I have just finished my second book in school, so this week I have gone through hard tests to see which level I have reached. In two days I have been standing at the "black board" and written 500 random selected Chinese characters. I did 90% correct which actually is very good. I am definitely satisfied with my self. It is easy to forget the word that is not daily used.
One thing that not so many people outside the Chinese language educated group have reflected over is the gigantic difference in complexity between read a Chinese character compared to also be able to write it. It's easy to believe that it have similar complicity level, which is NOT the case.
Think about how many daily seen symbols, example logotypes, that you can recognize compared how many you can write or describe in detail without see them. For example the logotype of United Nations, Motorola or The Beijing Olympics. Can you draw them? Or describe them in details? It is very easy to recognize them when you see them, but a bit harder to remember how they look if somebody ask you.
This symbol example above is describing the difference between being able to read and write Chinese characters. "Easy" to read, but much harder to write. A big part of the Chinese language students select a level to "only" be able to read, and some even dont.
This is how happy I was after finished 90% of the Chinese characters in my test. As I maybe(!) indicated, I belong to the group that have easy to write Chinese.
