Crash Course #1: Introduction

When I started learning Mandarin, I felt frustrated and confused. I expected teachers and courses to provide what I needed, but they didn't. The teachers were good at telling me what to learn, but didn't show me how to learn. They left many things out, something I only found out much later.

Hacking Chinese is my attempt to help you avoid frustration and confusion by talking exactly about the things that are often left out. This means focusing on how to learn and helping you find a better way of learning Mandarin.

How to learn Chinese is a broad topic and the website has more than 300 articles, all available for free. This crash course is designed to give you as as much as possible without overwhelming you. Over the coming weeks, I will share with you the best advice I have to offer for different areas of learning, including:

Language hacking
Characters, words and grammar
Listening and reading
Speaking and writing
Study management

Feel free to ignore the parts that don't interest you! The crash course starts for real in the next e-mail when we dive into the first topic. If you don't want to wait, I suggest that you have a look at the introduction for your particular level on the website:

If you need help with a specific skill, check the following introductions:

As promised, I will summarise and highlight the most important content in this crash course. I will also mention learning resources when relevant, but if you want more, please check:

Hacking Chinese Resource

See you again soon and good luck with your studying in the meantime!

Best wishes,

Olle Linge
凌雲龍