Podcast Episodes

226 - Student Q&A, December 2024: Learning similar Chinese characters, polyphonic characters, and flashcards vs. reading for building vocabulary

Season 1 Episode 226

How can you remember the difference between similar Chinese characters? Are flashcards better than reading for building vocabulary? And how do you learn polyphonic characters?

#learnchinese #vocabula…

Published on 6 months, 4 weeks ago

225 - Which Chinese learning resources are worth paying for?

Season 1 Episode 225

Thanks to the internet, learning Chinese is now more accessible than ever, and you can do it completely for free. Just because you can doesn't mean that you should, however. If you have money to inve…

Published on 7 months ago

224 - Welcome to The Fluent Listener, a new course from Hacking Chinese!

Season 1 Episode 224

Want to understand Mandarin naturally, at any level? This course guides you in building an immersive listening environment and equips you with essential listening strategies.

Strengthen your listening…

Published on 7 months, 1 week ago

223 - Four key principles to improve your Mandarin listening comprehension

Season 1 Episode 223

Listening is the cornerstone of language learning, yet many students struggle to improve their Mandarin listening comprehension. Fortunately, making progress isn’t as difficult as you might think; ju…

Published on 7 months, 2 weeks ago

222 - Student Q&A, November 2024: Pros and cons of digital tools for Chinese reading, and the struggle to find comprehensible and interesting texts

Season 1 Episode 222

Is reading digitally in Chinese better than on paper? What are the best digital tools for reading? And what should you do if you can’t find texts that are both interesting and at the right level?

#le…

Published on 7 months, 3 weeks ago

221 - How to learn Zhuyin (Bopomofo) in two hours

Season 1 Episode 221

Many people believe that learning a new script is challenging, but mastering systems like Zhuyin (Bopomofo) or Japanese kana is surprisingly easy. With the right approach and resources, you can do it…

Published on 8 months ago

220 - Do you really know how to count in Chinese?

Season 1 Episode 220

Counting is one of the first things we learn in a foreign language, yet mastering it takes time. While basic numbers may seem simple, using them effectively in communication requires much more than j…

Published on 8 months, 1 week ago

219 - Three things I wish I had known as an advanced student of Chinese: Time machine, part 3

Season 1 Episode 219

Improving your Chinese after you reach an advanced level requires new ways of learning and new sources of motivation. If I could go back in time to give a less proficient version of myself advice, he…

Published on 8 months, 2 weeks ago

218 - Don’t learn Mandarin pronunciation by reading, listen and mimic instead

Season 1 Episode 218

Don’t try to learn pronunciation by reading. Instead, the best way to improve is to listen to and mimic native speakers. Focusing too much on how sounds are written down can actually make it harder t…

Published on 8 months, 3 weeks ago

217 - Student Q&A, October 2024: Pronouncing the final -i after sh-, the initial z- and if Pinyin is a good transcription system

Season 1 Episode 217

How is the Pinyin final -i pronounced after sh? How is the initial z- pronounced compared to z in English? And is Pinyin a good transcription system for learning pronunciation?

#learnchinese #pronunc…

Published on 9 months ago