How to Learn Chinese Characters

I have always had a problem with remembering Chinese characters or 汉字。So finally after doing poorly on a number of quizzes I decided to ask around. I've decided to post the tips here in case there's someone else with the same problem reading this. That person can then find the tool that works best for them.

1. Write the Characters
The most popular tip I've found is just writing the characters. It sounds easy but I mean write them each at least twenty times. The repetition is supposed to fix it in your memory and your hand gets the feel of the character- almost like imprinting it on your brain. The problem is after a while of not using the character it can be forgotten and you would have to write them all over again so you need to keep using the characters and keep them fresh in your mind.

2. Create a Story
Another technique I've heard is creating a story based on the character to help you remember what each character means and how to write it. There are a number of books that you can buy that use this approach and teach characters with pictures next to them to help you envision the story. The most common example I've heard is the story behind 好 which means "good"。The left-side means "woman" and the right-side means "boy; child." The story goes that it's good if a woman has a boy in Chinese society.

3. Flashcards
A tool that can really be used for learning anything is using flashcards. I've personally used this before and it works wonderfully. After a while of using them in different ways I can recognize the characters as well as how to pronounce them and their meanings. The problem I found with this system is that I can't produce the characters but scribble something close to the image in my mind.

4. Teaching Someone Else
It's like you're reviewing except you're so focused on teaching/helping the other person it won't feel as much as a chore.

5. Read the Dictionary
A recent technique I found was simply reading a Chinese dictionary. The dictionary is written by sound and one will notice eventually how characters of the same sound are written similarly. Characters are made of components, one part phonetic (how it sounds) and another part semantic (meaning). Sometimes a character can give clues to both phonetic and semantic. One teacher concluded  "Thus my method of teaching characters consists of breaking down characters into phonetic families and teaching the students how an addition of one or more semantic components to a phonetic one builds up a new character."

6. Master the Radicals
A lot of sources talk about learning the radicals, which are apart of every character. Once you've mastered those, you will notice how characters are just combined characters even easier. This is also good because if you need to know a character but don't know the pinyin or the meaning then you must look up the character by it's radical.

7. Speak as you Write
This technique is just as it sounds. As you write the character say the character aloud.

I found one website that had a lot of advice on how to practice Chinese once you learn which strategy works for you.

Good Luck!