Guides
Short, practical articles on the how of learning Chinese characters — the method behind the practice tools on this site.
Chinese Stroke Order: The 8 Rules That Cover Almost Every Character
Why stroke order matters, the eight rules that govern nearly every Chinese character, and the common exceptions beginners trip over.
The Four Mandarin Tones (Plus the Neutral Tone): A Beginner's Guide
How the four Mandarin tones work, how to hear and produce them, and why tone pairs — not isolated tones — are the fastest way to sound natural.
A Realistic 30-Day Study Plan for All 180 HSK 1 Characters
A day-by-day plan for learning every HSK 1 character in a month: how many new characters per day, when to review, and what to do when you fall behind.
Chinese Radicals for Beginners: The 15 You'll See Everywhere in HSK 1
What radicals actually are, why they make characters easier to remember, and the fifteen radicals that appear again and again across the HSK 1 set.
How to Practice Writing Chinese Characters (Without Wasting Time)
A practice routine that actually builds handwriting: tracing versus recall, how many repetitions matter, and the mistakes that make practice useless.
Spaced Repetition for Chinese Characters: Why Cramming Fails
How forgetting actually works, why reviewing at expanding intervals beats massed repetition, and how to use a review queue without letting it bury you.
Simplified vs Traditional Chinese Characters: What Beginners Actually Need to Know
Where each script is used, how different they really are, and why the choice matters far less at the beginner stage than most learners fear.
How Many Chinese Characters Do You Need to Know?
The real numbers behind Chinese literacy: what 180, 500, 1,500 and 3,000 characters each unlock, and why frequency makes the first hundred disproportionately powerful.