HOW TO LEARN CHINESE CHARACTER EFFECTIVELY

B3

 

You might feel Chinese character is so difficult to learn, like draw a picture, how to learn Chinese characters effectively and quickly?Answer is you understand Chinese character stroke, stroke order, Radicals of Chinese characters, Chinese character wont be difficult.

 

1, Character Stroke Order
Writing characters in the correct stroke order can greatly facilitate learning and memorization. Correct stroke order is also vital to produce visually appealing characters.

Character Stroke Order Basic Rules

  1. From left to right (从左到右) 一:starting from left.
  2. From top to bottom (从上到下) 二:the top stroke first and then the lower stroke.
  3. Horizontal before vertical (先横后竖) 十:The horizontal stroke 一is written first, followed by the vertical stroke.
  4. Diagonals right-to-left before diagonals left-to-right ( 先撇后捺) 人:ノis written first.
  5. Outside before inside (从外到内) 月:Outside enclosing strokes are written before inside strokes,
  6. Inside before outside (从内到外) 凶
  7. .Inside before bottom enclosing ( 先里头后封口) 因:If there is a bottom stroke, the bottom stroke is written last.
  8. Center verticals before outside “wings” ( 先中间后两边) 小: the center 丨comes first before the two dots.
  9. Cutting strokes last ( 相交笔画后写) 中Vertical strokes that “cut” through a character are written after the horizontal strokes they cut through
  10. Left vertical before enclosing ( 先左竖后封口) 口:Left vertical strokes are written before enclosing strokes.
  11. 11.Top or upper-left dots first ( 点在上边或左上先写 ) 永 the dots are written before any other strokes.
  12. Inside or upper-right dots last ( 点在右上或里边后写) 玉: the dots are written last.

2, Look for radicals.
Radicals are components of Chinese characters that you will see repeated over and over again. Learning the meaning of radicals will help you to see the connections between similar categories of words. Many characters are comprised of radical-phonetic pairings, where the radical is the “root” that hints at the meaning of the word, while another part of the character hints at the sound of the word. Learning to spot radicals is also useful as they are used when looking up unfamiliar words in Chinese dictionaries.
For example:
氵:water realated 氵: 河(hé)(river), 海(hǎi)(sea), 江(jiāng)(river);
辶:walking related 辶: 过(guò)(cross), 道(dào)(road),通(tōng)(pass);
女: female related 女: 妈(mā)(mother), 姐(jiě)(old sister),妹(mèi)(younger sister);

3, Practice writing a lot.
When you study, write each character at least ten times, or more if you still have trouble remembering them. Quiz yourself periodically to test your memory and to find which characters you need more practice on. As you write, think of the sound and meaning of the character, or speak it out loudly. Learn the right stroke order initially and write carefully, looking at the printed character each time before copying. Actually writing is important to establish a ‘motor memory’ of each character, allowing you writing to flow easily once you get started.