{"id":991,"date":"2014-10-10T18:10:10","date_gmt":"2014-10-10T10:10:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/writtenchinese.com\/?p=991"},"modified":"2015-09-29T17:33:39","modified_gmt":"2015-09-29T09:33:39","slug":"written-chinese-start","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.writtenchinese.com\/written-chinese-start\/","title":{"rendered":"Written Chinese: Where do I start?"},"content":{"rendered":"

It will only take [est_time] to read this post!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Posted by Hollie\u00a0 from W<\/strong>rittenC<\/strong>hinese.C<\/strong>om<\/em><\/p>\n

Recently, we’ve had lots of visitors at\u00a0W<\/strong>rittenC<\/strong>hinese.C<\/strong>om<\/em><\/a> asking \u2018Where do I start?\u2019 \u2018What should I do if I want to learn Chinese from the beginning?\u2019 And these are great questions, because unless you can speak another Asian language such as Japanese or Cantonese, there are very few similarities, if any between Mandarin Chinese and most other languages. So, it\u2019s more difficult to relate to and make connections between Chinese and your own language, which is often how people begin to learn.<\/p>\n

Although I can speak some Chinese, I have only just began to learn to read and write Mandarin, so I\u2019m in the same boat as many of you, and I\u2019ve also asked the same question \u2018Where do I start?<\/a>\u2019<\/p>\n

\"\u81ea\u5df1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Since I began to recognise characters my Chinese learning has become so much more interesting. Even with a few basic characters under my belt, I can catch the meaning of a text message, or messages posted by my Chinese friends on WeChat. I can even feel my way around a bus schedule so I don\u2019t end up on the other side of the city, and let\u2019s be honest; it\u2019s happened to the best of us.<\/p>\n

I started by making my own flashcards, I was writing the Chinese character on one side and the pinyin or English on the other. But sometimes my handwriting was sloppy and I couldn\u2019t recognise my own characters, or I would go a long time without making new ones and my learning would get left behind.<\/p>\n

But then I started to use the Learn\u00a0Chinese Bigrams app.<\/p>\n

Since I wrote this article, Written Chinese has released the WCC Dictionary mobile app<\/a>, which also has Bigram flashcards. To study a bigram, you just need to add them to your Quick List or custom flashcard list and hit the ‘study button’ to get learning!<\/p>\n

\"Study<\/a><\/p>\n

Now I know you’re probably asking: \u2018What\u2019s a bigram?\u2019<\/p>\n

Bigrams are groups of 2 letters, 2 syllables or 2 words that are commonly found together. So for example in English, the most frequently used bigrams are \u2018TH\u2019 and \u2018ER\u2019.<\/p>\n

Here are a few reasons why bigrams are (in our opinion) a better ways to learn characters are:<\/p>\n