Learning Characters/Taking exams in Chinese
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Yudian -
Quote:
Originally Posted by Zoroaster
I'm also new too. This is a great forum...people actually post stuff and have a lot of enthusiasm
for learning Chinese. I just started my college Chinese course. It's not that bad but the worst is
yet to come. We're supposed to learn 250 hanzi by the end of the semester. I hope I can memorize
all those characters....
I just finished a Chinese immersion program where we did a full academic year in 9 weeks (over 550
characters to learn). It was crazy. For the last final I changed how I memorized the characters
and my test score went way up. We had to learn pinyin and characters, so I learned all the pinyin
of the new vocabulary plus how to recognize the character first. I didn't worry about memorizing
how to write the characters until later. That way, if I didn't know the characters to respond to a
question on the test, at least I would understand the question and be able to respond in pinyin. I
got a lot of partial credit that way and the professor knew that I could read and speak, even if
my writing was lagging. Next I would memorize the easier characters and plug away at the harder
ones over the days. Also, if you haven,t bought this book you might take a look at it: "Reading
and Writing Chinese, a comprehensive guide to the Chinese writing system," William McNaughton and
Li Ying, Tuttle Language Library, Tuttle Publishing, Boston, 1999. ISBN 0-8048-3206-4. Good luck!
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Anonymous -
Quote:
Originally Posted by Yudian
I didn't worry about memorizing how to write the characters until later. That way, if I didn't
know the characters to respond to a question on the test, at least I would understand the question
and be able to respond in pinyin. I got a lot of partial credit that way and the professor knew
that I could read and speak, even if my writing was lagging.
That is a wonderful tip for beginners who don't have the luxury and sparetime to learn how to
write each character they are taught.
Even for native speakers or those who are fluent in the Chinese language, forgetting how to write
uncommon characters is quite common, just like how sometimes we forget how to spell certain words
that we don't use often. However, as computer Chinese input methods improve, it becomes easier and
faster to type Chinese rather than to write. The most popular method of inputting Chinese is with
Pinyin. As long as you can read the characters, you can select them from a list.
Keep in mind that I'm not saying knowing how to write Chinese isn't necessary or unimportant. It's
ideal to be able to write, read and speak fluently but when you simply don't have the luxury or
time, make sure at least you can speak and read. Besides it's much easier to be able to speak and
recognize characters than to memorize how to write all of them.
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