A Primer on Writing Chinese

[Renzhe]

Feel like trying out Chinese?

 

This is a primer on the Chinese writing system. More specifically, this guide covers Regular Script, the modern standard style of writing Chinese. I'm writing this guide in an attempt to introduce my fellow FPNers to this fascinating script. Perhaps it might encourage them to try writing a few characters, or perhaps even seriously study Chinese calligraphy. Calligraphers of other scripts might find Chinese particularly interesting. One does not need to know any Chinese to write the characters. There are many people who write beautifully but cannot speak a word or construct a sentence of Chinese.

 

I will not give you a history lesson. For that, read this.

 

 

The Structure of Chinese Characters

 

(Note: I will use the Hanyu Pinyin romanization system to describe pronunciation. For more information about Hanyu Pinyin, read Wikipedia's article on Hanyu Pinyin.)

 

Let's start from the very beginning (a very good place to start). The Chinese writing system is composed exclusively of Chinese characters (漢字 han4 zi4). Each character occupies a square frame, i.e. most characters are square shaped.

 

Each character is composed of radicals. One may think of radicals as letters, where a character would be a word composed of letters. More accurately, a radical is merely an element that may be semantic or phonetic, that contributes to the character's meaning or pronunciation. All radicals can stand alone as characters. Unlike letters in alphabetic writing systems, radicals often change shape depending on the character they're in. They can be squished or stretched in order to make room for other radicals, balance a character, or just because it looks pretty. Furthermore, a few radicals have different forms depending on the character they're in. We'll look at those later.

 

Radicals are further composed of strokes. It is important to know what counts as a stroke and what doesn't. Basically a stroke is a continuous line that you write without lifting your writing instrument. I'll get to it in detail later.

 

In summary, strokes compose radicals, and radicals compose characters. Another way to think of it is that radicals are pure elements (such as carbon, hydrogen, etc.) that may stand alone (as in diamond, or H2) or mix up to form other compounds (such as methane).

 

Let's look at a few example characters.

 

(Note: For this section, I will use a non-calligraphic typeface, because I want to give you just the facts and nothing else.)

 

字

This character means "character," and is pronounced zi4 in Mandarin. It is composed of two radicals:

宀and子

宀 (mian2) means "roof." It is a semantic element because writing is an activity one does indoors. 子 (zi3) means "child," but its meaning doesn't matter. It contributes only in pronunciation. Both 宀 and 子 can stand alone as characters, although modern Chinese expresses "roof" differently.

 

Another example:

紙

This character means "paper," and is pronounced zhi3. It is composed of two radicals:

糸 and 氏

糸 (si1) means "silk." Before paper, the Chinese wrote on silk. Paper is a fibrous material like silk, which is why the character for paper has the silk radical. 氏 (shi4) means "surname," but its meaning doesn't matter. It contributes only in pronunciation. Both of these radicals may stand alone as characters.

 

As I mentioned before, a few radicals change form. A common one is "water," pronounced shui3:

水

It often occurs in this form on the left of other radicals:

氵

…as in the character for "sweat" han4:

汗

水 contributes semantically. The radical 干 means "celestial stem" and is pronounced gan1. As one would expect, it only contributes phonetically.

 

You might have noticed that all of the characters I've listed so far are phono-semantic compounds, where one element contributes phonetically while another contributes semantically. The vast majority of Chinese characters are like this.

 

One final example:

櫻

This character means "cherry" (the tree) and is pronounced ying1. It contains four radicals:

木, 貝, another 貝, and 女.

櫻 is a phono-semantic compound. 木 (mu4) means "tree." 貝 (bei4) means "shell." 女 (nü3) means "woman." Obviously 木 is the semantic element here. Which is the phonetic element? In this character, it is the whole right side:

嬰

This is a character which means "infant" and is pronounced ying1, but this character is a phono-semantic compound too! 女 is the semantic element (because infants are rather effeminate), while the phonetic element is…

賏

…which means "necklace of shells" and is pronounced ying1. This makes 櫻 a phono-semantic compound which contains another phono-semantic compound.

 

 

Writing Chinese Characters

 

As I mentioned before, the most basic component of a Chinese character is a stroke. There are 8 basic ones. They are assigned numbers.

