Five Steps for Learning Chinese Characters

Even with the help of Skritter, the Heisig method and other online and offline resources, effectively learning Chinese characters is no walk in the park. In my early days of Chinese study I was very keen on the 抄寫 (chāoxiě) method; I would spend hours furiously coping characters into study books and onto graph paper hoping that I could "remember" how to write the characters just long enough to get a solid grade on the next 聽寫 (tīngxiě: dictation quiz). After the quiz it was back home to rinse, wash, and repeat.

Copy, copy, copy.

Somehow this strategy worked for the first few years of Chinese. Aside from the daily dictation quizzes, my teachers rarely assigned actual writing homework. When I inevitably forgot how to write a particular character by hand (usually a few days after my dictation exam) I was content with looking it up in my dictionary. Certainly there was a better way to learn characters in less time and with a higher retention rate.

So, what can we do to really learn Chinese characters the first time? During the summer of 2011 in Beijing, China I found a strategy that would not only improve my overall retention rate, but also reduce the time I spent learning Chinese characters on any given day. It appeared in our textbook as a 口號 (kǒuhào: slogan), which has stuck with me ever since. In this article I will break down the slogan into individual parts, and provide an example or two about how it works. I give you the following five steps for learning Chinese characters:

  一看二拆三寫四比五記

(yī kàn èr chāi sān xiě sì bǐwŭ jì)

Identifying the radical and component of 觸 (Step 2). 

1. 看 (Read): The first step to effectively learning and remembering  characters is to actually look at the character. So simple, right? While this step is fairly straight forward, the goal should be to go beyond a quick, often unconscious glance. Rather, we should be aware and conscious of the new character before us.
2. 拆 (Analyze): The second step involves 拆開 (chāikāi: separation), or the analysis of this new character. During the process one should be think back on what they've learned about 部首 (bùshǒu: radicals) and 部件 (bùjiàn: components) and see if you can't identify them in this new character. Don't know the radical or a component element? Skritter is great in providing this information, but apps like Pleco and websites like MDBG will give you the same character decompositions.
3. 寫 (Write): Now that you've taken the time to consciously look at and analyze the new character it is time to write it. During the third step in the process of learning a new character it is important to go beyond the number of strokes and stay aware of the components found within the character. It helps to hide the original character from your view as well (if you can)... to help overall memory retention. In addition to writing the character, I also find that saying the individual components of the character as I'm writing them really helps keep me aware of them, and also helps solidify a more conscious study process. 
4. 比 (Compare): Now that you've reached step four it is time to step back from your work, and 比較 (bǐjiào: compare) what you've written with the original character. Do they look similar, is your stroke order correct? If not, make the necessary adjustments and try again. If they look the same, then proceed to step five!
5. 記 (Memorize): The final step is about actually committing the character to memory. So how do you do it? Mnemonics (see our blog post from way back!), or other memory retention techniques like story telling help aid in the memorization process. If you are seeing a character on Skritter for the first time then check out mnemonics that other users have submitted for a bit of inspiration. Keep in mind, however, that coming up with your own story or mnemonic is probably going to yield the best results over the long-run. I've found that the crazier the mnemonic the better it sticks. For 觸 (chù: to contact; touch) the character I used in the image above I like to think of a silk worm using its "horns" to make contact, or touch, the world around it. Another way to increase how well you memorize the character is to be vocal about your story. Tell them to your classmates and family members, heck even your dog. The more vocal you are about it, the more likely you'll remember it next time you go to write that character on Skritter or in the wild.

I teach this method to all of my students during our first few weeks of class and have had some pretty amazing results thus far. No matter if you are using Skritter or other study methods to practice character writing, I think the most important thing is to work on developing a more conscious and active approach to learning characters. If you're studying on Skritter than please give these five steps a try and watch retention shoot through the roof!

Do you have your own Character learning process? Be sure to tell us about it in the comments below.