Five things make Chinese characters stick: recalling them from memory instead of re-reading, spacing the practice out, writing them by hand, learning the parts they're built from, and meeting each word in a sentence.
The first two matter most. A 2013 review of 10 common study techniques rated exactly two as most useful, testing yourself and spacing practice out, and rated re-reading and highlighting low.
None of the five needs a parent who reads Chinese. Each is below, with what to do tonight.
Your child copies 雨 ten times on Thursday, writes it perfectly on Friday, and a fortnight later stares at it like a stranger. It's maddening, and it's normal.
Copying feels like learning because the character is right there on the page. That's the problem: nothing has to come out of memory, so very little goes in.
I'm Joshua. We speak English at home, and when my daughter started Primary 1, Chinese was a struggle: worksheets weren't sticking. Here's what the research says does stick.
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What's in the sample
- Lessons 1 to 3 of your child's level, Standard Chinese, as an Anki deck: 2024 syllabus for P1 to P3, old syllabus for P4 to P6.
- Each full level has Standard and Higher Chinese. P1 to P3 come in both the old and the 2024 syllabus.
- Open it in Anki on your phone, tablet or computer. Anki is free on Android, Mac and Windows.
1. Recall it, don't re-read it
Show the English or play the sound, and ask for the character from memory. Only then show it. The effort of pulling it out is what makes it stay.
In a 2006 study, students who tested themselves on a passage remembered 56% of it a week later; students who re-read it remembered 42%. Re-reading actually did better on a test five minutes later, which is why it feels like it works.
Re-reading wins in the short run, which is why it's so tempting: in a 2006 study, students who re-read a passage did better on a test five minutes later.
A week later it flipped. Students who had tested themselves remembered 56% of the passage; students who re-read it remembered 42%. So ask first, show second, every time.
2. Space it out
A character seen four times in one evening is weaker than one seen four times over two weeks. In 1885 Hermann Ebbinghaus found that 38 repetitions spread over three days worked as well as 68 crammed into one day.
A simple schedule: see it today, then in 3 days, then 1 week, then 3 weeks, then 2 months. Each successful recall pushes the next one further out.
3. Write it by hand
For Chinese, writing helps reading. In a 2005 study of 131 Beijing primary pupils, how well children could copy characters by hand predicted how well they read, more than their sense of sounds did. The authors' explanation: writing makes a child look closely at a character's structure, and builds a memory of the movements.
So for characters on the writing list, have your child write them from memory, in the right stroke order, and check.
Writing looks like a separate skill from reading, but a 2005 study of 131 Beijing primary pupils found them closely tied: how well children could copy characters by hand predicted how well they read, more than their sense of sounds did.
Writing forces a child to notice every part of a character, and the hand remembers the movements. For the characters on the writing list, writing from memory is reading practice too.
4. Learn the parts
Most characters are built from smaller pieces, and many of them carry a hint. In P1 alone:
| Character | Built from | The hint |
|---|---|---|
| 妈 (mā, mum) | 女 + 马 | 女 (woman) for meaning, 马 (mǎ) for sound |
| 吗 (ma, question word) | 口 + 马 | 口 (mouth): a spoken word; 马 for sound |
| 她 (tā, she) | 女 + 也 | 女 (woman): she |
| 他 (tā, he) | 亻 + 也 | 亻 (person): he |
Once your child knows 女, 口 and 马, three new characters are mostly familiar. Point out the parts when a new character comes up; a child who sees 妈 as 女 + 马 has two things to remember instead of six strokes.
5. Meet it in a sentence
A character alone is easy to forget. In a sentence about something your child can picture, it has a meaning to hang on. Ask your child to say a short sentence with each new word, and read a little Chinese every day so the words keep turning up.
Doing all five, every day
Each of these is simple. Doing all five for every character, every week, for six years is the hard part: somebody has to remember which characters are due today.
That's the job Anki does, and why I built the MOE Chinese Anki Deck on it.
Homemade flashcards run into the same wall: hours of work, and no system for when to review what. Which of a hundred characters are due today?
So I spent hundreds of hours building the MOE Chinese Anki Deck, and let Anki keep track.
- Every word in the MOE syllabus, P1 to P6, lesson by lesson to match school, Standard and Higher Chinese, old and 2024 syllabus.
- Every card asks first (Recognition: read it; Writing: write it, with stroke order for every character your child must write; Sentence: understand it in a sentence with a picture of the scene), then shows the answer.
- Anki brings each word back just before it would be forgotten. 10-15 minutes a day.
- Natural Mandarin audio, pinyin and English on every card, so you can follow along without reading Chinese.
- Within 4 months, my daughter could read and recognise every P1 word.
- The free sample is lessons 1 to 3 of your child's level, Standard Chinese. A full level is SGD 199 (all six SGD 599), with a 60-day money-back guarantee.
More for parents: How to help your child with Chinese · Chinese in an English-speaking family · Child struggling with Chinese? · 听写 practice at home
Sources
- 10 techniques, two rated most useful: Dunlosky, J., Rawson, K. A., Marsh, E. J., Nathan, M. J., & Willingham, D. T. (2013). Improving students' learning with effective learning techniques. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 14(1).
- 56% against 42% a week later, and re-reading ahead at five minutes: Roediger, H. L., & Karpicke, J. D. (2006). Test-enhanced learning: taking memory tests improves long-term retention. Psychological Science, 17(3), Experiment 1. The students were university students reading prose.
- 38 repetitions over three days against 68 in one: Ebbinghaus, H. (1885). Memory: A Contribution to Experimental Psychology, chapter 8, section 34 (English translation, 1913).
- Writing and reading, 131 pupils: Tan, L. H., Spinks, J. A., Eden, G. F., Perfetti, C. A., & Siok, W. T. (2005). Reading depends on writing, in Chinese. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 102(24).
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