1. 點 dian3 "dot." It is a raindrop-shaped dot, with the point to the upper right. One writes it from the top left to the bottom right.

http://i25.tinypic.com/25rkux3.png(It may be elongated thus:http://i26.tinypic.com/2gvv9me.png)

2. 橫 heng2 "horizontal." It is a straight horizontal stroke from left to right.

http://i26.tinypic.com/24b8bxu.png (Okay, so that's not really horizontal. "Horizontal" strokes often slant up at the right in script.)

3. 豎 shu4 "vertical." It is a straight vertical stroke from top to bottom.

http://i30.tinypic.com/2qw1mjc.png

4. 鉤 gou1 "hook." Hooks are attachments onto other strokes. They are returns to approximately the opposite direction of the stroke, while quickly lifting the writing instrument. They are usually made in preparation for the next stroke, which would usually begin in the region where the hook is pointing. There are hooks attached to these two strokes:

http://i30.tinypic.com/23rlqg7.png

5. 挑 tiao1 "lift." It's a straight tapering line going from thick at the lower left to thin at the upper right.

http://i32.tinypic.com/ra0s8y.png

6. 撇 pie3 "slant." It is a slightly curved, tapering stroke going from thick at the upper right to thin at the lower left.

http://i32.tinypic.com/f35g8p.png

7. 短撇 duan3 pie3 "short slant." It's a short, less curvy slant.

http://i30.tinypic.com/1625ifp.png

8. 捺 na4 "press." It's a slightly curved, tapering stroke going from thin at the top left to thick at the bottom right.

http://i25.tinypic.com/4gnm9z.png

 

These 8 basic strokes may merge with one another to form more complex strokes.

 

This character, pronounced yong2, meaning "permanence," contains all 8 of these common strokes:

http://i27.tinypic.com/149v1bk.png

…leading to the appellation of these 8 strokes to be the Eight Principles of Yong (永字八法 yong2 zi4 ba1 fa3). Review them here.

 

Recall that strokes compose radicals, which can stand alone as characters. Let us try writing a character. Perhaps the simplest character is this, pronounced yi1, meaning "one:"

http://i26.tinypic.com/24b8bxu.png

Yes, it's a single horizontal!

 

Two (er4) and three (san1) are similar in construction:

http://i27.tinypic.com/j9pqax.png

But which stroke do you write first? Here's a rule of thumb: The stroke that ends lowest is written last. If they end at the same height, the stroke that ends on the right is written last.

 

How about some variety? Write ten (shi2).

http://i30.tinypic.com/dfdjs4.png

Of course, you would write the horizontal first, because the vertical ends lower.

 

Now write regulate (yi4).

http://i32.tinypic.com/2s7uqlz.png

It's a slant and a press. Both end at approximately the same height, but the press ends on the right, so it is written last.

 

Now, to introduce another rule, write prisoner (qiu2).

http://i29.tinypic.com/ou8cqv.png

(It might be interesting to note that the radical in the middle is person [ren2]. This person is confined.) The rule here is that if there is a frame, write the frame, write its contents, and close it at the bottom if you need to. In this character, the frame is the outer rectangle. Therefore, one would first write the vertical on the left. Then, write the horizontal on top and without lifting your writing instrument, make a -90 degree turn and write the vertical on the right, ending with a hook (This counts as one stroke because you didn't lift your writing instrument.). Then you would write the person radical. You know how to do that—since the dot ends on the right, it's written last. After completing the contents of your frame, you can close it on the bottom.

 

At this point, I feel the need to clarify what counts as a stroke. Again, if you don't lift your writing instrument, it's one stroke. Therefore, the most complex stroke in 卐 is the vertical-horizontal-vertical stroke. In http://i29.tinypic.com/iefcp0.png, it is horizontal-vertical-horizontal. You cannot push straight up or straight left, because such strokes are not one of the 8 basic ones.

 

Here's another character with a frame. Ordinary (fan2).

http://i32.tinypic.com/b8u150.png

The frame is 几. First write the slant. Then the horizontal, merging with what is actually a press with a hook on it (but it has been turned in to save space and balance the character). Then write the dot in the middle.

