Writing in Chinese

[Larry Language Lover]

Can some of you guys write 100s of Chinese characters by hand with a pen and write essays or paragraphs in Chinese or have a written conversation with a native speaker using only handwriting?

If so, how long did it take to reach such a level?

[DavyJonesLocker]

I only write individual characters to enforce the recognition   

 

The trade off between being able to writing sentences , compositions etc from memory without needing to look up the characters, and the shear amount of time required to obtain that ability, just seems far far too low.

 

Admirable skill indeed

[abcdefg]

My biggest writing test comes at the post office when I need to send a parcel and must write out my (Chinese) name and return address. Made more difficult by having to bear down hard with the ball point pen they furnish, making 5 carbon copies of the antique form. 

[Gharial]

Learning enough Chinese characters, vocabulary and grammar to attempt informal written communication (nowadays more likely to be via email or a messaging app than handwritten note or letter) with native speakers is perfectly possible given a year or three of reasonably concerted study. Writing more formally and at length as in essays will however require somewhat specialized preparation and practice, but most of all a pretty strong functional reason for doing so (which I for one have yet to have!).

[889]

It's hard to say time-wise because different people study differently.

 

But yes, three years of regular study with some emphasis on writing out characters should let you write informal messages by hand.

 

"Informal" Chinese basically means writing following the conventions of spoken Chinese: you can write whatever you can say. The conventions of formal written Chinese are different, and to master that style would take a lot more time and effort. Much like English, where learning to write a properly formal essay also takes years for native speakers, not to mention those learning the language.

[Tomsima]

Yes, and in the thousands rather than the hundreds, but it requires c o n s t a n t practice to maintain. If I haven't written a more unusual character for a while I will need to check it in the dictionary, eg 剿 was one I just had to check for the刂 (my mind was thinking it might be ⻖as in 鄛) 

[Larry Language Lover]

Very interesting!  Sometimes I wish I was only working on Chinese because of the time needed and how extremely interesting it is.   But unfortunately I have a language addiction lol.

[Larry Language Lover]

1 hour ago, Tomsima said:

Yes, and in the thousands rather than the hundreds, but it requires c o n s t a n t practice to maintain. If I haven't written a more unusual character for a while I will need to check it in the dictionary, eg 剿 was one I just had to check for the刂 (my mind was thinking it might be ⻖as in 鄛) 

 

Wow!  That's exciting and impresive.  How long have you been studying Chinese?

[Luxi]

After some time with good and persistent practice, your hand remembers the characters and writes in auto-pilot (makes lots of mistakes too if you're not careful). Of course, an unusual character will require your attention (and dictionaries) and slow your hand.

 

It's not that long ago (1990s) when letter writing and informal notes were part of the UK Chinese A level exam. Essay writing, sometimes from year 1 (assuming post-A level standards), was part of many university undergraduate courses. The final language exam included a long essay.

 

 

[Shelley]

6 hours ago, Luxi said:

It's not that long ago (1990s) when letter writing and informal notes were part of the UK Chinese A level exam. Essay writing, sometimes from year 1 (assuming post-A level standards), was part of many university undergraduate courses. The final language exam included a long essay.

 

Yes I had to do this when I took my exam in the late 1990's. I had to write answers to some questions in characters, the others were multiple choice or pinyin was allowed. The essay had to be done in characters and we had 3 topics to choose from.

 

Happily I did pass and try to keep up my characters by lots of single character/word practice. I should try little essays again, it is good fun and practice.

[道艺]

I can type like a madman. But man my writing is trash. Definitely needs specific time devoted. I'd say daily convo minimum 1.5 yrs

[Luxi]

21 hours ago, Shelley said:

I should try little essays again,

 

That seems a good idea. Most of the reviewing I do is very passive,  thinking and writing something from scratch probably activates the brain a lot more. You did well to keep practising.

 

Unfortunately, (hand) writing a lot while I was studying formally didn't help me remember Chinese any better after a 10+ years break. It may have helped me to recover the knowledge after the break, but it still took me a fairly long time to get back into it.