The ULTIMATE Guide to Learning Chinese Characters

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⚡️ Time code:

00:00 Introduction
00:48 Introduction to Chinese Characters
01:57 Structures and Patterns in Chinese Characters
05:41 3 Tips to Learn Chinese Characters FASTER
10:18 Thank you for watching to the end!

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(Traditional and Simplified characters included)

(Traditional and Simplified characters included)

(Traditional and Simplified characters included)

﹝Real-life Chinese﹞

Japanese subtitles provided by Andrew Haynes. Many thanks for his outstanding work and assistance

🔆 PROMOS

[GraceMandarinChinese]

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Feel free to share your thoughts on learning Chinese characters in the comments! (Your study tips, the challenges you've faced... all are welcome! 💛)
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[Verbalaesthet]

One tip I can give beginners is that you should not remember the Chinese characters "how they look" like "this looks like a horse" or something. Some tutors tell you that but it is very bad to do so. Instead learn them from their elements and what they really mean. This element means "hand" and this element means "fit" and together it means "pick up". This way it will become easier to learn them.

[Nymphinia]

Thank you for this! I am trying to learn chinese now that i am on xiaohongshu and i want to be able to interact with the chinese users :)

[evisf]

With this video I realized that subconsciously i have used some of this tips, now i will use them strategically. Thanks Grace :)

[Harry-iopd]

Thank you for the logical and scholarly deconstruction of Chinese characters and focusing on components rather than radicals. I would love to see a list of the 132 or 135 components that are used for the words used in daily conversation.

[flaviosouza]

Am I the only one who thinks chinese characteres are just as challenging as beautiful?

[theculturedkidlanguages]

I love discovering the meanings behind the chinese characters. There is so much meaning!!

[alwanrosyidi]

It's 3 am and suddenly I want to learn Chinese writing.

[theyazzledazzle]

this was incredibly insightful, and I was a Japanese major in undergrad. We never learned anything like this, just had to memorize wholesale! Now that I am learning Chinese in this way, everything makes more sense!

[dinhduypham]

Hello Grace!
我叫阿维。I am from Vietnam who has self studied Chinese language for nearly 2 years. At the beginning phase of learning, I both studied prononciation and hanzi. Related to hanzi, I used a tracing book. The vocabulary is topically classified. I traced the characters based on the strokes which is numbered and drawn with arrows in that book, then deconstruct the characters. I wondered: "What radicals does it contain? ; what meaning does the characters imply? Etc.

I have spent more than 6 months to master writing Chinese characters.

At present, when I read Chinese books, I usually summarize and express my opinion. Of course, I use handwriting method to compose the summary. The process of mastering handwriting Chinese characters is hard, but it deserves.

[ketekita]

Girl, your pronunciation is excellent. Wow

[der_Kirschbaum]

The other benefit which I really love about learning with this method is you can actually 'guess' the sound of the word even you never saw that word before! After learning for a while, I started noticing that some components have certain effect on other components' sound! For example, the component 王 wang2 (king) or 金 jin1 (metal) when put on the left side of other components, it retain the sound of the component on the right, but only change the meaning.
Ex.) 林 Lin1 = Forest, 琳 Lin1 (same sound but add 王 to the left) = Gem
太 tai4 = too, 鈦 tai4 (same sound but add 金 to the left) = Titanium

Some component does have effect on the sound (Example from the video) 智 zhi4 = Intelligence. It's actually compose of 知 zhi1 + 日 ri4, you can see that it took the sound from the word 'zhi1' and change it to the 4th tone from the word 'ri4'. This is just a simple example. You can see a lot of patterns like this if you learn more vocabulary. Sometimes it changes the initial sound, sometimes it changes the tone and sometimes it changes the final or vowel.

By understanding these pattern, it becomes really handy when you have electronic dictionary like in your phone or computer because you can just type the sound that you 'guessed' or 'estimated' and let the device do the suggestion.

Hope you find my tip helpful!

[Betelgeuse_in_clothing]

I am a Chinese native. Awesome tutorial!

[DieuNguyen-whzt]

This is the reason why i learn traditional chinese instead of simplified one bcuz i can see that there'a a structure and a way to remember new vocabulary. The more u learn the easier it gets to remember new words since you can strategically learn them based on the characters that u already know.

[JoeyLuckyBoyNato]

I’m here, let the new journey begin 😂❤

[simonyang-peux]

Traditional Chinese characters are definitely a huge challenge for foreigners.😂 no mention different accents of Chinese here.

[nugidu]

I am learning Chinese calligraphy. Chinese characters are so beautiful when you learn to write them well. It also helps me to learn the characters themselves

[JenniMeer]

Just signed up for the course. I plan on getting a notebook soon so I can actually learn. ✍️📕

[desmocaca]

1:37 I've been speaking Japanese for a while now and it just blew my mind that the pronunciation of 智 was the same when used with other characters😂

[ydduar]

This is one pf the best explanations ever.