Articles

If you’re looking for a specific article, check the chronological list below. It contains all articles from the very beginning to today.

• Chinese reading challenge, July 2020
• Training your Chinese teacher, part 4: Writing ability
• Should you learn to speak Chinese before you learn Chinese characters?
• How to get honest feedback to boost your Chinese speaking and writing
• Chinese mimicking challenge, June 2020
• Are mnemonics too slow for Chinese learners?
• Learning Chinese words: When quantity beats quality
• When spaced repetition fails, and what to do about it
• Chinese listening challenge, May 2020
• Chinese is fascinating and exciting, not weird and stupid
• Dealing with Chinese characters you keep mixing up
• 文字冒险游戏及其在对外汉语教学中的应用
• Text adventure games and how to use them in the Chinese language classroom
• Chinese vocabulary challenge, April 2020
• Skritter review: Boosting your Chinese character learning (2020 edition)
• Hacking Chinese courses open with 50% study-at-home discount
• How to figure out how good your Chinese is
• The simple trick I used to double the amount of Chinese I listen to
• Chinese reading challenge, March 2020
• 5 levels of understanding Chinese characters: Superficial forms to deep structure
• The forking path: A human approach to learning Chinese
• Does using colour to represent Mandarin tones make them easier to learn?
• Chinese writing challenge, February 2020
• Course open for registration: Unlocking Chinese – The Ultimate Guide for Beginners
• How to get past the intermediate Chinese learning plateau
• How important is reading speed on tests like HSK and TOCFL?
• Chinese listening challenge, January 2020
• Best of Hacking Chinese 2019
• How to look up Chinese characters you don’t know
• Chinese reading challenge, December 2019
• Can too much guidance make you learn less Chinese?
• Why is listening in Chinese so hard?
• Chinese habit formation challenge, November 2019
• Training your Chinese teacher, part 3: Listening ability
• Two types of pronunciation problems and what to do about them
• New course: Unlocking Chinese – The Ultimate Guide for Beginners
• Chinese listening challenge, September 2019
• The nine principles of learning (and the mistakes from failing to follow them)
• Chinese reading challenge, August 2019
• Chinese vocabulary challenge, July 2019
• Review: Mandarin Companion: Easy to read novels in Chinese
• 101 questions and answers about how to learn Chinese
• Chinese listening challenge, June 2019
• The most common Chinese words, characters and components for language learners and teachers
• 7 things you were taught in Chinese class that are actually wrong
• Chinese translation challenge, May 2019
• How good is voice recognition for learning Chinese pronunciation?
• The cheapest and most convenient way to improve your spoken Chinese
• Using speech recognition to improve Chinese pronunciation, part 1
• Chinese reading challenge, April 2019
• Training your Chinese teacher, part 2: Speaking ability
• The beginner’s guide to Chinese translation
• Tone errors in Mandarin that actually can cause misunderstandings
• Chinese writing challenge, March 2019
• Why using a good dictionary can be bad for your Chinese reading ability
• Free and easy audio flashcards for Chinese dictation practice with Anki
• Reading is a lot like spaced repetition, only better
• Training your Chinese teacher, part 1: Introduction
• Chinese New Year and New Semester Course Discount
• Chinese listening challenge, February 2019
• Review: Language Empowerment: Demystify Chinese culture and fire up your Mandarin + interview with the author
• Best of Hacking Chinese 2018
• Chinese translation challenge, December 2018
• 36 samples of Chinese handwriting from students and native speakers
• Chinese handwriting challenge, November 2018
• How to improve your Chinese handwriting
• The Hacking Chinese guide to Mandarin tones
• Chinese speaking challenge, October 2018
• Focusing on Mandarin tones without being distracted by Pinyin
• Chinese reading challenge, September 2018
• Back-to-school Hacking Chinese course discount
• Cramming vs. spaced repetition: When to use which method to learn Chinese
• Chinese vocabulary challenge, August 2018
• Chinese learning challenges, August 2018: Vocabulary + open
• Chinese listening challenge, July 2018
• How and why to learn and teach Chinese through games
• Chinese learning challenges, July 2018: Listening + open
• Chinese pronunciation challenge, June 2018
• 866 digital textbooks for expanding your Chinese
• Chinese learning challenges, June 2018: Pronunciation + open
• New text game for Chinese learners: The Magistrate’s Gallery
• Chinese writing challenge, May 2018
• Chinese learning challenges, May 2018: Writing + open
• Learning Chinese as an introverted student
• Chinese reading challenge, April 2018
• Chinese learning challenges, April 2018: Reading + open
• Chinese vocabulary challenge, March 2018
• Chinese learning challenges, March 2018: Vocabulary + open
• Chinese listening challenge, February 2018
• Chinese New Year and New Semester Course Discount
• Learning to unicycle, learning anatomy and learning Chinese
• Chinese learning challenges, February 2018: Listening + open
• Whom should you trust for advice about learning Chinese?
