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What is the best way to learn Chinese characters ?

Tell me if you are a native speaker.

or if you are a native chinese teacher.

or if you are a learner.

 

just tell me from your experience, what is the most effective way to learn them ?

Apr 24, 2014 8:59 AM
Comments · 6
2

I am a learner. The following is my opinion. I hope it helps ya.

 

I agree with Cissi that in context is best. While learning I usually learn a list of words just before I am going to study them in a dialogue, or passage. 

 

Another thing I do is try to understand the character.

When I first started learning they talked about certain characters being a picture representation of something real. 日 = sun, 月 = Moon, 木 = wood, tree, 林 = forest, woods. This is cool and all, but it turns out only like 5% of characters are made this way.

Another thing I do is make sure I know how to write all the radicals I come across. Knowing the meaning is also useful. 

Now that I have most of the radicals down, what I am trying to do now is get a better grip on the phono-semantic compounds. That's a fancy way of saying part of the character has to do with the meaning, and part has to do with how it should sound. From what I have read this category makes up the largest portion of characters.

 

For me personally because I am trying to break them down and learn them by their compontents. I feel that it helps me better remember how to write them, and their meaning.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_characters#Principles_of_formation

http://www.hackingchinese.com/phonetic-components-part-1-the-key-to-80-of-all-chinese-characters/

April 24, 2014

Thanks so much louie :)

April 24, 2014

For example ,“在中国南方,人们喜欢吃米饭”,in English that will be "In the south of China,people prefer to eat rice'‘。 then you can understand that ”在“=”in or at someplace” in English。

 

 

               

April 24, 2014

but may i ask you to give me an example for a especifice character ( lets say 在 ), how i can learn it by understanding a context ?

April 24, 2014

Thanks Cissi :)

April 24, 2014
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