learn the radicals. a chinese character is made up of radicals (from other characters). for example the word 您 it has ren 人 , xin 心 , and er 尔.

harder and harder~

practise practise practise!!!

where are you now ? i think you should be an exchange student ! then come to China ! and live in Chinese family ! so that your Chinese writing will be improved ! good luck ^^

to sunny again: as for the misunderstanding problem, it quite simply, just refer to your example "王" and "玉", when you're talking with a foreigner, I believe you'll easily understand it's "王八" even his writing is "玉八" :)