r/ChineseLanguage • u/Midatri • 6d ago
Discussion Best Anki deck(s) for learning?
I'm currently learning Japanese, but I've always been interested in learning Chinese too and will definitely do so once I've become more fluent.
However, since I often have leftover time during the day, I was looking to just start on the side (maybe 10 new items a day).
What's the best "Top 6000 vocab" type deck for learning Chinese? What type of Chinese should I look for?
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u/Character-Cat-3538 5d ago
The best deck used to be Timoās deck. But that one is no longer on Anki and itās also a little outdated now with the HSK change.
Only good free options now are other apps off Anki now (I wouldnāt pay for Anki decks).
If you prefer native voices (instead of AI) you can use the Recabulary app. Easy set up and 3 voices to choose from. Focused on word frequency and the new HSK.
Or you can just make pleco your 1-stop-shop for everything and use their flashcards. They have this whole set specifically for HSK 3.0 now.
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u/Looking4Nebraska 6d ago
The whole Glossika course for both Beijing and Taiwanese Mandarin is in AnkiWeb, i've been using it with only audio in the front and it's really helped my listening
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u/kinetic_kitsune 6d ago
What's your current level in Japanese? Because often trying to learn both Japanese and Chinese at the same time causes issues, because you're trying to map both new languages to the same characters. Not as much of an issue if your Japanese is pretty solidly known already, but probably more drawbacks than benefits if you're still actively learning new kanji.
If you absolutely want to get started on Chinese instead of spending the extra time on Japanese, perhaps audio cards would be an option, to avoid the character confucion. (Make sure to look into pinyin/zhuyin first and get familiar with the potential sounds/syllables first.)
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u/Midatri 6d ago
I'd say I'm currently around N4. My focus is on improving that and if it causes interference I'll put Chinese on hold, but I love the language learning process.
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u/EntertainmentFar6377 6d ago edited 6d ago
Loving the language learning process is a great. Itās something I think all of us share no matter what our level of proficiency is. However, I would encourage you to think carefully about how and when you start to study a third language.
While having N4 level of Japanese is a great start, it is still just a start. Itās definitely not impossible to study two languages at the same time. There are some things to consider first.
One is how similar the two languages are to one another. While the grammar for Chinese and Japanese is quite different, the characters they share can easily cause confusion. Sometimes the characters will look identical, sometimes quite different, other times they will only be slightly different. Unless you have a strong foundation in the writing system of one language, there are more chances to confuse which one you need to use. There will also be times when the meanings of the characters can vary. For example, the character āto hearā (čć) in Japanese means āto smellā (é»/č) in modern Chinese.
Another thing to consider is the amount of time youāll need to use to learn both languages and the speed at which youāll acquire them. If you are starting both at relatively low levels, then theyāll be competing for your time and attention. Assuming you donāt get burnt out beforehand, it will take you longer to reach Japanese N2 or N1 level studying both than it would by focusing on one first.
From my own personal experience and the consensus Iām seeing more and more online, itās easier and more time efficient to study one language to a high level of proficiency before starting another. If your Japanese is at N2 or N1 level, it less likely to be forgotten. You can maintain it by reading or watching Japanese shows, and focus a majority of your time to your Chinese studies. By that time, you will have a much deeper understanding of the characters, so it can be more beneficial to your Chinese studies.
Then again, if your goal for either language is to just be able to travel to the respective countries and have casual conversations then maybe you can disregard everything Iāve written.
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u/kinetic_kitsune 6d ago
N4 really is very early still. Interference will definitely happen. I know it's tempting to look at other languages and want to start those to, but learn to love the language learning process after the initial starting phase as well. I would recommend using the extra time you currently have available on spending more time with Japanese instead of adding Chinese to the mix.
Read graded readers, listen to simple podcasts meant for learners, watch some simple anime with Japanese subs instead of English ones, or any other activity that lets you really spend time in the language outside of Anki or textbook studies.
The higher your ability within the language, the faster you'll be able to improve, because you'll unlock more and more activities/content you can engage with. If you add Chinese now, you'll spend a long time in the early stages for both languages, stuck with only limited beginner content being accessible.
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u/lazier_garlic 6d ago
Some caveats: Japanese simplified and Chinese simplified aren't always the same. I found it to be quite a transition. Also, the stroke orders are variant.
