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The key to remember characters

Chinese Characters

Chinese language has something quite especial about it; you are probably already thinking about its main difference from other languages, and it's one of the differences that make Chinese quite different from western languages. This difference I'm mentioning is the fact that it doesn't have an alphabet; instead it has characters.

There is not an exact quantity of Chinese characters, it's belief that there are around 7000 different characters. But in reality only 2500 to 3500 characters are used, which is still a lot, but there's no reason to fear them, because they are actually quite interesting and filled with history.

How to remember characters 

The following tips come from my own experience which might work for you, but it's important to mention that everybody is different, in my case I have a good memory which has really helped me, but as I move through the intermediate level I'm starting to need more study hours.

Immersion, the reason that books are divided by lessons is not a coincidence, getting to know the words seeing them in different sentences and readings is what helps you remember the meaning; also try to create your own sentences so that your brain can process how to use the words. To remember the pronunciation of characters try to say the name of the character in your mind, and do this every time you see a character it doesn't matter if it's in a book or in 小紅書, and suddenly that character will stay with you.

Relate individual characters to words, In my case I find it a lot easier to remember a word, when I releate it to another, for example: the word 司機 (driver) is a word that I constantly forget, but whenever I see 司 I think of 公司 and that's how I remember the pronunciation. It's important to mention that remembering words pairs can also be tricky because some characters have different pronunciation depending on the word, so keep an eye on that, for example: 還 is pronounced hái when it comes to 還是，but if you see 還給， 還 is actually pronounced as huán.

Anki, Anki App is the thing I use when my mind simply can't remember a character, If I'm studying for an exam I try to add the vocabulary and practice it as much as I can, in the flashcards I add the character in both traditional and simplified Chinese, and on the back I add the pronunciation and definition. 

Finally, the following might be hard, but try to get used to characters in simplified and traditional Chinese, because a lot of simplified characters look quite similar, so it can get a bit confusing, but if you know the character in traditional Chinese, it is quite easy to notice the difference, because your brain will instantly see the traditional version, for example: 几 and 九 seem quite similar in simplified, but if you know them in traditional  幾 and 九 you can notice that there's quite a big difference. 

 If you want to try this method, I already have a blog on how to learn both writing styles, but my main tip will be to add in Anki both versions of a character. 

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