

ii. verb+子

盖子 (gài zi) lid

iii. adjective+子

傻子 (shǎ zi) the fool

疯子 (fēnɡ zi) madman

儿 ér

* Original meaning and use:

儿 originally meant son in Chinese and can be used alone or combined with other words.

e.g.

儿啊，你终于回来了。（Ér a, nǐ zhōnɡyú huílái le.）Oh my son, you finally back.

儿孙自有儿孙福。(Ér sūn zì yǒu ér sūn fú.) The children can take care of themselves when they grow up.

儿女双全 (Ér nǚ shuānɡ quán) with son and daughter

* As a suffix in Chinese:

As a common suffix, 儿（written as ‘r’ in pinyin）is only a grammatical particle. It mainly functions as a nominal suffix added after other characters.

Rule：

Goes after a partial noun or verb to form a noun.

Structure：

nominal morpheme/verbal morpheme + 儿

i. noun+儿

花儿 (huā’r) flower

盆儿 (pén’r) pot

棍儿 (ɡùn’r) stick

车儿 (chē’r) car

事儿 (shì’r) thing

女儿 (nǚ’r) daughter

ii. verb+儿

画儿 (huà’r) painting

卷儿 (juǎn’r) curve

盖儿 (ɡài’r) lid

头 tou

* Original meaning and use:

As a noun, 头 (tóu) means head. It can be used alone or combined with other words.

e.g.

你的头怎么了？(Nǐ de tóu zěnme le?) What’s wrong with your head?

我头疼。(Wǒ tóu ténɡ.) I have a headache.

头发 (tóufɑ) hair

* As a suffix in Chinese:

As a suffix, 头(tou) is pronounced with neutral tone. The ancient meaning of head has been obscured. It mainly functions as a nominal suffix, added after another character.

Rule：

Goes after a partial noun, verb, or adjective to make it into a noun.

Structure：

Partial noun/verb/adjective + 头

i. noun+头

木头 (mù tou) wood

石头 (shí tou) stone

骨头 (ɡǔ tou) bone

ii. verb+头

看头 (kàn tou) be worthy of watching

听头 (tīnɡ tou) be worthy of listening

念头 (niàn tou) idea; thought

iii. adjective+头

准头 (zhǔn tou) accuracy

甜头 (tián tou) sweet taste; benefit

然 rán

* Original meaning and use:

然originally functioned as an adjective meaning right or as a pronoun meaning such or this way.

e.g.

不以为然 (bù yǐ wéi rán) not to regard it as right

当然 (dānɡ rán) of course

然后 (rán hòu) then

* As a suffix in Chinese:

When used as a suffix, the original meaning of 然 doesn’t matter and it is used to describe a kind of state. It’s mainly used after another character to form an adverb, adjective or conjunction.

Rule：

Goes after a character to form an adverb, adjective or conjunction.

Structure：

a character + 然

i. form an adverb

忽然 (hū rán) suddenly

果然 (ɡuǒ rán) sure enough

恍然 (huǎnɡ rán) suddenly

ii. form an adjective

突然 (tū rán) sudden

显然 (xiǎn rán) obvious

iii. form a conjunction

既然 (jì rán) now that

虽然 (suī rán) even though

者 zhě

* Original meaning and use:

In ancient Chinese, 者 was used to refer to people or things with a certain featureafter another element. It is often used in Chinese poems or idioms.

e.g.

逝者如斯夫，不舍昼夜。(Shì zhě rú sī fu, bù shě zhòu yè.)

How it flows on, never creasing, night and day!

知人者智，自知者明。(Zhī rén zhě zhì, zì zhī zhě mínɡ.)

He who knows others is learned, and he who knows himself is wise.

* As a suffix in Chinese:

When used as a suffix, 者 actually keeps the characteristic of referring to people with a certain feature to some degree but becomes more ambiguous. It is mainly applied as a noun suffix added after another morpheme.

Rule：

Goes after a verb, adjective or part of a noun to make it into a noun.