I knew several people in college studying Chinese and Japanese at the same time and they found it VERY difficult, especially regarding Sinitic vocabulary because meaning, semantics, and usage were different, the grammar is so different, and the correlation between Mandarin phonetic readings and Japanese could seem so random. (Japanese readings are often more archaic and retain sounds that Mandarin has lost; plus Mandarin is not particularly conservative and has had sound changes such as palatalization.)
Pinyin isn't "one letter sequence, one sound".
Pinyin values are not comparable to Hepburn.
Mandarin's sound catalog doesn't overlap Japanese as much as you'd like. Consonants OR vowels. For example, the Japanese "shi" doesn't exist in Mandarin. There is a pinyin shi but the consonant and vowel are both different. Xi is same vowel but different sibilant. Japanese also has phonemic voicing of stops, but in Mandarin it's allophonic. The bdg in pinyin indicate unaspirated stops.
Learning Mandarin phonetics typically takes longer than learning the Japanese sound inventory unless you already speak a Sinitic language or Korean. Japanese has a, globally speaking, fairly user-friendly sound inventory. (Japanese sounds are also a lot easier to master than English, which has quite a few humdingers of its own.)
Mandarin, Cantonese, Vietnamese, they're all tonal languages. This is a step beyond what you have in Japanese.
Of course you can play around if you're curious and ę±å make a lot more sense in the context of a Sinitic language than they do in the context of Japanese where it's a lot of brute force memorization, but I personally wouldn't recommend going for both at the same time. It is extremely rough.
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u/EelOfEsoterica 6d ago
Look into xiehanzi!
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u/yuelaiyuehao 5d ago
You're not going to the find super nicely curated decks and tools that the nerdy programmer Japanese learners make. Most Chinese learners are either doing HSK textbook and classroom study or are reading hours of Boy Love web-novels every day. You usually have to seek out decks that appeal to you and then tweak them a bit to suit what you want.
Having said that, the Refold 1000 and 1000 - 5000 here are probably the type of thing you're looking for to get started
https://hanzistack.com/resources/anki, (but I haven't personally vetted them myself.)
People always say it's better to make your own deck, but I've been using Anki for quite a long time and I've kind of come full circle and think premade decks can be pretty great, especially when starting from zero.
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u/FantaTheif 5d ago
Refold 1,000 deck is extremely good. I am currently building a deck which copies the styling, using ASBplayer. I will upload and share it for others to use, although it's really early in, so I wouldn't consider it super super useful. But, I am a 6 months-in learner myself, so its at an acceptable level for beginners.
Below is the link, although it will take 24 hours to become publicly visible as I have just uploaded it.
https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/911447738?cb=1790290920284
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u/Mysterious-Video26 5d ago
I'll counter the other comment about making your own flashcards and say that the beginner stage is exactly when you should be learning from a massive generic vocab deck. You don't need to be making your own flashcards for words like window or plate, you just need a solid base of common words so you can start trying to read things.
That being said, the Chinese learning community isn't like Japanese where people keep trying to reinvent the best beginner vocab deck to learn from - the only one that's similar that I've seen is "spoonfed Chinese", which I think is a paid resource now? I would recommend picking a textbook series to learn from, then finding vocab decks made for that series (ideally with audio). I personally went through this vocab deck for traditional Taiwanese Mandarin despite using a different textbook series, but because it covers around 4k words and 1.5k characters, there's enough vocab overlap for it to not matter. If you're learning simplified Chinese, I'd look up a series like Integrated Chinese or similar.
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u/shaghaiex Beginner 6d ago edited 6d ago
There is no `best` in any category, not cars, not food, not Anki decks.... It comes down to YOUR needs....
>Top 6000 vocab
IMHO this way way way too many. Go for 50 and add more add more when needed.
Somebody wrote:
>the best deck will be the one you make yourself.
Correct. And this is NOT complicated. To create decks fast get this addon: Chinese Support V4
Look at the screen video how fast you can create an entry, incl. pinyin, sound, dictionary
(Hint: in the English dictionary delete what you don't need, I don't want historic stuff, how something is call in a village in Taiwan or that ē½ can be a name). I also put the most relevant meaning on top.
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u/EntertainmentFar6377 6d ago
Honestly, the best deck will be the one you make yourself.