Podcast Episodes

184 - The Hacking Chinese guide to Mandarin tones, part 2: How important are tones?

Season 1 Episode 184

Are perfect tones necessary to communicate in Chinese? Or can you ignore tones and still be understood? Or does the truth lie somewhere in between?

#learnchinese #tones #mandarin #pronunciation

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Published on 1 year, 8 months ago

183 - The Hacking Chinese guide to Mandarin tones, part 1: What are tones?

Season 1 Episode 183

Learning tones is a unique challenge for most learners of Chinese. What are tones? How important is it to learn tones? And how do you learn to both hear and pronounce them?

#learnchinese #tones #mand…

Published on 1 year, 9 months ago

182 - Student Q&A, February 2024: Typing or handwriting, using new words in texts, and how to use AI to improve your writing

Season 1 Episode 182

Is it better to practise writing Chinese on a computer or by hand? How do you find the right words when writing? And how can you leverage AI to improve your writing ability?

#learnchinese #typing #ha…

Published on 1 year, 9 months ago

181 - Listen more and learn more by building a personal Chinese audio library

Season 1 Episode 181

The more you listen, the more you learn, but listening more is not as easy as it sounds. By building a personal Chinese audio library, you ensure that you always have something suitable to listen to,…

Published on 1 year, 9 months ago

180 - 8 great ways to scaffold your Chinese listening and reading

Season 1 Episode 180

Listening and reading in Chinese can be a challenge, especially when your level is not high enough. To understand more and thereby also learn more, use scaffolding!

#learnchinese# listening #reading …

Published on 1 year, 9 months ago

179 - Best of Hacking Chinese 2023

Season 1 Episode 179

In 2023, I published one article and one podcast episode every week. Which was the best article? The most popular podcast episode? Let’s summarise the year that was and highlight the things you reall…

Published on 1 year, 10 months ago

178 - Student Q&A: Chinese music, too much Mandarin in the classroom, and listening

Season 1 Episode 178

Is listening to music a good way to learn Chinese? How can you learn to understand Mandarin spoken in noisy environments? And what if your teacher speaks only Chinese, but you don’t understand what s…

Published on 1 year, 10 months ago

177 - 12 ways chatting online will improve your Chinese

Season 1 Episode 177

Chatting online is seldom considered a method for learning Chinese, but it has several unique benefits. While generally regarded as a frivolous waste of time, text-based chatting has a place in even …

Published on 1 year, 10 months ago

176 - How to best use flashcards to learn Chinese

Season 1 Episode 176

Flashcards; some people love them, some people hate them. The goal of Hacking Chinese is to go beyond the black and white and figure out how things work so we can get the most out of them.

#learnchin…

Published on 1 year, 10 months ago

175 - Why flashcards are terrible for learning Chinese

Season 1 Episode 175

Flashcards are often viewed as a silver bullet, promising swift mastery of characters, words and more, but relying on flashcards too much has serious drawbacks, and if you’re not careful, they can hi…

Published on 1 year, 10 months ago