Structure：

verb/adjective/partial noun + 者

i. verb+者

读者 (dúzhě) reader  

作者 (zuòzhě) author

学者 (xuézhě) scholar

ii. adjective+者

患者 (huànzhě) patient

长者 (zhǎnɡzhě) eldership

伤者 (shānɡzhě) the wounded

iii. noun+者

笔者 (bǐzhě) writer

家 jiā

* Original meaning and use:

In modern Chinese, 家 means family or home. It can be used alone or combined with other words.

e.g.

这是我家。(Zhè shì wǒ jiā.) This is home.

家人 (jiā rén) family

家庭 (jiā tínɡ) household

* As a suffix in Chinese:

As a nominal suffix, 家 can be put after activities to indicate people engaged in that activity.

Rule：

Goes after an activity.

Structure：

 activity + 家

• • • people engaged in some field of activity

画家 (huàjiā) painter

科学家 (kēxuéjiā) scientist

天文学家 (tiānwénxuéjiā) astronomer

作家 (zuòjiā) writer

小说家 (xiǎoshuōjiā) fictionist

数学家 (shùxuéjiā) mathematian

员 yuán

* Original meaning and use:

员 refers to people and can be used alone or combined with other words.

e.g.

你是我们队里的一员。 (Nǐ shì women duì lǐ de yì yuán.) You are a member of our team.

人员 (rén yuán) personnel

员工 (yuánɡōnɡ) staff

动员 (dònɡyuán) call forth

* As a suffix in Chinese:

As a nominal suffix, 员 can be put after an activity or group to indicate people who do that activity or are members of that group.

Rule：

Goes after a character for an activity or group.

Structure：

activity/group + 员

i. people engaged in activity

球员 (qiúyuán) player

演员 (yǎnyuán) actor

ii. people in a group

队员 (duìyuán) teammate

会员 (huìyuán) member

成员 (chénɡyuán) member

团员 (tuányuán) group member

们 men

* Original meaning and use:

们 usually needs to be combined with other elements to form a word. By itself, 们 doesn’t mean anything.

* As a suffix in Chinese:

As a suffix, 们 is mainly put after nouns or pronouns to indicate pluralization.

Rule：

Goes after a noun or pronoun to make it plural.

Structure：

noun/pronoun + 们

• • • indicate plural

我们 (wǒmen) we; us

你们 (nǐmen) you

他们 (tāmen) they; them

她们 (tāmen) they; them

它们 (tāmen) they; them

人们 (rénmen) people

歌手们 (ɡēshǒumen) singers

志愿者们 (zhìyuànzhěmen) volunteers

边 biān

* Original meaning and use:

边 (biān) with first tone refers to the edge, boundary, border or side.

e.g.

边缘 (biānyuán) edge

边疆 (biānjiānɡ) boundary

边界 (biānjiānɡ) border

等边三角形 (děnɡ biān sānjiǎoxínɡ) equilateral triangle

* As a suffix in Chinese:

边is a suffix attached to nouns that indicate location.

Rule：

Goes after after a location nouns.

Structure：

location noun+边

• • • adjunct to location noun

上边（shànɡbiɑn）upper

下边（xiàbiɑn） lower

左边（zuǒbiɑn）left

右边（yòubiɑn）right

外边（wàibiɑn）outside

里边（lǐbiɑn）inside

前边（qiánbiɑn）front

后边（hòubiɑn）back

东边（dōnɡbiɑn）east

西边（xībiɑn）west

北边（běibiɑn）north

南边（nánbiɑn）south

The post All About Chinese Prefixes and Suffixes appeared first on .

Our brains often struggle when faced with things outside our own experience; a person who accustomed to the English alphabet may find it very difficult to read the Chinese characters for the first time. That is why in some expressions, Chinese is used as a metaphor for difficult things. However, different does not mean difficult. Are Chinese characters that difficult? The answer is no.

