{"id":43,"date":"2022-07-20T11:53:28","date_gmt":"2022-07-20T15:53:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/platform-for-chinese\/?page_id=43"},"modified":"2022-10-07T00:40:50","modified_gmt":"2022-10-07T04:40:50","slug":"questions","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/chinesecharacters\/questions\/","title":{"rendered":"Q &amp; A"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><strong>A.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong><strong>How many characters are there in Chinese? How many characters do I need to know to be considered literate?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The precise quantity of Chinese characters is a mystery; numerous, rare variants have accumulated throughout history. Although there are 47,035 Chinese characters in the\u00a0<em>Kangxi Dictionary\u00a0<\/em>(\u5eb7\u7199\u5b57\u5178), the standard national dictionary developed during the 18<sup>th<\/sup>\u00a0and 19<sup>th<\/sup>\u00a0centuries, one only needs to know two or three thousand to be considered literate. Studies from China have shown that 90% of Chinese newspapers and magazines tend to use 3,500 basic characters. You will learn about 650 characters when you finish CHI 101 and 102.<\/p>\n<h2>B.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <strong>What should I pay attention to when I am practicing characters?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Some characters are very similar to each other, so when you are writing characters, please pay special attention to\n<ol>\n<li>the length of a stroke: longer or shorter\uff1a\u58eb solider \u571f earth<\/li>\n<li>the position of a stroke: higher or lower \uff1a\u4eba person \u516b eight\u00a0 \u5165 to enter<\/li>\n<li>the size of components: \u00a0\u59d3 vs \u5973\u751f\u00a0\u00a0 \u597d vs\u5973\u5b50<\/li>\n<li>out of line or not: \u725bcow \u5348 noon<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Be familiar with the writing rules: strokes and sequences of strokes<\/li>\n<li>Be clear about the structure of a character: top and bottom; left and right; frame and innards<\/li>\n<li>When you are writing character, spend some time on analyzing the structure and components of a character, then write it component by component, instead of stroke by stroke.<\/li>\n<li>Read aloud and remember the meaning and radical not strokes<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><strong>C.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong><strong>How to practice characters so I can remember them better? <\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Learn the meanings of the radicals and the history of and analyze the structure of a character helps.<\/li>\n<li>Summarize characters with the same radical to help you straighten out characters that look alike and create new connections<\/li>\n<li>Use flashcards<\/li>\n<li>Practice characters for a couple of times, then try to <strong>write it from memory<\/strong>. If you cannot remember it, please write it 2 or 3 times, and come back to it after studying other characters until you can write it from memory.<\/li>\n<li>Try to <strong>write the whole dialogue or text out of memory<\/strong>, and then practice more those you don\u2019t remember.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><strong>D.\u00a0 <\/strong><strong>Are there any useful APPs or websites that I can use to practice characters?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Previous students find the following APPs or websites very helpful for characters learning and practicing,<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Pleco<\/strong>: an APP is useful as a dictionary to look up the meaning and breaking down the character components.<\/li>\n<li>Quizlet: Flashcard and games, handwriting feature are very helpful for character learning and writing.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Anki <\/strong>with \u201cChinese Support Redux\u201d Add-on<\/li>\n<li><strong>dong-chinese.com\/wiki\/home<\/strong>, an open-source dictionary that have pinyin, stroke order gif, components, and etymology of a character<\/li>\n<li><strong>Yellow Bridge Chinese<\/strong>: you can search for and read about etymology and the construction of a character\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.yellowbridge.com\/chinese\/dictionary.php\">https:\/\/www.yellowbridge.com\/chinese\/dictionary.php<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-summary\">\nA.\u00a0\u00a0 How many characters are there in Chinese? How many characters do&hellip;\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/chinesecharacters\/questions\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &ldquo;Q &amp; A&rdquo;<\/span>&hellip;<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":4506,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-43","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/chinesecharacters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/43","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/chinesecharacters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/chinesecharacters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/chinesecharacters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4506"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/chinesecharacters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/chinesecharacters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/43\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":113,"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/chinesecharacters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/43\/revisions\/113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/chinesecharacters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}