Hi Dia7190,

I agree with you because when you learn certain amount of words, you will start to get confused. As for you, those words are just sounds, therefore, you have to learn characters.

Benny

Learn Chinese, Learn Mandarin from AskBenny

Dear Dia,

I have had excactly the opposite, I first learned wrting and reading Chinese characters and speaking Chinese language later.
I agree it is very difficult to memorize Chinese characters, but it is not
impossible. In fact it can be quite fun.
To begin with the Chinese script has 254 (I believe, but Benny will know for sure) basic characters called radicals. These basic characters represend basic idears, like 人 rén = men 女 nǚ = woman 木 mù = wood 心 xīn = heart 子 zǐ =child
All other Chinese characters are composed out two or more of these radicals, for example: hǎo 好 = composed of 子 + 女 a woman and a child, meaning good, 他 tā is composed of 人 + 也 meaning he, xiǎng is composed of three radicals 木 + 目+ 心: looking from behind a three in your heart, meaning to think.
So if you get familiar with those 254 basic radicals (not all of them because some are rarely used) you can memorize each Chinese character by the radicals it is composed of. If you see for example 酒 jiǔ for the first time you can guess it has something to do with water or a fluid, since the radical氵(水) shuǐ means water. The character next to it lokes like a bottle so some liquid in a bottle, it means wine!
So although it is quite a formidable job to learn Chinese characters it is a lot of fun too! (Isn’t it Benny 我觉得学汉字是很乐趣的对不对本霓我尊敬汉语老师？)
If you need any help in studiying Chinese characters you can ask me.

Roland
Lulanke
www.architaga.nl