Why Learn To Write Chinese By Hand?

Should we learn to handwrite mandarin characters?

This is a question most Chinese learners ask themselves at the starting of their learning process because it’s perhaps the hardest challenge that most Mandarin students face. It might look like a simple and easy question, yet the answer is not that clear-cut. 

Learning how to write mandarin by hand takes a lot of time and effort, a lot. And you can type in mandarin using your mobile phone or laptop without understanding how to write characters by yourself. Typing and handwriting Chinese are 2 different things and the latter is much simple. So, it’s vital to ask yourself if you’re willing to spend dozens of hours doing such varied work.

Why are you learning the Mandarin language?

Before you decide whether to learn to handwrite Chinese or not, pause for a moment and ask yourself one more question:

Why am I learning the Chinese language?

Depending on your learning aims, you might pick a different way.

If you study mandarin just to manage as a visitor to China, then handwriting Chinese characters is not the most efficient way to spend your precious time. You can enjoy your visit with basic Chinese skills and phone with a translation application.

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

If you’re interested in Chinese tradition, history, and tradition and think that learning mandarin might be helpful in your future, then you’d still reach a low intermediate mandarin level and manage by typing Chinese characters using Pinyin input.

As you can see, you do not need to understand how to write characters by hand to be able to speak Chinese, learn it, work using it and even live in China! But there’s always a “but”.

Why learn to write Mandarin By hand is important?

If you have started learning mandarin, you’ll already be familiar with Pinyin. And you might wonder since there’s a system for writing mandarin that does not need years of practice to master if it is worth bothering with characters.

The answer is unless all you hope to do is learn some phrases, and then yes you do.

Though most mandarin native speakers use Pinyin to type in Chinese, they’ll normally find it hard to read a Pinyin text. So if you want to communicate through email, chat applications, or almost any sort of digital medium, you’ll need to learn the writing.

Plus you will rarely find texts in Pinyin outside the class. So if you ever hope to read something in mandarin – from menus in restaurants to magazines, newspapers, and even novels – you will need to become literate in mandarin characters.

But do you need to learn to write? 

But, why learn to write Chinese by hand?

The next crucial question people looking for a shortcut might ask is whether you need to learn to write Chinese by hand?

It is true that in modern mandarin – just like everywhere else – people write by hand less and less. And if you do learn to write Chinese by hand, it is not a skill that you’re likely to use very often in your day-by-day activities. Though, there’re still several compelling reasons why you’d take the time to learn to write mandarin. 

No. 1 – For Homework and Exam in Mandarin 

If you take a mandarin class, you will learn to write Chinese. And as early as possible, you will be expected to use them for simple and easy writing exercises and homework. Also, if you plan to obtain certification for your mandarin, you’ll need to write in characters when you take Mandarin exams.

That said, a PC-based version of the HSK – Chinese Proficiency Test now exists that allows you to type rather the write Chinese. So perhaps learning to write Chinese for exams is no longer as vital as it once was.

No.2 – it’ll help you read other’s handwriting 

Another reason to learn how to write characters is that it’ll help you understand what other people write. When you learned to write and read in English, you started by writing every letter individually before progressing to joined-up writing skills.

There’s a huge difference between printed letters and cursive handwriting. And the same is true in mandarin. Mandarin people do not always write each character out carefully and neatly. They write fast in a character version of joined-up writing.

Even if you can read printed Chinese characters, you’ll probably be completely lost when you use cursive mandarin handwriting, for instance, on hand-written signs in the street. And a few mandarin people have terrible handwriting, just similar to everywhere else!

it’s only by learning to write Chinese by hand – and possibly even becoming proficient enough to write in a cursive script like native Chinese speakers yourself – that you’ll be able to make sense of daily Chinese handwriting.

No.3 – Learn to Chinese by hand for Completeness 

What you hope to acquire in Chinese will examine whether you think it is worth spending the time to learn Chinese handwriting. But if you want to acquire a respectable level, you’d study to write the script for the sake of completeness. Imagine learning the German or French language to a reasonably high level but not being capable to write even the simple things – like a text on a birthday card or an address on a parcel – by self.

If you decide not to learn to write characters, this is a sort of handicap you’re giving yourself. And if you cannot write even basic words, can you say that you understand the language?

If you hope 1 day to be able to say you’re fluent in the Chinese language, would you not feel like a fraud claiming a higher level in the language while being fully unable to write?

