learning to write Chinese characters
- Thread starter cybermo
- Start date
However, what I do is fill-in-the-blank flashcards, where I have to write the character. I use Pleco's writing pad because I've found it to be much better (it doesn't enter the character after a certain amount of time, and it allows for the maximum amount of writing space available - important because I use a phone, and it's incredibly accurate even with lazy writing. I don't mean lazy stroke order, but I mean you can write the character very quickly and very not prettily and it will still get it right, whereas I've found some other character input systems don't have nearly as good reliability when writing messily.)
As for stroke order, I've never actually used the stroke-order test on Pleco. What I do though, is anytime I'm learning a character for the first time, I go to the stoke order page (which, because it's pleco is amazingly easy to do right from your flashcard session, whereas if you were using another program, you'd have to enter it and it would take a lot longer) and watch the stroke order a few times. For most characters, this is all I need to memorize the stroke order. I'm not sure how many characters you know, but after only a few hundred it almost becomes intuitive - I watch the stroke order just to make sure, but usually nothing surprises me, and I don't need to check it again, even if I forget the character, once I see it again, the stroke order is just natural.
I highly suggest this method... I was using pleco a lot a year ago, then switched back to Anki because I liked the spaced repetition system a little bit better, but then I've switched back to pleco and I love it even more now.
One worry I had before using pleco to memorize characters and test them was that when writing the characters, there is a bar of characters from which to choose from right at the bottom of the screen. I was worried I would see the character as I wrote it. But, this actually doesn't pose a problem. As simple as it sounds, I just don't look at the bottom bar until I've finished the character. If I ever look at it before I finish a character, it's because I don't know the character well enough anyways, so I mark the card as wrong regardless.
You should try this method and see what you think. However, to be fair, I've never tried Skritter, and some people rant and rave about that as well. But I'm not really in to paying monthly fees...
As for stroke order, I've never actually used the stroke-order test on Pleco. What I do though, is anytime I'm learning a character for the first time, I go to the stoke order page (which, because it's pleco is amazingly easy to do right from your flashcard session, whereas if you were using another program, you'd have to enter it and it would take a lot longer) and watch the stroke order a few times. For most characters, this is all I need to memorize the stroke order. I'm not sure how many characters you know, but after only a few hundred it almost becomes intuitive - I watch the stroke order just to make sure, but usually nothing surprises me, and I don't need to check it again, even if I forget the character, once I see it again, the stroke order is just natural.
I highly suggest this method... I was using pleco a lot a year ago, then switched back to Anki because I liked the spaced repetition system a little bit better, but then I've switched back to pleco and I love it even more now.
One worry I had before using pleco to memorize characters and test them was that when writing the characters, there is a bar of characters from which to choose from right at the bottom of the screen. I was worried I would see the character as I wrote it. But, this actually doesn't pose a problem. As simple as it sounds, I just don't look at the bottom bar until I've finished the character. If I ever look at it before I finish a character, it's because I don't know the character well enough anyways, so I mark the card as wrong regardless.
You should try this method and see what you think. However, to be fair, I've never tried Skritter, and some people rant and rave about that as well. But I'm not really in to paying monthly fees...
I would also recommend the fill-in-blanks flashcards... I used this and before skritter, for beginners skritter is better because it gives some hints while you write the character, however once you are able to write a few hundred characters you don't want any help anymore and in this case I think pleco is just as good.
Some small improvents to the recent system would be to hide the bottom bar and mark the character as correct automatically if it's the first match and the number of written strokes >= number of strokes in character, something like that...
Some small improvents to the recent system would be to hide the bottom bar and mark the character as correct automatically if it's the first match and the number of written strokes >= number of strokes in character, something like that...