Hacking Chinese Podcast

Many students say that listening is the hardest part of learning Chinese, not speaking, reading or writing. Why is that? Could it be that listening in Chinese is actually harder than in many other languages? Link: Why is listening in Chinese so hard? More information and inspiration about learning and teaching Chinese can be found over at Hacking Chinese ( www.hackingchinese.com ) Music: "Traxis 1...

Many websites, apps and other resources for learning Chinese use colours to highlight tones, but does using colours really make tones  easier to learn? Link: Does using colour to represent Mandarin tones make them easier to learn? More information and inspiration about learning and teaching Chinese can be found over at Hacking Chinese ( www.hackingchinese.com ) Music: "Traxis 1 ~ F. Benjamin"...

Reading is the best way to expand vocabulary and learn about new things, but how should you approach reading in Chinese? And what are the best free reading resources out there? Link: The 10 best free Chinese reading resources for beginner, intermediate and advanced learners More information and inspiration about learning and teaching Chinese can be found over at Hacking Chinese ( www.hackingchines...

Have you ever tried to do something in Chinese you thought would be fairly easy, only to find out it was much harder than you thought? Well, you're not alone! Link: 6 things in Chinese that are harder to learn than they seem More information and inspiration about learning and teaching Chinese can be found over at Hacking Chinese ( www.hackingchinese.com ) Music: "Traxis 1 ~ F. Benjamin" by Traxis,...

Have you ever felt that you lack focus, that you don't spend enough time studying, and that it would be cool to cooperate with others to learn more Chinese? The Hacking Chinese Challenges is for you. Link: Hacking Chinese Challenges ( challenges.hackingchinese.com ) The major types of challenges: Chinese listening challenges: https://www.hackingchinese.com/chinese-listening-challenge/ Chinese read...

Have you ever wanted to listen in on great Chinese teachers when they talk about science, technology and related topics? Now, you can!  Original article: Learning science in Chinese with 李永乐老师 More information and inspiration about learning and teaching Chinese can be found over at Hacking Chinese ( www.hackingchinese.com ) Music: "Traxis 1 ~ F. Benjamin" by Traxis, 2020 - Licensed under...

Understanding is necessary for efficient learning, but when it comes to Chinese characters, is more understanding always better? Original article: 5 levels of understanding Chinese characters: Superficial forms to deep structure More information and inspiration about learning and teaching Chinese can be found over at Hacking Chinese ( www.hackingchinese.com ) Music: "Traxis 1 ~ F. Benjamin" by Tra...

For most people, writing in Chinese is synonymous with writing characters, but there is in fact a lot more to it than that Original article: 20 tips and tricks to improve your Chinese writing ability More information and inspiration about learning and teaching Chinese can be found over at Hacking Chinese ( www.hackingchinese.com ) Music: "Traxis 1 ~ F. Benjamin" by Traxis, 2020 - Licensed under Cr...

Have you ever been taught something that later turns out not to be true? Here are 7 things commonly taught in Chinese class, that are actually wrong. Original article: 7 things you were taught in Chinese class that are actually wrong More information and inspiration about learning and teaching Chinese can be found over at Hacking Chinese ( www.hackingchinese.com ) Music: "Traxis 1 ~ F. Benjamin" b...

The third tone in Mandarin causes problems for many learners. Are you sure you are pronouncing it correctly? Original article: Learning the third tone in Mandarin Chinese More information and inspiration about learning and teaching Chinese can be found over at Hacking Chinese ( www.hackingchinese.com ) Music: "Traxis 1 ~ F. Benjamin" by Traxis, 2020 - Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution (3...

Pronunciation is one of the most overlooked areas of learning Chinese. Here's my attempt to fix that problem! In this week's episode, I share the first episode of my pronunciation course, which is open for registration until February 5th. If you listen to this after February 5th, you can still sign up to the waiting list to get notified when the course comes around next time. Enjoy! More informati...

Learning to pronounce Mandarin is not easy, but many students make it a lot harder than it needs to be. Original article: The most serious mistake students make when learning Mandarin pronunciation More information and inspiration about learning and teaching Chinese can be found over at Hacking Chinese ( www.hackingchinese.com ) Music: "Traxis 1 ~ F. Benjamin" by Traxis, 2020 - Licensed under Crea...

I published 47 articles on Hacking Chinese in 2020. Here is a summary of the most popular ones, as well as my own favourites. Original article: Best of Hacking Chinese 2020 More information and inspiration about learning and teaching Chinese can be found over at Hacking Chinese ( www.hackingchinese.com ) Music: "Traxis 1 ~ F. Benjamin" by Traxis, 2020 - Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution...

