Comments on: Chinese Handwriting http://www.chineselearnonline.com/learning-insights/2007/10/12/chinese-handwriting/ Tips, tricks and cultural insights on learning Mandarin Chinese Wed, 07 Jan 2009 21:21:04 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.2.1 By: Jeremy http://www.chineselearnonline.com/learning-insights/2007/10/12/chinese-handwriting/#comment-463 Jeremy Thu, 19 Jun 2008 00:59:34 +0000 http://www.chineselearnonline.com/learning-insights/2007/10/12/chinese-handwriting/#comment-463 I am absolutely perplexed by Chinese handwriting. As a relative beginner (finishing up 1 year of Mandarin study), I feel very confident reading the 200 or 300 characters I know provided they're in the exact font my textbook uses. Minor deviations in printing style trip me up, to say nothing of attempting to decrypt a Chinese person's handwriting. They might as well be two entirely different sets of characters. I agree with Chris that handwriting recognition is something worth putting off until I've mastered the language. As I start to see how radicals work together to create meaning, and become more familiar with the ones used in common characters, I'm sure I'll start to pick up the shorthand by knowing how the radicals are abbreviated. In the mean time, I'm sticking to print. I am absolutely perplexed by Chinese handwriting. As a relative beginner (finishing up 1 year of Mandarin study), I feel very confident reading the 200 or 300 characters I know provided they’re in the exact font my textbook uses. Minor deviations in printing style trip me up, to say nothing of attempting to decrypt a Chinese person’s handwriting. They might as well be two entirely different sets of characters.

I agree with Chris that handwriting recognition is something worth putting off until I’ve mastered the language. As I start to see how radicals work together to create meaning, and become more familiar with the ones used in common characters, I’m sure I’ll start to pick up the shorthand by knowing how the radicals are abbreviated. In the mean time, I’m sticking to print.

]]> By: Frank http://www.chineselearnonline.com/learning-insights/2007/10/12/chinese-handwriting/#comment-128 Frank Mon, 03 Dec 2007 00:23:22 +0000 http://www.chineselearnonline.com/learning-insights/2007/10/12/chinese-handwriting/#comment-128 At least for the German poeple around here I can recommend http://www.chdw.de There you can find lessons on writing characters (among other useful stuff). At least for the German poeple around here I can recommend http://www.chdw.de
There you can find lessons on writing characters (among other useful stuff).

]]> By: chris(mandarin_student) http://www.chineselearnonline.com/learning-insights/2007/10/12/chinese-handwriting/#comment-91 chris(mandarin_student) Thu, 01 Nov 2007 23:56:30 +0000 http://www.chineselearnonline.com/learning-insights/2007/10/12/chinese-handwriting/#comment-91 I think it is just that handwriting is far down the list of priorities, I rate reading far higher, it seems that once you can read a bunch of characters confidently, then learning to write them kindergarden style is realtivly easy. I am happy to save cursive until I have mastered the language. As for the conciseness of the written language, in a way Chinese is a mind-hack. For example the popular microblogging site twitter allows 140 characters per post. You can write a lot more in Chinese in 140 characters than English. Ok techies may point out that for Chinese on a computer you need 16bits per character rather than 8bits for western text, but most web apps play nicely via unicode or UTF8 so that is irrelevant, you can still say more for less. http://twitter.com/chris_mandarin I have just decided to use Twitter as an extra learing aid. I can try little snippets of written Chinese on a regular basis and can review what I have written at any time. I think it is just that handwriting is far down the list of priorities, I rate reading far higher, it seems that once you can read a bunch of characters confidently, then learning to write them kindergarden style is realtivly easy. I am happy to save cursive until I have mastered the language.

As for the conciseness of the written language, in a way Chinese is a mind-hack. For example the popular microblogging site twitter allows 140 characters per post. You can write a lot more in Chinese in 140 characters than English. Ok techies may point out that for Chinese on a computer you need 16bits per character rather than 8bits for western text, but most web apps play nicely via unicode or UTF8 so that is irrelevant, you can still say more for less.

http://twitter.com/chris_mandarin
I have just decided to use Twitter as an extra learing aid. I can try little snippets of written Chinese on a regular basis and can review what I have written at any time.

]]> By: parrot http://www.chineselearnonline.com/learning-insights/2007/10/12/chinese-handwriting/#comment-89 parrot Wed, 31 Oct 2007 07:14:29 +0000 http://www.chineselearnonline.com/learning-insights/2007/10/12/chinese-handwriting/#comment-89 Interesting that nobody has commented on this one yet. Is handwriting not popular among students? So how do you get from laboriously copying printed words stroke by stroke, to something that's really handwriting? I don't think you can, unless you have frequent encounters with other people's handwriting, to gradually absorb the kinds of modifications that are acceptable without changing the character. Or is it something that is taught to kids in school, like how we learned printing first and then cursive writing? Interesting that nobody has commented on this one yet. Is handwriting not popular among students?

So how do you get from laboriously copying printed words stroke by stroke, to something that’s really handwriting? I don’t think you can, unless you have frequent encounters with other people’s handwriting, to gradually absorb the kinds of modifications that are acceptable without changing the character. Or is it something that is taught to kids in school, like how we learned printing first and then cursive writing?

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