QUESTION: What technique do you use to remember Chinese characters?

@nomadsoulkarma

5 жыл бұрын

you can also go thru the list 'backwards' which really helps cement the character

@ChineseIsEasy

5 жыл бұрын

This is incredible. I love it!

@kunchenliang8772

5 жыл бұрын

I look at it for a split second and try to draw it mentally and if I don’t get it I repeat

@hush953

5 жыл бұрын

Look, draw a few times, wait a few minutes, draw it again a few times, wait, draw again. Then an hour later. Then the next day. I do this in groups of 10-20 characters.

@Yejinim

4 жыл бұрын

I write them down ten times the first time using different colored pens. Then twice on the succeeding days. I don't personally assign any specific color to the tones because they change according to the words beside them.

It is unfortunately common for some people to say learning characters is easy, "Just look at 大, see it looks like a man with arms out". The truth is that there are different types of Characters, and their distribution in the language is not equal. The 3 main types are Pictograms (representing a picture), Ideograms (combining pictures or words like 明 for bright), and Phono-semantic compounds (combining a sound hint and a semantic hint). When you look at the distribution of these indicated by Wikipedia you see Pictograms 4%, Ideograms 13% Phono-semantic compounds 82%. This means that comparatively few characters can be "understood" in the simple sense of meaning or pictures. The majority of characters will need to be learned by brute memory, and like the poster here implies many people resort to elaborate memory techniques to remember them through stories or associations. I guess my point is, don't be fooled by the first 4% of easy picture characters. Learning characters is a practice of will and memorization.

@ericthered2963

3 жыл бұрын

Thank you! I was feeling the same way. Though the part with understanding each segment of the character still holds true. Sometimes the meaning of it isn't that clear, if there is one at all, so you have to make up some REALLY elaborate stories. But if it's more elaborate, but at the same time more funny, it will stick.

@Khan_2025

3 жыл бұрын

as a chinese I have practiced writing characters for 6 years in elementary school, the only method used in school is homework. teachers let students write 10 time for every mistake after ever test in ever day.

@thirstyfrenchie3872

3 жыл бұрын

Omg yes!!! I’ve been looking at programs like Chineasy which makes it seem like pictogrammes and ideograms are the only characters. I’ve been trying to learn how to read for years and the only thing that has ever worked is memorization. If you know a better way please let us know!

@someone_weird9

3 жыл бұрын

Thanks for sharing this info I didn't know about it

@weirdboo

3 жыл бұрын

While I do agree with your post, I think in general this video is trying to explain that learning the radicals for characters will help you immensely in memorizing them. As he said in the video, it turns the characters from a jumbled mess of lines and shapes into something you can make sense of and understand. For the 82% of characters that don’t look like what they’re supposed to represent, you can create your own meaning for them by combining the radicals in your head to tell a story. Memorizing by brute force will only get you so far. You have to be more creative than that, especially if you don’t live in the country and aren’t exposed to those characters daily

when you write 2 pages of the same character but still end up forgetting about it

@angelocc4406

5 жыл бұрын

:*)

@meloveu83

5 жыл бұрын

Write it more then! XD

@naruhina1997

4 жыл бұрын

I bought a booklet of algebra graph paper - the ones with REALLY small boxes. Every day I fill in one line, devoting each page to one character. I’ve notice repetition every day helps better then filling in one whole page in an hour. So far this new method is working better.

@alexandrefrias2147

4 жыл бұрын

Write many characters every day in a set of phrases.

@hailanlguerd4139

4 жыл бұрын

Write 109 pages more then

Thanks again for your hacks. I followed your hint by adding colours to my flashcards associated to the different tones! That worked so well for me; very nice!

@ChineseIsEasy

6 жыл бұрын

D T that's awesome mate, I'm very glad to hear it. Keep up the study!