 

Now, to introduce a third rule, write small (xiao3).

http://i27.tinypic.com/20j0k6e.png

At first one might think, that since the vertical stroke with the hook ends lowest, one should write it last, but what is that hook doing there anyway? Yes, it's made in preparation for the short slant that it points to. In characters that are symmetrically balanced vertically, write the center before the two sides. This ensures that your character will stay aligned. After you write the center, you can use it as a guide for the sides. Now, with that knowledge, it is obvious that the vertical with the hook is written first. After that, the short slant, and finally the dot.

 

Feeling good? Try this on for size.

http://i31.tinypic.com/1zfquqh.png

Remember this? It should be simple for you. You notice that it's kind of symmetrical vertically, so you begin with the center. Write the dot, then write the horizontal merging with the vertical and adding a hook. This completes the center. The left side has only one stroke, composed of the lift and the slant. The right side has a short slant and a press.

 

Now for our fourth and final rule regarding stroke order, write cherry (ying1).

http://i27.tinypic.com/hwz509.png

Wow…so many strokes. Are you going to go about determining which one ends lower and whatnot? No! The rule here is that you should finish writing one element before starting on another. Assuming you know the stroke order of the radicals 木, 貝, and 女 (whose stroke order is exceptional, by the way), you can find the stroke order for 櫻 using this rule. Remember that there are two elements in this character: 木 and 嬰. There are two elements in 嬰: 賏 and 女.There are two elements in 賏: two of 貝. Now let me tell you that element order is a lot like stroke order. So here we go! 木 and 嬰 end the same height, but 木 ends on the left. Write 木 first. Within 嬰, 賏 is higher than 女, so write 賏 first. Within 賏, both of 貝 end at the same height, so write the left one first. Thus, the overall radical order is 木, 貝, 貝, 女. You're done!

 

I've mentioned four rules since we have started writing.

1. The stroke that ends lowest is written last. If they end at the same height, the stroke that ends on the right is written last.

2. If there is a frame, write the frame, write its contents, and then close it at the bottom if you need to.

3. In characters that are symmetrically balanced vertically, write the center before the two sides.

4. Finish writing one element before starting on another.

The rest are exceptions. These four rules will help you deduce the stroke order of most characters.

 

If you're ever unsure about the stroke order of a character, you can look it up in an online handbook which lists the stroke order for many common characters. It works like a dictionary. Learn how to use one. See endnote 1.

 

As you are just writing, there is no need for you to have any vocabulary. It might be helpful, though, to have a few characters memorized. As your vocabulary increases, you will first be memorizing the stroke order of radicals that you use most often. After learning to write the most common radicals, you will no longer be memorizing stroke order but radical order. Radical order later transcends into element order. Then, seemingly complex characters such as 櫻 are easily reduced to only two elements.

 

 

How to Make It Pretty

 

First, you should follow your internal sense of beauty. If you find something beautiful, someone else will too.

 

If you want to get really good, the best strategy is to copy famous dead calligraphers' handwriting. No kidding!

 

But here are a few things that you might want to pay attention to. Many of them apply to calligraphy in all writing systems.

1. Balance. That is, if what you wrote turned into brass, the center of gravity of the piece of brass would be the center of the character.

2. Consistent white space. Give each stroke, each radical, each element some room. They're squishy. Squish them into place.

If you're using a writing instrument that allows line width variation, control your stroke width.

3. Write vertically. Chinese was meant to be written top to bottom, right to left. If you don't, it will be difficult to balance characters in a line of text. Furthermore, the initial stroke of your characters will carry with it the funky inertia of the previous character which came from the left, while your last stroke will feel lop-sided having to start the next character on the right. You might as well try to get a consistent x-height while writing Latin characters vertically.

4. Use Traditional Chinese characters. The main reason why one would use Simplified Chinese characters is that they contain fewer strokes and are therefore faster to write. They are not easier to learn, or to read, but most of all (as this is the Penmanship forum) they are ugly.

 

 

What if you get bored?

Well, I'm sorry to say that you have been looking at only one Chinese style, Regular Script. Just as Latin characters can be written in Copperplate, Spencerian, Textura, Fraktur, Italic, etc. Chinese can be written in Kaishu, Xingshu, Caoshu, Lishu, Zhuanshu, etc. You can read about many styles here.

