Which is the BEST Pen for Chinese Characters? (Hanzi/Hanja/Kanji)

Do you know which type of pen you should use to practice Chinese characters? We will compare 4 different kinds of writing utensils: ball point pens, rollerball pens, gel pens, and pencils.

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TL:DR
Rollerball pens are my favorite, but gel pens are a close second and are also easier to use. Pencils are okay, but don't use ball point pens.

**BTW "Hanja"(Korean) and "Kanji"(Japanese) both refer to "汉字“(Hanzi), or Chinese characters. The ancient Koreans and Japanese borrowed the Chinese writing system before developing their own, and thus the overlap.

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[anthony]

Unironically watching this as a native Chinese speaker, you lot who are learning Chinese as a foreign language are not alone in this struggle lol.

[williamhowland]

I appreciate that, in the process of answering the question in the title, you incidentally explained the difference between ballpoints, gels, and rollerballs—something I've low key wondered about for years, but never got around to looking up

[lilyraimey]

The ACTUAL best contestant - fountain pen. Even an affordable one can add those wonderful dynamic strokes with ease, and has an unmatched flow and is very satisfying to write with.

[haskisas]

Interesting video! I personally use fountain pens most often and also try to stay away from ball point pens bc my characters always turn out messy when using them haha

[mcwhcheung]

The Pilot Kakuno makes a great starter fountain pen, and is only $10! I find it great for writing.

[ashleyhoward]

This video is so interesting! I haven't seen anything like it before. Also, your characters are beautiful.

[BigPhi]

Is it true that you can obviously tell when a left-handed person writes Chinese characters (because the strokes don’t look correct)? I’m still in the beginning stages of learning Chinese, but when I eventually start practicing writing, I’m wondering if I should force myself to learn right-handed.

[leonardpaulson]

With regard to pencils, a softer graphite will allow for more dynamic strokes and darker lines. The higher B value results in a pencil that writes smoother lines and needs less pressure.

[anduril]

Your handwriting is pretty! I don't have the patience to work on how my characters look, because the only time I write characters is a couple times a week in my Boya textbooks. Which have very small lines anyways so I just use a ballpoint pen to fit in the tiny characters (especially because I'm trying to teach myself traditional after years of simplified)

[tydalm.]

I like fineliner pens and felt-tip pens for any kind of writing. There are even felt-tip pens with a fine calligraphy tip.

However, my hanzi doesn't even look close as pretty as yours, and usually my writing is not ugly. But I guess that's just practice, as I concentrate more on speaking and reading Chinese atm. There is only so much time, and with Chinese there are a lot of things to learn.

[ringoamateur]

Hello, I'm viwer from Hong Kong.
I amazed to see your word writing so beautiful!As a Hong Kong using Cantonese and Chinese, we usually don't write that pretty because we need to write in a limited time.
Also there a point need to remember at writing Chinese words, we have a precedence of it and the precedence will affect the word you write
You need to write the left part frist, then write the right part
Write the up part frist, then the down part
The writting about 2 pant of out and inside will hard to explain, just link 固, you need to wirte 固'sㄇ part, then the 古 inside, last will be the bottom pard of outside
Also a fact about Chinese words
We have Traditional Chinese and Simplified Chinese, it a huge different of it
Taiwan and Hong Kong are using Traditional, Chinese and Malaysiad using Simplified.
The different of those is the word like Traditional using 們 but Simplified will be 门.

[djlclopez]

This was interesting! I am currently learning to read and write Japanese, and have been wondering why I have some issues with the writing....now I am subscribed to JetPens here on YouTube (a Japanese stationery/pen company)! 🤣 I am excited to learn more about writing style and how to improve my writing with better quality products. Thanks for the video!

[dirayne]

Thanks a lot! I've been struggling with the choice of the right pen for a while. I started practicing characters with a ballpoint pen and soon enough realised, that there's no way to recreate some strokes and make my writing look the way I want it. So I tried using 0.5mm gel pen just to find out that I need at least 0.7mm to feel comfortable while writing. And now I understand why it all felt so wrong)

[amytheorangutan]

Thank you! You talk about topics that are not commonly discussed by other Chinese teaching channel but so useful!

[omarmercadogalan]

Really good video🤝. I like the fact that you give the tools to all the people who are in this process through your knowledge and experience. It's really great to have a good guide when we're learning something.
Grettings from Colombia 🇨🇴

[nicoleraheem]

2:41 I use the sharpoe S gel pens and the sharpie felt tip. I love these pens.

[Meowlein]

I personally use the 0.3 Sarasa Zebra Gel Ink pens, they also come in lots of pretty pastel colors for people like me who like to spice up their study notes with some colors and decoration.
Thanks for going so in deprg about the pro and cons for each and explaining exactly why some type of pens feel like they give you more control than others!

[haranodo]

i recently started learning chinese and your channel is on my heavy rotation! i really needed this video since the calligraphy homework i had was pretty hard with the pen i was using. lol

[gordierye]

Sir, I don't know what goals you've set for the future, but after watching and subscribing, I predict you'll have your pick in any business, law, or education field in the United States. Your energy and communication are vibrant and seem effortless. Shoot the moon.

[afpazin]

Glad that I found your channel! Really valuable tips to writing chinese characters in the most elegant way!