Writing

I have found this book to be absolutely essential in learning the characters. I hope it helps you, too.

yeah, ever seen Chinese people read upside down, you're holding a menu, map etc. and they work it out? but the beauty of Chinese characters is how you can read them left-to-right, right-to-left, top-to-bottom...

Frank's book recommendation is a very good one. Knowing the components of a character is easier than memorizing just how many strokes there are. Still, the only thing I've found to work is writing, writing, writing and a little more writing. Sometimes I can't remember a character, but after starting to write, it comes back to me. Typing characters is another story.

typing character is a piece of cake (well, almost), very convenient, indispensible even, but doesn't do much to help memorize, rather the contrary.

I agree with all the comments above. My method is to pick a chinesepod podcast on the basis that it contains mostly characters that I already know, and a few that I don't. I research those that I don't know in the book Frank is talking about (or if they're not there, in an on-line chinese dictionary). I keep any new character components on a deck of flash cards that I occasionally review. When this is done, I write out the dialogue as many times as it takes for me to memorise it. So I learn the character and the context. Also it's fun, which I think is key.

How do Chinese children learn to write. Drill, write, read, drill, write, read, drill, write, read, drill, write, read, drill, write, read, and write some more. What I personally an missing in this equation is a Mandarin teacher drilling me, correcting my writing, and questioning to survey my reading comprehension. Oh to be able to live in Hong Kong, Taiwan, or China.

Thanks a lot! I'll let you know!!

Indeed, simply seeing the characters repeatedly will not help with recalling the details. When we read, our brains tend to recognize the overall shape of a word, rather than individual letters. The same is true of the characters. You will not remember the details (i.e. the strokes) unless you interact with them.

sparechange, what you posted reminded me of something my 13 year old daughter forwarded to me: "Olny srmat poelpe can raed tihs. cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt! if you can raed tihs psas it on !! "

Doc: I love that stuff! I think it's an amazing insight into how the brain works. I'm of the opinion that it doesn't only apply to reading, but any activity that involves large chunks of information. Take playing the piano for instance... People watching a concert pianist will often marvel at how she can remember so many notes, and then recall them quickly enough to play them in such rapid succession. It seems impossible to them, because they're thinking in terms of individual notes. However, I can guarantee you the pianist is not conjuring up an image of every individual note as it passes through her fingers at blinding speed. Her brain, as well as the muscles in her hands, have grouped notes together to form musical phrases. This makes processing large amounts of complex information much easer, and in effect, makes the impossible possible. Too cool!

The human brain is indeed amazing and miraculous!

With characters, there's also the difference between recognizing and recalling. For most of us it's easier to recognize a character, for example 你, than to write it. If I see 你 I know what it is, it's just being able to write it from memory (especially if I haven't written it before) that's difficult. What drilling and writing does, as Man2toe explained above, is help solidify the ability to both recognize AND recall. That is, I can write a character without having to see it first. Memorizing words via flashcards won't help this recalling process. You really need to write them out many many many times over to be able to complete the circuit.