I'm doing well when speech , pronunciation etc. The characters are very difficult for me. .... I write them down and do that cards when them .. they just don't stick. . any tips?
I use Anki for flash cards and do them every day. And I tell myself little stories about the parts of each character, associated with its meaning. After a while I just know them.
This is exactly what worked for me too. The "little stories" approach makes all the difference — gives your brain something to actually hold onto instead of brute-forcing shapes.
The Hanly app is brilliant. It teaches you the meanings of the radicals that form the characters, and gives you a mnemonic for each to remember them by.
It’s so much easier to remember the characters when you understand exactly how they are built.
The first couple hundred characters are the hardest imo. You have basically no mental map for them, they seem random, you’re trying to learn them while also being overwhelmed by all of the other aspects of the language.
Once you have a hundred or so under your belt, you’re able to recognize the patterns in characters’ shape/composition and pronunciation more easily.
Repetition. This is not uncommon. HSK 1 shouldn’t require writing them but writing is how you remember. I used to write them in my head when falling off to sleep. But I kept my phone next to my bed to look up what I forgot.
That feeling is super normal since characters do not behave like alphabet letters and your brain needs a different hook to remember them. What helped me was seeing the same HSK words pop up again and again in small quizzes instead of only writing them once and forgetting. I used quick tests like https://www.lingoclass.co.uk/hsk-quiz to spot which characters kept slipping and it made my reviews much more focused
Once you connect a character to a sound and a meaning in real context it starts to feel more alive instead of just a bunch of strokes. Even at HSK1 level just recognizing them quickly builds confidence and after a while they really do start sticking in a way flashcards alone never did
It’s great to hear that your speech and pronunciation are going well! I totally understand that characters feel tricky because they’re visual, not just sounds. Writing them and using flashcards helps, but what really makes them stick is connecting them to meaningful context. Try learning them in short sentences or little phrases instead of as isolated words. When a character is part of something personal or meaningful, your brain links the shape, sound, and meaning all at once. Copying sentences, noticing the components or radicals, and using the words in your own examples will make them much easier to remember.
Read the accompanying material in your textbook. Reading and having meaningful interaction with the characters will help you remember them better. Flashcards are okay, but having meaningful interaction will create a much stronger memory (either reading or writing the words in a story/ diary)
I use Anki for flash cards and do them every day. And I tell myself little stories about the parts of each character, associated with its meaning. After a while I just know them.
This is exactly what worked for me too. The "little stories" approach makes all the difference — gives your brain something to actually hold onto instead of brute-forcing shapes.
The Hanly app is brilliant. It teaches you the meanings of the radicals that form the characters, and gives you a mnemonic for each to remember them by.
It’s so much easier to remember the characters when you understand exactly how they are built.
Hanly App
Flashcards and SRS, your pick. That will work, I guarantee it. But it's slow, that's the nature of this kind of memory acquisition.
The first couple hundred characters are the hardest imo. You have basically no mental map for them, they seem random, you’re trying to learn them while also being overwhelmed by all of the other aspects of the language.
Once you have a hundred or so under your belt, you’re able to recognize the patterns in characters’ shape/composition and pronunciation more easily.
Repetition is key. The more you study the more easily the characters are to differentiate.
What’s some characters that are difficult for you?
The simple characters are ok... Things like ling, Ni hao, etc
Repetition. This is not uncommon. HSK 1 shouldn’t require writing them but writing is how you remember. I used to write them in my head when falling off to sleep. But I kept my phone next to my bed to look up what I forgot.
That feeling is super normal since characters do not behave like alphabet letters and your brain needs a different hook to remember them. What helped me was seeing the same HSK words pop up again and again in small quizzes instead of only writing them once and forgetting. I used quick tests like https://www.lingoclass.co.uk/hsk-quiz to spot which characters kept slipping and it made my reviews much more focused
Once you connect a character to a sound and a meaning in real context it starts to feel more alive instead of just a bunch of strokes. Even at HSK1 level just recognizing them quickly builds confidence and after a while they really do start sticking in a way flashcards alone never did
It’s great to hear that your speech and pronunciation are going well! I totally understand that characters feel tricky because they’re visual, not just sounds. Writing them and using flashcards helps, but what really makes them stick is connecting them to meaningful context. Try learning them in short sentences or little phrases instead of as isolated words. When a character is part of something personal or meaningful, your brain links the shape, sound, and meaning all at once. Copying sentences, noticing the components or radicals, and using the words in your own examples will make them much easier to remember.
Read the accompanying material in your textbook. Reading and having meaningful interaction with the characters will help you remember them better. Flashcards are okay, but having meaningful interaction will create a much stronger memory (either reading or writing the words in a story/ diary)