Learning characters by components or by rote: what's the difference?
When parents think about learning Chinese characters, the picture that often comes to mind is a child with a stack of flashcards, learning them one by one, then being tested in a dictation. We call this learning by rote. It isn't useless, but it's slow and hard to keep up. Learning by components looks at characters from a different angle: instead of treating each character as a separate picture, it looks at the parts it's made of.
1. Rote learning: every character is new
The problem with rote learning is that every character starts from zero. You learn 妈 (mum), then 姐 (older sister), then 妹 (younger sister), as if they had nothing to do with each other. The more characters a child learns, the heavier the load becomes, and the harder it feels.
What's more, characters learnt by looking and writing them again and again are often only "familiar". Meet them somewhere new, or a few weeks later, and they're gone.
2. Learning by components: one part, a whole family of characters
A great many characters are made of two or three parts. There aren't that many common parts, but they come up again and again. Once a child knows 女 (woman), they'll notice it in 妈, 姐, 妹, 好 and 她. Once they know 氵 (water), they'll see it in 河 (river), 湖 (lake), 海 (sea), 洗 (wash) and 清 (clear), and realise these characters are mostly to do with water.
Learning this way, a child remembers "a part in a position" rather than a whole unfamiliar shape. Learn one component, and the whole group of characters it appears in becomes easier. When a new character comes along, the child's first question is: "Is there anything in here I know?" That's understanding, not just memorising.
3. Clues to meaning and sound
Many characters have one part that hints at the meaning and another that hints at the sound. Take 清, 晴, 请 and 情. Each has 青 on the right, and all are pronounced something like *qing*. The left-hand parts differ, and so do the meanings: 清 with water means clear, 晴 with the sun means sunny, 请 with speech means please, and 情 with the heart means feeling.
Once children know about these clues, they can have a go at guessing the meaning and the sound of characters they haven't learnt yet. The guesses won't always be right, but the guessing itself helps them remember.
4. Components still need practice
Learning by components doesn't mean there's nothing to remember or write. The components themselves need to be known well, common characters need to be seen many times, and writing still needs practice. The difference is that practice is built on understanding. When children know what they're practising and why a character is written the way it is, practice stops being dull.
Our approach goes in steps. First the strokes, so children know how each one is written. Then the components, and which characters they make. Then children use those characters in words, short sentences and little stories. Each step rests on the one before, so children are never suddenly faced with a pile of unfamiliar things.
5. A few tips for parents
- Play "find the part" together. When you see characters on signs or packaging, ask your child whether they can spot a part they know.
- Learn related characters together. When you learn 木 (tree), have a look at 林, 森 and 树 as well.
- Let guesses be wrong. Guessing a meaning from a component is thinking, even when the guess is off.
- Little and often. Reviewing a few components every day sticks better than learning lots of characters in one go.
Rote learning makes characters feel like a mountain to be climbed by sheer effort. Learning by components shows children that there are paths up the mountain, and that the paths join up section by section. Once they can see the way, children are happy to keep walking.