How does one learn to write in Chinese? How does one write a letter in Chinese? Chinese people pay considerable attention to format and use of words in formal situations such as letter writing. When it comes to Chinese writing skills, the first thing an English-speaking learner needs to grasp is the format of Chinese writing.
Chinese writing is in a widely different way in format from English writing. And the major format difference is two spaces are supposed to be left at the beginning of every paragraph in Chinese writing.
Speaking of format, more need addressing about writing a letter in Chinese. The layout of a letter in Chinese differs totally from that in English.
First, in a Chinese letter, addresses and other contact information of both the correspondents are not put at the beginning of it. Actually the addressee's contact information, which is considered to be put on the envelope and not informatively functional elsewhere, is not included in the letter.
Second, the form of address is slightly different. Addressing the people being written to, Chinese, generally, don't use 'Dear' but Zun Jing De, which means the respectable. And after that, instead of a comma, a colon follows it.
Third, the format of greetings in detail could be considered how polite and sincere a writer is. With a line being left blank, greeting lines start from the second line from below the addressing line. And after the greetings finished an exclamation mark ends the greetings. By the way, there are some greeting ways regularly used in a Chinese letter. The most used is but a simple one, Ni Hao or Nin Hao, and they differs that the latter is to greet people older than you or someone you think you need to show respect to.
After the body of a letter is finished, some fixed phrases are used to make the format complete. Ci Zhi, which means with best wishes, is set flush at the second line from below the body. And at the next line, a word, Jing Li which literally means salute, is put with two spaces left and exclamation mark at the end.
To finish the letter, contact information of the writer, which includes full name, title and organization, and date in turn in three lines, is supposed to be aligned to the right of the paper at the end of a letter. And phrases such as 'your sincerely' or 'your truly' are not used.
To learn Chinese writing skills, a leaner should really keep format in mind when starting practicing writing Chinese. And at a time when everyone is used to writing online, in this case Chinese writing online, with letters in the form of e-mails which seem less formal, writing online in Chinese you should still be cautious with the format and take every detail into consideration, which is one of important Chinese writing skills.
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