🀄 How to learn Chinese characters (a guide)

6 tips to make learning characters easy and fun

If you're like me, Chinese characters, or 汉子(Hànzì), were one of the first things that fascinated you about the language.

Chinese characters are not just a way of writing, but a treasure of meaning and culture that make learning Chinese a rewarding experience.

Unfortunately, learning Chinese characters can also be one of the more challenging and frustrating things about learning Chinese. Characters are fun when you first learn but can get overwhelming quickly as everything starts to look the same. This causes many learners to give up altogether.

But it doesn't have to be like this.

Learning Chinese characters is easier than you think.

Many learners struggle with learning characters because they don't have a reliable approach.

Today I will share 6 tips that helped me learn characters faster and easier while having more fun in the process.

But first…

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1. Start with the most common characters

The reason you're overwhelmed is because you're trying to learn too many characters at once.

With over 50,000 Chinese characters you can learn, you need to prioritize what you should learn now and what you can learn later. I recommend focusing on the most frequent and commonly used characters first.

This is based on the 80/20 Pareto principle, which states that 80% of the results come from 20% of the effort. This means that by learning the most common 20% of the characters, you can achieve 80% of your communication goals.

My main goal for learning languages is communication. I want to talk to people, travel with the language, and make friends using the language. And it doesn’t take learning thousands of characters before you start communicating and speaking. In fact, when I went to Taiwan, I started speaking right away with the few words I knew. My goal was communication, not sounding pretty.

I recommend starting by learning the 100 most common characters as a foundation and expanding from there. Here’s why:

1. Communication Efficiency: By focusing on common characters first, you can quickly understand and express essential ideas with limited vocabulary. This is essential to help you start applying what you learn right away.

2. Building Blocks for More Characters: Many common characters are themselves radicals or contain common radicals that can help you recognize more complex characters later.

3. Motivation and Confidence: Starting with common characters allows you to quickly see your progress in reading, listening, speaking, and writing. This translates to early wins which boosts motivation and confidence.

I’ve put together a Top 100 Characters Guide that you can download for free here. Duplicate the page in the top right corner. You’ll need to sign up for a free notion account to access it.

Characters are numbered 1-100, each with English translations, Pinyin (click for audio pronunciation), video example sentences, and flashcards.

2. Break down characters into components

Characters seem complicated when you don’t break them down.

When I first learned characters, I learned radicals help me break down characters into smaller components or "chunks" to gain clues about their meaning, and pronunciation and for better recognition.

For example, look at these characters that all contain the radical “ 氵”, which means water or liquid. Can you see how they are all connected to water or liquid?

 source: Dig Mandarin

Radicals are one way to break down characters into smaller components but there are other ways to break down characters into more detailed functional components that are beyond the scope of this post.

Although radicals have their limitations, I still recommend them because they offer a good balance of being easy to understand, having readily accessible resources, and giving clues about the character's form, meaning, and pronunciation.

For a free guide on all 214 radicals found in Chinese characters, download it here.

3. Learn characters in context

I used to study long vocabulary lists like country names, colors, and HSK vocabulary but I quickly realized something: this is boring and not effective.

The problem is the lack of context.

Context can come in many forms:

• Seeing vocabulary in sentences

• Seeing vocabulary in sentences in different situations

• Seeing vocabulary within the context of a story/plot (e.g. TV show)

• Hearing vocabulary used in sentences by native speakers (e.g. podcasts)

• Visual cues when vocabulary is being used (person speaking, environment, etc.)

• Actively interacting and using the vocabulary (reading, writing, speaking, etc.)

When you learn with context, you naturally build more connections and thus you remember more. I progressed the fastest when I stopped learning isolated vocabulary and I started learning using context.

For example, when learning food and drink menu vocabulary, I looked online for real Chinese menus to study. When I got to Taiwan, I would collect menus from restaurants and study them at home, making learning easier.

This leads me to my next tip…

4. Learn characters that you want to use

I recommend a very utilitarian approach to learning characters, especially at the beginning to build up a foundation of character knowledge.

I only learned what I plan to use. The first characters I learned were all related to food and menu items because one of my early goals was to be able to order food and drinks from a Chinese menu.