 

Or, learn another writing system!

Thanks for reading!

 

 

 

 

End Notes

1. So here's how to use a dictionary. Each character is classified under a radical. Let us just call it the main radical. Usually, it's the first radical you write, but there are exceptions. Most dictionaries recognize 214 main radicals. First determine how many strokes are in the main radical. Then find the radical in the index. Once you've found the main radical, determine how many additional strokes there are in the character. Find that number under the main radical you've chosen, and follow the link to the page of entries. After that, find the character you're looking for. Here's an example. Let's use the Unihan Database as an example dictionary. It's not only a Chinese dictionary. It's a dictionary of almost every language in the Sinosphere, including Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese. Where they have data, they even include Tang Dynasty Middle Chinese pronunciations. Let's say you want to look up 櫻 in this dictionary. The first thing you write in 櫻 is 木, so it's probably the main radical. There are 4 strokes in 木, so click on 4 in the index. Now select 木. It's in the last column of the table. The rest of the character is 嬰. It contains 17 strokes. This dictionary allows you to enter a range of strokes, but since you're pretty sure it's 17, you can just enter 17 in both fields. You can check the "Use UTF-8" box to display text instead of images of text. If you're not sure whether your browser supports UTF-8, you'd better leave it unchecked. Click submit! You'll be presented with a list of characters that fit your criteria. 櫻 is in there, the sixth one. If you click on it, you'll be presented with everything in the Unihan Database about that character.

 

 

Edit: LOL! My picture of 卐 written calligraphically was deleted by my image host.

 

Edited by moderator at request of Renzhe.

Edited July 20, 2009 by Ann Finley

[Songwind]

This is fascinating.

 

I always wonder, how do you manage to learn to read is this system? How many radicals are there?

[Dr.Grace]

This is a wonderful intro, Renzhe!

 

If anyone is looking for a good way to learn to write Chinese, I'd recommend

 

Beginning Chinese Reader

by John DeFrancis.

 

It's a little out of date, but a great system for gradually learning characters. I've tried other methods, but this one gives enough repetition and uses the characters in various sentences, so you can't help but learn them. You may need help from other resources like Renzhe's intro above and Chinese grammar and pronunciation guides. My wife is Chinese, so I just ask her!

 

 

 

[Renzhe]

  Songwind said:

how do you manage to learn to read is this system? How many radicals are there?

 

You learn to read the same way you learn any other language. Learn some pronouns, learn the copula, learn some nouns, start making "A=B" sentences, etc. Here's an example super-mini-lesson:

The modern first person pronoun is 我, pronounced wo3.
人, pronounced ren2, means person, or human.
是, pronounced shi4, is the modern copula.
Chinese grammar is much like that of English. Convenient, no?
With the information above, you can then read this: "我是人。"

 

Most dictionaries recognize 214 radicals. However, as noted in the OP, some have variants.

[Songwind]

  Renzhe said:

You learn to read the same way you learn any other language. Learn some pronouns, learn the copula, learn some nouns, start making "A=B" sentences, etc. Here's an example super-mini-lesson:

The modern first person pronoun is 我, pronounced wo3.
人, pronounced ren2, means person, or human.
是, pronounced shi4, is the modern copula.
Chinese grammar is much like that of English. Convenient, no?
With the information above, you can then read this: "我是人。"

 

But that isn't the way you learn to read just any other language. A phonetic language (English, Spanish, Hindi, etc) has characters that represent sounds, so you learn what sounds they make, learn to say them together, and then you discover that you already know that word.

 

This may be one of those things I have trouble imagining because it's so very different.

[Dr.Grace]

There are significant differences in the way the brain handles reading of Asian and Western languages. PET scans showed different regions of the brain being used. Also, Mandarin and Cantonese are tonal languages, and the pitch variations influence the meaning of individual words. Even with the different "tones", there are a lot of words that sound alike but are written with different characters. Plus, there are substantial differences in grammar, for example Chinese has fewer tenses and different word orders. So it's really difficult in several different ways for us westerners to learn Chinese, and vice-versa.

