Hacking Chinese

A better way of learning Mandarin

Articles tagged with ‘Anki’

  1. Student Q&A, October 2023: Expanding vocabulary quickly, learning by watching videos and nailing dictation tests

    How do you build a broad vocabulary in Chinese quickly? How do you best use video-sharing platforms to boost your learning? And how should you study to nail all your 听写 or dictation?

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  2. Beginner Chinese listening practice: What to listen to and how

    The best way to learn to understand spoken Mandarin is to listen as much as you can to engaging content you can make sense of without looking things up. In this article, I go through the best types of beginner Chinese listening practice!

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  3. Why spaced repetition software is uniquely well suited to learning Chinese characters

    While spaced repetition software can be very useful, it also has some serious drawbacks. Fortunately, most of them don’t apply to learning to write Chinese characters!

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  4. When spaced repetition fails, and what to do about it

    Spaced repetition software can boost your vocabulary learning significantly. The idea is to schedule each review as late as possible, but not so late that you forget the answer. This sounds good in principle, but when it comes to learning languages, just barely being able to come up with the right word is not enough!

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  5. Free and easy audio flashcards for Chinese dictation practice with Anki

    Audio flashcards can be great for improving basic listening ability or preparing for 听写/聽寫 or dictation. It used to be time-consuming and difficult to do, but with Anki and good text-to-speech engines, it’s now both easy and free!

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  6. Reading is a lot like spaced repetition, only better

    Learning vocabulary through reading and by using spaced repetition software are both common strategies employed by students learning Chinese, but which one is the most efficient? In this guest article, Kevin Bullaughey from WordSwing compares the two methods in terms of exposure and coverage.

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  7. Cramming vs. spaced repetition: When to use which method to learn Chinese

    Cramming and spaced repetition are viable but opposite methods of reviewing Chinese characters, words and expressions. When should you use which? And Why?

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  8. Spaced repetition is not limited to flashcards

    Spaced repetition is important for learning anything, but especially vocabulary in a foreign language like Chinese. However, there’s much more to spaced repetition than vocabulary flashcard apps! Even if you dislike such apps, make sure you incorporate spaced repetition in some other way.

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  9. Sensible character challenge, January 11th to 31st

    It’s time for the first challenge of 2015! I have a feeling I’m not the only one who has fallen behind on vocabulary learning and reviewing, so this month’s challenge will focus on learning and characters and words. There are prizes on offer and the challenge starts on the Sunday 11th.

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  10. Sensible Chinese character learning challenge 2014

    The 2014 sensible Chinese character learning challenge starts soon! This article introduces the challenge and how you join us. Apart from learning a lot of characters and improving the way you learn characters, you also get a discount and free extensions on Skritter, as well as a chance of winning character posters from Hanzi WallChart!

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