• Will reading Hacking Chinese help you learn Mandarin?
• Best of Hacking Chinese 2017
• Chinese speaking challenge, December 2017
• Can you learn Chinese faster by making it harder?
• Five text games for Chinese learners
• Should you focus on learning Chinese words or phrases?
• Vocabulary lists that help you learn Chinese and how to use them
• Chinese reading challenge, October 2017
• Should you learn Chinese vocabulary from lists?
• Chinese reading speed revisited
• Training and testing your ability to hear Mandarin sounds
• Is it necessary to learn the stroke order of Chinese characters?
• Back-to-school Hacking Chinese course discount
• Get to know your own Chinese voice
• Chinese listening challenge, August 2017
• Advanced listening and reading with Skeptoid Chinese
• Hacking Chinese meet-up in Beijing, July 4th
• Task based Chinese learning and teaching
• Let’s play 迷霧中 (Into the Haze)
• How long do you have to study Chinese to make it useful?
• Learning (or not learning) Chinese slang
• Playing Codenames to learn Chinese
• Chinese writing challenge, June 2017
• What’s in a name? Hacking Chinese, 揭密中文
• Into the Haze: A new text adventure game for Chinese learners
• How narrow listening and reading can help you learn Chinese
• Comprehension-based listening vs deep end immersion
• 8 great ways to scaffold your Chinese learning
• Analysis paralysis: When choosing method becomes a problem
• Chinese reading challenge, April 2017
• How to become a Chinese-English translator and what it’s like to be one
• 10 ways of using games to learn and teach Chinese
• A student’s guide to comprehension-based learning
• How was your first semester of learning Chinese?
• The benefits of a comprehension-based approach for teaching and learning Chinese
• Introducing Chinese quiz tournaments on WordSwing
• An introduction to comprehension-based Chinese teaching and learning
• Chinese listening challenge, February 1st to 28th
• Chinese New Year and New Semester Course Discount
• How to fake sounding like a native Chinese speaker
• Spaced repetition is not limited to flashcards
• Best of Hacking Chinese 2016
• 5 things Chinese students should do on the winter vacation
• Looking up how to use words in Chinese the right way
• Chinese translation challenge, December 10th to 31st
• Why you should preview before every Chinese lesson
• Three factors that decide how much Chinese you learn
• Obligatory and optional tone change rules in Mandarin
• Chinese mimicking challenge, November 10th to 30th
• Learn Chinese implicitly through exposure with a seasoning of explicit instruction
• How I learnt Chinese, part 7: Teaching, writing, learning
• Mimicking native speakers as a way of learning Chinese
• 7 kinds of tone problems and what to do about them
• Chinese character challenge, October 10th to 31st
• An introduction to extensive reading for Chinese learners
• Learning Chinese by playing board games
• Expanding your Chinese with 一步一个脚印
• Overcoming the problem of having too many Chinese words to learn
• Challenge site upgrade + September translation challenge
• Extra course content and new-semester discount
• Learning to read handwritten Chinese
• Transcribing Chinese audio as an active form of listening practice
• Escape: A text adventure game for Chinese learners
• Hacking Chinese on Patreon: Support me and get awesome rewards!
• How I learnt Chinese, part 6: Graduate program in Taiwan
• Are you practising Chinese the right way?
