How do I learn to read/write Chinese? Do I just write down every word?
To learn the characters I had to learn to write them out. But there may be other methods today.
Consider Victor Mairās views: Language Log Ā» How to learn to read Chinese
This is, arguably, the quickest and easiest way to learn characters, and is backed by studies (rather than opinion).
Some quotes:
Victor Mair, Professor of Chinese Language and Literature, in the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, at the University of Pennsylvania:
ā[pinyin over hanzi] was a godsend in that it enabled me to learn Chinese characters passively and painlessly. By assimilating massive amounts of publications [with pinyin with hanzi text], before long I was able to read texts without phonetic annotation.ā
John S. Rohsenow, āThe āZ.T.ā Experiment in the PRC,ā Journal of the Chinese Language Teachers Association. 31, 3 (1996): 33-44).
āUnder this innovative pedagogical program, Chinese children [and adult illiterates] are taught to read and write standard Mandarin Chinese using [the] Hanyu Pinyin [alphabet] in addition to Chinese characters for the first two years of their education.
In contrast to the standard curriculum, under which [students] are only taught [the] Hanyu Pinyin [alphabet] for the first two months purely as a phonetic notational device for the pronunciation of Chinese characters, under the ``ZhuTiāā experimental curriculum, children [and other beginning learners] are encouraged to develop their reading and writing skills in standard Mandarin Chinese using [the] Hanyu Pinyin [alphabet] for the first two years.
The [beginning learners] are thus not hampered in their reading and writing development by knowing only a limited number of Chinese characters; within a few weeks they are able to read and write (phonetically) anything that they can say. After more than [fifteen] years [and over 2 million students], results show that the majority of students taught using this [``Z.T.āā] method learn to read and write using Chinese characters faster and at a higher level than most students who are taught by more traditional methods.ā
This result is similar to many other studies (for example, in languages such as English): āwhereby children were initially allowed to spell words exactly as they sound (i.e. ignoring the irregularities in English spelling), with the result that these children learned to read and write faster, with no appreciable harm to their later spelling ability.ā
http://www.fb06.uni-mainz.de/chinesisch/Dateien/hanzirenzhi_papers_ling.pdf
With regard to writing characters by hand, I would endorse these study recommendations:
"Our suggestion is abolishing the requirement for writing Chinese characters by hand at the beginning of Chinese language learning process, and utilizing [pinyin input] instead to help the students (1) bypass the difficulties entailed by character hand-writing, (2) achieve an early development of writing skill, and (3) reach a comprehensive improvement of their language competenceā¦
The precious time devoted to character hand-writing by the students is obviously taken away from the more pressing business of learning to speak and read in the language. Moreover, the prolonged and slow-moving process of learning to write Chinese characters by hand oftenā¦slows down the entire process of learning Chinese language. "
Another word from Victor Mair: Language Log Ā» How to learn Chinese and Japanese
"If I were the czar or god of Chinese and Japanese language pedagogy, I would not teach students a single Chinese character until they were relatively fluent ā about two years. Iāve always said that we should learn languages the way babies do; they learn to speak long before they learn to write.
ā¦Jerry Packard published a relevant study in 1990:
Jerome L. Packard, āEffects of Time Lag in the Introduction of Characters into the Chinese Language Curriculum,ā The Modern Language Journal, 74.2 (1990), 167-175.
Packard found that the time lag of delayed character introduction improved studentsā ability to discriminate Chinese sounds, and improved their fluency.
ā¦Iāve been involved with Chinese language teaching long enough (well over forty years; I have taught 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th year Mandarin [I once taught 3rd and 4th year Mandarin simultaneously], and have been teaching Literary Sinitic / Classical Chinese for thirty years) to realize that some students are attracted by the characters and that is one of the main reasons they opt to take Chinese language courses (this is especially true of so-called heritage learners). They think that the characters are beautiful or exotic, and sometimes their parents want them to learn the characters to maintain the culture. On the other hand, my experience, and the experience of my colleagues named above, abundantly attest to the wisdom and efficacy of learning the language first and the script later.
The advent of electronic devices for the computer assisted writing of characters has also brought about a sea change in the way they are learned and maintainedā¦
BOTTOM LINES
If you delay introducing the characters, studentsā mastery of pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, syntax, and so forth, are all faster and more secure. Surprisingly, when later on they do start to study the characters (ideally in combination with large amounts of reading interesting texts with phonetic annotation), students acquire mastery of written Chinese much more quickly and painlessly than if writing is introduced at the same time as the spoken language."
