Guides

Long-form and practical: how to make Chinese stick, and how to choose between the tools and standards you'll meet on the way.

• How to memorize Chinese characters Characters don't yield to brute force. What works: components, words over characters, the three skills split apart, and reviews timed to your forgetting.
• FSRS vs Anki's SM-2: what actually changes SM-2 dates from 1987 and treats every memory the same. FSRS models yours. What the difference means in reviews per day for a Chinese learner.
• Comprehensible input for Mandarin, practically The i+1 idea is simple: understand almost everything, stretch by one step. Applying it to Chinese — where characters and tones gate the input — takes engineering.
• HSK 3.0, explained The 2021 overhaul of the Chinese proficiency standard: seven bands instead of six levels, roughly double the vocabulary, and what each level really asks of you.