Should you learn how to hand write chinese characters?

Typing Chinese characters is easy once you know pinyin. You just type in the sounds and it works. Writing them by hand is another story and involves a huge investment of time and effort. So, is it worth learning to write characters by hand? Well, maybe. Below I’m going to make it clear whether it is worth it for you, because it depends on your learning goals.

But before we get to that, let’s discuss the pros and cons of learning to hand write rather than just learning to type.

Pros of learning to hand write characters

1. Learning to write characters by hand will make them easier for you to remember. It takes your memory from just recognition to production, which is a stronger level of memory and will last longer. It’s possible to recognise characters without really understanding them or their structure, if you learn to write, then you will necessarily learn each character’s radicals, structure and stroke order. This creates a deeper understand and a stronger memory of characters.
2. That additional investment in learning about characters will give you an additional appreciation of Chinese culture and history.
3. There are some circumstances where the ability to write by hand is important: exams, low-tech environments, filling out forms etc.

Cons of learning to hand write characters

1. You know how I just said that learning to hand write characters creates stronger memories? That’s because it takes a long time to learn, and all that time learning to write is time you could be spending on learning other things that will have a more immediate impact on your ability to communicate in Chinese. If you have all the time in the world, then sure, learn to hand write. Otherwise it’s important to recognise the trade off you are making and question whether it is worth it.
2. Handwriting is useful but not that useful. How often do you hand write things in your native language with a pen and paper? I’d guess sometimes but not super often. And do you expect similar situations to occur but with you needing to hand write in Chinese? Probably not. Handwriting is a useful skill, but it’s not essential anymore. The majority of communication occurs via speech and printed text, not hand written text. Funnily enough, after leaving school many Chinese natives start to become quite rusty at handwriting. This phenomena is called “提笔忘字” or Character Amnesia and shows how infrequently people hand write these days.

So those are the pros and cons of learning to hand write characters. The relative importance of them depends on your learning objectives. For me, the cons are much greater than the pros. I work full-time and only have an hour or so to dedicate to studying each day. Given that, it just doesn’t make sense for me to learn how to hand write Chinese characters. But this might not be the case for you. Below, I’ve outlined possible language goals you might have and accordingly whether learning to write Chinese would be worth it for you.

Learning goals which require handwriting

Academic pursuits.

If you are aiming to become a linguist, calligrapher, or researcher in Chinese studies or plan to attend a university in China then handwriting will be important. Without it you will be at a disadvantage in your understanding of Chinese culture and language.

Cultural immersion

If your goal is to gain a deep appreciation and understanding of Chinese culture then you will need to learn how to hand write to understand calligraphy and historical texts. The deeper understanding of characters it gives you will also help you understand older texts and the evolution of characters over time.

Long-term mastery

If Chinese is the only language that you want to learn and it is your life’s passion then handwriting may be worth while. It will enhance your memory and understanding of characters and the trade off in extra time spent learning may be worth it.

Learning goals which don’t require handwriting

Daily use and travel

Most communication takes place in either spoken form or digital form which doesn’t require knowledge of how to hand write. Unless you are aiming for one of the above goals then it isn’t a requirement for fluency.

Engage with Chinese media

Unless you intend to have a pen-pal who you hand write letters to then you don’t need to learn to hand write. None of Chinese media like TV shows, movies, podcasts, books require you to have the ability to write and if you want to use Chinese social media and apps like Red and WeChat then you will just need to type not write.

Chinese partner

If like me you have a Chinese partner and are learning Chinese to better understand their culture, speak with their family and engage with Chinese media then learning to hand write characters isn’t worth it. I’ve been with my partner for three years and have yet to have the need to hand write anything. In fact I’ve never seen her hand write anything either.

To Sum Up

Learning Chinese characters is worthwhile for some people with very particular learning goals. For the rest of us it represents a big investment of time and energy that would be better spent on other areas of Chinese.

That said, learning to hand write isn’t an all-or-nothing pursuit. It is definitely valuable to learn the basics of character structure and stroke order. That way you get the benefits of greater understanding without the the huge time investment. And don’t forget, handwriting Chinese characters is always a skill that can be picked up at a later date, you don’t need to commit either way right not.

If you do want to learn write Chinese characters then Skritter is by far the best application out there to do it. Otherwise if you are going to focus on learning to read and type Chinese characters then checkout our app which makes learning Chinese characters easy. We are still in development but you can sign up to the wait list to get free access when it releases.

Whatever you choose, best of luck.

Till next time, VocabHacker