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Writing Chinese by hand | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| ChristopherB Triglot Senior Member New Zealand Joined 6316 days ago 851 posts - 1074 votes  2 sounds Speaks: English*, German, French | Message 1 of 30 05 May 2009 at 10:57am | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
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Couldn't seem to find a thread on this. Basically, I'm curious how many people on here, both native and non-native Chinese speakers, consider writing characters by hand to be important. How many here can write anything they can say? Personally, I'm learning to write traditional characters by hand (I'm up to about 1100) and I thought I'd post the question, as it is a lot of work, and there seem to be dissenting opinions on various other forums I've visited. Edited by ChristopherB on 05 May 2009 at 10:58am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||
| leonidus Triglot Senior Member Russian Federation Joined 6326 days ago 113 posts - 123 votes Speaks: Russian*, English, French Studies: German, Mandarin | Message 2 of 30 05 May 2009 at 11:34am | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
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I am studying Mandarin and I don't consider being able to write characters by hand important.
Why? Well, first of all, obviously because it is going to take me a few years to learn and there are other good things, including languages, in life that time can be spent on. I've heard even Chinese themselves, including highly educated people, not always can write a character properly, so why would I, a humble non-native learning Chinese, strive for this mastery? Secondly, I don't often write by hand in my native language in real life, except putting a signature or filling in some forms, so why would that be any different for Chinese? You just don't need this skill very often if at all. Again why waste time on something you don't need, unless you're into calligraphy or similar? Thirdly, modern technlogy to a large extent eliminates the need to write characters by hand. You have a computer with a pinyin writing system with which you can type characters faster than you would write them by hand. All you need is to be able to recognize them. When you don't have a desktop or laptop around, you have a PDA that takes care of this issue, and if you have a problem communicating something to a chinese person by voice, you can write it by hand or pop it up on a PDA and show the character to facilitate understanding between yourselves. To sum it up, I might sound like a bit less ambitious than others, but I would like to be able to read characters only, and thus type them fast on a computer. That's good enough for me, and should work well in my use of the language. Hope this answers your question. Edited by leonidus on 05 May 2009 at 11:35am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||
| irrationale Tetraglot Senior Member China Joined 6050 days ago 669 posts - 1023 votes 2 sounds Speaks: English*, Spanish, Mandarin, Tagalog Studies: Ancient Greek, Japanese | Message 3 of 30 05 May 2009 at 1:08pm | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
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I learn to write almost every single character I learn by hand, by the correct stroke order (I know about 1500 characters). I will continue to do so indefinitely.
It is because for me, my ultimate goal is to be functionally native in all respects, (and I plan to work in China someday). That means being able to write. If you are in contact with Chinese people in real life, there will come situations where it will come into play, regardless of modern technology. It IS a lot of work, as I'm sure you know, and I understand others' reasons for not wanting to. There must be a majority that choose not to, because from what I have seen, it is quite rare among Chinese speaking non-natives to be able to write and is a respected ability. Besides, to the artist/writer in me, there is nothing quite like writing Chinese. It is SO much more satisfying than writing English or Spanish. Even though the strangeness of the characters is gone for me, the mysique and artistry will always linger, I believe. Edited by irrationale on 05 May 2009 at 1:15pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||
| Aquedita Triglot Senior Member Poland myspace.com/aqueda_v Joined 6014 days ago 154 posts - 164 votes Speaks: Polish*, English, Japanese Studies: Mandarin | Message 4 of 30 05 May 2009 at 8:27pm | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
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I study both Japanese and Mandarin and have to admit, in my opinion it is extremely significant to write out characters by hand.
Not only does it enable you to obtain an essential communication skill, like Irrationale mentioned above, but it is a tremendously efficient way to memorize the characters. On a different note: Chinese characters are just as normal and logical as any other script. Why wouldn't you learn hangul when studying Korean or cyriclic script when studying Russian? It is an integral component of the language. I do realize writing out anything by hand is monotonous at times, but it needs to get done, as simple as that. That is why in the end of the day I am grateful for the way I am taught oriental languages at my uni. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||
| Aquedita Triglot Senior Member Poland myspace.com/aqueda_v Joined 6014 days ago 154 posts - 164 votes Speaks: Polish*, English, Japanese Studies: Mandarin | Message 5 of 30 05 May 2009 at 8:42pm | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
Sure. But then on the other hand, why bother starting to study Chinese at all in the first place? You know the rule: no pain, no gain. You should try to make at least a minimal effort! I'm not talking rocket science here, seriously! If I remember correctly - the dictionary definition of LITERACY is the ability to both read AND write, isn't it?