Footnote 1: The future of Chinese learning is now: Language Log Ā» The future of Chinese language learning is now
Footnote 2: Personally speaking, there is not much I can add that Victor Mair hasnāt thought about over the last 50 years. However, I would make a last, somewhat controversial, point: not only are characters a setback to early learning (and not really used by native speakers in the first 2-6 years) ā characters are not even necessary. The vast majority of all writing is done using pinyin input, and pinyin over hanzi electronic readers mean that characters (only) for reading is not necessary. Even the tired arguments of how do you read street signs, or the newspaper, or menus, are now completely obsolete. OCR, google maps, electronic news and the fact that even when you know all the characters in menus the dish is still not fully clear even to native speakers, means: this tired fallacy is now well and truly dead. Books? Iāve read more Chinese books than you can poke a stick at, all electronic.
Donāt get me wrong - learning the characters has benefits, and if you learn with pinyin over hanzi, you will learn lots of characters - quicker and better than any other method studied. It is just that the traditional methods of learning Chinese, particularly for non-nativesā¦wellā¦ they donāt work so wellā¦and the science, studies and results of millions of learners show the better approach.
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Iām not convinced.
Delaying character learning is actually a pretty popular school of thought in studying Mandarin. Iām not sure if itās the most popular, but itās definitely a path that many learners have taken, including myself. However, reading pinyin, or annotated hanzi, for 2 years without learning any characters is overkill imo.
The only study I see discussed in the posted links that one might think supports the 2 year theory is the ZT program. Iāve only been able to find short summaries of the ZT program, but itās participants and conditions are quite different from educated adult L2 learners.
A look at the ZT Program
Traditional method to learn characters in China: children are taught pinyin for the first two months of their first grade classes and after that use it only as phonetic annotation for Hanzi, dictionary lookup, etc, while they start learning and using characters as their orthography. I havenāt seen it specified how they learn characters.
ZT program: children and adult illiterates use pinyin as their orthography. They learn characters later on, I gather from the conclusions, but I havenāt seen it specified how or when.
Conclusions from the program: Participants in the ZT program 1) become literate in pinyin before traditional method participants become literate in characters 2) learn characters faster than traditional method participants do.
Why I donāt think it applies - differences in participants and conditions
-
ZT participants are all immersed, and are constantly being bombarded with non-annotated language, L2 learners may not be - ZT participants are all illiterate in the beginning, unlike L2 adults
- ZT participants arenāt as well educated as L2 learners
- Most of the ZT participants are children, who donāt learn the same way as L2 adults
- ZT participants are already very familiar with the spoken language, unlike L2 adults
I think delaying character study until you are comfortable with the word is a good idea, but delaying too long is counterproductive and frustrating to most learners. Hereās an interesting quote from one of your links (Chinesisch):
āThe differentiation at various stages of character acquisition is further supported in the article āAn investigation of studentsā perspectives on Chinese language learningā (Chiang 2002, mentioned earlier in section I), in which the author surmises that the reason most students completing their second year of study do not rate characters and reading/writing as difficult is that the hurdles in this area were largely overcome in the first year. In the same study, the author finds that a significant percentage of students wished that they had paid more attention to character-writing and learning radicals and components in their first year of study."
You have made your mind up without even trying it, little wulfy.
The largest comparative study of 3 million people, and over many decades confirms, this is the most effective way to read at a native level in Chinese quickly and to learn characters, and it confirms with my own experience.
Your constant trolling of this point is truly bizarre. What did it take for you to dredge up a 2.5 year old post, and then make the same unfounded comments you have made countless times already?
Why donāt you first try, and, then, talk from a point of some experience on the matter?
Mair has discussed this in detail in the context of non-native learners, yet you completely ignore all this.
There is no reason why non-native learners shouldnāt learn in the same manner as the best methods for native learners - this is exactly what I did - so I know it works.
You have no real understanding of the process, and no experience on this.
The reasons for the atrocious failure rate in learning Chinese (particularly by westerners) needs to be reviewed, not perpetuated.
You may try to learn the side of each character, as Chinese character are formed from its side.
For example, č¾¶ is the side of čæ(this)ļ¼čæļ¼over), čæ ļ¼moving)
ęis the side of ę(holding), ę« ļ¼sweep), ę (grab)
The first one are the words related with walking, čæ-direction, čæ- passed over, čæ-a movement
The second are the words related to hand.
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Hi, bethanyh, did you learn Chinese before, if you are a Chinese beginner, I recommend you learn Chinese pinyin first and Chinese character is so hard to learn for Chinese beginner. If you learn Chinese for a long time and you already know how to write some Chinese characters, you can try read some simple articles. I recommond two articles to you and tell you how to read and write Chinese.
7 Tips to Improve Your Chinese Writing Skills
Some Ways to Improve Your Chinese Reading Skills
I have the feeling that you are spamming us here Annienan.
hi, steve, sorry, I will pay attention to my reply and that two articles really help bethanyh and solve his problems, I will stop to recommend some articles, if you think Iām spamming.