Hey dude! I finally found this video again! A year ago I decided to get Zhang Laoshi's books because of this vid, and I have to say learning the characters the way you describe, through having a glance at their history/context, was the best Mandarin learning decision I've ever made. I've still got a long way to go but I'm working at it :)

I feel like a turd since I’m chinese and I can only speak fluently but not write or read. This helped a lot :’) tysm

@abc-zt9jj

4 жыл бұрын

baburuti SAME! I am attending school in China but I can’t really read or write the characters but I can speak fluently Yay found my twin :)

@ChineseIsEasy

4 жыл бұрын

“Turd"! Lol. Glad it helped 😉

@vinn_203

4 жыл бұрын

Same I’m canto and don’t understand a single thing in mandarin

@kikik123kiki6

4 жыл бұрын

baburuti me too I can speak but can read nor write but am not chiness am going to learn now full time student 👩‍🎓

@artyomarbatskiy9953

4 жыл бұрын

a turd in the wind?

This was really cool!! Thanks for sharing that. I might buy that book now.

Neumonics is the key to all learning! I find the logic of Chinese characters very fascinating! I think the Chinese characters are to be taught at all schools since it develops the brain.

@ericthered2963

3 жыл бұрын

Errrr, school sucked already the way it was. I can't imagine being forced to memorize chinese characters that most students will most likely never use in their entire life.

@haroldgoodman130

Жыл бұрын

I think you mean Mnemonics.

@CY5588

Жыл бұрын

@@ericthered2963 TRUE and u have my support for ur opinion cause i learn chinese at school and oh boy its mother ****

Mate, I'm glad you're back and uploading. Cheers!

@ChineseIsEasy

6 жыл бұрын

MrPigpigeon, thanks a lot. It's good to be back. I apologize for the delay, I've been distracted with my day job. More videos are coming out this week. So stay tuned ;)

wow! Thanks so much for this incredibly useful video!

I am a Chinese and I actually learn from the video, there are some good points that I've never realized when I learned Chinese in school as a kid 20+ years ago. For example, part of the character represents the meaning and the other part represents the pronunciation.

@nanuk1334

Жыл бұрын

Hi, i need help, which part of the character represents the pronouciation?, this would help me a LOT with learning. Thank you for your probably upcoming answer

@Cris-qt8mh

Жыл бұрын

@@nanuk1334 you can look at how zhu yin works

@Amanda-10702

Жыл бұрын

@@nanuk1334 it depends... Even native speakers sometimes see characters that have not seen before, we try to guess what it would sound based on the parts in a character. There's no fixed part in character that resembles the sound

@radoslavprycik547

Жыл бұрын

@@Amanda-10702 no fixed part...yes! And that's the beauty of this writing system!!!

@kolise_koll

11 ай бұрын

Are you kidding me? Where do you live? And how long have you lived in China. How can you say such a thing? It means that you don't even know the basis of your language. I had a Chinese teacher who didn't know how to write many characters because he always lived abroad and he was very lazy. You must write every day.

me having a chinese test tomorrow :

@plink1705

3 жыл бұрын

Sameee

@cospyxl5795

3 жыл бұрын

Good luck!!

@southernmandarin9651

3 жыл бұрын

考得怎么样

@KateOng110K2

3 жыл бұрын

Me tooo

@tommynguyen5322

3 жыл бұрын

Lol same

That’s really helpful man thanks a lot 💪🙌

I have just now discovered your channel, as a predominantly English speaker, yet Chinese American born with some conversational skills. I do much your video, and most eager to catch up on your entire series. I compliment you on how clearly and concretely you teach me how to recognize meaning in calligraphy, a point not taught me, or I didn't absorb by Chinese School, as a child. Plus, the books to aid learning you provide are most invaluable; and I very much thank you. GDL

@ChineseIsEasy

8 ай бұрын

Thanks so much for your kind words Sir 🙂 Welcome to the channel. I hope you'll enjoy the coming content.

I loved this video!!!! All the explanations are great. Thank you!

@ChineseIsEasy

9 ай бұрын

Thanks for watching, so glad you enjoyed it

Really interesting, valuable for me moving to Beijing this month. Looking forward to picking up more mandarin and also sharing on my own channel 😊

Love your passion bro

These tips are amazing.

Really great tips! Thank you!

@ChineseIsEasy

9 ай бұрын

Thanks Doug. Glad it was helpful

thank u bro! u r helping me a lot!

Thanks, Lots Of Help

@ChineseIsEasy

5 жыл бұрын

Thank you. Glad it was helpful ;)

Valuable tips! Just subscribed, thanks!

