Hacking Chinese

A better way of learning Mandarin

Articles tagged with ‘Perfectionism’

  1. The Cthulhu bubble and studying Chinese

    The Cthulhu bubble and studying Chinese

    What does learning Chinese have to do with the Cthulhu Mythos? Quite a lot, actually. This article is about your bubble of safety and what happens when monsters (weird, difficult cases) appear and what you should do to avoid insanity. In short, don’t poke the monster in the eye; when encountering strange cases, either ignore them or memorise them, don’t waste time understanding everything you hear or see.

    Read →

  2. When perfectionism becomes an obstacle to progress

    Perfectionism is usually regarded as something positive, perhaps even necessary. Scoring 100% on an exam is good, isn’t it? No, it’s not. In this article, I explain why perfectionism is bad when learning a language. Aiming for 90% is far better than aiming for 100%. This is being smart, not lazy.

    Read →