How to Memorize Chinese Characters (VIDEO)

When I used to see a page of complex characters, my eyes would blur over in panic. Eventually, I overcame the fear and learned to read Chinese. I even taught my children how to memorize Chinese characters, no doubt one of the hardest parts of learning the language.

In contrast to alphabet-based languages, remembering Chinese characters is more challenging and time-intensive. I’m happy to share our tips to help you remember Chinese words, whether you’re a beginner or farther in your learning journey.

5 basic tips for memorizing Chinese characters - how to teach kids Chinese

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Memorizing Chinese characters: then and now.

Decades ago, I begrudgingly attended Chinese lessons during middle school. After quitting Friday Night Chinese School, I forgot everything quickly.

For the past few years, I have been re-learning Chinese with my children and had to start from scratch. When my daughter was 5, she surpassed the 1000 Chinese characters milestone while I am gradually catching up and weaning from a Pinyin dependency.

This time around, learning has been much more productive and meaningful. Despite the many challenges, people, young and old, can enjoy reading and memorizing Chinese characters.

Try this: 有道 Youdao Chinese Dictionary Pen

Why memorizing Chinese characters is hard

In case you need reassurance, it’s not you; it’s the language. Learning to read Chinese can be challenging for many reasons.

  1. Logographic writing system: Chinese characters are logograms. Each character represents a word or a morpheme (the smallest unit of meaning in a language). In contrast, alphabet-based languages represent individual sounds or phonemes.
  2. Large character set: The Chinese language has over 50,000 characters, though most people need to memorize 2,000 to 3,000 for basic literacy. In contrast to Chinese, alphabet languages like Korean Hangul have a small set of symbols (letters) that combine to form words.
  3. Character complexity: Chinese characters vary in complexity. Some characters have only a few Chinese strokes, while others are made of multiple radicals.
  4. Tonal language: Memorizing Chinese characters comes with the added task of learning the proper tone. For instance, Mandarin Chinese has four main tones, and the meaning of a word can change based on the tone in which it is pronounced.

Related: Which is Better, Simplified or Traditional Chinese?

5 Best Ways to Remember Chinese Characters

Here are five basic tips that have helped my family remember Chinese characters. Be sure to watch the video examples sprinkled between the strategies.

1. Know that interest is power

Interest, the curiosity emotion, is the desire to know or learn something. It helps us pay attention, focus, process information efficiently, and work harder and longer.

While adults can be self-motivated to learn, children rely on parents and teachers to model passion and to provide encouragement, engaging dialogue, catchy music, interesting books, and fun activities.

Following personal interests is the most important short and long-term memory strategy.

Without interest, learning the first Chinese character of many thousands will be an uphill battle.

In addition, research shows that the emotional state of an individual can impact how an item is remembered.  From Psychology Today:

Emotion acts like a highlighter pen that emphasizes certain aspects of experiences to make them more memorable.

Recommended: Best Children’s Books About Emotions in Chinese and English

2. Remember Chinese characters by diversifying exposure

To memorize Chinese characters, words must be visualized over and over again. Exposure to Chinese characters can be provided in a variety of ways:

  1. Environmental print, such as Chinese characters in everyday life (Chinese labels, logos, signs)
  2. Chinese books, magazines, song lyrics
  3. Literacy activities
  4. Chinese flashcards (eg, Leitner box system)
  5. Spaced repetition software (eg, Anki)

Environmental print and media are the most natural ways to review and remember Chinese characters.

People in China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan see Chinese characters everywhere and use the language all the time.  Those in other countries must make a conscious effort to support Chinese learning at home.

Flashcards and spaced repetition software can help you memorize Chinese characters, but rote learning alone is inadequate.  From Hacking Chinese:

The reason we forget characters is that we try to passively cram meaningless data into our brains instead of actively processing the what we try to learn and making it meaningful.

We usually fail to learn either because the components (characters or words) are meaningless to us or because the connections between them are too weak.

Learn Chinese characters with hands-on activity. Cut up scrap paper and cover Chinese strokes
A simple way to interact with a Chinese character:
Cover each Chinese stroke with paper scraps

Literacy activities are fun and memorable, but planning can be intimidating for those unaccustomed to hands-on learning strategies.

Recommended: Fun and Easy Chinese Language Activities

3. Look for context clues

When you see an unfamiliar Chinese character, the surrounding sentence and accompanying images can give you clues. 

Interpreting images and a big-picture perspective of a full sentence are important skills that support reading and memory formation.

For example, my daughter recently saw the bigram 礼物 / 禮物 (lǐwù / gift) in traditional Chinese for the first time, but she was only familiar with 物 (wù).

Despite the major differences between simplified 礼 and traditional 禮 (lǐ), she could figure out the word from knowing 物 and seeing an image of a gift.

Of course, knowledge of the spoken word is the prerequisite for using context clues for reading.

On the other hand, context can become a crutch if Chinese characters are reviewed only in the same setting (eg, reading the same few books). 

Instead, you have a better chance of memorizing Chinese characters when you see them in different contexts. Fun opportunities include:

4. Break down Chinese characters into radicals

Chinese radical characters are stand-alone words and building blocks for other Chinese characters.

