Chinese Writing

Chinese writing is considered to be the most hard part in leanring languages. The writing system does not use romanization and it is not related to the actual pronounciation as well.

The writing form is the same in China dialects

Many friends told me that they are going to punish the people who invented Chinese writing system. Well, something good something bad. In China, most of the major dialects are not the same and people cannot understand each other; however, the written form is the same. In China, if both ends could not speak the common dialect they can still communicate by chinese writing. This kind of consistency not only can help in China dialects but also facilitate to communication between Japanese, Koreans, and other counrties that has influences by Chinese.

Futhremore, it is easier to read images than read letters. Time magazine once did the research and reported that the reading difficulty does not often happen to Chinese or Japanease kids. It is not necessary to remember every detail about the writing. In the modern ages, many Chinese natives sometimes does not remember how to write them either; however, they will reconize the characters when they see them.

How many characters you need?

The frequently used characters mostly are estimated to be 3,000 characters . It is similar to the level of high school students' vacabulary. More than 90% frequency amount of words are within the 3,000 characters . For general conversation or say non-academic use, it is enough with the frequently used characters.

When should you learn Chinese characters?

The Chinese characters is not easy to learn. Unless urgent needs, avoiding frustration, a beginner should focus on pronociation, senetense pattern, and basic vacabulary first. During these learning processes, you may accidentally learning Chinese characters by more reading. You will feel it is not that hard after you learn Chinese for a while.

Radicals

There are many ways for creating Chinese characters. It is possible from the pictures of objects or concepts. It is also possible infered by sound indirectly. However, after centuries of modifying, refining, or developing, it may not be helpful reasoning Chinese characters.

There are stills some helpful methods for learning Chinese characters. A Chinese characters usually consist of few parts. Some parts can be reconized as a radical. The radicals are category symbols that can be infered to semantic classification concepts, such as water, person, animal, gender, and feeling.

For example, the chinse chracter sea (海) has two parts. One of the parts is water, a redical.  You can easily find information online about frequently used radicals. Just name one here.

Excercise book with grid pages

Chinese Characters are also called square characters. Each one is shaped like a square and same size no matter its complexity of strokes and structures. Therefore, it is a good idea to practice writing characters using an excercise book with grid pages.

Learn Simplified or Traditional?

The most common form of Simplified characters has been used by Chinese people for many years. The standardization of simplified Chinese characters has been officially introduced by Chinese Govement since 1956. Simpflied Chinese characters are mainly for reduce the rate of illiteracy. However, it also causes problems for Chinese communities. People in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and overseas Chinese has trouble reading simplified characters. Futhremore, to understand the old materal in ancient China, knowing traditional Characters is a must.

To learn which version of Chinese characters is depends on the needs. Students who would like to communicate the people in China may choose simplified form and who would interested in traditaionl material of the materials from Taiwan may choose traditional form. Many people learn how to write simplified form but also learn how to read traditional form. Tools for explaining the difference between the two are also avaiable. Just name one here.