• The benefits of using 语文/國文 textbooks to learn Chinese
• Hacking Chinese meet-ups in San Francisco (July 20th) and New York (July 24th)
• Accessing Chinese culture through cartoons
• How to talk about Chinese characters in Chinese
• How I learnt Chinese, part 5: Returning to Sweden
• Don’t forget to consolidate the Chinese you have already studied
• The best Twitter feeds for learning Chinese in 2016
• Chinese benchmarking challenge, June 10th to 30th
• How going shopping can help you learn Chinese
• The 5 best Chinese reading resources for beginners
• How I learnt Chinese, part 4： My second year in Taiwan
• Why you should start blogging in Chinese today
• Chinese writing challenge, May 10th to 31th
• How technology can stop you from learning Chinese
• How technology can help you learn Chinese
• Which Chinese language course should you take?
• How I learnt Chinese, part 3: My first year in Taiwan
• Chinese reading challenge, April 10th to 30th
• I have published a book!
• Should you learn the pronunciation of radicals?
• Learning Chinese through comprehensible input
• ChinesePod review: Your companion to Mandarin fluency
• Chinese characters that share the same components but are still different
• Chinese vocabulary challenge, March 10th to 31st
• What your Chinese course will not teach you
• Learn Chinese character meaning and pronunciation together
• How I learnt Chinese, part 2: Learning Mandarin in Sweden
• Listen before you read: Improve your listening ability
• Chinese listening challenge, February 10th to 29th
• Learn Chinese faster by leaving your comfort zone
• Using voice messaging to practise Chinese speaking and listening
• Articles by me published elsewhere: January 2016 round-up
• How I learnt Chinese, part 1: Where it all started
• Can you use English learning materials to study Chinese?
• Hacking Chinese New Year challenge, January 10th to 31st
• Best of Hacking Chinese 2015
• Learning tones in Mandarin is not optional
• Are there any shortcuts for learning Chinese?
• Launching Hacking Chinese: A Practical Guide to Learning Mandarin
• Articles by me published elsewhere: December 2015 round-up
• Chinese reading challenge, December 10th to 31st
• The Hacking Chinese tone training course
• How to learn to hear the tones in Mandarin
• How to verify that you use the right Chinese font
• Chinese character variants and fonts for language learners
• Chinese writing challenge, November 10th to 30th
• One year of language challenges on Hacking Chinese
• Learning to pronounce Mandarin with Pinyin, Zhuyin and IPA: Part 3
• Articles by me published elsewhere: October 2015 round-up
• The real challenge with learning Chinese characters
• Improving pronunciation beyond the basics
• Which words you should learn and where to find them
• Extensive listening challenge, October 10th to 31st
• Can native speakers be wrong about Chinese grammar and pronunciation?
• Articles by me published elsewhere: September 2015 round-up
• Learning Chinese characters through pictures
• Panning: How to keep similar Chinese characters and words separate
• Articles by me published elsewhere: August 2015 round-up
• Zooming out: The resources you need to put Chinese in context
• Chinese character challenge, September 10th to 30th
• Zooming in: The tools you need to break down and understand Chinese
• Chinese learning tools and resources worth paying for
• The illusion of advanced learning and what to do about it
• Why you should read Chinese on your phone
• Articles by me published elsewhere: July 2015 round-up
• Chinese reading challenge, August 10th to 31st
• Learning to pronounce Mandarin with Pinyin, Zhuyin and IPA: Part 2
• Articles by me published elsewhere: June 2015 round-up
• Chinese listening practice with 锵锵三人行
• Learning to pronounce Mandarin with Pinyin, Zhuyin and IPA: Part 1
• Chinese Speaking Challenge, July 10th to July 31st
• Hacking Chinese meet-up in Beijing 2015-07-12
• Technical problems and theme issues
• Learning Chinese through audio books
• Hacking Chinese China Tour 2015
• Bite-sized learning isn’t enough to learn Chinese
• Chinese listening challenge, June 10th to June 30th
• Articles by me published elsewhere: May 2015 round-up
• Review: FluentU Chinese
• Why you should learn Chinese in Chinese
• Review: Mandarin Companion graded readers (Level 1)
• The best Twitter feeds for learning Chinese in 2015
• Chinese writing challenge, May 10th to May 31st
• Hone your Chinese writing ability by writing summaries
• Articles by me published elsewhere: April 2015 round-up
• Learning Chinese by playing Mahjong 麻將 (májiàng)
• Will a Chinese-only rule improve your learning?