Where do characters come from? As a famous scholar once said, “The earliest character is not a well-invented invention, but a by-product of a strong awareness of private property.”  Ancient languages are hieroglyphs, so there is a strong likelihood that you can guess what they mean from their appearance. For example, the very first Chinese character, which meant “sheep,” looked like this: 

It is like a sheep’s head with a V-shaped face and curved horns. Nowadays it is written like this: 羊. You can still tell that it’s a sheep’s head. Let’s see another example:

This is the earliest version of the Chinese character for “rain”; it is like rain falling from the clouds above. The current version is like this: 雨. You can still see the original idea from the oldest version.

Chinese characters simply describe and express things about our world and life in the most natural way.

How to get children interested in Chinese characters?

Usually, children are interested in the oldest version of Chinese characters, which are called “甲骨文（jiǎ gǔ wén）”, or Oracle bone script. Why? Maybe because “甲骨文” are a kind of symbol between images and modern Chinese characters; each character is like a painting. The original idea in “甲骨文” is quite clear, which matches up with children’s cognitive thinking style. In addition, these ancient Chinese characters are formed with hard lines and have a special sense of beauty, which is close to young children’s art style. It is pure and vivid. And the way children observe things may be very similar to the stage when our ancestors created “甲骨文”, as children often do what comes naturally to them.

Therefore, we can show “甲骨文” and the Chinese character’s evolution to children because letting them see the natural beauty of Chinese characters will make them more interested in characters.

Take the character “山(mountain)” for example:

Children can see where the characters come from and  how they changed little by little from “甲骨文” to modern characters, as if they are growing up. They can easily understand, recognize and memorize characters with this method.

How to practice writing Chinese characters?

For the first step of practicing writing Chinese characters, it is recommended to use an exercise book specifically for Chinese characters, called “田字格( tián zìgé).” It looks like this:

Because Chinese characters are made up of strokes instead of an alphabet, they are like buildings. So when you write them, you need to keep the “building” stable and balanced, otherwise they’re going to fall down. That is why at the beginning, we need “田字格” to help us learn the structure of Chinese characters. For little kids, parents can also make a tracing book with the “田字格” format, so they can trace the characters before writing them on their own.

Secondly, parents and teachers need to teach children to follow the correct stroke order when they write characters. Again, it is like building buildings, and the stroke order directly affects the final result. We should help children get used to always following the correct order from the very beginning. If a child forgets the order and there is no teacher around, parents can look it up on the internet for them.

Parents can also show their children good writing examples, let them see, practice and write more.

What other things can you do with Chinese characters?

Chinese characters are also an art. Chinese people say that a person’s handwriting reflects their personality and attitude. “书法(shū fǎ)”, or Chinese calligraphy, is an art form with a long and rich history. Chinese calligraphy is written with Chinese ink and a writing brush. Calligraphy has also led to the development of many other art forms  in China, including seal carving, ornate paperweights, and ink stones.

In order to let the children see Chinese characters as art, you can take them to museums or share books of calligraphy with them. It will show them  the different penmanship, introduce them the distinct style of calligraphy, and introduce them to the story and  history behind it. Also, they can learn about it and then try writing it by themselves. It will be an enriching experience for them.

With these activities, I hope more and more children will be exposed to Chinese characters and know, love, write and enjoy them!

The post Not symbols, but Chinese Characters: Suggestions for Helping Children Learn Characters appeared first on .

Chinese Etymology is the study of the origin of Chinese characters. The more knowledge you can apply to a character, such as 泉, the more you understand that character.

The more likely you are to never forget it.

In this article, we’ll break down 水, 泉, 冰, 永 and analyse the etymology of these characters.

You’ll never get them confused again!

Chinese Etymology in Practice

The formation of Chinese characters has been a long process, thousands of years in the making.

Ancient Chinese scripts relied much more heavily on pictographs: visual representations of a word, similar to Egyptian hieroglyphics.

Over time, ancient Chinese scripts were corrupted and simplified into their modern-day equivalents.

By undoing the corruption and simplification of ancient Chinese scripts, you can see that, actually, the modern day version makes perfect sense.

A Chinese character’s origin is often the key to understanding its true meaning.

Ancient men didn’t get water from a tap. They collected it from rivers and streams.

