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Character Learning | ||
Tags: Writing System | Mandarin | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies |  | |
| JayR9 Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4728 days ago 155 posts - 162 votes  Speaks: English* | Message 1 of 13 21 February 2012 at 10:30am | IP Logged |
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I am using Memrise to learn characters but when it shows me one, I seem to remember the English meaning for it, but can't always remeber the pinyin meaning.
Is it better to only learn one and if so, which one should I focus on, Or should I be trying to learn both? 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| SueK Groupie United States Joined 4779 days ago 77 posts - 133 votes Studies: Mandarin | Message 2 of 13 23 February 2012 at 8:03pm | IP Logged |
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I have the same issue! I recognize the character, know what it means and struggle to come up with a Chinese pronunciation.
For me, I don't see not learning the pinyin as an option. I need it now to ask questions on the web, and to my understanding, later to write hanzi on the web through software that translates from pinyin (could be wrong, no personal experience there yet) Not learning the English seems like it would rather defeat the whole point to me. I suppose you could learn the entirely in Chinese and hope meaning eventually comes from other sources, but it sounds pretty hit or miss to me. Right now, I just live with the fact that I do very well English to Hanzi and back, not too bad if it gives me pinyin options and completely fall apart if wants me to type pinyin. It'll come sooner or later. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| JayR9 Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4728 days ago 155 posts - 162 votes Speaks: English* | Message 3 of 13 23 February 2012 at 8:36pm | IP Logged |
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Yeah that's what I am like right now. I want to learn it all like yourself but my mind goes blank as soon as it ask's me to write pinyin.
I suppose we just have to keep at it and hope it sinks in eventually. What do you use to help you learn the Characters? 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| SueK Groupie United States Joined 4779 days ago 77 posts - 133 votes Studies: Mandarin | Message 4 of 13 23 February 2012 at 9:07pm | IP Logged |
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I'm strictly using memrise for characters. It seems to work for me, I don't know if it'll take me all the way to be literate or not, but for now, it's enough.
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| JayR9 Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4728 days ago 155 posts - 162 votes Speaks: English* | Message 5 of 13 23 February 2012 at 10:03pm | IP Logged |
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Yeah for now that is all i am using. I don't know what books or other programmes are good but I like memrise for now.
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| BobbyE Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5275 days ago 226 posts - 331 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin | Message 6 of 13 27 February 2012 at 8:09pm | IP Logged |
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I think Memrise looks like pretty fun way to remember characters. Are the characters
you are learning words that you already know how to use in context? The way that I am learning characters right now is by simply writing out the assimil lesson by hand, going to yellowbridge.com for stroke order and also converting the characters to traditional characters. I'm only on lesson 17 as far as writing, but on lesson 94 of passive phase reading/listening. This way I'm learning simplified, traditional, learning words I know how to use and thus am getting closer to being able to write anything that I can speak, and also getting a 3rd wave of review. Any new characters I encounter I write about 10-15 times at first, and then everyday rewrite the dialogue until I remember all the characters. Any characters I forget, I'll individual write another 10 or so times. I also speak the words as I'm writing them. Doing it this way takes me about 3-4 days per Assimil lesson. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Wulfgar Senior Member United States Joined 4699 days ago 404 posts - 791 votes Speaks: English* | Message 7 of 13 27 February 2012 at 9:31pm | IP Logged |
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Learning characters out of context is hard. Everybody has to learn characters in context, but IMO most westerners will learn to read faster if they
also learn the characters out of context. To quote many other learners, it's a long short cut. But what should you do out of context? IMO, the bare minimum - given an English keyword, you should be able to write the character. This is the fastest, easiest way to get the out of context studying out of the way. Then learning in context will take care of everything else, and it will be much smoother because you learned the characters out of context too. I did this to learn the kanji using RTK1. For hanzi, when I come across a character I didn't learn in Japanese, I just use the same mnemonic technique in RTK1, and I'm finished. So I don't know how your program works, but if it's isolated study of characters, I recommend limiting it to what I stated above. That way you don't need to remember as much, and you'll pick it up later when you start studying in context. If it's learning everything in context, I recommend limiting the amount of material and mastering it before you move on. Maybe just work on one sentence until everything is memorized before you move onto another, etc. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| tibbles Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5219 days ago 245 posts - 422 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Korean | Message 8 of 13 28 February 2012 at 9:30am | IP Logged |
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I think that just looking at characters on the screen or using a mnemonic device crutch is not enough to really internalize the character, its pronunciation, and meaning. For me the best way to learn the characters was to write them repeatedly, much akin to Iversen's word list approach. In your case you'll need to be writing them once as characters and then with the pinyin.
Also, if you want to have fun, buy some of those children's Chinese character workbooks that are supposed to be filled in using a paint brush and ink. Holding and use of the brush may require demonstration by a native Chinese speaker. But this will really help with ingraining the individual strokes that form each character. Each type of stroke has its own name. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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