(Part 2) Reddit mentions: The best alphabet books

>but for the life of me I can't remember writting characters like I recognize them and can read it.

Don't feel bad, this happens to native and non-native speakers alike.

>I could definitely finish out the class like this but I want to actually learn the language.

If you want to actually learn this aspect of the language, then you need to understand how Chinese characters work. To this end I recommend that you take a component-centric approach to understanding them. This is the approach advocated by Outlier Linguistics. You can learn more about them on their website. They sell a great dictionary available for purchase in Pleco, and offer a Chinese character "master class". Even if you don't purchase any of their materials, the component-centric approach they advocate is worth adopting.

>But I cannot write them from memory.

Many advanced speakers will tell you that their handwriting recall was better when they were in the beginning stages of learning the language, because during that period they wrote by hand every day (e.g., when taking a course). But due to modern technology (e.g., typing) and limited time to study, handwriting inevitably fell by the wayside. Most accept this but don't feel great about it (who feels good about forgetting how to write even basic characters? No one.) So, if you want to improve your handwriting recall, you need to invest time in writing by hand.

Below is a copy/paste with handwriting and penmanship information. I suggest that if you are going to practice handwriting to improve your recall, then also try to improve you penmanship too. This might make the handwriting practice more enjoyable (and who doesn't want to have great penmanship?)

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Handwriting Resources

• Skritter, Tofu Learn, and Ink Stone for learning stroke order
  
• Character worksheet generators: Hanzi Grids, Chinese Worksheet Generator, purpleculture.net Chinese Practice Worksheet Generator,
  Stacked X Graph Paper PDF Generator, Strokes, Chinese Character Worksheet Generator; or just Google "Chinese character practice worksheet"
  
• Handwritten characters for each HSK level
  
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  Penmanship Resources
  
  
• https://www.reddit.com/r/ChineseLanguage/comments/7leb0l/can_anyone_suggest_a_good_book_or_course_to_learn/
  
• https://www.reddit.com/r/ChineseLanguage/comments/6j1hhx/does_anyone_else_have_trouble_reading_handwritten/
  
• https://www.reddit.com/r/ChineseLanguage/comments/cy2ic4/a_super_informative_youtube_channel_for_improving/
  
  Also search thie subreddit on various combinations of the terms 「正楷、楷書、字帖、下載」.
  
  Below are examples of practice books, in traditional characters, that you can find on a site like http://books.com.tw:
  
  
• 《最新三題書寫習字帖》ISBN 9789575529673
  
• 《鞋子基本功》ISBN 9789868624023
  
• 《美字進化論》Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, ISBN 9789863443544, 9789863445210
  
• 《丹硯式習字法》ISBN 9789571366043
  
  For example《最新三題書寫習字帖》shows a regular 楷體 character at the stop of each column, then handwritten examples in 楷體，行書，and 草書.
  
  Also check out "Regular Script Graphemics: How Chinese Characters Are Written" by Harvey Dam.

It's a word, and always has been. Maybe work on expanding your limited vocabulary a bit. I recommend Barron's 1100 Words You Need to Know.

http://www.amazon.com/1100-Words-You-Need-Know/dp/0764113658

The Writing Revolution by Amalia Gnanadesikan is a solid introduction to writing systems, their history, and their underlying principles.

I think the first study might be from Dale Spender's Man-Made Language:

http://gunpowder-tea.tumblr.com/post/74924297126/madmaudlingoes-bropakpro-touch-my-cuboner

The print version is now available: amazon.com/dp/0692128530/

https://www.amazon.com/Misspellers-Dictionary-Outlet/dp/0517336464

I found this on amazon

Touch the Universe: A NASA Braille Book of Astronomy https://www.amazon.ca/dp/030908332X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awd_DJcBwbX1WWSBN

it's called, "Remembering the Hanzi". Here's the link to book 1 and book 2 if you're learning simplified characters. For the traditional character books, here is book 1 and book 2. Also, if you don't want to buy a hard copy, here is a link to the 1st simplified book in PDF format.

Yes, men and women are different, of course, but logically, men and women are literally as similar as you get. There is nothing more similar to a man than a woman. A male lion? A male fly? A truck? I think we would all agree that a woman shares much more similarities with a man than anything else in the world. We can also agree that there is nothing more "common" about being a man than being a woman. Yet, our culture would make you think there are simply more men in the world. The world caters to men.

I approach the topic with theories about Othering in mind. The idea is that there is something we consider the "norm"-- that which is not named, that which is invisible, exnominated. We consider "maleness" to be "the norm." Let's take the film industry as an example: most speaking roles in movies are offered to men.. I found one study that examined perceptions of gender equality in film, too. (I cannot find it now-- apologies.) When a crowd is composed of 50% males and 50% females, the audience perception is that there are way more females than males-- we are not used to seeing equal representation.

Hell, even in our language, we assume male to be the norm (take the words mister and mistress, for example. Linguistically, "mister" is the base word, and the "ess" is the "something extra...also, the words used to have similar meanings but, like many words, the female-centered word acquired negative meaning over time). As another example, "they" used to be the correct gender-neutral pronoun, whether singular or plural. In 1850, a group of all male grammarians decided to change the official rule so that "he" would be the gender-neutral pronoun because, by the all-male group logic, males were the “more comprehensive” gender.

Can no one pronounce zoology? Colbert muffed it in the first 30 seconds.

http://www.amazon.com/There-Is-Zoo-Zoology-Mispronunciations/dp/0020318308

http://books.google.com/books/about/There_is_no_zoo_in_zoology.html?id=mWQdAQAAMAAJ