If characters can be deconstructed into their radical components, new characters will seem less daunting and more welcomed into memory.

Chinese radicals are clues.

In addition, radicals shed light on each Chinese character’s meaning. For example, 恩 can be remembered by the mnemonic “heart (心) causes (因) grace (恩).”

Here is a video of my son who realized that he recognized 心 (xīn / heart), 口 (kǒu / mouth), 大 (dà / big) in the character 恩 (ēn / grace). 

Chinese radicals are building blocks.

Identifying character components also helps my children write Chinese characters.

Rather than thinking of characters as countless individual strokes, each can be broken down into smaller, digestible parts. In other words, radicals are like building blocks.

In addition, I often cover parts of a complex Chinese character to show my children how to isolate recognizable radicals.

Chinese radicals have patterns you can memorize.

Radicals can also be reviewed in groups, which can help with pattern recognition.

For example, 氵is called 三点水 (sān diǎn shuǐ / 3 drops of water) and generally refers to something wet:

  • 河 (hé / river)
  • 湖 (hú / lake)
  • 池 (chí / pond)
  • 海 (hǎi / sea)
  • 浪 (làng / wave)
  • 流 (liú / flow)
  • 汗 (hàn / sweat)
  • 液 (yè / liquid)

Here are examples of hands-on ways to teach Chinese radicals!

5. Memorize phonetic components of Chinese characters

Most Chinese characters are phonetic-semantic compounds.

After learning a few hundred Chinese characters, a budding reader may be able to recognize phonetic patterns and hypothesize the pronunciation of similar-appearing characters.

When my children encounter an unfamiliar character in a book, I encourage them to cover up part of the character to deduce the pronunciation and meaning.

Phonetic patterns may become obvious by studying similar-sounding characters side-by-side, such as in the 四五快读 (SiWuKuaiDu) book shown below.

In addition, tactile literacy activities and handwriting practice encourage careful attention to Chinese character components.

Do you need Pinyin and Zhuyin to memorize Chinese characters?

In the above tips, did you notice the absence of Pinyin and Zhuyin?

While Zhuyin and Pinyin can support independent reading of unfamiliar Chinese characters, they can interfere with attention and memorization.

Extra text can distract the reader from focusing on radical semantic-phonetic components and other contextual cues.

How to use Chinese memorization tips with kids

The first question that must be addressed is: How do you get kids interested in learning Chinese?

Parents, caregivers, and teachers can establish a positive Chinese learning foundation by:

  • Consistently speaking Chinese with their child(ren);
  • Using Chinese language as a means of love and bonding;
  • Providing resources and experiences in tune with the child’s interests and
  • Cultivating relationships with Chinese-speaking friends and relatives.

Explore this: Positive Affirmations Kids Need to Hear

If parents can create a fun language learning environment at home, the rest of the steps can follow with time, practice, and patience.

  • Gradually, collect books, music, and other resources your child will like.
  • Create healthy daily reading habits, and point out familiar parts of Chinese characters.
  • Avoid forced reading, which can quickly squash interest.

If current methods are not working, brainstorm with your child. Some kids need to take a break from reading, and that’s okay. Come up with a plan to make Chinese learning fun together.

“世上无难事,只怕有心人。(Shìshàng wú nánshì,zhǐ pà yǒuxīn rén.)

Nothing is impossible to a willing mind.” – Chinese Proverb

What other strategies help you memorize Chinese characters?

Please share any tips that have helped you remember Chinese characters. We’d love to learn from your experience!

More tools for learning Chinese characters

7 Comments

  1. Is there a way that I can teach my 3 year old how to remember and recognise the characters ? I am struggling and losing patience. Even with different type of games and activities.

    When I scold her she blanks out and it’s not helping either of us. Thanks in advance for your advise.

  2. Guilherme says:

    I started learning Mandarin a short time ago, for beginners should we be concerned with learning to write characters now? As far as I know we first learned Pinyin, but my doubt is after how long studying Pinyin, do we learn to write? this doubt brings me anxiety and has affected my learning, because I am afraid of the characters, or afraid of never being able to learn 🙁 Do you have any advice to give me?

  3. Marcus Miers says:

    Dear Betty,
    I am having some trouble understanding a story called “Laohu he Tuzi” about a tiger who fools a rabbit into thinking it will not eat it. For example, BA might mean “to seize,” or it might mean the word order will be different. If I send you copies of some of these pages, could I find out what they really mean?”
    Xiexie!
    Marcus

  4. hi
    do you reccomend any flashcards to learn characters, simplified?

      1. Are plain flashcard better than pictorial kind?

        1. Hi Janice! In general, I believe that plain black-and-white flashcards in KaiTi font are best, especially for young children, if the purpose is to memorize the Chinese character. Can add texture (eg, sandpaper, puffy paint, glitter glue) or make a game out of the flashcards.

          Occasionally, I think pictures can spark interest and support if the picture is realistic and related to a pictograph character. Otherwise, most picture flashcards that I’ve seen are too busy or abstract. Then the kid has to interpret both the image and Chinese character.

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