How can I learn Chinese characters faster and easier?

Learning Chinese characters can be a daunting task for someone new to Chinese, especially if you have not been exposed to Chinese characters before. However, there are ways to make learning Chinese characters easier and faster, and we will explore those methods in this article. Please note that how you learn Chinese can be affected by the language you speak natively (ie. your first language). In general, if you already speak and read a language similar to Chinese, such as Japanese or Korean, you have an advantage when learning Chinese. Unfortunately, compared to Japanese and Korean, English is not a language that is similar to Chinese. If English is your native language, please note that according to the Foreign Service Institute of the United States, Chinese is one of the hardest languages to learn for English speakers: Language Learning Difficulty for English Speakers.

Remembering individual strokes for Chinese characters is hard. Instead, learn the radicals first, as they are the building blocks of Chinese characters.

Remembering individual strokes for Chinese characters is very, very hard. Chinese characters have a lot of strokes, and if you are going to remember Chinese characters purely by strokes, it will take you ages to learn them. Instead, the first thing we recommend to new learners of Chinese characters is to study the radicals for Chinese characters. What are radicals? Radicals (bù shǒu) are common "components" used in Chinese characters. Not all Chinese characters use radicals. But many Chinese characters do use radicals. Here is an example of a radical related to wood/tree:

Radical	Meaning	Pīnyīn
木	wood, tree	mù

Ok, now that you recognize and remember the radical for wood, let's look at a few Chinese characters related to the radical for wood (the radical 木 is on the left side of the Chinese character):

Chinese Character	Meaning	Pīnyīn	Comments
树	tree	shù	This is the formal Chinese character for tree.
林	forest	lín
杯	cup	bēi	Cups back in ancient Chinese history, were typically made with wood.
板	board, plank	bǎn

The best thing is, once you remember a certain radical, you effectively remember this "component," and when you start learning Chinese characters, you will notice these radicals or "components" are repeated in many Chinese characters.

Learn the most commonly used radicals first. Then learn the advanced radicals later.

In Chinese, there are radicals that are used the most often and that you come across more frequently. Hence, we recommend that you learn these common radicals first. Here is a list of the most common Chinese radicals. These common radicals are the most frequently used radicals in Chinese characters. After you have remembered these most commonly used radicals, you can start to learn the less common, and more advanced list of radicals here. And as you are learning Chinese, if you forget a specific radical, keep coming back to the list and try to remember that radical again. Radicals make learning Chinese characters much easier, and much faster!

Practice writing Chinese characters!

Last but not least, repetitively writing Chinese characters will help you to remember them. You can buy specialized Chinese character writing pads, or just any paper writing pad will do. Write the Chinese character over and over again, until you remember it - it's suggested you write a Chinese character 10 times, the first time you encounter a new character. And if you forget it one day, repeat, and write it on your writing pad again! There are also apps and software to help you to memorize writing Chinese characters, such as Skritter and other similar apps. Whether by writing Chinese characters on paper, or by using an app, what matters the most is writing it repetitively!

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