This topic is more for people living in China or Taiwan whose Chinese level is competent enough that they use Chinese frequently in daily life.

My question is how often do you hand-write Chinese characters (as opposed to typing them with a pinyin input like on a computer or cell phone)?

Personally the only time I write characters is in class or when ordering dishes at a restaurant.

I use it very seldom. Mostly, when looking up characters and words in Pleco,, writing down addresses or filling out a form, which might be once a month.

I write every day. Even when using Chinese on my phone I use the hand-writing input system. At this point I've invested six years of my life into learning Chinese, so I might as well write characters every chance I get... now if only I had better hand writing.

Hi Skritter Jake, in what situations do you hand write characters?

@atdlouis, reminder notes to myself, emails to my friends, text messages etc. It helps that I'm still in school, so I have to write Chinese in some form or the other every single day. I just try to spend more time writing than typing in Chinese I suppose. While in school I'm also teaching Chinese on the side, so I try and do all my lesson preps in a notebook rather than typing them up, that way I can make notes on what works and what doesn't while I'm teaching.

I guess the fact that I'm getting my degree in teaching Chinese does give me a bit more incentive to write more often. I don't want to be the guy who forgets how to write a character in front of the class. We actually had someone giving a teaching demo who did that today (twice)... and while it is bound to happen (heck even native speakers face the same issue) I take pride in trying to know how to write all the material I'm teaching.

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I live in China. I feel like I write every day, but....it's probably closer to 5/6 days per week.

@Jake I'd love to hear about how you got a job teaching Chinese in Taiwan. I made a slight effort to find foreign students studying Chinese who could benefit from a Chinese speaker who also speaks/understands English and has a western frame of reference. I still think it would be a good idea, but as of now everyone I teach is learning English.

@Bohan, I don't want to thread jack. Once my semester is over I'll write a blog post Skritter about my experience in the Teaching Chinese as A Second Language program, and about teaching Chinese here in Taiwan.

sounds cool

I live in Taiwan and I handwrite everyday but it's often the same 20/50 characters (like our address, some names or technical terms)

Interesting topic.
I find myself wondering why we should learn how to write it instead of focusing on reading and listening.
It's so time-consuming and in the end you don't need it that often.
I came to this conclusion because recently I began to do business trips to China. And I can communicate with the people very well. Also, I can understand a big deal of the characters.
So therefore I current lack on motivation to continue my writing exercises.
What's your position on this?

Once you're in the 2-3000+ character range (required to be reasonably literate) writing is a huge help in remembering the differences between similar characters.

As a beginning student of Mandarin, using Rosetta Stone and making my own printed character drawing practice sheets, I find I am fascinated much, much more by the drawing of the characters on paper with a pencil than by the listening or speaking of the characters.

I have never endeavored to draw or practice any type of art. I am a well rounded, well trained and well studied musician.

The very first Mandarin character I ever drew with a pencil was a thundering epiphany for me. Here was art, drawing art fused with language. WOW! It blew my mind.

I have a friend who is from Thailand, is profoundly deaf, does not speak and only uses sign language. He can write in Mandarin, like, blazing fast and beautifully and he gets a great deal of enjoyment from that. If it's there for him, then the world of writing Mandarin characters must be, much more richer and rewarding than one might imagine when just starting.

My ability to retain the pinyin, the proper pronunciation, the proper tone, and the definition, AND, a contextual definition of a character is so hugely enhanced by learning to both draw, and appreciate the drawing of the character and its historical evolution that I cannot assign any logical value to that, except magnitudes of advantage for practicing the characters.

Now, if you will give me iPad skritter I will ... be very, very, very, very happy. :-)

I recently ordered the 64GB Wifi iPad version 3 and the Pogo Sketch Pro and may have to seek psychiatric assistance if I don't get skritter for iPad soon. :-)

Rooting for YOU! Code well.