Honest writing on learning Chinese as an adult — study methods, HSK preparation, and the science of how memory works.
Most HSK 3 advice boils down to "learn the 600 words and you'll be fine." That advice fails people constantly. Here's a 12-week plan that covers vocabulary, listening, reading, grammar, and tones.
An honest comparison of Anki and dedicated Chinese learning apps. When to use each, what the trade-offs are, and why many serious learners end up using both.
Four methods that make character learning stick: radical decomposition, spaced repetition, context-based learning, and the cleanup loop that connects reading to drilling.
Mandarin listening is genuinely harder than listening in most European languages. Here's a step-by-step approach: speed adjustment, listen-first workflow, and drilling your actual gaps.
An honest breakdown of what each HSK level gets you in real life — travel, work, reading, conversation — and why the test score doesn't tell the whole story.
The story behind Aelu: why it was built, what cognitive science says about memory and language learning, the mistakes made along the way, and what actually moves the needle.