• Using Chinese textbooks to improve reading ability
• The new paperless revolution in Chinese reading
• Chinese reading challenge, April 10th to April 30th
• Chinese Hackers Hack Hacking Chinese*
• Articles by me published elsewhere: March 2015 round-up
• A minimum-effort approach to writing Chinese characters by hand
• How to adjust your Chinese listening to the right level
• Three steps to more and better Chinese listening practice
• Chinese listening challenge, March 10th to March 31st
• What you intend to write is more important than the character you actually write
• Articles by me published elsewhere: February 2015 round-up
• How learning some basic theory can improve your pronunciation
• 24 great resources for improving your Mandarin pronunciation
• Pronunciation challenge, February 10th to 28th
• Sensible character challenge, January 2015: Wrapping up
• Hacking Chinese 2014/2015: What was and what will be
• Articles by me published elsewhere: January 2015 round-up
• How to find a suitable Chinese name
• Focus on initials and finals, not Pinyin spelling
• My best advice on how to learn Chinese characters
• Sensible character challenge, January 11th to 31st
• Translation challenge, December 2014: Wrapping up
• Articles by me published elsewhere: December round-up
• How knowing your best performance in Chinese can help you improve
• 5 tips to help you improve your Chinese writing ability
• How translation to another language can help you learn Chinese
• Translation challenge, December 11th to 31th
• Is Chinese difficult to learn?
• Articles by me published elsewhere: November round-up
• Extensive reading challenge, November 2014: Progress report
• Hacking Chinese Pronunciation course now open for registration
• How to find the time and motivation to read more Chinese
• The 10 best free reading resource collections for learning Chinese
• Extensive reading challenge, November 10th to 30th
• Learning how to ask for and receive directions in Chinese
• Extensive listening challenge, October 2014: Wrapping up
• Articles by me published elsewhere: October round-up
• Extensive listening challenge, October 2014: Progress report
• Why you should think of characters in terms of functional components
• The 10 best free listening resource collections for learning Chinese
• Extensive listening challenge, October 10th to 31st
• Launching Hacking Chinese Challenges
• Articles by me published elsewhere: September round-up
• Learning to write Chinese characters through communication
• Focusing on communication to learn Chinese
• Articles by me published elsewhere: August round-up
• Change your attitude to enjoy life and learn more Chinese
• 250+ resources for learning Chinese
• How long have you studied Chinese? 290 years or 58 992 hours!
• About cheating, spaced repetition and learning Chinese
• Study more Chinese: Time boxing vs. micro goals
• 7 ways of learning to write Chinese characters
• How long have you studied Chinese?
• Is speaking more important than listening when learning Chinese?
• Focusing on radicals, character components and building blocks
• Improve your pronunciation with the Hacking Chinese pronunciation check
• Language learning with a Chinese girlfriend or boyfriend
• A learner’s guide to TV shows in Chinese, part 2
• Sensible character learning challenge 2014: The Big Finish
• How to reach a decent level of Chinese in 100 days
• Hacking Chinese meet-up in Taipei 2014-06-28
• How and why to watch the world cup in Chinese
• Launching Hacking Chinese Resources
• A learner’s guide to TV shows in Chinese, part 1
• Sensible character learning challenge 2014: Milestone #3
• How and why to use television to learn Chinese
• How to find out how good your Chinese pronunciation really is
• The three roads to mastering Chinese
• How to Approach Chinese Grammar
• Sensible character learning challenge 2014: Milestone #2
• Handwriting Chinese characters: The minimum requirements
• Learn to read Chinese… with ease?
• The grand listening cycle: Improve your Chinese listening ability
• Three ways to improve the way you review Chinese characters
• Sensible character learning challenge 2014: Milestone #1
• Why good feedback matters and how to get it
• Improving Foreign Language Pronunciation: Interview with Hacking Chinese on Language is Culture
• Sensible Chinese character learning challenge 2014
• Sensible Chinese character learning revisited
• Hacking Chinese meet-up in Taipei 2014-03-22
• Asking the experts: How to learn Chinese grammar
• Flashcard overflow: About card models and review directions
• Learning how to fish: Or, why it’s essential to know how to learn
• Two reasons why pronunciation matters more than you think
• Habit hacking for language learners
• Hacking Chinese 2013/2014: What was and what will be
• Focusing on tone pairs to improve your Mandarin pronunciation
• Easing yourself into reading novels in Chinese
• A language learner’s guide to wuxia novels
• Wuxia, a key to Chinese language and culture
• 25 books I’ve read in Chinese, with reviews and difficulty ratings
• Chinese reading challenge: Read more or die
• Chinese immersion with Carl Gene Fordham
• Role-playing to learn more Chinese and avoid frustration
• Review: The Geography of Thought: How East Asians and Westerners Think Differently… And Why
• Learning to read aloud in Chinese
• How to learn Chinese characters as a beginner
• Improving your spoken and written Chinese by focusing on the process
• Asking the experts: How to bridge the gap to real Chinese
• How to improve your Chinese writing ability through focused reading
• Drills and exercises aren’t only for beginners
• Preparing for rainy days and dealing with slumps
• Your slumps affect your language learning more than your flows
• About fossilisation and improving your Chinese pronunciation
• What’s your next step to master Chinese?
