My reasons for learning Chinese include exercising my brain. As a person in my 60s, I wanted to tackle this language BECAUSE it is hard and my brain has nothing to associate it with. If you don’t learn new things every day, you lose mental capacity. So, I am learning to speak, and listen, and ultimately will learn to write-starting with the most commonly occurring characters. My second reason for wanting to learn to write is cultural appreciation. I find the language logically delightful, and the idea that it evolved to include characters like the ones we study today is fascinating to me. Mastering that part of the language involves the history of its speakers as well as just knowing a lot of vocabulary. So far, learning characters and stroke order has given me insights into what is important to the people who speak this language as their own.
I am an older lady learning Chinese and most of my learning as a kid in the US involved writing as a form of learning and memorization. Writing helps me remember stuff. I don’t write out everything but I think it probably works a part of my brain to encode information. Cool video. Love your channel!
Great video. Yeah, my impression is that the insistence on hand writing characters is disappearing from most decent programs. I think that’s mainly from the long term observations that this insistence typically leads to people being quite delayed in speaking and listening- there just isn’t enough time to do it all. Even in China, students are set back 2-3 years in elementary school compared to their peers in Western countries because of the enormous amount of time required to learn characters (of course they catch up with a vengeance later on). So much so that a few years ago the ministry of education was seriously considering lessening the requirements for hand writing in Chinese schools (not sure where that’s all at now). But as you say virtually all written communication in Chinese these days is done digitally, so recognition is really the only pressing requirement. Unless you want to go for the “coolness factor” of being able to hand write Chinese on demand. But then the question becomes how high of a price are you willing to pay for a little coolness once in a while.
I am so impressed by you and your speaking ability - it just rolls off your tongue. I will follow your advice and stick to character recognition. So far I’ve just ordered some books and e-books for shadowing & will be making Anki cards accordingly. Thanks for these videos Will ❤❤
I totally get why people don't write characters that often. For me however I find it is a method that makes it easier for me to remember the characters for reading. I might never need to officially write anything, but I do have some basic writing ability... not a huge number of characters... but more and more every day.
I agree, for me personally it's much easier to remember characters, their meaning and how to pronounce them if I know how to write them. I do recognize some characters from just reading them, but I'm never a 100% sure about them and it definitely takes a lot of exposure to them to be able to recognize them.
My main aim is to learn to read and write the modern simplified Chinese language . I find the process of writing to be the most enjoyable aspect of study , that and consulting the dictionary and recognising words from the radicals . As I do it as a hobby it doesn't really matter to me what "a good investment in time " is and I wouldn't recognise that aspect if I tripped over it .🤣
for me characters are a form of art and apart from the pros you already mentioned they are just fun to write and i feel that writing is part of the language. i wont learn to write everything down only until im interested in writing, maybe a few hundreds of them.we dont actuaaly write on paper in our mother tongue either but i would feel a sort of disabled if i was physically unable to express myself.
Will, how do you choose the word (or words) for the “cloze deletion” sentence you create in Anki? I have watched your Anki videos but still a little unsure how you do it for optimal learning. I hope my question is clear. Thank you!
The word you use the 'cloze deletion' for is preferably the word you are trying to learn, so ideally the sentence should only have one new word in. I hope that helps!
I never had any frustrations really because I just tried to enjoy the process, I think the biggest one was improving my reading. At two months I was at a very low level, having very very basic conversations
@@willhartmandarin oh ok that's where I am as well :) and yeah I try not to experience frustration but it comes from a place of passion wanting to speak fluently and be at a high level 😊
@@willhartmandarin I watch a lot of your video because you inspire me to speak at your level :) I only know 400 words....focusing on speaking right now....would you recommend I also focus on characters? And could you make a video of how it looks like everyday studying for you in Mandarin....
Well, I am a bit confused. I write character so that I can recognize in future. But as you are saying writing is not that much important (which i agree) and instead i should focus on speaking. How am I going to memorize any specific character if i don't write?? and also please give a suggestion on how to pass hsk4 within shoret period of time and also I want to be fluent like you! Thank you
being able to recognize and read characters is much easier than being able to write them, its much harder to recall all the parts of a character you cant see than what it means when its right there in front of you
You can learn to recognise and not write characters by using flashcards and reading lots, but if writing is helping your reading then by all means keep going
I'm not sure how to define this. I didn't learn how to write hanzi. In terms of hanzi, I just learn how to construct and recognise them so that I'm able to read and "type/write" them on my keyboard. Is this considered knowing how to write?
