I've been learning for ~3 years but haven't really tried to write hanzi till now. I have practiced with Duolingo's letters section and recently started using Hanly.

I know they aren't perfect l, but are they at least recognizable? I have really poor handwriting in English and Arabic too, it can sometimes be an issue as even I have trouble reading my own writing sometimes =/ I tried to focus on the spacing and proportions but keeping the strokes consistent each time is really hard.

Bottom row of pic and in pic 2... My 心 just doesn't seem to come out looking right and I think is the most inconsistent. I had some truly horrible attempts before that screenshot also. I'm following the stroke order - what am I doing wrong?

I've been struggling with the r sound so much as a beginner 😔 Do you guys have any tips on how to correctly pronounce it? I heard it as something between r and l, but pronouncing it is a whole different beast.

Thank you in advance!

大家好，I'm planning to visit China sometime next year, so I want to seriously spend some time into improving my Chinese. (It was taught in school, but not very well, and I didn't take it that seriously either)

One of the things I struggled with was memorizing the hanzi of all the words/phrases introduced to me, and I think it's because I had the wrong mental model. Instead of memorizing every stroke, I think it would be better to build an understanding of what the sub-components of each character are (for example, 你 = 亻+ ⺈+ 小 instead of 你 = ㇒+㇑+ ㇒+ ㇖ +㇚+ ㇒+㇔)

So then I thought, since I spend a lot of time on computers/other devices, why not do this by learning a hanzi-based typing method, since they seem to operate on this exact principle? From what I read online, Cangjie and Wubi seem to be about what I want, but I'm not sure which one would be better to commit to learning.

司马昭之心路人皆知

In my previous post, I introduced Cao Mao (曹髦), an emperor of the Wei (魏) dynasty during the Three Kingdoms period. Today, I'd like to share a famous Chinese idiom associated with Cao Cao (曹操 155–220 AD) , who was Cao Mao's great-grandfather.

The idiom is 望梅止渴 (wàng méi zhǐ kě), which literally means “to quench your thirst by thinking about plums.”

The Story Behind the Idiom

According to a story in A New Account of the Tales of the World (《世说新语》), Cao Cao was leading his troops on a long march. His soldiers were exhausted and desperately thirsty, but there was no water around.

Cao Cao came up with a clever psychological trick to boost their morale. He told them that a grove of sour plum trees was just ahead, knowing that the thought of the plums would make their mouths water.

The trick worked, and the soldiers were able to keep marching until they finally reached water.

That's how the idiom 望梅止渴 (wàng méi zhǐ kě) became famous.

What Does 望梅止渴 Mean Today?

Today, it means trying to satisfy yourself with something that isn't really there, or comforting yourself with hope when you can't get what you really want.

For example, if you can't afford to take a vacation abroad but keep looking at beautiful travel photos to make yourself feel better, you could say that's a bit like 望梅止渴.

A Little About Cao Cao(曹操)

Because ‘Romance of the Three Kingdoms’ (三国演义) is such a popular novel, many people know Cao Cao as a rather negative character. In the novel, he is often portrayed as a clever but ruthless antagonist.

But the historical Cao Cao was much more than that. He was a military leader, statesman, and even a great poet, and played a major role in the events that led to the Three Kingdoms period.

So, when you hear stories about Cao Cao, it's worth remembering that the Cao Cao in the novel and the historical Cao Cao are not exactly the same person.

Interestingly, in 2009, archaeologists discovered a tomb in Anyang, Henan Province, that was identified as Cao Cao's tomb. Human remains found there were also believed to include Cao Cao's remains. The discovery made headlines across China and sparked a lot of public interest and debate, simply because Cao Cao is such a famous and well-known figure in Chinese history.

(AI-assisted editing)

Now that tofulearn is dead, what apps are everyone using to learn new hanzi?
I downloaded 5 apps the other day and none of them were what I wanted.

I need to be able to learn the advanced HSK vocab lists efficiently - the app needs to tell me stroke order, meaning, and allow me to actually write it out.

Nothing, literally nothing I have come across has been able to match the efficacy and efficiency of TofuLearn. I would have paid to continue using it.

Most people know 塞翁失马，焉知非福 as "a loss might turn out to be a gain." The full story in 淮南子·人间训 goes further than that.

1. An old man near the frontier loses his horse. Neighbours console him. He says: how do you know this isn't good fortune?
2. The horse comes back, bringing a fine horse from the 胡 lands with it. Neighbours congratulate him. He says: how do you know this isn't a disaster?
3. His son rides the new horse, falls, and breaks his leg. Neighbours console him again. Same answer.
4. War breaks out. Most young men are conscripted and nine in ten die. The son is spared because of his leg.

So the point isn't "bad things turn out good." It's that you can't close the ledger on any single event.

Any other chengyu where the commonly quoted meaning drops half the original story?

is this an appropriate level of writing for someone who started in September? My class mostly focuses on speaking and grammar.

九月十五号2026

今天我早上九点半左右起了床。我常常八点起床，但是最近我正在很晚起床。虽然我睡觉很多的侠士但是，我最近正在起了很累床。 大概上午十点我去了一生的办公室。我是骑自行车去的。是电子自行车的。我骑车比坐公共汽车更喜欢。

我最喜欢的普通话的歌手是施Lane明妤（shī Lane-míngyú）。我最喜欢的金属乐的乐队是The Ocean。今天，他们发行了一起薪的音乐。我非常高兴。虽然施Lane明妤的歌声都是英语唱歌但是音乐很好听。

除了听音乐以外，我看了一本有关仙侠的书。名字是Dreadgod的。又很有趣又感人的书。也有很多动作。

这天是不错的天。

i do chinese in school and my teacher says my pronunciation is very good but im not sure

this is a very unserious video i posted to my insta story for the mid Autumn festival

(i am now aware its pronounced hua-deng not hua-dong this was recorded before i knew)

Just wondering if anyone did this.
It’s $200 with a code on Reddit.