Uhm... I don't know... Let me see... To show you CAN and you're a not an ignorant foreigner who can say something more than "nihao"? To have the ability to correct natives? You have no idea how impressive that is! :)
To take notes during classes, to take notes when someone explains you directions to a place or tells you what are you suppose to buy in a store, to write an invitation, a thank you note or even a letter to someone important to you? What more reasons could you possible need?
Sure. And you do realize that is one of the main reason of poor writing skills of Chinese (and Japanese as well, for that matter) nowadays, don't you?
Seriously, don't be surprised when natives won't be willing to talk to you in Mandarin... Unless you're not planning on traveling or visiting China ever. Should that be the case, just ignore this whole post except for the first question stated: "why bother starting to study Chinese at all in the first place?". Cheers and good luck with your studies. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||
| Bennie Bilingual Triglot Newbie China Joined 5759 days ago 8 posts - 8 votes Speaks: English, Mandarin*, Cantonese* Studies: Swedish, Danish, Norwegian | Message 6 of 30 05 May 2009 at 9:18pm | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
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Hello ChristopherB,
Writting Chinese characters by hand can help you memorize them. On top of that, if you can write 2000-3000 characters which are frequently used by people your speed of reading will be similar to a Chinese junior high school student. But to be honest, as a native speaker, writting anything in Chinese that people want to say is almost impossible because there are more than 120000 characters including traditional and simplified forms. Though there are tons of thouaands of characters, if you master up to 5000-8000, you can guess the meanings and even pronunciation of them which you cannot recognise because of their formations. For this reason, I think writting characters by hand is important albeit we can type and print them by computer now since Chinese calligraphy, from my point of view, is kind of a philosophy. It can teach you understand the Chinese sangfroid and gentility and make you clam down.(Sorry for my English, it may mislead you.) In terms of the issue that you write traditional Chinese characters, I think it is great because today in mainland China, nearly all of locals understand them though they may write in simplified form just because it is fast. Besides, knowing traditional form is a prerequisite for people who want to learn ancient Chinese culture, especially archaeology and religions. Just a few months ago, some scholars suggestted the authorities to reuse traditional characters as they represent the natural beauty of hieroglyphic and the most precious spirits of ancestors and others said that if the former goal cannot be achieved at least the educational institutes should teach their students to write in simplified but also recognising traditional characters. As for me, I use trational form in every respect except writting. Good luck, Bennie. Edited by Bennie on 05 May 2009 at 9:28pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||
| leonidus Triglot Senior Member Russian Federation Joined 6326 days ago 113 posts - 123 votes Speaks: Russian*, English, French Studies: German, Mandarin | Message 7 of 30 05 May 2009 at 9:23pm | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
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2Aquedita,
some of what you wrote makes sense, however, if I don't need to impress anyone, I'll just take my PDA, type in the character, and show it to the person I am speaking to, if they don't comprehend my spoken Mandarin. My understanding is that's what Chinese people do, write the character on a piece of paper and show it to the other party. I am sure they have all sorts of confusion with that too, having to remember how to write that particular character, well, naturally having much fun in between, but that's not a fast way to communicate that's for sure. The PDA or any computer is almost flawless though, unless you screw it up yourself. I don't learn Mandarin to impress anyone, I learn it to communicate, get useful information and do business. Hope this answers your question on why bother studying it at all. Invitations and notes? Come on, same thing here, I look it up on the computer/PDA and copy by hand from there. It's not like I can't write Chinese characters at all! I know all the lines and curves and stuff. I just don't learn to remember how to write them all, but I am sure I can do that if I have to with the help of the modern technology of course. I probably can write some characters without the help of the computer, but to me it's a pretty useless skill, I repeat I don't need to impress anyone there. Why wouldn't natives be willing to talk to me I wonder? Because I can't write Chinese characters? This is way crazy. I mean, would you not be willing to talk to a foreigner just because they can't write in Polish, but can say whatever they want to say? Just doesn't make any sense. And no, I can say more than just nihao (approaching the B1 level), but can read less than I can say, since I've been neglecting characters for a while. I am going to have to brush up on them, but only being able to recognize them, that's good enough for me. I understand that my opinion is one side of the scale, and it probably won't work for everyone, because it depends on the purpose of language studies. Your miliage may vary. Edited by leonidus on 05 May 2009 at 9:26pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||
| Aquedita Triglot Senior Member Poland myspace.com/aqueda_v Joined 6014 days ago 154 posts - 164 votes Speaks: Polish*, English, Japanese Studies: Mandarin | Message 8 of 30 06 May 2009 at 12:24am | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
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@Leonidus
I'm glad you've decided to practice your writing more. I just wanted you and others to see that it is a relevant skill. Never rely solely on electronic devices. I do apologize if my previous post was too strong or rough. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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