I can't remember languages I can't write --> I learn how to write them. There is no doubt in my mind that I must learn to write Chinese if I want to learn it well. Yes, it is hard but that's the deal.
can you please share your self-study study when you first started and how it progressed? I am trying to learn it on my own but find putting a comprehensive schedule the most tough part.
Hi Wayne. What do you think about using HSK books as main learning source? By the way, thank you for creating this channel, you inspire me and motivate me to advance in Chinese. Thank you. Thank you
I think they are a good way to start learning chinese, but apart from textbooks you are going to need to listen and read lots and get lots of speaking practice
I think all aspects are important to language learning. Obviously, each learner has their own goals and reasons for learning Chinese. But if a person wants to be well-rounded in the language, I think they should also learn how to write characters. I'm not saying they need to write every single character, but at least the most common ones used in daily life.
I agree and I disagree, I think that if you have no need to write, you can definitely reach really high levels in the other three areas and practice the skill of writing by typing.
I don’t think there is any escaping the fact that if you want to be able to write Chinese characters well, you must have an eye for detail and be prepared to devote a lot of time to practising writing them well. Who doesn’t want a short cut? Just get on with it!
the vast majority of chinese was historically illiterate anyway, oh wait, they talked in local varieties of chinese as well, the mandarin mandarin was not prevalent until recently, though the varied mandarin contiuum spectrum was there indeed for quite a while. ppl kind all had their own kind of mandarin, or the kind of chinese of the officials that they imagined or they tried their best to approximate under very limited ways of media and very limited transport methods
My reasons for learning Chinese include exercising my brain. As a person in my 60s, I wanted to tackle this language BECAUSE it is hard and my brain has nothing to associate it with. If you don’t learn new things every day, you lose mental capacity. So, I am learning to speak, and listen, and ultimately will learn to write-starting with the most commonly occurring characters. My second reason for wanting to learn to write is cultural appreciation. I find the language logically delightful, and the idea that it evolved to include characters like the ones we study today is fascinating to me. Mastering that part of the language involves the history of its speakers as well as just knowing a lot of vocabulary. So far, learning characters and stroke order has given me insights into what is important to the people who speak this language as their own.
Sounds brilliant! I am also hoping to learn to write for the cultural appreciation side of things!
I am an older lady learning Chinese and most of my learning as a kid in the US involved writing as a form of learning and memorization. Writing helps me remember stuff. I don’t write out everything but I think it probably works a part of my brain to encode information.
Cool video. Love your channel!
Writing definitely helps with encoding!
I write 汉子 everyday, I practice it regularly coz I JUST LİKE it 😅❤
汉字
Great video. Yeah, my impression is that the insistence on hand writing characters is disappearing from most decent programs. I think that’s mainly from the long term observations that this insistence typically leads to people being quite delayed in speaking and listening- there just isn’t enough time to do it all. Even in China, students are set back 2-3 years in elementary school compared to their peers in Western countries because of the enormous amount of time required to learn characters (of course they catch up with a vengeance later on). So much so that a few years ago the ministry of education was seriously considering lessening the requirements for hand writing in Chinese schools (not sure where that’s all at now).
But as you say virtually all written communication in Chinese these days is done digitally, so recognition is really the only pressing requirement. Unless you want to go for the “coolness factor” of being able to hand write Chinese on demand. But then the question becomes how high of a price are you willing to pay for a little coolness once in a while.
Really good points! Totally agree!
I am so impressed by you and your speaking ability - it just rolls off your tongue. I will follow your advice and stick to character recognition. So far I’ve just ordered some books and e-books for shadowing & will be making Anki cards accordingly.
Thanks for these videos Will ❤❤
I'm so glad my content has been useful! Let me know how you get on!
I totally get why people don't write characters that often. For me however I find it is a method that makes it easier for me to remember the characters for reading. I might never need to officially write anything, but I do have some basic writing ability... not a huge number of characters... but more and more every day.
Totally get that, I think that is probably the biggest benefit - helping with reading
I agree, for me personally it's much easier to remember characters, their meaning and how to pronounce them if I know how to write them. I do recognize some characters from just reading them, but I'm never a 100% sure about them and it definitely takes a lot of exposure to them to be able to recognize them.
