I want to share a bit of my own experience on note taking for Chinese Lessons.
This is an example of the PINYIN table I made. You can easily print this out anywhere on the internet, but I personally like to write it down because it help me remember better as I write.
Why Pinyin is important? Well, before to actually learn Chinese, you need to know PINYIN, it’s similar to learning the alphabet, by learning this it will help you with your pronunciation. You can even start reading lyrics on Chinese songs by using PINYIN, this will highly improve your pronunciation.
Grammar Notes:
When taking grammar notes, aside from jotting down the information, it is good if you use pen colour to highlight what’s important, draws the different between the formula and the information, so when you look at your note, it looks clean and nice.
I don’t take calligraphy notes like others, but as long as it’s understandable for myself, that’s the main purpose of it.
When taking grammar or vocabulary notes, it’s more useful with you put sample sentences, so when you look at the formula and the writing, you will remember better. This will also helps with your grammar structured to be more stable.
Chinese Character Writings:
As you go deeper into the lesson, you’ll see they will stop using PINYIN and start using the Chinese characters much more. It is very important that from the beginning, you familiar yourself with Chinese characters, even with little words like ‘what’ ‘who’ ‘when’ ‘why’, practicing writing them throughout the course of your study, don’t worry about it being ugly or bad, keep practicing and you’ll get there.
Aside from writing correctly, remember, the order of each Chinese character strokes are also important, so it’s good if you can remember the order.
**These all the tips I have so far to help you move a bit further, I hope you guys have a good day and study well. Let me know if I can be more help in providing something else**
Syublush 