Recent articles about how to learn Mandarin
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Communicative handwriting: Writing Chinese with a real purpose
Flashcards can teach you to write Chinese characters, but they can be boring and hide problems. Communicative handwriting is more engaging and prepares you for real-world tasks.
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How to create mnemonics for general, abstract or overlapping character components
Mountains, trees and rocks are easy to use in mnemonics. But what do you do with character components whose meanings are general, abstract or overlapping?
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Chinese reading challenge, August 2026
It’s time for a Chinese reading challenge! It starts on August 10th, so enrol, set your goal and read as much as you can before the end of the month. This article contains more information about the challenge, as well as some advice about improving reading ability in Chinese.
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The Chinese iceberg: Why speaking more isn’t enough to speak better
90% of an iceberg is underwater, yet we mostly pay attention to the bit that sticks up. The same is true for proficiency in Chinese: speaking ability is easy to see, but relies on a much larger system underneath.
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New book: Hacking Chinese: The Snake Collection
I have published a book! It’s called Hacking Chinese: The Snake Collection and contains articles I wrote in 2025, the Year of the Snake. The articles cover a wide variety of topics, but characters, tutors and input are the most prominent.
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30 minutes of podcast, 3 minutes of Chinese
Most learners know they should “listen more”, but what they listen to matters. To improve, you need to make sense of spoken Mandarin, not listen to people explain Mandarin in English.
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Chinese writing challenge, July 2026
It’s time for a Chinese writing challenge! It starts on July 10th, so enrol, set your goal and write as much as you can before the end of the month. This article contains more information about the challenge, some important things to keep in mind as well as some advice about improving writing ability in Chinese.
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How much Chinese should you listen to every day?
Listening is the most important skill. To improve your listening ability in Chinese, you need to listen a lot, but how much should you listen every day?
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How technology can stop you from learning Chinese
Technology can make learning Chinese easier, but only if it helps you engage more with the language. Used poorly, the same tools can get in the way of learning instead of supporting it.
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How technology can make learning Chinese easier
Technology can make learning Chinese easier, not by doing the learning for you, but by helping you spend more time on what actually matters: listening, reading and communicating in Chinese.
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