The following is a collection of carefully selected articles that I consider essential in one way or another. If you are short on time, these are the articles you should focus on. If you’re new to Hacking Chinese, an even better way of getting started is to sign up to my free crash course below.
Essential articles about how to learn Chinese
- How to learn Chinese pronunciation as a beginner
- Time quality: Studying the right thing at the right time
- The building blocks of Chinese, part 6: Learning and remembering compound words
- The building blocks of Chinese, part 4: Learning and remembering compound characters
- The building blocks of Chinese, part 2: Basic characters, components and radicals
- The building blocks of Chinese, part 1: Chinese characters and words in a nutshell
- My best advice on how to learn Chinese characters
- 20 tips and tricks to improve your Chinese writing ability
- The most serious mistake students make when learning Mandarin pronunciation
- Diversify how you study Chinese to learn more
- How to get honest feedback to boost your Chinese speaking and writing
- Learning Chinese words: When quantity beats quality
- Chinese is fascinating and exciting, not weird and stupid
- New course: Unlocking Chinese – The Ultimate Guide for Beginners
- 101 questions and answers about how to learn Chinese
- Training your Chinese teacher, part 1: Introduction
- The Hacking Chinese guide to Mandarin tones
- Mimicking native speakers as a way of learning Chinese
- Launching Hacking Chinese Resources
- Remembering is a skill you can learn
- Towards a more sensible way of learning to write Chinese
- Have fun learning Chinese or else…
- The time barrel: How to find more time to study Chinese
- Chinese listening strategies: An introduction
- The 10,000 hour rule – Blood, sweat and tears
- When perfectionism becomes an obstacle to progress
- Learn by exaggerating: Slow, then fast; big, then small
- The tones in Mandarin are more important than you think
- Enjoying the journey while focusing on the destination
- Benchmarking progress in Chinese to stay motivated
- Achieving the impossible by being inspired
- Using memory aids and mnemonics to make Chinese easier
- Goals and motivation for learning Chinese, part 1 – Introduction
- Take responsibility for your Chinese learning now
- Spaced repetition software and why you should use it