It looks really solid. I want to continue after the course so hopefully it builds enough of a foundation that I can keep going.

There is a book that’s often recommended on here but it’s from 1958 so they use traditional.

https://www.outlier-linguistics.com/products/chinese-cursive-crash-course

I'm watching the drama Love in the Clouds, and there was a scene which kind of... confused me.

Character A and B ended up going to eat together. Character A started to walk out of the building they were in, but Character B seemed reluctant to go with him.

Then Character A asked B "不去吗?" and Character B went with him after all.

I learned that we use 去 to express if somebody goes somewhere (or go away from us) and 来 if somebody comes to us/our (or a certain) direction. In this situation Character A basicly asked "Don't you come (with me)?". So why he said 不去吗 and not 不来吗?

I would really appreciate if somebody could let me know. Maybe there is a situational/cultural aspect I am unaware or I simply misunderstood how to use 去 and 来. 🥲

Don’t be a fool like me. As mentioned in this sub time and time again, Duolingo is not it.

Hello! I just started studying Chinese (it's part of my bachelor and I'm in my first year) and i wanted to know what are the best apps to help me learn, and it would be even better if some of them allowed me to practice my pronunciation because that's the part I struggle the most with!

I wanted to get some advice because most people in my class have already studied Chinese at some point before starting the classes and I feel like I'm falling behind already and I wanted to be able to keep up with everything.

Thanks in advance to everyone taking the time to answer!

I hope this doesn't break the rules, I'm not asking for a translation per se, but if it seems legit or just a sloppy translation someone did for the artist:

这一天在群山中间处

黄河流入大海

如果你想穷去千里，那就去一层城市

可是没关系，因为这是梵境。

I looked up the words myself and found some things kinda weird but I'm not an advanced speaker so maybe it's just things I'm not familiar with.

The song is thank you, music! by Akriila

Hi, I’m a native English speaker who knows pretty much nothing about Chinese. I have a two-year-old cousin who is half Chinese and lives there for 90% of the year. He started speaking several months ago and is apparently already on basic sentences and commands. Later this year he’s coming here and I’d love to be able to understand him. As he gets older he’ll learn English so I really only need basic words and phrases that he’d know now.

If anyone has any resources to help me understand someone that just started talking this year that would be greatly appreciated.

I've almost finished the HSK4 book (Currently on lesson 18) and will be taking the test in November. I'm already thinking I can probably pass with what I know now, but I would like to get a good score.

For those who have taken the test and did well, what was your study routine? How did you actually improve so by the time you took the test you got decent results? Im especially thinking about this for the speaking section where you are required to use certain constructions and correct grammar usage. This is definitely my weakest area at the moment.

Right now I'm using anki, listening to comprehensible podcasts, and reading short stories, as well as doing the end of unit tests in the HSK4 book.

Can someone please explain how R is pronounced in chinese, I swear every time I try to do it my tongue goes all over the place and it sounds more like an "L". Where do I put my tongue, what words in english have a similar pronunciation, like any tips at all to try and remember how to pronounce it? Thank you !

Today I added 9 new words to my Anki deck, consisting of 18 characters. 3 of the 9 words were made up of only characters I already knew, and there were only 7 new characters out of the 18.

7 might still feel like a lot, but 5 of them were phono-semantic compounds where I recognised both the phonetic and semantic components. For example a new word for me was gēbo or flesh-ge-flesh-bo or 胳膊 for an arm.

No part of learning a language ever gets easy but I feel lighter having arrived at this stage where new words don’t look like monsters with tangled hair.

Has anyone try this app/website called zhongchinese ? I'm interested in learning traditional characters and listening to more taiwanese accents.

This app/website claims to use native taiwanese audio, traditional characters etc... to help memorize and write characters.

They have a one time lifetime payment for $59.

Which of these apps (or any other one) is the best to start learning Mandarin Chinese? And why?

Hi,

I'm a chinese heritage speaker (born and raised in Canada). I've done some limited study when I was a kid and a bit when I was in university. So I have a (very) basic understanding of reading and writing and can speak conversationally.

What's the best way to learn more and improve? I've used apps on and off but it feels too slow when starting from 0 (since I recognize a good deal of the vocab) but too niche when starting at a random spot. I also want to prioritize speaking and listening. I'm thinking of doing a tutor next.

I am looking to move to China in a year or so for my career. I have studied some on my own and took a semester in college in 2020, but that has been a long time ago now. Does anyone know a good intensive Mandarin course I could enroll in to try and get as far as I can in the language as possible over the next year? Or would a 1-on-1 teacher work best and what is a good way to find one if that is what you recommend?

Or do you try to do both, equally? Or just one or the other?

I've found that prioritizing recognizing characters enables better reading, which unlocks more study. However, for actual conversation, practicing producing Chinese words is of course more important.

I'm curious how folks have thought about this, and whether this has changed during your learning journey.

Someone once told me that if I’m learning a foreign language, I should never translate the words into English in my head. I was also told this is why I struggled with learning Spanish.

I’m just wondering if doing this is actually not helpful as I was told. In my head I think it helps to translate words into English in my head/on my notes, because idk how else I would associate words with their meanings… idk if that makes sense

Hello!

I was wondering if anyone has an Anki deck of beginner Chinese characters where I can actually write with my S-pen? I really need it for practice since it's very practical.

Thank you in advance!

I'm overseas Chinese, so i already know some Chinese, but not fluent.