[Huy]

  Songwind said:

  Renzhe said:

You learn to read the same way you learn any other language. Learn some pronouns, learn the copula, learn some nouns, start making "A=B" sentences, etc. Here's an example super-mini-lesson:

The modern first person pronoun is 我, pronounced wo3.
人, pronounced ren2, means person, or human.
是, pronounced shi4, is the modern copula.
Chinese grammar is much like that of English. Convenient, no?
With the information above, you can then read this: "我是人。"

 

But that isn't the way you learn to read just any other language. A phonetic language (English, Spanish, Hindi, etc) has characters that represent sounds, so you learn what sounds they make, learn to say them together, and then you discover that you already know that word.

 

This may be one of those things I have trouble imagining because it's so very different.

 

 

Reading chinese is not different from reading other languages. We read by reading whole words at once, not letter by letter. In chinese you have a character instead of a word and you would look at the character as a whole instead of reading stroke by stroke (not that you can read stroke by stroke).

 

As for understanding the meaning of characters, there are clues in the characters that help you determine the sound and meaning of that character. It is not unlike breaking down a word into smaller parts (such as prefix, suffix, etc) to try to figure out the meaning of words.

 

The hard part is memorizing the characters because they are in a different system than the ones we're used to.

[kirianth]

  Renzhe said:

4. Use Traditional Chinese characters. The main reason why one would use Simplified Chinese characters is that they contain fewer strokes and are therefore faster to write. They are not easier to learn, or to read, but most of all (as this is the Penmanship forum) they are ugly.

 

Amen!

 

Nicely done refresher course, thanks! It reminds me that I need to renew my fast decaying written vocabulary.

[absent_minded]

This is absolutely fascinating. Thank you!

[Renzhe]

  Songwind said:

  Renzhe said:

You...人。"[/code]

But...different.

 

English isn't a totally phonetic language either. As Huy said, one reads word by word. For example, throughout your life you've gotten used to associating "knight" with the sound /naɪt/, and the meaning "a medieval tenant giving military service." If you tried to pronounce it phonetically, you'd sound like you're a few hundred years old.

 

In Chinese, pictograms like 目 have absolutely no phonetic hints, but a Chinese reader (Let's say they speak Cantonese) would associate the pronunciation /mʊk/ and the meaning "eye" with it.

 

(Note that in oracle bone script, an old Chinese script, 目 is http://i32.tinypic.com/206ybl5.png.)

 

Ummm...I have a point somewhere...oh yeah. A language doesn't have to be phonetic for one to associate a pronunciation and meaning with a morpheme. One could write Chinese with English and English with Chinese, although it could get clumsy.

And if you think such a thing can't happen, check out Japanese

 

By the way, here is a newer site that features some common Chinese characters animated with the correct stroke order. You can search for characters by inputting the character, Hanyu Pinyin, Tongyong Pinyin, number of strokes, or Zhuyin Fuhao. It contains audio pronunciation (in Standard Mandarin) of the character, the main radical, the additional strokes, the initial, and the final. It also lets you practice writing with your cursor, lauding you when you use the correct stroke order. Unfortunately it's only in Chinese but you can see where links go if you hover over them and look at the URL.

Speaking of stroke order, the only standard I trust is that of the Ministry of Education of the ROC (the links I posted). The Japanese, Korean, and PRC standards are all messed up.

Edited June 25, 2008 by Renzhe

[Dr.Grace]

  Renzhe said:

By the way, here is a newer site that features some common Chinese characters animated with the correct stroke order. You can search for characters by inputting the character, Hanyu Pinyin, Tongyong Pinyin, number of strokes, or Zhuyin Fuhao. It contains audio pronunciation (in Standard Mandarin) of the character, the main radical, the additional strokes, the initial, and the final. It also lets you practice writing with your cursor, lauding you when you use the correct stroke order. Unfortunately it's only in Chinese but you can see where links go if you hover over them and look at the URL.

Speaking of stroke order, the only standard I trust is that of the Ministry of Education of the ROC (the links I posted). The Japanese, Korean, and PRC standards are all messed up.

 

Thanks for this link. Seems very useful!

[Sailor Kenshin]

Great article! I've been struggling with Japanese for years now and was flagging a bit. This may be just the thing I need to re-spark my interest.

