Writing In Chinese—Starting Off

Contents

• Why Learning Chinese Seems Intimidating
• A Little History
• Stroke Order
• You Can Write Chinese Characters!

Why Chinese Seems Intimidating

A person may have an interest in learning Chinese but may feel overwhelmed when they look at Chinese characters. Learning to write these characters may feel impossible at first glance. But did you know that writing in Chinese can actually be fun? As a matter of fact, Chinese characters are like word pictures making them easy to remember, and they tell a story. It even has its own writing system called, ‘Stroke Order’, which we will talk about later in this blog.

A Little History

In ancient of days, Chinese characters were drawn representing real life objects. They are called Pictographic Characters and were used in communication back in those days. These characters were simple, vivid and understandable. Over time, they evolved, developed, and simplified for clearer written communication in our day.

For example, look below at the symbols for ‘mountain’ 山 (shān), and ‘rain’ (yǔ) 雨 from ancient times to now.

Stroke Order

Stroke Order is the proper writing system for Chinese Characters. Learning stroke order can help you to remember how to write them. The stroke for writing has a name and a direction which to write. Below are some basic directional names of these strokes and how they help guide writing. Let’s write the character for ‘Rain’ 雨 (yǔ) below. It is written with 8 strokes.

You Can Write Chinese Characters!

Is Chinese hard to learn? It does take effort! Writing will take some time to master, but it’s definitely possible!

Learning Chinese can be a fun and exciting journey when you get to understand the thought patterns behind the language. It also opens an opportunity to connect with people! This is your first step to understanding Chinese characters and getting over that fear!

Here at Early Learners Bookshelf Ltd., we have been working on a new workbook that will become your little learners’ introduction to Chinese. We are happy to share, My First Big Workbook of Mandarin!

This new resource will soon be available for use in the classroom. Are you excited to learn and teach your little ones Chinese?