Chinese calligraphy. [Photo/Unsplash]

Writing Chinese characters is a bit like drawing a picture. Even Chinese kids need to learn for several years before they master it. You may be wondering, "How can I do it?" Don't worry — we have tips here!

1. Learn the handwriting rules and stroke order first. Although there are thousands of characters, there are only four main types of Chinese characters and only eight to 40 (depending on how you count) strokes used to write these characters. The order we follow when we write is rule-based. For example: always write from left to right, from top to bottom, and from outside to inside.

2. Learn radicals and components second. Along with strokes, radicals and components are also very helpful. For example: the radical "氵" (three drops of water) is always on the left side of a character and it usually implies the character is somehow related to water. If you learn a new character with it, you can memorize it as "the left part is three drops of water".

3. Recognizing characters is much easier and more important than handwriting. Two reasons here:

1) Before you can write, you need to know how to read. That's the same principle in language learning.

2) You can type characters out if you can recognize them.

You only need to choose which variation you want. Even Chinese people type characters more than they handwrite nowadays. This can save you a lot of time and energy.

Of course, writing practice is still useful for memorizing Chinese characters, so having a piece of paper and a pencil around is still a good idea.