[Titivillus]

  Dr.Grace said:

... Also, Mandarin and Cantonese are tonal languages, and the pitch variations influence the meaning of individual words. Even with the different "tones", there are a lot of words that sound alike but are written with different characters.

 

 

Oh yes. The tones...I was in Shanghai with a phrase book and got alot of interesting looks as I tried to get the middle rising tone right. It can sound like a person is angry with you but it is just the tones of the syllables and words.

 

But I did get the pleasantry words down and made sure I used them as much as possible since I was just happy that the other person put up with me trying to speak another language.

 

Kurt

[Renzhe]

Above, I claimed that I could write English with Chinese. Someone wanted me to demonstrate.

 

So, let us pretend that England was somewhere close to China, and spoke English, and didn't have a writing system...yet. Their only choice was Chinese, even though English would do much better with an alphabetic writing system. England starts off writing Chinese, but then they have to find a way to write English, and so they include stuff in Chinese that hint on how it would be read in English. Then they developed a way to write English by writing nouns, adjectives, verbs, etc. in Chinese while particles, conjugations, etc. would use a phonetic writing system. I'll take the following text and write all meaningful parts, like nouns, adjectives, and verbs, in Chinese. Everything else I'll use Latin.

  Wikipedia said:

Modern English, sometimes described as the first global lingua franca,^[7][8] is the dominant international language in communications, science, business, aviation, entertainment, radio and diplomacy. The initial reason for its enormous spread beyond the bounds of the British Isles, where it was originally a native tongue, was the British Empire, and by the late nineteenth century its reach was truly global. It is the dominant language in the United States, whose growing economic and cultural influence and status as a global superpower since World War II have significantly accelerated adoption of English as a language across the planet.

 

 

 

 

It becomes something like this (I added pronunciation above the Chinese.):

http://i44.tinypic.com/2jii2w.png

 

Of course, if something like this happened, English would likely adopt some Chinese pronunciations. I'll add some Old Cantonese readings, sans tones, where compounds are. I'll use minuscule letters for those. The result it this:

http://i44.tinypic.com/bg6zhu.png

 

This text would then normally appear as something like this:

http://i40.tinypic.com/211tawh.png

[adichew]

Hi ppl

 

I am a secondary student in singapore sitting for higher chinese Olevels this year. My teacher has often complained that my writing is illegible, even when I try to be neat(i.e. keep all characters seperate). I find that when I am really neat (i.e. straight and smaller) I am slow and when I am fast, I am messy.

 

Could anyone please recommend me a writing system (using fountain pen) that can write (simplified) chinese at a fast rate (~17-25char/min) in a legible manner on low to medium grades of paper (nonpermeable but somewhat rought)? I hope I can get help here as my Olevel is coming soon. If I cannot write that fast, I might not have time to finish the composition papers.

 

I am using a Waterman Hemisphere, with a mind to change to a parker51 or pelikan M200 in the near future, with Parker Quink. My paper is standard school paper. It is somewhat permeable but quite rough. (For singaporeans, abot 3-4x roughness of azone paper)

 

Thx

 

Adi

[wykpenguin]

This is my shot at the translation. Because my Chinese is bad, I have switched the things around a bit and tweaked with the wordings in order to make it work. I didn't count, but the paragraph has a total of about 150 characters. Here is how my paragraph would look like in English.

 

Modern English has been called the first lingua franca. It is the most widely used language in communications, science, business, aviation, entertainment, radio and diplomacy nowadays. The reason for it's growth from the native tongue of the British Isles' inhabitants to a global language can be traced to the rise of the British Empire. Because it is the mainstream language in the United States, the rapid acceptance of the English language has followed America's rise to a superpower after WWII and the expansion of her economical and cultural influence around the world.

 

I am writing straight down, so the columns go from right to left. The first one is the draft for the translation with all its adjustments (~10 minutes' work).

 

The 2nd panel is my "examination speed" (well actually a bit slower that what it used to be - haven't written so fast for a long time), which I had when I had to sit through 3 hours of nonstop writing during my Hong Kong A-Level Exam Chinese Language and Culture written section (there was another composition paper ). I write smaller (characters about 0.5 cm wide but vary in height) and the characters are more rounded with some strokes combined. As you can see, it borders on chicken scratch but it took a bit less than 6 minutes. Perfectly acceptable for HKALE markers, but what constitutes legible may vary in Singapore.