At a glance, 水 has absolutely no relation to the word water.

Whoever invented a character to represent the word ‘water’ had to rely on imagery common at that time.

Depicted on the far left of the image above is the earliest representation of a Chinese character for ‘water’. It’s a pictograph of a river.

The middle line represents the deeper middle section of a river. The edges represent the shallower areas where water rushes over rocks or other obstacles, creating waves and white water.

Over time, these attributes have been simplified. By comparing the origin of this Chinese character to the modern-day version, 水 becomes a very meaningful symbol.

The deep, rushing core of the river and its turbulent outer edges.

Pretty neat.

Etymology of Chinese character 泉

Let’s consider the character 泉 (quán) spring.

There are a few ways to deepen your understanding of this character.

For example, we can break it into its components:

白 (bái) white

水 (shuǐ) water

White water alone gives us a clue to the combined meaning. After all, a spring in nature is a clean, pure (white) source of water.

Let’s dive deeper.

The history of the character 白 also gives us a clue to its meaning.

In the ancient 甲骨文 (jiǎ gǔ wén) oracle bone script, 白 is drawn as 日 (rì) sun with a drop on top.

Despite 3000+ years of meddling, it has pretty much stayed like that.

Some think the ancient Chinese script symbolises the time just before the sun peeps over the horizon when the area of sky above the sun is briefly cast a brilliant white.

It could also represent the bright white light cast at the entrance of a cave.

Either way, it’s clear that the sun here is used to depict white light.

Our brains like patterns. They don’t like randomness. We’re building stories and meaning (understandable patterns) into these characters.

They are no longer squiggles on a page, or even a sequence of strokes. Chinese etymology helps build a stronger story for our mind.

So we now know both components of 泉 (quán) spring. Cool.

How do they work together?

Well actually, they don’t.

I mentioned corruption earlier. This can be seen in the history of the character 泉.

If we look at the oracle bone script here, 泉 is beautifully depicted as a river or stream (notice the same oracle bone character as 水) running out of an opening or cave in the ground.

This makes perfect sense.

A spring begins life as rainwater. Once fallen, it finds its way underground, eventually reemerging from an underground opening.

This opening is often seen from above as cracks between rocks, which water appears to rise up (or spring) from.

So here you can see a cavern-like opening which water flows out from: a spring.

Understanding both the modern components (水 and 白) and their origins gives your brain multiple stories to work with, understand and remember.

It also allows you to undo history and return 泉 to its original picture-like essence.

Using Chinese Etymology to Distinguish Similar Characters

Let’s quickly look at two more characters.

冰 (bīng) ice

This character is composed of two elements.

The 甲骨文 (jiǎ gǔ wén) oracle bone script uses two arrow-like strokes representing cracks formed in ice (think of ice in its natural form in nature).

The addition of a river, or water (水) was later used to indicate the relationship between ice and water.

If we apply this to the modern-day character, 冫is actually cracks within 水 water.

You could read it as ’cracked water’: ice.

永 (yǒng) eternal/perpetual

Here the transformation over time has been a trade-off between how easy the character is to understand and how easy it is to write.

The ancient scripts depict two rivers converging, ultimately joining to become a raging torrent.

Because of the merging of the two rivers, the main river is able to flow out the other side continuously, uninterrupted.

This has connotations of something stretching out into the future and simultaneously connected to the past.

The drop above 水 represents this: one continuous river, flowing eternally.

Seeing the Origin of Chinese Characters In Modern Day Script

水   泉   冰   永

水 is a river with a strong, deep core and turbulent edges.

泉 is pure white water coming from the mouth of an underground cavern.

冰 is the cracks in ice – frozen water.

永 is two rivers converging into one.

Chinese etymology breaks down these ancient script’s modern-day equivalents and turns meaningless strokes into powerful, memorable stories.

Apply this story-making technique to your Chinese studies, and you’ll make each character stick in your mind for much, much longer.

