I mean that being able to write something more or less guarantees that you can also read it, but the opposite is not true (and the difference is huge compared to, say, English). The context here is that practising handwriting might be worth it, not because you need to write everything by hand all the time, but because it etches the character into your memory a lot deeper than just reading does.

Olle,

another great article. You are very prolific these days.

What do you mean “they are much more likely to know how to read it”?
In English or any phonetic language this question is not in place, however in ideographic Chinese language – to read can be divided in A to produce the sound of the word from the ideogram, B – to comprehend the ideogram’s meaning. In other words A is recall for pronunciation, B is recall for meaning.

On the note of learning a language with wheels. Learning language takes time, brain has limited retention capacity and needs time to consolidate the new inputs/intakes for recall and eventually reproduction. I see the technology being developed in 3 ways – 1.to speed up comprehension of the foreign language material, 2. to perfect long known methodology of SR learning, 3. to dopamine spike and motivate learners in their pursuit of language.

Cheers from Chongqing.
MH

I mostly agree with what you say and I think handwriting is mostly done for two reasons: better understanding of characters and better retention in general. Most people I’ve talked to agree that knowing how to write a character also means they are much more likely to know how to read it as well. I also think that there’s a merit in handwriting for beginners since they need to understand the basics of how Chinese characters work, so I can’t really imagine someone aiming for all four skills skipping handwriting entirely. Exactly how much they should spend on that is a matter of debate, though. I usually toss out the number 1000 since that covers most of the basic characters, but if it’s done purely for reading purposes, fewer could work too.

As someone (and an educator) who can type and speak fluently but has all but forgotten how to write, I have very strong views on this. How often, in 2016, does one need to write a character by hand in real life? Unless you’re a student taking Chinese or academic subjects in Chinese, almost never! Soon, even exams will be on-screen (my grade 10 maths students recently completed their first ever completely digital exams as part of their International Baccalaureate programme, and this trend looks set to roll out to senior high school exams in the next 5 years).

In the near future, the only reason to learn to write characters will be to help you learn how to read them. But I maintain there is another path. Maintaining discipline during tablet/kindle reading practice (turn off notifications etc) and smart use of SRS flashcards (ie make sure you add characters to your deck that you can’t figure out via context), combined with plenty of typing practice with native speakers (email, wechat, forums, Facebook and blog posting, etc) can achieve very good results.

If, in the future digital environment, the training wheels will almost always be there anyway, who cares if you occasionally have to look up an infrequently seen character? If you have your grammar structures down, can type and speak fluently, and don’t resort to Google translate, haven’t you achieved the goal of being able to effectively communicate and function in a Chinese immersion environment?

Benson

PS – I learnt to speak Chinese in the early 2000s by jumping on hard seat trains in backwater China and finding places that aren’t in the guidebook (and my phone was a Nokia brick). I don’t know about Taiwan, but have you ever tried asking someone in Mainland China for directions? It seems map reading and giving directions are 2 topics that are missing from their national curriculum 🙂

20 May 2016 Dear Yan: I have been studying Chinese since I was retired in 2013. I have several local teachers with whom I study regularly. I have nobody to talk to online. I teach English to a young child in China. We use WeChat. That has been moderately successful so far. I live in Princeton, New Jersey, USA. I also desire to begin reading and writing “hanzi.” I hope to hear from you.