Mandarin Chinese Characters

Use this section to keep character study structured and repeatable.

Character Decomposition Workflow

For each new character:

1. Identify the radical and main components.
2. Build a compact visual story from component images.
3. Match the story layout to the character’s spatial structure.
4. Write the full character by hand 3 times.

Radical-First Mapping

1. Use high-frequency radicals on the main palace path first.
2. Reserve side branches for lower-frequency or later-learned radicals.
3. Keep variant forms separable when they affect recall.

Component Logic

When possible, encode each character as:

• semantic hint (radical/category meaning)
• phonetic hint (component that suggests pronunciation)

This reduces blind drawing and improves transfer to new characters.

Writing Loop

1. Decode structure.
2. Recall from imagery.
3. Write and check.
4. Add misses to Anki for review.