Guidance can make learning Chinese easier, but if used incorrectly, it can actually make you learn less. Original article: Can too much guidance make you learn less Chinese? More information and inspiration about learning and teaching Chinese can be found over at Hacking Chinese ( www.hackingchinese.com ) Music: "Traxis 1 ~ F. Benjamin" by Traxis, 2020 - Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution...

A new year, a new beginning, the perfect time to commit to levelling up your Chinese and achieve greatness! Or is it? Original article: How to not fail with your New Year resolution to learn Chinese More information and inspiration about learning and teaching Chinese can be found over at Hacking Chinese ( www.hackingchinese.com ) Music: "Traxis 1 ~ F. Benjamin" by Traxis, 2020 - Licensed under Cre...

Around this time of year most institutions take a break from teaching Chinese, but that doesn't mean that you should stop learning. Original article: 7 things Chinese students should during the winter vacation More information and inspiration about learning and teaching Chinese can be found over at Hacking Chinese ( www.hackingchinese.com ) Music: "Traxis 1 ~ F. Benjamin" by Traxis, 2020 - License...

Learning to pronounce Mandarin can be tricky, and if you misunderstand the link between spoken sounds and Pinyin spelling, it gets a lot worse. Original article: 9 answers to questions about Pinyin and pronunciation More information and inspiration about learning and teaching Chinese can be found over at Hacking Chinese ( www.hackingchinese.com ) Music: "Traxis 1 ~ F. Benjamin" by Traxis, 2020 - L...

Setting long-terms goals is easy, but sticking to them over months and years is much harder. Why is that, and are there any alternatives? Original article: The forking path: A human approach to learning Chinese More information and inspiration about learning and teaching Chinese can be found over at Hacking Chinese ( www.hackingchinese.com ) Music: "Traxis 1 ~ F. Benjamin" by Traxis, 2020 - Licens...

I think most of us evaluate our own language proficiency all the time, but is such intuitive self-assessment useful? And are there any good alternatives? Original article: How good is your Chinese? More information and inspiration about learning and teaching Chinese can be found over at Hacking Chinese ( www.hackingchinese.com ) Music: "Traxis 1 ~ F. Benjamin" by Traxis, 2020 - Licensed under Crea...

We've all heard that reading is great for language learning, but what if I told you that most Chinese learners are actually going about it the wrong way? Original article: An introduction to extensive reading for Chinese learners More information and inspiration about learning and teaching Chinese can be found over at Hacking Chinese ( www.hackingchinese.com ) Music: "Traxis 1 ~ F. Benjamin" by Tr...

10 years. 472 articles. 650,000 words. It's hard to believe, but I've been writing articles on Hacking Chinese for more than a decade now! Original article: Celebrating ten years of Hacking Chinese More information and inspiration about learning and teaching Chinese can be found over at Hacking Chinese (www.hackingchinese.com) Music: "Traxis 1 ~ F. Benjamin" by Traxis, 2020 - Licensed under Creati...

I prefer listening over reading in many cases, which is partly why I created the Hacking Chinese Podcast. But why should you listen to it? Will it improve your Chinese? Original article: Tune in to the Hacking Chinese Podcast! More information and inspiration about learning and teaching Chinese can be found over at Hacking Chinese (www.hackingchinese.com) Music: "Traxis 1 ~ F. Benjamin" by Traxis,...

When we first start learning Chinese, each new character is hard to learn, but as we learn more, it gets easier. But a new problem soon appears: Mixing up similar characters we have already learnt. Original article: Dealing with Chinese characters you keep mixing up More information and inspiration about learning and teaching Chinese can be found over at Hacking Chinese (www.hackingchinese.com) Mu...

Spaced repetition software is designed to delay reviews as long as possible without letting you forget. For learning Chinese, though, barely remembering something is not enough. #learnchinese #vocabulary #srs #flashcards Link to the article this podcast episode is based on: When spaced repetition fails, and what to do about it: ⁠https://www.hackingchinese.com/when-spaced-repetition-fails-and-what-...

Learning Mandarin pronunciation is not easy, so some people use English words to approximate Chinese pronunciation. This is a really bad idea. Original article: Why learning Chinese pronunciation by using English words is a really bad idea More information and inspiration about learning and teaching Chinese can be found over at Hacking Chinese Music: "Traxis 1 ~ F. Benjamin" by Traxis, 2...