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Learning to write Chinese

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  1. #11
    Quote Originally Posted by hongkong7:
    I second that learning traditional characters is easier . There is more detail to differentiate the characters compared to simplified . The only other tip is its like anything else in life if you put in the time and effort you can do it .I have a board that I write a new character every day and I can easily


    read technical papers in my field in Chinese : I am a westerner btw: also you need to actually write acharacter to learn it as in write it out say 10times then again a few days later etc
    I never thought about trad Chinese having this benfit. That's right there's no short cuts in learning Chi text. Drilling and discipline is important. Good for you to get so far.

  2. #12
    Quote Originally Posted by Azuremain:
    Make sure to learn Traditional Chinese. AFAIK, you need 2,000 idioms to somehow read a simple newspaper like The Sun or Apple Daily.
    What is AFAIK btw? Thanks for the tip.

  3. #13

    Join Date
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    As Far As I Know


  4. #14
    Quote Originally Posted by Gruntfuttock:
    As Far As I Know
    Thanks Gruntfuttock

  5. #15

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    well, my story is a bit more interesting, my mother language is the HK indigenous dialect - hakka ( common in UK), except more case of some are taught Cantonese and hakka at same time, could not speak Cantonese until late teens as I was brought up in UK, could not read or write, over the years, I have grasp the capacity to read and to a certain extent basic writing, I can read newspapers, it's hard, it's not easy at all, but with the will and dedication, anything is possible.

    over the years, I have used various methods on how to learn to read Chinese, ie, watch Cantonese films and concertrate on the Chinese subtitles, a phase listening to canto ballads, read kids comics, etc,


  6. #16

    Join Date
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    Quote Originally Posted by michelle1984:
    Long slog is under estimation but no pain no gain. Did you get any Chinese classes in the UK? When I was a child we lived in the country, one of two Chinese families in town, Chinese school too far away. Thanks for the tips.
    No I was in my teens when Chinese school reached my town and so was more concerned on my O/A levels.

    Chinese was not important in my first few jobs in HK but I could still pick-up some along the way just by watching TV or going to karaoke.

    A few years ago I was reading some history books on China written by western authors and asked myself wouldn't it be better to read Chinese for a more local bias. I have been reading Chinese books ever since.

    Still read SCMP rather than Chinese newspapers though.

  7. #17
    Quote Originally Posted by DarrenChan:
    No I was in my teens when Chinese school reached my town and so was more concerned on my O/A levels.

    Chinese was not important in my first few jobs in HK but I could still pick-up some along the way just by watching TV or going to karaoke.

    A few years ago I was reading some history books on China written by western authors and asked myself wouldn't it be better to read Chinese for a more local bias. I have been reading Chinese books ever since.

    Still read SCMP rather than Chinese newspapers though.
    Oh no. You guys put put me to shame. I cannot say I can read a whole newspaper but parts of it to gain an understanding or gist. My family dialet also Hakka and we picked up Caontonese with the TVB videos. I will definitely rummage in my sons' school bags tonight! At work I'm also faced with suppliers and customers who speak Putonghua. I get my own point over in one way or another. But what I find really difficult is understanding what they are saying. Have you guys made any break throughs in this area?

  8. #18

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    Feb 2013
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    Unfortunately, there are no shortcuts for learning Chinese, and as adults it's a lot more difficult to spare the time to do so. Patience would be the number one thing to have in any regard. That said, I've been trying to brush up on my Chinese as well, trying to put in an hour a day just writing stuff that I see on things such as menus and tenant notices in my building that frustrate me when I can't read them.

    If you have a cell phone, it helps tremendously to have an app that you can use to identify characters. I use Pleco on Android, and it's pretty awesome because you can use the camera to identify characters as well as use your finger to scribble out the character.

    I've been told that a good way to learn something is to learn it with the idea that you're going to teach it to someone else. I actually just posted my first lesson on my blog, if you're interested you can check it out. I'm hoping to add more as I go along. http://joyojc.com/2013/12/learning-c...akeout-menu-1/

    Again, and I can't stress this enough, be patient and do it a bit at a time. It's too easy to get overwhelmed trying to learn everything at once, and there are literally thousands of characters to learn. Good luck.


  9. #19
    Quote Originally Posted by joyojc:
    Unfortunately, there are no shortcuts for learning Chinese, and as adults it's a lot more difficult to spare the time to do so. Patience would be the number one thing to have in any regard. That said, I've been trying to brush up on my Chineseo as well, trying to put in an hour a day just writing stuff that I see on things such as menus and tenant notices in my building that frustrate me when I can't read them.

    If you have a cell phone, it helps tremendously to have an app that you can use to identify characters. I use Pleco on Android, and it's pretty awesome because you can use the camera to identify characters as well as use your finger to scribble out the character.

    I've been told that a good way to learn something is to learn it with the idea that you're going to teach it to someone else. I actually just posted my first lesson on my blog, if you're interested you can check it out. I'm hoping to add more as I go along. http://joyojc.com/2013/12/learning-c...akeout-menu-1/

    Again, and I can't stress this enough, be patient and do it a bit at a time. It's too easy to get overwhelmed trying to learn everything at once, and there are literally thousands of characters to learn. Good luck.
    May I say that your blog is awesome! How do you get time to travel so much with kids as well?

  10. #20
    Quote Originally Posted by DarrenChan:
    No I was in my teens when Chinese school reached my town and so was more concerned on my O/A levels.

    Chinese was not important in my first few jobs in HK but I could still pick-up some along the way just by watching TV or going to karaoke.

    A few years ago I was reading some history books on China written by western authors and asked myself wouldn't it be better to read Chinese for a more local bias. I have been reading Chinese books ever since.

    Still read SCMP rather than Chinese newspapers though.
    I really miss the papers from the UK. You can get here of course but go out of way to buy. Also TV. Anyone able to get live BBC, Channel 4?