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Objective
Learn the stroke order and the structure of Chinese characters
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Order of Strokes
There are basic rules of stroke order when writing Chinese characters. 1. Look and write. Stroke order first horizontal, then vertical first downward-left, then downward-right first top, then bottom Examples Practice

first left, then right first outside, then inside

close after filling the frame first center, then two sides

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History of Chinese Characters

3000 3000 Chinese characters have a history of over 3000 years and originated from pictures. The earliest Chinese characters were a kind of pictograph, which was composed of curved lines and depicted according to the natural shapes of objects. With the evolution of Chinese writing, characters have developed from the many-lined, picture-like oracle bone inscriptions into the simplified, square-shaped regular script. Oracle bone inscription Jin script Zhuan script Li script Regular script

1. Learn to recognize Chinese characters. Ancient Chinese characters are in the left column, modern in the middle and English in the right. Match them together. () Ancient character Modern character
b
It s easier to remember Chinese characters if you relate their shapes with their meanings when you read them.

English meaning person eye door heart mouth big moon small female tree sun

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2. Exchange textbooks with your partner and check whether he/she matched correctly.

Structure of Chinese Characters

Structurally speaking, Chinese characters fall into two categories: single-component characters and multi-component characters. Chinese characters composed of a complete and independent component are single-component characters, for example Strokes and order of strokes should be specially paid attention to when etc. writing them and they are best remembered as a whole. Single-component characters account for a small portion of Chinese characters, but most of them are commonly used and are also often used as the components of multi-component characters. Multi component characters are composed of two or more components, for example etc. Focus on what the character is composed of and each components position in a character when writing and remembering it.

Learn to write single-component characters

1. Look and write. Can you recognize the following characters? Pay attention to each characters strokes and stroke order. Write these characters using the correct stroke order.

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2. , Read the Pinyin and write the characters. (1) kGu yL (2) shI bQ suK

(3) xuR xI (4) pW shQn

(5) sK kGu rRn

(6) ZhTng wRn

(7)

bP

zSi

(8)

xiAo xUn (careful)

(9)

mA shSng (at once)

(10)

xiS

wL (afternoon)

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(11) Rr zi (son) (12) jiL yuF (September) 3. Exchange textbooks with your partner and check whether he/she wrote correctly. If your answers are not the same, exchange your ideas with other group members.

Learn to write multi-component characters

:= += ++= Most Chinese characters are multi-component characters. They either consist of two or more single-component characters, or consist of a radical and , one or more single-component characters. For example= + = ++= . 1. Look at the following Chinese characters can you recognize them?

2. 5 Try to use the above Chinese characters to compose new characters in five minutes. 19

3. Exchange textbooks with your partner to see whether you have written the same Chinese characters. Add what you havent written. 4. Select a representative from each group. He/She will take turns to write the Chinese characters your group has composed on the blackboard.

b
Its not necessary to write the same characters as the previous student has already written. Only add what is not on the blackboard.

Writing Exercises
Write your own Chinese name correctly. Try your best to write clearly and beautifully.

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