• 5 websites to help answer your questions about Chinese
• Hacking Chinese meet-up in Taipei 2013-10-06
• Reading aloud in Chinese is really hard
• Phonetic components, part 2: Hacking Chinese characters
• Phonetic components, part 1: The key to 80% of all Chinese characters
• Why manually adding and editing flashcards is good for you
• Standard pronunciation in Chinese and why you want it
• Why you need goals to learn Chinese efficiently
• Do you really know how to count in Chinese?
• 5 insights from the first year of a master’s program in Taiwan
• How to get good grades when studying Chinese
• The get-back-up-to-speed summer challenge
• Role-playing as a way to expand your Chinese
• Hacking Chinese: Contradictory and provoking?
• Dealing with near-synonyms in Chinese as an independent learner
• Skritter review: Boosting your character learning (2013 edition)
• What research can and cannot tell us about learning Chinese
• If you think spaced repetition software is a panacea you are wrong
• Learning how to learn Chinese through self-experimentation
• Using Audacity to learn Chinese (speaking and listening)
• Adding tone marks (w/o Pinyin) above characters to practise tones
• Hacking Chinese meet-up in Taipei 2013-05-12
• You might be too lazy to learn Chinese, but you’re not too old
• Immersion at home or: Why you don’t have to go abroad to learn Chinese
• Learning the right chengyu the right way
• The question you have to ask about your Chinese teacher or course
• Want to master Chinese in no time? Start dreaming!*
• Is your flashcard deck too big for your own good?
• You shouldn’t walk the road to Chinese fluency alone
• 14 extra songs to learn Chinese and expand your horizons
• Hacking Chinese site update March 2013
• 21 essential dictionaries and corpora for learning Chinese
• Horizontal vocabulary learning in Chinese
• Hacking Chinese meet-up in Taipei 2013-03-02
• The Cthulhu bubble and studying Chinese
• Improving your Chinese by translating from another language
• Hacking Chinese 2012/2013: What was and what will be
• Don’t use mnemonics for everything
• How to create mnemonics for general or abstract character components
• Sensible character learning: Progress, reminders and reflections
• Remembering is a skill you can learn
• Towards a more sensible way of learning to write Chinese
• You can’t learn Chinese characters by rote
• Why you really should use a Chinese notebook
• Measuring your language learning is a double-edged sword
• Have fun learning Chinese or else…
• RTI, my favourite radio station
• 13 more songs to learn Chinese and expand your horizons
• Is it necessary to learn to write Chinese characters by hand?
• Learning Chinese in the shower with me
• Chat your way to better Chinese
• Learning styles: Use with caution!
• Vocalise more to learn more Chinese
• A guide to Pinyin traps and pitfalls: Learn Mandarin pronunciation
• Don’t just read about language learning methods, try them!
