In recent while, I've gotten a few emails regarding the best way to study Chinese characters. While I'm sure the answers to this question will vary from person to person, I thought I would use this blog to detail my own personal experiences with learning how to read and write Chinese.

One of the reasons that many find it hard to learn Chinese, even while living in a Chinese community, is due to not being able to read Chinese characters. Most learners of second languages get the majority of their learning from reading. If you're trying to learn English while living in an English speaking country, you will get a lot of peripheral learning from being able to read. While out on the street, you may see a bank and recognize it as being so, along with the word "bank" printed on the sign outside. However, looking at a street scene like the one pictured above, it's hard to get any learning when you don't understand any of the characters printed.

The majority of my initial learning of characters came from waiting at traffic lights on my scooter. I would look at street signs that were printed with the Pinyin equivalents below and try to match the characters with their equivalent Pinyin. I would pick out characters that were distinct and easy to remember such as 大 and 小 or that I were likely to see such as the characters for road or street and would pick them out from address signs. I learned numbers and tried to pick them out where I could too. I then tried to extend this into something practical by learning the characters for certain foods. I felt much safer looking at a menu and being able to pick out beef (牛肉) at a glance instead of always having to rely on others. My favorite fruit was mango, so I could soon instantly look at the fruits and beverages section and pick out anything with 芒果 in it.

In future posts, I will further detail my experiences in reading and writing. If you have any tips that have helped you, please do share!