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1. Learning Chinese Characters

The way this book works is that it uses stories to help you remember both the meanings and pronunciations of Chinese characters. It first distinguishes the difference between ‘basic building blocks’ and ‘composite’ characters. Basic building blocks on their own mean one thing but when it’s combined with another basic building block it forms a new meaning and this new character thus becomes a composite character. The characters are listed one by one in the book and the character, pinyin and English meaning is given. Then the story to help you remember this is written next to it. If you are struggling with your reading skills this is definitely a book worth investing in. Get to know more about it here.

2. Chinese Flash Cards Kit

• Volume 1  HSK Levels 1 & 2 Elementary Level （1-349 most basic Chinese characters; 2000 words and phrases）
• Volume 2  HSK Levels 3 & 4 Intermediate Level （350-622 characters；1360 words and phrases）
• Volume 3 HSK Upper Intermediate Level  (623-1070 characters；2240 words and phrases）
• Volume 4 Tuttle Flash Cards  (448 main words; 1792 compounds – 2700 basic vocabulary items）

Developed with HSK study and AP test-prep in mind, the front of Tuttle’s Chinese Flash Cards give one Chinese character, a stroke order guide, four words and phrases, and look-alike alerts to help avoid confusion. On the reverse is as much information as a dictionary entry: Romanized pronunciation and English meanings, sample sentences for correct usage, plus helpful mnemonics and learning tips. An audio CD gives native-speaker pronunciations, and a handy organizing ring is the perfect way to keep the cards together when you’re on the go. Whether at home or on the go, you can use these cards to learn several new characters every day and watch your knowledge develop rapidly over time.

3. Chinese for Kids

• Set 1 : 10 themes: Family, Animals, Clothing, Colors, Face/Body, Fruit, Numbers, Shapes, Snacks, Toys.
• Set 2 : 10 themes: Food, Verbs, Tableware, Art supplies, Feelings, Nature, Jobs, Furniture, Bedtime and a Surprise Delivery

As the Brain Child Award Winner, the set 1 & 2 of Chinese for Kids are good motivating of first readers for children ages 3-8 who are beginning to learn Chinese. Developed with teachers, the Spot Color Immersion Method combines simple sentences, humor, visual cues, repetition and context in just one line of text per page to help beginners learn vocabulary. Children soon read each page by themselves until they proudly finish their first little book in Chinese, then all 20, an achievement that builds confidence and motivates them to continue learning. Kids learn the correct pronunciation by listening to the online audio by a native speaker. 

4. Chineasy Series

Chineasy: 60 Flashcards

This essential companion to Chineasy includes 60 gorgeous full-color flashcards to practice and master the key characters of the revolutionary visual method for learning to read and write Chinese. Each flashcard features one large, bold Chinese character in pictogram on the front, along with its English translation. On the back, the pictogram is “unpicked” to display its actual Chinese character, and includes three compound words that use it.

Chineasy: The New Way to Read Chinese

In Chineasy, the author teaches the key characters, called radicals, that are the language’s foundation, and then shows how they can be combined to form new words and even phrases. Once you’ve mastered these key characters, you can practice your skills with three stories—a fairy tale, an Asian legend, and a contemporary fable—told using the radicals. With Chineasy, readers of all ages will be able to navigate a Chinese menu, read signs and billboards, and grasp the meaning of most articles in a Chinese newspaper.

Chineasy for Children: Learn 100 Words

The book is organized by themes such as numbers, family, animals, and food, each section covering vocabulary within that topic. Stories about the development of characters and customs provide the perfect introduction to Chinese culture, while games and activities allow children to put into practice what they have learned. Subsequent spreads feature lively scenes that help children to recognize over 100 Chinese characters.

Chineasy Travel

The essential pocket-sized Chineasy guide to characters, phrases, and culture for travelers makes learning Chinese fun and easy. ShaoLan’s visual, building-block-style teaching method makes learning characters simple and fun: by learning common characters, readers can quickly grasp and communicate basic words and phrases while traveling.

Chineasy Workbook

Not only recognizing the characters and words, there is also a workbook to help practicing your handwriting.

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