• The importance of tones is inversely proportional to the predictability of what you say
• 12 songs to learn Chinese and expand your horizons
• Learning Chinese with StarCraft 2
• Extending mnemonics: Tones and pronunciation
• The time barrel: How to find more time to study Chinese
• Kickstart your Chinese character learning with the 100 most common radicals
• Study according to your current productivity level
• Why learning Chinese through music is underrated
• Website restructuring completed
• Chinese listening strategies: Diversify your listening practice
• 31 Twitter feeds to help you learn Chinese
• A language learner’s guide to reading comics in Chinese
• Approaches to reading in Chinese
• Recording yourself to improve your Chinese speaking ability
• Chinese Language Learner Interview Series – Olle Linge
• Chinese listening strategies: Deliberate practice and i+2
• Improving Chinese writing ability: Common problems and how to tackle them
• Chinese listening strategies: Improving listening speed
• Language is communication, not only an abstract subject to study
• Chinese listening strategies: Active listening
• Using Lang-8 to improve your Chinese
• Playing computer games in Chinese: Diablo 3 and Starcraft 2
• Chinese listening strategies: Passive listening
• Practising sports to learn Chinese and make friends
• Chinese listening strategies: Background listening
• Chinese listening strategies: Problem analysis
• Chinese listening strategies: An introduction
• Don’t try to improve everything at once, limit your focus
• Review: The Phonology of Standard Chinese
• Chinese language question triage: General guidelines
• Answer buttons and how to use SRS to study Chinese
• Defining Language Hacking: Lessons Learned From Hacking Chinese
• The importance of counting what counts when learning Chinese
• Hacking Chinese back again after server crash
• The 10,000 hour rule – Blood, sweat and tears
• Use the benefits of teaching to boost your own Chinese learning
• Understanding regionally accented Mandarin
• When perfectionism becomes an obstacle to progress
• Making progress in Chinese in spite of praise
• Learning simplified and traditional Chinese
• Learning Chinese efficiently vs. learning quickly
• Learn by exaggerating: Slow, then fast; big, then small
• Can you become fluent in Chinese in three months?
• Hacking Chinese 2011/2012: What was and what will be
• If you want to master Chinese, make long-term investments
• Chinese reading speed: Learning how to read ten lines at a glance
• Mapping the terra incognita of Chinese vocabulary
• The tones in Mandarin are more important than you think
• Playing word games in Chinese to practise fluency
• Reading manga in Chinese for more than just pleasure
• Triggering quantum leaps in Chinese listening ability
• About opening doors and the paths beyond
• Time boxing Chinese: Get more done in less time
• The Chinese-Chinese dictionary survival guide
• Enjoying the journey while focusing on the destination
• Benchmarking progress in Chinese to stay motivated
• The kamikaze approach to learning Chinese
• Learning Chinese the holistic way: Integrating knowledge
• Achieving the impossible by being inspired
• Don’t be a tourist if you want to learn Chinese language and culture
• Learning the third tone in Chinese
• How to find more time to practise Chinese listening
• Growing up in Chinese as a foreign adult
• Different types of mistakes when learning Chinese: Problem analysis
• Using memory aids and mnemonics to make Chinese easier
• Chinese vocabulary in your pocket
• Improve your conversations by listening to the listener
• Dealing with tricky vocabulary: Killing leeches
• Time quality: Studying the right thing at the right time
• Memorising dictionaries to boost Chinese reading ability
• Escaping the convenience trap to learn more Chinese
• Make sure listening practice isn’t a practical problem
• Review: Chinese Synonyms Usage Dictionary
• Spaced repetition isn’t rote learning
• You won’t learn Chinese simply by living abroad
• Goals and motivation for learning Chinese, part 4 – Micro goals
• Goals and motivation for learning Chinese, part 3 – Short-term goals
• Goals and motivation for learning Chinese, part 2 – Long-term goals
• Goals and motivation for learning Chinese, part 1 – Introduction
• Diversify the way you learn Chinese
• Why you should use more than one Chinese textbook
• What native speakers know and what they don’t
• Using search engines to study Chinese
• Learning Chinese pronunciation as a beginner
• A smart method to discover problems with Chinese tones
• Anki, the best of spaced repetition software
• Take responsibility for your language learning now
• Pros and cons with travelling to learn a language
• Chinese listening ability, a matter of practice?
• Learning Chinese words really fast
• Creating a powerful toolkit: Characters and words
• Spaced repetition software and why you should use it
• Creating a powerful toolkit: Individual Chinese characters
• The virtues of learning Chinese through language exchange
• Creating a powerful toolkit: Character components
• Learning Chinese through social media
• Making mistakes in Chinese is necessary to adjust your mental models
• Learning Chinese is easier than you think
• Learning Chinese is easy (old version)
• If you can only stay abroad for a short time, don’t go immediately
• A pre-launch plea for help
• Requirements to be met before site launch
• Domain name registered, software installed