Articles in the ‘Vocabulary’ category
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Chinese characters and words that refuse to stick: Killing leeches
How long does it take to learn a Chinese character or word? It varies, but some vocabulary just refuses to stick, no matter what you do. These are called leeches, and if you don’t deal with them, they’ll suck you dry.
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A minimum-effort approach to writing Chinese characters by hand
Chinese characters are beautiful and fascinating, but learning to write them by hand is time-consuming. If you want to learn to write Chinese characters by hand with the least possible time investment, what’s the best approach?
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Cultivate your Chinese flashcard garden… or burn it down and start afresh
Flashcards are powerful, but what if your deck feels more like an overgrown thicket than a carefully cultivated garden? Do you clear away the weeds and bring it back under control, or burn it all down and start afresh?
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The Fluent Listener: Navigating Spoken Mandarin Like a Fish in Water is open until November 17
Develop essential Mandarin listening skills with my new course, The Fluent Listener. Enrol by November 17 for lifetime access to video lessons, curated resources, tailored guidance, and a supportive learning community.
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How to talk about Chinese characters in Chinese
How do native speakers talk about Chinese characters? The writing system is not phonetic, so you can’t spell out words, but it is still possible to talk about Chinese characters.
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Chinese vocabulary challenge, November 2025
It’s time for a vocabulary challenge! It starts on November 10th, so enrol, set your goal and learn as many characters and words as you can before the end of the month. This challenge is sponsored by Skritter, so there are also prizes on the line! This article contains more information about the challenge, some important things to keep in mind as well as some advice about learning Chinese characters and words.
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What a big Rubik’s Cube taught me about Chinese characters
How small can Chinese characters be while still being legible? How much information do they contain per unit area? And what can a big Rubik’s cube teach us about Chinese characters?
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Learning (or not learning) Chinese slang
Slang and swearing often top the list of what people want to learn in a foreign language. But is this curiosity actually helpful for learners, or just a fun distraction?
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7 ways to learn to write Chinese characters
There are many ways of practising writing Chinese characters and they all have their pros and cons. In this article, I discuss seven different ways of practising and what advantages and disadvantages they have for you as a learner. Which do you use?
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Same building blocks, different characters: How component placement changes meaning in Chinese
Chinese character components are usually placed in predictable ways. If you remember the components, you can often write the character. But not always. Some characters share components but differ only in how they’re arranged.
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