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Week 15 of 52 Weeks of Chinese It’s a problem a lot of people I talk to face: where can one find interesting articles in Chinese to read? Usually I tell them, “try Caixin!” But for some strange reason, not everyone likes reading a magazine with high journalistic standards dedicated to finance and economics. So, …

It’s easy to get stuck doing the wrong things. Sometimes you get in the habit of not studying Chinese. (Or you get into the habit of not blogging every week.) Good study habits are important for learning any language and are even more essential when learning Chinese which has tough-to-master parts like tones and characters. …

If you muster up all your willpower to study Chinese, it won’t be enough. Learning Chinese requires more than willpower. The tides of willpower Willpower is like waves in the ocean. It ebbs, it flows. You have it, and you don’t. To have consistent growth when learning Chinese, you should be doing it everyday (All …

So a few weeks ago I said I’d upload a recording I made of me speaking Chinese. I started recording myself because I want to follow my progress. How do I sound?

Week 7 of 52 Weeks of Chinese In a lot ways, studying languages is like a lot like eating/living healthy. Both are activities that take a lot of time, and focus. And often times, both seem like they are designed to go against our basic nature. I often find myself thinking “I should really study …

At the beginning of the year, I set a few longer term goals for improving my Chinese. One of these was to read faster: 70% of my wife’s speed (she is a native Chinese speaker). In order to track my progress, I recorded my reading speed. Today I retested my reading speed.

I’m a big fan of Chad’s website and blog, ZhToolKit. He’s programmer and a Chinese learner; his writings and tools a great combination of nerdy and informative. He doesn’t blog a huge amount, but it’s clear that each peice is researched and well thought out. Chad’s process for studying Chinese also intriuges me: I’m impressed …

Week 6 of 52 Weeks of Chinese You don’t always need a dictionary. You can figure out the meaning of words more often than not. If you don’t understand 1 or 2 words in a sentence, don’t look them up, try to figure out what they mean without using a dictionary.