 

The more widely spaced version is how I normally write for correspondence, notes, etc. I consider that a leisurely pace. Characters fill an imaginary 1cm box. Took me 9 minutes.

 

I timed myself in response to Adichew's post. Turns out the chicken scratch is 25wrds/min and the neater version is 17wrds/min. What a coincidence! Adi, I would not suggest learning simplified in less than one year just for exams. From my experience it isn't any faster and I tend to write simplified incorrectly. Write more and you will write fast. I did it with my Pilot VP F nib.

 

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3333/3311952274_e8cedeede4_b_d.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3193/3311952328_60267273c0_b_d.jpg

Edited February 26, 2009 by wykpenguin

[adichew]

  wykpenguin said:

This is my shot at the translation. Because my Chinese is bad, I have switched the things around a bit and tweaked with the wordings in order to make it work. I didn't count, but the paragraph has a total of about 150 characters. Here is how my paragraph would look like in English.

 

Modern English has been called the first lingua franca. It is the most widely used language in communications, science, business, aviation, entertainment, radio and diplomacy nowadays. The reason for it's growth from the native tongue of the British Isles' inhabitants to a global language can be traced to the rise of the British Empire. Because it is the mainstream language in the United States, the rapid acceptance of the English language has followed America's rise to a superpower after WWII and the expansion of her economical and cultural influence around the world.

 

I am writing straight down, so the columns go from right to left. The first one is the draft for the translation with all its adjustments (~10 minutes' work).

 

The 2nd panel is my "examination speed" (well actually a bit slower that what it used to be - haven't written so fast for a long time), which I had when I had to sit through 3 hours of nonstop writing during my Hong Kong A-Level Exam Chinese Language and Culture written section (there was another composition paper ). I write smaller (characters about 0.5 cm wide but vary in height) and the characters are more rounded with some strokes combined. As you can see, it borders on chicken scratch but it took a bit less than 6 minutes. Perfectly acceptable for HKALE markers, but what constitutes legible may vary in Singapore.

 

The more widely spaced version is how I normally write for correspondence, notes, etc. I consider that a leisurely pace. Characters fill an imaginary 1cm box. Took me 9 minutes.

 

I timed myself in response to Adichew's post. Turns out the chicken scratch is 25wrds/min and the neater version is 17wrds/min. What a coincidence! Adi, I would not suggest learning simplified in less than one year just for exams. From my experience it isn't any faster and I tend to write simplified incorrectly. Write more and you will write fast. I did it with my Pilot VP F nib.

 

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3333/3311952274_e8cedeede4_b_d.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3193/3311952328_60267273c0_b_d.jpg

 

Thanks for the effort to experiment. Very much appreciated!

 

Actually, I ask about simplified because we have been taught simplified from young in Singapore. I was writing that because I thought there was a difference cos traditional tends to have many more strokes/word.

 

[wykpenguin]

I don't know simplified well enough to be able to write something quickly with it. I imagine the lack of strokes will not actually speed you up too much because we tend to join strokes in traditional anyway.

 

Why don't you upload a sample of your own writing for us to see.

[Dr.Grace]

If your paper is very rough, you'll probably want to avoid extra-fine nibs. I'd stick with a western fine (Asian medium). The best I've found are Japanese, especially Pilot: for example the Custom 74 or Custom 823. A Platinum 3776 in medium would also be excellent. A Sailor might work also, but I've found that the nibs are not always as smooth. Alternatively, you can use the Zebra super-fine brush pens, which I really love for writing Chinese characters.

[jimbro2k]

  wykpenguin said:

The reason for it's growth from the native tongue of the British Isles' inhabitants to a global language can be traced to the rise of the British Empire. Because it is the mainstream language in the United States, the rapid acceptance of the English language has followed America's rise to a superpower after WWII and the expansion of her economical and cultural influence around the world.[/i]

 

Translation:

British Imperialism and Hollywood Movies.

 

BTW: Very clear and legible characters. Much better than my scrawl..

Edited February 27, 2009 by jimbro2k