Learning Blog
Practical advice on learning Chinese characters: what works, what doesn't, and how to build a habit that sticks.
Chinese Characters That Look Alike (and the One Stroke That Tells Them Apart)
未 or 末? 己, 已 or 巳? Commonly confused Chinese characters, the exact stroke or component that separates each set, and a hook to remember it.
Read more →Is Chinese Really the Hardest Language to Learn?
Chinese is hard in some places and easier than you'd expect in others. Tones and characters take years. The grammar is simpler than most people think.
Read more →HSK 3: The Complete Guide (900 Characters and Your First Written Sentence)
HSK 3 under HSK 3.0: 300 new characters, 973 new words, and the first exam that asks you to write a whole sentence yourself. Here's how to prepare.
Read more →The Best Chinese Learning Apps in 2026: An Honest Comparison (From Someone Who Built One)
Pleco, Duolingo, HelloChinese, Anki, Skritter, Du Chinese and Hanzi Express do completely different jobs. Here is what each one is actually for, where each one stops, and the stacks that make sense together.
Read more →HSK 2: The Complete Guide (Characters, the New Writing Section, and How Long It Takes)
Everything you need to know about HSK 2 under HSK 3.0: how many characters it adds, the writing section the exam just gained for the first time, and a realistic study plan.
Read more →Self-Study HSK Prep Has a Grading Problem. We Built NexaProva to Fix It.
Self-study gets you the vocabulary and the multiple-choice practice. It does not get you a real grade on your writing or speaking, or a taste of real exam conditions. Here is why we built NexaProva to fix that.
Read more →How Many Chinese Characters Are There, and How Many Do You Actually Need?
Every source gives a different number: 2,000, 3,000, 8,000. Here is how many Chinese characters actually exist, what each learning milestone really unlocks, measured against the full HSK 3.0 vocabulary list, and how to pick the target that fits what you want to read.
Read more →Is Duolingo Good for Learning Chinese? An Honest Answer From 500 Days In
I kept a 500-day Chinese streak on Duolingo. Here is a straight answer on whether it actually works for Chinese, what it is genuinely great at, and the exact point where it quietly stops taking you anywhere.
Read more →HSK 1: The Complete Guide (Words, Characters, and How Long It Really Takes)
Everything you need to know about HSK 1: how many words and characters it covers under HSK 3.0, what the exam looks like, how long it takes, and a realistic study plan.
Read more →Simplified vs Traditional Chinese: Which Should You Learn?
Simplified or traditional Chinese characters? An honest guide to the real difference, where each is used, whether one is harder, and which a beginner should actually start with.
Read more →Anki for Learning Chinese: Does It Actually Work? (An Honest Take)
Anki is the default flashcard tool for serious Chinese learners. Here is an honest look at what it does brilliantly, where it quietly fails beginners, and when something more structured is the better call.
Read more →HSK 2.0 vs HSK 3.0: What Actually Changed
HSK 2.0 vs HSK 3.0 explained: six levels became nine, 300 characters per level, a much bigger word list, a new exam format from July 2026, and how Hanzi Express rebuilt its course to match.
Read more →Chinese Tones for Beginners (and How Not to Call Your Mom a Horse)
Mandarin has four tones, and the wrong one can turn mom into horse. A beginner's guide to all four, with simple examples and tips for learning them.
Read more →The 100 Most Common Chinese Characters (and How Far They Actually Get You)
The 100 most common Chinese characters in frequency order, with pinyin and meaning, plus an honest look at how much reading this small set really unlocks.
Read more →Chinese Radicals for Beginners: Radicals vs Components
Radical or component? The two get muddled constantly. Here is the difference in plain terms, why it matters, and the handful of parts worth learning first.
Read more →Pinyin Tone Marks: Which Is Which, Copy and Paste, and How to Type Them (Mac, Windows, iPhone & Android)
Which mark is which tone, every toned vowel ready to copy and paste, and how to type ā á ǎ à on Mac, Windows, iPhone and Android.
Read more →Why Stroke Order Actually Matters in Chinese (From Someone Who Ignored It)
I skipped stroke order when I started learning Chinese characters. I told myself I'd never need to handwrite them. I was wrong.
Read more →Is There a Chinese Version of WaniKani?
WaniKani made structured kanji learning click for a lot of Japanese learners. If you've been looking for the same thing for Chinese, here's what to know.
Read more →How to Learn Chinese Characters More Effectively
After three years in China and a lot of trial and error, here's what actually made the difference and what didn't.
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