My main aim is to learn to read and write the modern simplified Chinese language . I find the process of writing to be the most enjoyable aspect of study , that and consulting the dictionary and recognising words from the radicals . As I do it as a hobby it doesn't really matter to me what "a good investment in time " is and I wouldn't recognise that aspect if I tripped over it .🤣
I would actually argue that for you reading and writing is a 'good investment in time' for you based on your goals! Wish you all the best!
@@willhartmandarin Thank you , you are very kind , I hope that you continue to develop and enjoy the language as well . Best wishes to you .
for me characters are a form of art and apart from the pros you already mentioned they are just fun to write and i feel that writing is part of the language. i wont learn to write everything down only until im interested in writing, maybe a few hundreds of them.we dont actuaaly write on paper in our mother tongue either but i would feel a sort of disabled if i was physically unable to express myself.
Will, how do you choose the word (or words) for the “cloze deletion” sentence you create in Anki?
I have watched your Anki videos but still a little unsure how you do it for optimal learning.
I hope my question is clear.
Thank you!
The word you use the 'cloze deletion' for is preferably the word you are trying to learn, so ideally the sentence should only have one new word in. I hope that helps!
During your early days of learning mandarin what has been your biggest frustration? And after 2 months around which level would you say you were at ?
I never had any frustrations really because I just tried to enjoy the process, I think the biggest one was improving my reading. At two months I was at a very low level, having very very basic conversations
@@willhartmandarin oh ok that's where I am as well :) and yeah I try not to experience frustration but it comes from a place of passion wanting to speak fluently and be at a high level 😊
@@willhartmandarin I watch a lot of your video because you inspire me to speak at your level :) I only know 400 words....focusing on speaking right now....would you recommend I also focus on characters? And could you make a video of how it looks like everyday studying for you in Mandarin....
Well, I am a bit confused. I write character so that I can recognize in future. But as you are saying writing is not that much important (which i agree) and instead i should focus on speaking. How am I going to memorize any specific character if i don't write?? and also please give a suggestion on how to pass hsk4 within shoret period of time and also I want to be fluent like you! Thank you
being able to recognize and read characters is much easier than being able to write them, its much harder to recall all the parts of a character you cant see than what it means when its right there in front of you
You can learn to recognise and not write characters by using flashcards and reading lots, but if writing is helping your reading then by all means keep going
I'm not sure how to define this. I didn't learn how to write hanzi.
In terms of hanzi, I just learn how to construct and recognise them so that I'm able to read and "type/write" them on my keyboard. Is this considered knowing how to write?
I can't remember languages I can't write --> I learn how to write them. There is no doubt in my mind that I must learn to write Chinese if I want to learn it well. Yes, it is hard but that's the deal.
That's interesting, I suppose everyone is different. Personally I didn't have that problem with Chinese
can you please share your self-study study when you first started and how it progressed? I am trying to learn it on my own but find putting a comprehensive schedule the most tough part.
Hi Wayne. What do you think about using HSK books as main learning source? By the way, thank you for creating this channel, you inspire me and motivate me to advance in Chinese. Thank you. Thank you
I think they are a good way to start learning chinese, but apart from textbooks you are going to need to listen and read lots and get lots of speaking practice
I think all aspects are important to language learning. Obviously, each learner has their own goals and reasons for learning Chinese. But if a person wants to be well-rounded in the language, I think they should also learn how to write characters. I'm not saying they need to write every single character, but at least the most common ones used in daily life.
I agree and I disagree, I think that if you have no need to write, you can definitely reach really high levels in the other three areas and practice the skill of writing by typing.
Please share your anki deck! 🙏
I don’t think there is any escaping the fact that if you want to be able to write Chinese characters well, you must have an eye for detail and be prepared to devote a lot of time to practising writing them well. Who doesn’t want a short cut? Just get on with it!
100% agree, even with mneumonics and other effective methods you've just got to devote a ton of time into it
@@willhartmandarin Is a mneumonic a mnemonic under pressure?!!
I want to study in China， but my teaching language will be in Chinese， do I have to practice writing Chinese characters?
Yeah you definitely need to learn to write if you want to study in China!
the vast majority of chinese was historically illiterate anyway, oh wait, they talked in local varieties of chinese as well, the mandarin mandarin was not prevalent until recently, though the varied mandarin contiuum spectrum was there indeed for quite a while. ppl kind all had their own kind of mandarin, or the kind of chinese of the officials that they imagined or they tried their best to approximate under very limited ways of media and very limited transport methods