When learning to pronounce tones in Chinese, it makes sense to focus on words rather than single syllables. Most words in Chinese are disyllabic and since practising these will also include to tone... Read more.

hackingchinese.com

This site by Jun Da contains a lot of very interesting resources for anyone who wants dig deeper into frequency lists. One set of data I haven't found anywhere else is a frequency list of syllables... Read more.

lingua.mtsu.edu

Listen to native speakers, mimic the audio while recording, receive instant feedback on spoken phases. Then submit your recording to be evaluated by real native teachers. Read more.

waichinese.com

This is the second article I’ve written for FluentU and it’s focused on the topic of capacity management. The main ideas here are not limited to language learning, actually, but is part of the much... Read more.

fluentu.com

This article describes the basics of way to teach tones that is different from the traditional way mainly in that the third tone is no longer described as a falling-rising tone (since that is rarel... Read more.

sinosplice.com

The third tone is an essentially low tone. The only time it's pronounced with a high element is in front of another third tone (when it turns into a second tone) and when in complete isolation (whi... Read more.

hackingchinese.com

When it comes to learning to understand spoken Chinese, there are few shortcuts. The more you listen, the more you will understand. But how can we fit more listening into our lives without cutting ... Read more.

hackingchinese.com

This is the second and final article about using phonetic components to hack Chinese characters and make it considerably easier to handle similarly looking characters. This article describes both t... Read more.

hackingchinese.com

Writing Chinese characters for the first time can be very hard, mostly because it's so different from writing letters. It feels more like drawing a picture than writing! This article is aimed at be... Read more.

hackingchinese.com

In this article John Pasden discusses how to approach Chinese grammar as a foreigner, starting by debunking a few myths and then going on to how to actually learn grammar. Chinese is a language whe... Read more.

hackingchinese.com

In this blog post, Victor Mair explains what's wrong withe Hsueh ShaoLan's claims that learning to read and write Chinese is easy. That this is wrong should be pretty easy, but few can say it with ... Read more.

languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu

Reading a novel in Chinese is the goal for many learners, but perhaps it's easier to accomplish than you think. This article discusses various methods of making novel reading easier in Chinese, ma... Read more.

hackingchinese.com

This is a basic video demonstration of the stroke order rules for writing Chinese characters. It's short and if you find something lacking, your question may have already been answered in the comme... Read more.

youtube.com

This is a comprehensive overview of measure words in Chinese, featuring a long list of the most common ones, an explanation in English how they are used and a number of examples of words they are u... Read more.

digchinese.com

Audacity is a marvellous piece of software that allows you to record audio (yourself, other people or whatever is playing on your computer), mimic native speakers, edit and enhance the audio, as we... Read more.

hackingchinese.com

You don't have to go abroad to learn Chinese. The main difference between staying at home and going abroad is that it requires less effort to learn once you're there (although it still requires qui... Read more.

hackingchinese.com

Many people regard chengyu as the golden key to the Chinese language and believe that learning chengyu will impress native speakers and take their Chinese to the next level. However, learning cheng... Read more.

hackingchinese.com

There are many ways of practising writing Chinese characters and they all have their pros and cons. In this article, I discuss seven different ways of practising and what advantages and disadvantag... Read more.

hackingchinese.com

80% of all Chinese characters are made up of one semantic component (meaning) and one phonetic component (pronunciation). The sheer number of characters formed this way means that these characters ... Read more.

hackingchinese.com

This is Hugh Grigg's site about his East Asia studies (as the title implies). Even though the site is about all East Asia, I think most posts are still about Chinese in some way, including a large ... Read more.

eastasiastudent.net

Television is a valuable asset in the modern language learners toolkit. The medium provides a convenient way to enjoy large volumes of passive listening practice in a stress free environment. The c... Read more.

hackingchinese.com

This is a guide to handwriting Chinese characters. It's not about writing beautifully, but writing correctly, including things like stroke placement, length and direction. There are numerous exampl... Read more.

hackingchinese.com

Is it easy to learn to read Chinese? ShaoLan, among others, claims that it is. I don't agree, and in this article I discuss some common trends among people who try to portray Chinese as being easy.... Read more.

hackingchinese.com

This article focuses on listening ability and is fairly comprehensive. I have written about most of this before on Hacking Chinese, but this is a better overview than anything else I’ve written pre... Read more.

fluentu.com

Good pronunciation matters, whether you like it or not. In general, students (and teachers) tend to stop caring about pronunciation much earlier than they should. You don't need to aim for native-l... Read more.

hackingchinese.com

Wuxia can be used as a key to both Chinese language and culture. This article is meant to be a guide to second language learners. If you want to read wuxia in Chinese, where do you start? How do yo... Read more.

hackingchinese.com

The Hacking Chinese podcast is about how to learn Mandarin, with in-depth discussions about how to approach challenges, solve problems and get the most out of your learning. Currently available ... Read more.