@ChineseIsEasy

9 ай бұрын

Great. Glad they were helpful

Thanks you very much! Your video very helpful! I finally understand how to learn characters! through associations!

Perfect and very interesting examples. Thanks a lot

@ChineseIsEasy

9 ай бұрын

Glad it was useful

Wow! Thank you.

mmm actually I had pretty much the same ideas as yourself. A lot of non Chinese speakers won't even try to learn to read of write and many times I have explained to them that if you look at the picture for e.g. gau meaning high it's pretty self explanatory. I've also suggested integrating geometry into their learning and when you put these characters into a compound you quite often get parts if the Zhuyin alphabet which can help. But ye , I think the book idea is really great so thanks and connection with the multiverses or universal mind, collective consciousness or whatever are really important. Synesthesia

@vettaj9752

8 ай бұрын

Wow…that is part of the learning process to me. 😮😮

Love the mind palace analogy, Mr. Sherlock. ;-) Great video, lots of great info. Thanks!

@southernmandarin9651

3 жыл бұрын

你很棒，加油，坚持就是胜利✌🏻我来自上海，I just started a channel to share Chinese culture, Chinese language and life in China. 相互学习，多多交流，谢谢。

I will try this out lad

Many thanks for a helpful video, I learn Chinese on my own so really need to know it!

@ChineseIsEasy

9 ай бұрын

加油！

Thank you very much.

The first method is the best, I think that would work on every one 👍🏼

谢谢你🙏🏻

@ChineseIsEasy

5 жыл бұрын

没关系 :)

@gauravnarodey2098

3 жыл бұрын

@@notsub15 yeah

You got me laughing like crazy when you shared that story. It reminds me how I used to do that with Spanish and the weirdness gets you remembering it and coming back for more.

@ChineseIsEasy

9 ай бұрын

Yeah, the mind works in quirky ways. The weirder, ruder and funnier, the more memorable! :)

@dejackle1251

9 ай бұрын

@@ChineseIsEasy Yes. Just like when I saw someone with a Chinese tattoo that said 屁股和奶子 on their neck in the library. (I am serious though, someone did have that tattoo on their neck).

Thank you so much I’m having issues to study my test, it’s a big part of my grade

I am Malaysian I go Chinese school and I can speak quite fluently but memorizing is just not my thing,but this video helped me alot!Thanks for posting this

@n3l3sh

3 жыл бұрын

我觉得马來士阿的人是很聰明的。努力学习!

Most characters have a 3 line story attached. You approach an island (at sea, not in a lake or river): the first thing you see are birds flying over "the water". The closer you come a mountain rises out of the water. That: is an island. Pretty awesome video!

Hi please make more lessons your lesson is just essential for learners

The best video ever when it comes to understanding and learning the Chinese characters. 请问，老师您怎么背单词发音? 感谢，您的讲课很牛逼

Really Informative Video, How did you learn Radicals? I ordered your recommended book by Zhang just now. TY

For those don't like to write Using tooth- pick sticks to form 人‘ after that add a small stick 一 to 人 became 大 Add 二 to 人 became天 . Add two small sticks to 大 became头....买卖 灾火🔥火灭灾火土 太犬 头. From 人 ，move two sticks apart became 八入 then bend two sticks became 儿, add a small piece together to form 又叉 又 write using two u, u and add l, 出 凹 巾帼 离 山 巨 叵 匠 臣 尺层.using handphone software, as long write 70% similar word will appear

❤❤❤ I’m a old nerd, enjoy your process for memorization. I will seek out the book you mentioned.

@ChineseIsEasy

8 ай бұрын

Thank you very much Vetta. I see you speak Korean. I learned a bit when I lived in a Korean expat city in China. Lots of overlap in the vocab :)

how do you memorize 1.2.3.美國統治時期,華人的生活比較安定,原因; 只要華人守法,就不受壓迫。 美國官員比較廉潔,華人都能安居樂業。 美國在菲發展交通,開發資源等計劃,對華人商業有利。 美國是新興國家,對華人的居留,不會感到威脅。 華人對菲社會的貢獻; 華人與菲人結婚,中,菲混血的人,社會地位較高。 華人經營商業,從事工業和農業,對發展社會經濟,有很 大的貢獻。 食、衣、住、行方面,有不少是由華人介紹來的。 菲國國語中,也很多由華語來的,如豆干,豆腐,白菜, 麵線,燒包及燒賣等。 西班牙統治時,起初為什麼歡迎華人來菲?後來為何又屠殺華 人? 西班牙政府初期為了開發資源,鼓勵商業,需要中國的貨物、 勞工和技術,所以歡迎華人來菲,後來怕華人與菲人連結起來, 反抗政府,所以有屠殺華人的事件發生。in one day