No.4 – Writing Mandarin is Satisfying and Enjoyable 

At the same time, do not imagine that learning mandarin characters will entail limitless hours of boredom and torture as you replicate them out hundreds of times. Several people who learn to write Chinese characters discover that it is very enjoyable and even therapeutic. And when you sit down to practice, you will probably find that the time passes very much faster than you realize.

Nowadays, in our speedy modern world where we want all right now and attention spans are growing even shorter, there is a lot to be said for taking the time to understand a skill that needs dedication and patience.

Steadily and slowly increasing your stock of Chinese characters daily is a very rewarding procedure. And if you are looking for shortcuts and instant outcomes, learning mandarin is probably not the correct option for you anyway.

No.5 – Learn Writing helps you Remember 

If none of my arguments so far have rightly convinced you that it is worth taking the time to understand to write Chinese, then perhaps this last one will. Characters are not easily a collection of random ideograms. And there’s the logic behind the system.

Every Chinese character is made of different elements, all of which have meaning. And if it’s only by becoming intimately familiar with them by writing them then that you can grab this underlying logic.

Moreover, you must write a character in a very specific order, writing every stroke in the right way. By writing in mandarin, you build your muscle memory to the point where you can write and read every character without thinking, much as you do when you write using the Roman style alphabet.

It might be possible to learn to read without learning to write, but by far the best method to learn to both write and read is the old-style way. And that means sitting at your desk and practicing.

Best ways to start handwriting Chinese characters

So, you have decided to learn to write Chinese by hand, what is next?

The most vital thing is getting basic rights from the very start. Here’s a brief guide on how you can do it.

Understand the Structure of Chinese character 

A Chinese character consists of 1 or more components, called radicals. Spend some time figuring out how Chinese characters are structured because understanding that’ll help you in the future. Simply put, a radical on the left side of a mandarin character is connected to the meaning, whereas, a radical on the right is connected to the pronunciation of the full character.

Get familiar with strokes 

Chinese characters same as LEGOS: they can be broken down into pieces. They consist of radicals, while it consists of strokes. There’re 8 traditional fundamental strokes, but only 5 of them are considered to be advanced strokes, called “’札字法” （zházìfǎ).

Take some time and practice wiring every stroke separately. Remember that it does make a huge difference if you draw a line top to bottom or bottom to top. I recommend drawing every stroke about thirty times. It might sound strange, but it’ll help you in the future – you will see a character, recognize the strokes, and your hand will just write them rightly.

Learn the radicals

Now that you know how to write strokes rightly, learn the radicals. There’re 214 radicals in the original KANGXI radical list, but some of them are no longer used in simplified mandarin. It’s extremely recommended to learn them all, but realistically, you’d memorize the most common ones and then, once you advance in skills, learn the other.

Get the stroke order right

Now that you can deconstruct a Chinese character into spate pieces, learn how to write it rightly. The right stroke order for writing Chinese has been developed for thousands of years, and the Chinese are very attentive to it. And to be honest, when you write Chinese characters with the right stroke order, it just flows smoothly, as if there’s no other right way to write it.

There’re some general laws, such as writing from left to right and top to bottom. Though, the right stroke order of any character should be learned and memorized individually, particularly when you just start learning Chinese by hand. Later, you do not need to memorize every new character’s stroke order. In most cases, you’ll already know the order based on previously learned Chinese words. Just remember, it is okay not to be certain about the stroke order, you can forever check in the dictionary.

What is next?

Well, here comes the difficult part. There is no workaround to learn to handwrite characters without spending time on it. In the way starting, handwriting Chinese characters are exciting. You start something new, and it is very exciting. After writing 50 lines of Chinese characters, none of which seem pretty or the same as ones in the book, you get tired and bored my advice?

Be persistent and do not give up! The more you practice, the easier it becomes, and the faster you memorize Chinese characters.

Learn to write Chinese by hand is difficult, and if you’re like several others, you might want to give up at some stage. Because it needs a lot of time, a lot of patience, and a lot of concentration. And it is Okay if you quit. But if you pick to continue, remember it gets simple the more you practice. I remember when I was started handwriting Chinese characters, I needed to write Chinese at least 30 to 40 times before I could remember both how to write and read it.

Later I could memorize a Chinese character after writing it 8-10 times. But you need to practice continuously. Now, after years of only typing in mandarin, I find that writing a character five times is not enough. Handwriting does not feel natural anymore, and sometimes I struggle to write even easy and simple characters. So do not repeat my mistakes and be consistent in your practice.