Why Can't You Remember Chinese Characters? You're Using the Wrong Method.

Have you ever had this experience: staring at a Chinese character, feeling like you're looking at a bunch of meaningless strokes, only able to cram it into your brain through rote memorisation? You remember it today, but forget it tomorrow. Even after learning hundreds of characters, a new one still feels like a complete stranger.

This feeling is akin to learning to cook while blindfolded.

Imagine someone hands you a recipe book as thick as a brick, filled with thousands of dishes. They tell you: "Memorise all the ingredients and steps for every single dish." So you start reciting, "Kung Pao Chicken: chicken, cucumber, peanuts, chillies...", followed by "Fish-Fragrant Pork Shreds: pork, wood ear mushrooms, bamboo shoots, carrots...".

You might barely manage to remember a few dishes, but you'll never truly learn how to cook. That's because you don't understand the ingredients themselves. You don't know that soy sauce is salty, vinegar is sour, or chillies are spicy. So, every dish feels like a brand-new problem that you have to memorise from scratch.

Many of us use this "recipe-memorising" clumsy method when learning Chinese characters.

Stop "Memorising Recipes", Start Being a "Master Chef"

A true master chef doesn't rely on memorising recipes; they rely on understanding the ingredients. They know that "fish" (鱼) tastes fresh and "lamb" (羊) has a distinctive aroma, and combining them creates "freshness" or "deliciousness" (鲜). They understand that "fire" (火) represents heat and cooking, which is why characters like "roast" (烤), "stir-fry" (炒), and "stew" (炖) all incorporate the 'fire' radical.

Chinese characters are the same. They aren't just a jumble of random strokes, but a system full of wisdom, made up of "ingredients" (basic components).

For example, once you understand "wood" (木), like understanding the ingredient 'wood', will "forest" (林) and "dense forest" (森) still feel alien to you? You'll grasp at a glance that these represent many trees gathered together.

Or take the character "person" (人). When it leans against "wood" (木), it becomes "rest" (休) – a person resting under a tree, how vivid! When a person spreads their arms to protect what's behind them, it becomes "protect" (保).

When you start deconstructing Chinese characters with this "master chef mindset", you'll find that learning is no longer painful memorisation, but an engaging puzzle game. Every complex character is a "creative dish" crafted from simple "ingredients". You won't need to rote memorise anymore; instead, you can "savour" and understand the story behind them through logic and and imagination.

From "Understanding" to "Connecting"

Once you master this method, Chinese characters will no longer be a wall between you and the Chinese world, but a bridge leading to it. You'll long to communicate and share your thoughts using the characters you've just "unlocked".

However, at this point, you might encounter a new "recipe" – the barrier of language differences. In the past, when we wanted to communicate with foreigners, we also had to memorise scattered travel phrases and grammar rules, just like memorising a recipe book. The process was equally painful, and the results equally ineffective.

Fortunately, we live in an era where problems can be solved in smarter ways.

Whether it's learning or communicating, the key lies in breaking down barriers and focusing on connection. As you start using a new mindset to understand Chinese characters, why not also use new tools to connect with the world?

This is precisely why tools like Lingogram are so insightful. It's a chat app with built-in AI translation, allowing you to freely converse with anyone, anywhere in the world, in your native language. You no longer need to rote memorise another language's "recipe"; AI handles all those complex "cooking steps" for you. You just need to focus on the conversation itself – sharing your story, understanding others' ideas, and building genuine connections.

So, forget that thick "recipe book". Whether you're learning Chinese characters or conversing with the world, try to be a smart "master chef" – understand, deconstruct, create, and then, connect.