@ChineseIsEasy

9 ай бұрын

Flashcard them up. Look, cover, write check. Write out multiple times. The brain remembers in vibrant narrative stories, so try to weave the vocab items into a story in your mind. Test yourself after 1 hour, 2 hours etc. Then again the morning of the test. Get someone else to test your flashcards if possible. Read them out and play them on your iPhone if you're an aural learner. It's a challenge but definitely doable for a smart little cookie like you ;)

很好。谢谢老师!

@southernmandarin9651

3 жыл бұрын

你很棒，加油，坚持就是胜利✌🏻我来自上海，I just started a channel to share Chinese culture, Chinese language and life in China. 相互学习，多多交流，谢谢。

You are Very good in explaining the way to learned theI Chin how you explain the was you learned l The Chinese. Characters

你好极了！我爱这。谢谢你！

Very interesting. Thanks

@ChineseIsEasy

4 жыл бұрын

You're welcome!

Thank you for recommending the Ms. Zhang book. Do you know if the other books of Ms. Zhang are also pretty good? I see they have characters to words. And a workbook, too.

Interesting. This method makes sense considering Mandarine evolves from hieroglyph.

Learn Chinese and learn English at the same time. Great. Thank you.

@southernmandarin9651

3 жыл бұрын

你很棒，加油，坚持就是胜利✌🏻我来自上海，I just started a channel to share Chinese culture, Chinese language and life in China. 相互学习，多多交流，谢谢。

有趣 老师教的很好

thank you for the tip"Learning Chinese Characters from Ms Zhang.

@ericthered2963

3 жыл бұрын

Though it's pretty darn expensive...

Watching this the night before my chinese test i have to memorise 37 vocabularies

Brilliant video mate. New subscriber ✌🏻

@ChineseIsEasy

9 ай бұрын

Cheers buddy. New content coming soon. Stay tuned

Hope you are fine and in the best of health!!!! Splendid indeed!!!! From where can I get Zhang's book? How? Please let me know.

Me : Learn Japanese KZread : *Did you mean, Chinese?*

@AmanKumar-sg4hd

3 жыл бұрын

I can feel your pain👌👌

@jacobbpalmerr5780

3 жыл бұрын

俺もその感じ

@jacobbpalmerr5780

3 жыл бұрын

私N４やN３のレベルで中国語したい

Just want to put up something i've learned after being tasked with copy editing a research proposal regarding difficulties in Chinese learning experienced by ethnic minorities in Hong Kong. Apparently according to the research proposal, Chinese children in Hong Kong are expected to take the entire primary school period of 6 years (6 to 12 years) to recognise about 2600 Chinese characters to be considered literate and cope with daily life. From my personal experience with my children, Chinese children in Hong Kong learn how to read and write basic characters as soon as they start kindergarten at about 3 years age. So there you go, if you want to be on par with at least a child who has finished primary school, you will need to be able to read and write 2600 characters.

I’m currently learning Chinese as a much older person. When I was younger, techniques I used for learning and memorizing; no longer work. I know there’s a word for it, (I miss my Med School advisor, who had PhD’s both in Education and Biochem. Harry tried to talk me into learning Chinese 30 years ago; but I went with Latin and French instead. I should have listened 😁); but neither “learning”, nor teaching, were my focus. Unfortunately, my career ended with a spinal injury and although I’ve done many different things since, I have become obsessed with China and the incredible language, culture and people since my Son introduced me and “re-educated” me. (corrected the false propaganda I had filled my brain with over the years). The past 3 years, interrupted by both health issues, trying different courses, and projects I had committed to; it’s been off and on. With my son preparing to return to China, and wanting to bring me over at some point; I’m ready to buckle down and rededicate myself to this beautiful language. Watching some Chinese movies and listening to Chinese podcasts, I’ve realized that I actually learned far more than I thought I had. I actually have the character book you showed...to be honest, I have a whole bookcase filled with texts, readers, graphic novels, books on calligraphy, chinese brush painting and TCM; mainly from my son’s friends who have all “adopted” me as their “American mom.” ”美国妈妈”. 😊 Question: do the learning/memory books you list, include the differences in learning as we age? Or, are they like a few other books on the subjects, primarily geared towards younger learners? Thanks!

