I just started to learn chinese and its already overwelming. Am I really expected to learn the chinese characters along with the words, pronounciation and pinyin, or is it better to ignore for now? Cause that’s what Ive been doing.
Hi Johnny,
If you are interested in characters, I would suggest you learn them from the very beginning at an acceptable pace, such as 2-5 words per day. Besides, in my opinion, knowing the origin of each character is a useful way to learn them. If you have any questions about learning characters, feel free to leave them down here. We’ll reply to you as soon as possible.
Cheers.
Betty
It kinda depends on your goal.
If you need to be able to speak basic sentences quickly, you may focus on listening and memorizing useful responses.
However - I caution against this approach
- because many new learners have poor pronunciation and are thrown off by real world discussion - so they can not speak or be understood when they arrive.
The tones are extremely important. You really do need to remember them. But, also speak fast enough to be understood. Some new learners over emphasize the tones and are then hard to understand.
For the writing - it is truly enriching and valuable to read and write. If you have any long term view of learning the language or staying in country or doing anything with the language, you really do need to know the characters. I do not know how you could get by with out it, even with technology aides, you would essentially be the same as someone who does not speak. You need to know the characters, and pinyin to type.
Further, it is really an interesting and cultural part of the language.