I learned characters like:

• 吃 - eat

• 菜 - vegetables

• 蛋 - egg

• 牛肉 - beef

• 猪肉 - pork

• 豆腐 - tofu

• 鱼 - fish

• 虾 - shrimp

Can you spot the characters?

Too many learners burn out because they learn words that they will never use (or won’t use soon). This learning is too passive. The end result is you don’t remember what you learned, you lose motivation and you give up.

This is why I focus on learning words that you can apply ASAP.

For example, after learning a new word I might send a message to a Chinese friend trying to use that word to see if I used it correctly. When I learned menu vocabulary I tried to apply what I learned by reading a real menu.

Application provides feedback, a critical step for learning. You learn what works, what you should keep doing, and what you should fix.

This also makes the learning real and tangible and gives me the motivation to keep going and not give up.

If I come across vocabulary I don’t see myself using in the near future, I don’t completely ignore it, I can still look it up, but I won’t spend too much time or effort trying to remember it. If I do, great; if not, no worries. I can always come back to it later when I need it.

Learning through the lens of application is also how I learned to speak like native Chinese speakers quickly, which I teach in the Copy Paste Speaking Course.

4. Try handwriting characters

Handwriting characters can be very fun. In fact, this is one of the main reasons I started learning Chinese and I suspect for many other learners too.

Although I don’t recommend relying on only repeatedly tracing out characters, it does have benefits, especially early in the learning journey:

1. Motor Memory: When you physically write characters, you engage your motor memory, which is a different aspect of memory than simply recognizing or reading characters. The act of forming strokes and radicals can reinforce your memory of the characters.

2. Visual and Tactile Memory: Writing characters allows you to connect the visual aspects of the character with tactile sensations, which can enhance memory recall. The process of drawing strokes and components reinforces the visual structure of the characters in your mind.

3. Kinesthetic Learning: Some people are kinesthetic learners, meaning they learn best through physical engagement. For such learners, writing Chinese characters can be a more effective way to commit them to memory.

4. Active Engagement: Writing characters is an active process that requires you to recall the character from memory, which reinforces your memory further than passive recognition. This active engagement can improve retention.

6. Use spaced-repetition

Spaced repetition is an effective learning technique for remembering Chinese characters, as it is for memorizing other types of information, due to its ability to optimize memory retention.

Spaced repetition leverages the psychological phenomenon known as the spacing effect. It suggests that information is better retained when it is reviewed at increasing intervals over time rather than cramming.

There are specific spaced repetition system (SRS) apps that help you create flashcards and schedule reviews based on your previous performance. Characters you find difficult are shown more frequently, while characters you find easy are shown less frequently. This gradual reinforcement helps you focus on the characters you struggle with, making your learning more efficient.

Spaced repetition also encourages active recall, a process where you try to recall the Chinese characters from memory, which strengthens your memory over time. This is more effective than passive review methods like highlighting or rote memorization.

A popular SRS app is Anki but I recommend Hack Chinese because it is created specifically for Chinese learners, has better functionality, and a better user experience.

Another way to get spaced repetition is by simply reading because you “naturally” encounter words at a spaced frequency as the plot unfolds. Graded readers offer an easy starting point for beginners who want to start reading.

Takeaway

Many learners struggle with Chinese characters because they lack an efficient approach. Six ways to make learning Chinese characters easier are:

1. Learn the most common characters.

2. Break down characters into components or radicals.

3. Learn characters in context.

4. Learn the characters you want to use.

5. Try handwriting characters.

6. Try spaced repetition.

Learning Chinese characters is one of the most rewarding parts of learning Chinese, especially when you start to recognize more characters in real-world contexts. This is the main reason I started the Mando Press, to help other learners break down real-world Chinese material like menus, signs, and articles.

I hope this helps you.

加油加油，

Danyo Pang

PS If you want more practical help to level up your Chinese, check these out:

Copy Paste Speaking Course: This course will teach you a better & faster way to learn to speak Chinese by copying native speakers talking about real things, making real sentences, and speaking from day one.

Language Learner OS: This is a digital system to help organize your language studies, track vocabulary, build connections, stay productive, and learn faster! 

I want to make The Mando Press even more useful for you so please reply or leave a comment on topics you want to see in future posts!

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