hackingchinese.com

This resource presents something fairly unique: handwriting samples from a famous calligrapher (田英章) for all characters in HSK, sorted by level. This includes both regular script (楷书) and semi-curs... Read more.

edsko.net

This is the best overview of spaced repetition research I have seen online or offline. It's thorough, well-argued and probably covers more than you were looking for. It's not specifically about Chi... Read more.

gwern.net

Just you try designing 13,000-plus intricate character shapes that all have to balance one another. Read more.

qz.com

Through video, text and audio, this course helps you become a better language learner. It also explains many Chinese-specific learning strategies necessary to avoid wasting lots of time or missing ... Read more.

hackingchinese.com

Written Chinese characters are regarded by some as the true essence of Chinese; without learning to write by hand, you're not learning Chinese. Others go to extremes in the other direction, claimin... Read more.

hackingchinese.com

This entire thread contains excellent suggestions for how to have good conversations for language practice in China, even if you're an introvert learner. I have tried several of these myself, not b... Read more.

chinese-forums.com

In this article, I discuss the main problem for most language learners: how to find the time to learn. It doesn't matter how good your method is if you don't use it, anything multiplied by zero is ... Read more.

blogs.transparent.com

Outlier Linguistics hosts an excellent blog with a large number of insightful articles into Chinese characters. Some of them are directly useful because they talk about learning characters, others ... Read more.

outlier-linguistics.com

This is an article by David Moser about the incredible changes the digital age has brought to learners of Chinese all over the world. After providing a background for those who started learning Chi... Read more.

hackingchinese.com

User-friendly advice on MS Windows, Ubuntu Linux and smartphone Chinese setup, Chinese input methods (IME), Chinese fonts and Chinese Language Packs (MUIs), plus free downloads for MS Office, a sur... Read more.

pinyinjoe.com

Tones are more important than most people think. Just because native speakers reduce tones and speak quickly, it doesn't mean that you can do the same and get away with it. Don't be fooled by peopl... Read more.

hackingchinese.com

My article about various common problems students have with Pinyin. These problems mostly exist because people read Pinyin as if it were a phonetic alphabet instead of a transcription system. Read more.

hackingchinese.com

The stories behind the names of all of China's provinces and autonomous regions. Read more.

online.thatsmags.com

This article is a guide to reading comics in Chinese, suitable for beginners as well as those who already have some experience. Reading comics is an excellent way of attacking the Great Wall of Chi... Read more.

hackingchinese.com

Chinese Hacks is run by Dave Flynn and might look similar to Hacking Chinese at first glance, but actually isn't. Most of the articles on Chinese Hacks are about software, apps or other tools for l... Read more.

chinesehacks.com

Ideally, we would study Chinese just because we want to and in any manner we see fit, but this isn't how it works for most students. Instead, we need to care about tests and grades, an extra layer ... Read more.

hackingchinese.com

Many students of Chinese think that it's hard to bridge the gap from textbook Chinese to the Chinese used by native speakers in the real world. This article contains useful insights and hands-on ad... Read more.

hackingchinese.com

This is a neat video that introduces Chinese characters to complete beginners. It's not a substitute for a real lecture on how characters work, but this is still the best introduction I have seen s... Read more.

youtube.com

This article is an excellent start for anyone who wants to know more about the Mandarin spoken in Taiwan. In general, it's very similar to the Chinese spoken on the Mainland and most Taiwanese peop... Read more.

en.wikipedia.org

This is a simple and straightforward explanation of Chinese phonetics. I recommend it because it's not very complicated and (mostly) correct. I will try to write something myself later, but in the ... Read more.

zein.se

Language Log is an excellent blog where ~20 authors share their thoughts about languages and related topics. While the other authors also post interesting articles, I have chosen to link directly t... Read more.

languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu

Explode Chinese characters into their building blocks; visualize and remember how they are formed. Read more.

characterpop.com

If you're going to watch the world cup, do it in Chinese! Watching sports is an awesome way of learning a language, almost regardless of which level you're at. As a beginner, you can follow what's ... Read more.

hackingchinese.com

Want to learn about Chinese proverbs? Here are detailed explanations of 10 Chinese proverbs that will inspire you. Read more.

fluentu.com

After having talked about how and why to use television to learn Chinese, it's time to look at actual genres and programmes and see how these can help a language learner improve his or her skills. ... Read more.

hackingchinese.com

Evaluating pronunciation needn't be hard, but many methods commonly used by teachers are deeply flawed, resulting in inaccurate error analysis. If we want to improve, we need to be clear about what... Read more.

hackingchinese.com

In this blog post, Victor Mair discusses the relative (un)importance of learning to write large numbers of characters by hand (especially for beginners) and the impact of technology for learners of... Read more.

languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu