The autumn may be the end of summer, but for many, it’s also the beginning of something new. All over the world, millions of people enroll at...
Year: 2026
The Input Pyramid: Chinese Listening for Any Situation
When improving listening comprehension in Mandarin, there are three factors you should try to improve: Content: What you listen to Method: How...
The importance of tones is inversely proportional to the predictability of what you say
If you look online for an answer to the question of how important tones are when learning Chinese, you typically find two types of answers: Tones...
Learning Chinese words: When quantity beats quality
Vocabulary acquisition is both one of the most important and interesting areas of language learning. In order to understand spoken and written...
Seeing through the illusion of advanced Chinese learning
When you first start learning Chinese, it’s like arriving by parachute at night in a foreign country. You land, set up camp and gradually explore...
Course discount: Hacking Chinese Pronunciation: Speaking with Confidence
Learning the pronunciation of a new language can be fascinating, opening a whole new world of sound. But it can also be frustrating, especially when...
The Hacking Chinese guide to Mandarin tones
Tones pose a major challenge for most learners of Chinese. What are tones? How important are they? How do you learn to hear and say them? What...
The get-back-up-to-speed summer challenge
I’ve been on vacation and haven’t thought too much about studying, which means that I have failed miserably to keep my vocabulary review queues at a...
The forking path: A human approach to learning Chinese
When learning Chinese, there are three factors you need to improve to get the most out of your learning: content, method and time. The first,...
The Cthulhu bubble and studying Chinese
Image credit: Dominique Signoret What does learning Chinese have in common with the cosmic monster Cthulhu? Quite a lot, actually! In this...