@MybeautifulandamazingPrincess

3 жыл бұрын

It's not false propaganda, all the criticism against China is factual. why are you willing to neglect and ignore all the crimes and violations of human rights perpetrated by the communist government of mainland China.. the Republic of China (Taiwan) is the real China. It's the rightful heir of ancient China cultural heritage

@ChocoChiharu

3 жыл бұрын

@@MybeautifulandamazingPrincess doesn't change the fact that China has a rich culture, please don't pin political things to the people from what the government stands for to them. This post is to highlight the positives of China even thought she has seen many negatives..

@dieglhix

10 ай бұрын

Did you watch Confucius? It's a great movie.

Thank you 🙏

@ChineseIsEasy

9 ай бұрын

不客氣

Dude can you make a quick video of how to use there techniques to learn Chinese. Like a couple examples of each technique with different scenarios

@ChineseIsEasy

5 жыл бұрын

Will see what I can do Clint

@clintmonroe9143

5 жыл бұрын

@@ChineseIsEasy thanks man

I really like your tipps. For exemple how I learnt 要 (i had a lot ot problems for retain it), a bag and a woman WANTS to make shopping :)

Hello, thank you very much for sharing your technics. I use exactly same method to learn japanise Kanji and not decided to apply same method to learn mandarine. Can you please share where can I learn more about your second method using radicals. It is very interesting. Thank you!

Star learning today ☺️

do you also have some scientific archaelogical video that shows how did they found out the ancient etymology or shapes etc, or these are also reconstruction guess works. and how long does it go back in time?

Thank you

@ChineseIsEasy

4 жыл бұрын

You're welcome

9 minutes in and it’s incredible! Well made video and you know what a Chinese might just be easier than Spanish. Ahah

@ChineseIsEasy

9 ай бұрын

Thanks Justin!

That’s the reason I wanted to learn Chinese all the different things the characters show

@ChineseIsEasy

5 жыл бұрын

What was? To learn Chinese characters?

你的字写得很棒诶！支持！

谢谢你😋

I recalled the first couple of chinese characters I learned and wrote down on my homework book in the elementary school was 一 二 三 上下左右

Xie xie ni. I've heard some of this before, particularly the odd memory story. It IS effective!

@ChineseIsEasy

8 ай бұрын

Yeah, check out Tony Buzan's study skills. They literally changed my life. I remember all long numbers (bank cards etc.) as words and images now thanks to his Master System

好的！多谢你了！

@user-nz2gt3dx2z

4 жыл бұрын

It sounds a little bit strange to say this way. We native speakers use 多谢，多谢了，多谢你了，谢谢你，谢了，just not 多谢你，unless something else is coming after like 多谢你帮助我 meaning "thanks a lot for helping me"

It would be nice if the book you're recommending were still in print. It is nearly impossible to find! Can you perhaps recommend another, more easily accessible book?

Where can i buy that blue book?

Please indicate the name you indicated at the beginning and other books that can help me. I am struggling with characters. I am at HSK Level 3

非常棒！

@ChineseIsEasy

5 жыл бұрын

zouzou yang 谢谢你的夸奖！

If you can, please mention the name of the book

I'm not sure if i should get this book or the second one. i've been studying chinese in school for 4 years, but would the first book help one remember the characters they've already learned in the past, or should i just buy the second book?

I need to get a book now. It is interesting. Can you recommend another books please?

