Greeting Message for My Hanzi Learning Website

Below is the greeting message I wrote for my Chinese characters learning website. You can find out more here.

Learning Chinese has always been quite a journey for me. As many Vietnamese born in the early 90s, I started learning English as a kid and became quite fluent in it by the time I graduated from high school. However, Chinese characters have always been a part of my life. It was 心 and 福 showing up on the big block calendars. It was 將、士、象、車、馬、砲、卒 on the Chinese chess board. It was 大吉大利、恭喜发财、万事如意 on the lucky money red envelops I received every Lunar New Year. And most importantly, like most Vietnamese, I was given a Hanzi-based name Nguyễn Việt Hà Anh, which is the Vietnamese pronunciation for 阮钺河英。

I learned how to write "Nguyễn Việt Hà Anh" at the age of 6. I didn't know how the four characters 阮钺河英 look like until I was already around 23. And then, I wasn't able to write those characters with a pen until 10 years later.

I could read, I could speak, I could listen, I could type, but I was never able to use a pen to write. One thing for sure, I was lazy. I always got by without knowing how to write with a pen. Nowadays, you can tell your employer that you are fluent in Chinese even if you cannot write. It's okay, everybody types. After all, you can pass HSK 6 without knowing how to handwrite Chinese characters.

However, after 10 years of struggling, I am confident to say that the inability to handwrite Chinese is very unsustainable in the long run. I hit a roadblock around HSK 5, as there is a limit to how many Chinese characters you can remember if you did not study the radicals and the components of each character carefully. I started to get confused between 冶 and 治. I'm not sure being rich is 福 or 富. Three years ago, in Shanghai, I ordered roasted chickens instead of what I originally intended - roasted ducks, because I mistook 鸡 for 鸭...

So I decided, this had to stop.

At the beginning, I was simply creating a tool for my own, but then I was thinking, I shouldn't be the only one with this kind of issue. Why don't I spend a couple of days to make the site a bit nicer so it can be a public good?

I understand that, given my very limited knowledge of coding and web design, this site is far from being perfect. I just genuinely hope that it can be somewhat helpful to other Chinese learners. Please forgive me for any inconvenience you experience while using this website. I will do my best to fix whatever is within my capabilities.

Please also understand that maintaining the site comes with ongoing costs. That's what the ads and the premium packages are for. However, given the intensive character library we are building, I believe that the free plan should be enough for most users.

Last but not least, I hope all of you find joy in learning.

阮钺河英