This question has been asked here before, but it was a little over 4 years ago so I thought I’d ask it again just in case things have changed over the past few eventful years.
I’m looking at enrolling in one of the Mandarin training centers attached to a university in Taiwan as a full time student on a student visa.
I am wondering if these courses still require students to learn how to write Chinese characters by hand. I understand that it is incredibly valuable to learn to write Chinese characters by hand, and it is indeed an artform in and of itself. However, I undertake most of my study online and have rarely needed to write characters by hand. Thus, my handwriting skills are at a beginner level, whereas I could confidently attend a “level 4 class” (Practical Audio Visual Chinese 2nd Edition Book 4) if I were able to type Chinese characters in class. On the very rare occasion when I’ve needed to write by hand, being able to write in Zhuyin with correct tone marks has been sufficient in helping me get by. I have read that people may still need to fill out official forms such as invoices by hand. In a bind, I did go through a relatively brief period of learning to write years ago and can get by searching the character up on my phone and copying it onto the form.
Does anyone have any experience or know of anyone who has been able to attend one of the university Mandarin centers and been permitted to complete all writing activities on a laptop computer using Zhuyin? I am aware that private centers that are not able to provide a student visa do not require students to write by hand, though I am afraid that handwriting might be an integral component of the university-based Mandarin courses. I’ll need to apply to a course that can provide me with a student visa.
Its not a huge part of the course. And you likely won’t use it much afterwards, I haven’t.
I tried learning the characters, but I just forgot most of the time. They basically just let you copy from your phone anyway. You will pick some of them up along the way. And in tests you can generally copy the characters you need from the test paper.
So its fine, its do-able. Unless you wanted to start at an advanced level, then it would be more of a problem. For me the test difficulty really started to ramp up to the point i couldn’t blag it anymore and i had to quit.
I actually contacted the NCCU Mandarin language centre with this same question last year, as I’m in a similar situation to yourself where my writing level is B1 and it would drag me down if I attended a class more at my speaking level. I was given a very unhelpful reply, which I will quote: “It depends on the instructor and the student(s).”
Even native speakers struggle to write a lot of characters by hand (without looking them up). I remember when I first got here, I knew how to write all sorts of characters that my local coteachers admitted they didn’t know how to write. While they praised my “skill”, I pointed out that it showed how much time I wasted on a “skill” that native speakers don’t even bother improving. “No but you’re so amazing” <<< also the attitude of Chinese language teachers who are impressed with foreigners who can do these things when, again, native speakers don’t know how to once they’ve been out of college for a year or two.
Out of curiosity, which schools? When I was in China, we had daily tingxie and had to write the character, pinyin and maybe even the English (?? I don’t remember if we needed the English. But for sure character + pinyin with proper tones). Being able to copy from the test paper would have reduced my stress level by a lot.
Very helpful response from them…
@OP, many people have said that ICLP doesn’t focus on writing “very much”, but they have other methods that are not helpful to your language learning (like requiring you to memorize the entire text before coming to class, which defeats the entire point of having a teacher in the first place. And costing as much as US university tuition)
It was quite chill, no daily tests. A couple a week and a bit of homework. Depending on the teacher. A few of them are boring unfortunately.
You might be surprised.
I attended CCU, all the other students were asian and the vietnamese/korean and japs definitely learn quick. Being dragged down wasn’t a concern. There are worse concerns than that for sure.
Ah, was afraid that that would be the case. It really is going to slow me down considerably and not sure I’ll be able to “pass” in order to maintain the student visa. I might be able to get by if it’s just one subject of many. Thanks for the info on your experiences.
There was an old post from 4 years ago from someone who suffered from carpal tunnel syndrome, making it impossible to write characters by hand. The person was able to get an exemption from writing after submitting a doctor’s certificate. It seems that there are some Mandarin language centers which might let me get away with it if I’m lucky/able to come up with a better excuse other than simply believing learning to write by hand is not worth the time investment. Cheers for the info.