@ChineseIsEasy

5 жыл бұрын

What level are you at? What are your learning aims: oral, written, HSK exam?? I've just made a video on selecting textbooks, which I'll post soon

@yinnyyayee

5 жыл бұрын

Chinese Is Easy Im a beginner. Starting from 0. I know nothing about Chinese but I need to pass Hsk level 5 exam in a year. It that impossible please help! 😂

@ChineseIsEasy

5 жыл бұрын

@@yinnyyayee are you serious? If you are, then the path is straightforward: you need to buy the HSK course books - LOTS of them

I have mandarin oral test tomorrow, and the following day, i have listening and writing test💀 The thing is i can speak well but not fluently, and im struggling to recognize some hanzi. It's been 6 months since im learning mandarin. So it's kinda difficult for me but this language is interesting!

If you write the words down a lot of times you can remember words including chinese

How many do Ms.Zhang’s books have please?

Great video. I love when people don’t use the fake smile all the time. 😂

@ericthered2963

3 жыл бұрын

Though at times I found his stare to be quite extrem. But I know he was watching for if the camera was piking up everything correctly. :D

Learning Chinese vocabulary and skipping on characters is like skipping leg days in the gym 👍

@ericthered2963

3 жыл бұрын

I kinda feel it's a LOT worse. Since you are then missing out on a lot of studying opportunities. For example: Practicing exercises in workbooks that gradually remove the pinyin. Having subtitles to aid you if you fail to get the meaning in a C-Drama. Or simply reading books in chinese.

@martinkiarie7666

3 жыл бұрын

Can relate

I'm just starting out and I like your videos! I'm inspired! Were you concerned with stroke order from the get go when drawing the characters out to memorise them?...it's overwhelmingly slow trying to incorporate that aspect into the learning process!

@ChineseIsEasy

4 жыл бұрын

Thanks! And no, not too much. I tried to keep the basic rule of "left to right and top to bottom" in mind. You generally get a feel for it. And over the years Chinese people pointed out the odd character where I'd got it wrong. It might be slower, but to me any other way is incomplete. If you want to build a solid wall you can't just lay bricks and then "maybe" go back in put cement in later. IYSWIM!

I study sign language. Many of the written languages are phonetic-based. Is it possible to read Chinese fluently without knowing spoken Chinese language (Mandarin or Cantonese)?

When your item as big as Everest, do you need to draw that big, and smaller stuffs need to draw it itsy tiny?

I will try it, i like it:)

@ChineseIsEasy

9 ай бұрын

Nice one brother

Where u get the book?

Memorizing is always easy! If you read something it is easy. But writing is always difficult - auch wenn man in der eigenen Sprache schreibt. (- even if you write in your own language)! If I enter Chinese text with the help of a computer, then it is not difficult to write a correct text - but if I do this on paper from my memory, errors often occur or my head starts to strike.

謝謝你！

@ChineseIsEasy

5 жыл бұрын

不客气 😀

@ianong9321

5 жыл бұрын

Chinese Is Easy 😊

Hallo, it's great to learn characters, but how you memories pronounsiation? Thank you for answer.

funny and wonderful, haha I was amazed, that these Chinese characters were once drawings and evolved

@ChineseIsEasy

9 ай бұрын

Thanks Melvin. Yes, it's pretty amazing!

Another interesting q How you correlate the meaning of the character to how its pronounced? 🤔

What is the name of the book?

How purchase this book

我正在学习繁体字，让我告诉您它们的书写难度。我已经知道简体字了。我喜欢普通话，这是最容易学习的语言。我也在学习乌尔都语和旁遮普语。我已经学习了两年。我的朋友们喜欢中文，但他们水平较高，比我年长很多。

Is that book is available in all countries ?? 🥺🥺❤️

Can using small sticks to form. Using ㄣ 乛 or use L J to form ㄣ and using to further add 一 ，一 to form 与与马写鸟与吗妈 勺 鸟乌鸦呜巧,ㄣ denote bird leg, or horse, pen .counter check with handphone keyboard

老师您是个好人，老师您是个帅哥。

@ChineseIsEasy

4 жыл бұрын

😅

Hi, are the Chinese characters available so far sufficient for modern technical words? Do you know coining of new chinese characters in recent years which we can say as modern characters? Thanks

@Amanda-10702

Жыл бұрын

Chinese works as components combined together. For example, computer is 電腦, which stands for an electronic brain. Another example, astronaut is 太空人,which means space man. When talking about new modern technology, Chinese usually just directly translate it (e.g. 自駕車 = self-driving car) or combine words to explain how it works (e.g. computer 電腦).