Recent articles about how to learn Mandarin Page 2
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Spaced repetition software: What it is and how to use it to learn Chinese
Spaced repetition means that you review words you want to learn in certain intervals to maximise learning efficiency. Since this involves keeping track of much data, a computer program is needed to handle it properly. Spaced repetition software is very powerful and can be used for many things, but learning vocabulary and characters are perhaps the most important applications.
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Chinese New Year and New Semester Course Discount
To mark the Chinese New Year and the start of a new semester, I offer a time-limited discount for three of my video courses, valid until the end of the week!
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Hacking Chinese reader and listener survey, 2026
What do you think about Hacking Chinese? Help me help others by filling out this reader and listener survey!
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New book: Hacking Chinese: the Dragon Collection
I have published a book! It’s called Hacking Chinese: the Dragon Collection and contains articles I wrote in 2024, the Year of the Dragon. The articles cover a wide variety of topics, but tones, listening comprehension and motivation are the most prominent.
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Chinese listening challenge, June 2026
Enrol in this month’s Chinese listening challenge, starting June 10th! Listen more and learn more through daily practice and friendly competition. This article contains more information about the challenge, as well as tips for what to listen to and how to get the most out of it.
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Chinese reading practice for beginners: 7 resources to improve your Mandarin
The best way to learn to read Chinese is to read texts you can understand without constantly using a dictionary. As a beginner, those texts aren’t always easy to find, but let’s look at the best reading resources I know for beginners.
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Chinese subtitles and transcripts: Reading before, while or after listening
Subtitles and transcripts can help you understand spoken Chinese, but do they also help you become a better listener? Should you read along, read first, or save the text for after you’ve listened?
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Chinese listening, fast and slow: Three ways of slowing down Mandarin speech
Spoken Mandarin can feel like an onslaught of similar sounds, half-recognised tones and unknown words. To add insult to injury, it’s often too fast! Should you slow it down? If so, how?
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Best of Hacking Chinese 2025
2025 has come tan end. Which were the most popular articles on Hacking Chinese last year The most popular podcast episodes? It’s time to summarise the year that was and highlight the things you really shouldn’t miss!
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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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