In case you’ve just started learning Chinese, traditional Chinese refers to the characters used before the simplification reforms during the...
Year: 2026
Should you use an efficient method for learning Chinese even if you hate it?
There is no perfect method for learning Chinese. Instead, methods can be good in some ways and bad in others. The best method would be one that is...
Should you throw away your Chinese textbook?
Have you used a textbook to learn Chinese? Most students will say yes, because textbooks are popular not just in formal education, but also...
Should you learn to speak Chinese before you learn Chinese characters?
One of the most hotly debated topics in Chinese language pedagogy is the question of when to introduce Chinese characters. As a student, should...
Should you learn the names of the strokes in Chinese characters?
I recently published a guide for how not to teach Chinese characters to beginners, which was a rant based on a decade of observed worst practices in...
Should you learn Chinese vocabulary from lists?
Frequency lists can be very useful, but only if you use them correctly! Lists are nice. They make the world seem more orderly and manageable....
Should you focus on learning Chinese words or phrases?
A language is a complex system for communication that can be broken down on many levels, but which level should you focus on and why? To make it...
Should you enrol in a Chinese course or are you better off learning on your own?
“I studied Chinese for six years in school but still can’t say hardly anything in the language.” “If you learn on your own, you can become fluent...
Shapeshifting Chinese characters
Most Chinese character components are well-behaved; they look the same in different compounds and aren’t hard to recognise. Some components are...
Sensible Chinese character learning revisited
More than a year has passed since the first sensible character learning challenge started on the first day of 2013 where more than a hundred...