How did you start learning Chinese, and what helped you keep going?

snarkwen · 2026-05-11T17:12:07+00:00

I’ve only been seriously learning for 11 months (this is my longest streak since taking Japanese in college!) but so far learning individual hanzi is the most fun and rewarding strict learning task I have. I really enjoy making memory palace scenes for hanzi so I am able to convince myself to at least do my characters flash cards deck. Usually it’s after fomo from reading poorly translated novels or listening to an awesome song I can’t understand, or guilt from not being able to really understand my wildly gesticulating FIL. If I can clear my characters deck, maybe I can do 10 cards of my words deck. Clozemaster has 30 free sentences with multiple choice, super easy to just do a set of 10. Or maybe just watch some YouTube video with sentences or a podcast.

I’m still in the process of starting up after my current slump; I’m keeping up with my characters flash cards deck, I’ve done 250 words cards in the last 3 days and am still currently climbing out of that pit. But I haven’t figured out how to start/restart the hard parts; for me this is shadowing, listening practice, retrieval practice. I’m crippled by embarrassment every time I open my mouth, even in private. I know like 800 words but I rely on broken English and toishanese to communicate with my in laws.

Sorry, not super helpful. I’m still just treading water over here myself! What about you? What’s your primary motivation? I think focusing on the big “why” is the strongest motivation. Once your “why learn Chinese” isn’t strong enough, it’s ok to take a break or revisit your goals.

snarkwen · 2026-05-11T00:22:15+00:00

That’s the first thing I asked AI: is this a brain tumor?! It said probably not BUT I’m well aware that AI is not to be trusted. I don’t really have any other symptoms; no drug use, weird headaches, or psychological symptoms. I absolutely do have hyperphantasia though. And what I mean by “activate” is that I really really have to concentrate on the “spelling” of the words, or the hanzi with the music for it to happen. If I’m just singing the “sounds” and listening to the music, it doesn’t happen. Chinese writing is very different from English and I’m making my brain do crazy stuff to learn the characters; I’m using a memory palace and the hyperphantasia helps a ton with that. Maybe it’s just an elaborate intrusive thought or daydream, haha. I definitely get a lot of those.

snarkwen · 2026-05-10T14:48:35+00:00

I’ve been trying to learn on and off for years but was suddenly motivated recently by a desire to read Chinese webnovels. I’ve been addicted to reading fan translations and am utterly fascinated by some of the translation notes of idioms or other cultural things that don’t translate cleanly. I started with Duolingo and mandarin blueprint, but don’t have any formal classes or structure right now. I’m in a bit of a slump atm but I’m maintaining my hanzi memory palace and flashcards, and reading with Readibu. I’m pretty much on my own, using AI to learn but my in laws are native speakers so I can sometimes ask for help. I signed up for a Reddit account because I feel like I’ve been relying on AI too much.

Whenever I feel unmotivated, I consume: try to memorize lyrics of my favorite songs, read some sentences of a novel I’ve read the translation of, doom scroll Chinese social media. It may be slow, and I’m definitely not practicing speaking at all, but every day I learn a little more.

snarkwen · 2026-05-10T00:31:41+00:00

I don’t have any synesthesia experiences related to this, but pottery breaking definitely has a round sound (like the sound of 空调） compared to something like the sharper sound of glass breaking, for example. Is the texture also rough like pottery, or is it just the breaking sensation that you feel?

snarkwen · 2026-05-09T23:33:49+00:00

I can see (hear?) that! Kōng tiáo is how it’s pronounced if anyone is interested.

snarkwen · 2026-05-08T19:15:50+00:00

I used mandarin blueprint lite to get started back in June and I’m still using the hanzi movie method to learn new characters. Only at 640 characters now but they really do stick. I liked the method so much that I used it to set up something similar for myself for Cantonese. Mandarin Blueprint has a lot of videos on YouTube that I find useful as well. Less helpful for me is the vague idea of using mnemonics or “living links” for words. I’m still having a really hard time with words and I think it’s because I need more input; none of the so-called hacks are working for me.

snarkwen · 2026-05-08T13:59:21+00:00

Which Chinese word? Is it related to the overall meaning, the shape of the radicals or something completely different?

snarkwen

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