Learn the Chinese Characters FAST

Struggling  to learn  Chinese characters? Keep Reading...

Learning to read and write Chinese is HARD.

Actually, that's not quite true. Learning to read and write in Chinese is time-consuming.

To reach a level where you can fluently interact with native level material requires you to know 2500-3000+ characters.

Even if you can consistently learn (and remember!) 10 characters a day it will take you around a year of solid study to get to this level. Learning Chinese characters takes time - and a lot of it.

Why is this? Why does it take foreigners so long to learn the Chinese characters? 

The main reason is that the way Chinese is taught today is broken. There I said it.

Foreigners are taught Chinese characters as if they were Chinese children growing up in China.

I don't know about you but I personally don't have 15+ years to dedicate to learning Chinese characters! Instead I used the methods in this course to manage to learn, memorize and put into use 75-100 characters per day (with 95% retention after 2 months).

This rate allows for mastery of the 3000 characters in 1 month

There are a lot of newer methods and technologies out there that make it easier to learn Chinese characters. Chances are you are already using a handful of these techniques. But are you using them in a systematic way?

By melding the most advanced tools and skills together into a cohesive whole grinding through the Chinese characters becomes more efficient and (dare I say it)...fun!

I want to show you the system I used to learn heaps of characters and words in record-time, saving you months if not years of your life from tedious character study.

It wasn't always so easy!

Me making dumplings in Beijing, Chinese New Year 2015

The first time I tried to learn Chinese was a disaster.

I was young and stupid, traveling around the world for the first time at the tender age of 18.

During an extended stop in Hong Kong I fell in love with the hustle and bustle and decided to learn Chinese.

Despite my best intentions and no lack of hard work I couldn't crack it. The characters in particular were too hard.

You know the feeling: each character feels totally unique and learning just one character takes hours. It's a struggle and not very fun.

Like so many people I gave up. I was defeated. I became one of those who goes around telling others "oh, Chinese is too hard - don't bother"!

Thankfully, I came back to Chinese many years later and cracked it. Rather than fall into the same trap of trying to rote-memorize each character I first studied how the characters are constructed, trying to work out the logic underlying the apparent madness.

Understanding this logic allowed me to create a systematic method for learning the characters. With this knowledge and system in hand I felt like I had unlocked the "secret" of Chinese.

From running Sensible Chinese I've met a lot of Chinese learners. More importantly though I've met a lot of ex-Chinese learners. Those, who like my 18 year old self, started learning Chinese and gave up because of its difficulty.

I've spent the last couple of years refining my Chinese learning ideas and methods and compiling them into a cohesive course to help these people stick it out and master Chinese.

The Groundwork: KNOWLEDGE

Understand the logic of character first, then begin to learn and memorize them

The big mistake most people (including myself first time around! ) make when learning the characters is to not understand them first.

Textbooks and traditional teaching does not take the time to explain the logic of characters - instead they plow straight into having us memorize them.

Without understanding how characters work it is very difficult to learn them successfully - the only way is rote memorization, which is boring and hard work. If the task is too boring and difficult you are likely to give up.

Chinese characters are extremely logical.

That might sound surprising if you are in the early stage of learning characters but it is true.

Through years of intensive study your brain will patch together the various patterns of the language. You are suddenly able to look at characters and guess their meaning and even pronunciation. As you can imagine everything becomes a lot easier at this point!

The problem is that we are not taught this logic. Instead we need to piece it together over years of study.

What kind of patterns and logic are we talking about here? Here are some examples:

Putting this into practice: The SYSTEM

 This is a diagram of the System I want to teach you.

Looks complicated? It's not really. After you work through the training and setup steps in the course this will be a very simple framework to guide your day-to-day study from zero to fluent.

INPUT: I'm going to show you how we choose the highest quality material to learn. I'll also give you the step-by-step material you need to master over your first year or two of study.

PROCESSING : From there I'll teach you the best mnemonic (memory aid) techniques available for learning characters' meanings, pronunciation and tones. We'll break down characters into their components and use these components to guess at not only the meaning of the character but also the pronunciation.

REVIEW : We'll then be using SRS (Spaced repetition systems) to move characters from our short term memory to our long term memory. I'll be showing you how to do this properly. Unfortunately, over-reliance and abuse of SRS systems is one of the most common mistakes learners make. We'll avoid that pitfall!

USAGE: Unlike most methods for learning characters I encourage (nay, require!) that we actually use what we learn. We'll explore ways for you to practice using Chinese characters with native speakers for free and within your normal schedule.

The result of this System? Rapid acquisition of Chinese characters, less frustration and more enjoyment actually using the language!

The exact System I used to learn Chinese characters - laid out in a Step-by Step video course 

The key to learning Chinese characters fast is to first acquire KNOWLEDGE about how the characters actually work and then apply this knowledge practically in a SYSTEM.

Most people start learning Chinese characters without a strategy. They head off into the desert without a map, get lost and give up. I've seen it too many times and decided to do something about it.

I've spent the last couple of years refining this System by working with others, helping them learn Chinese. I've had the great pleasure of running Sensiblechinese.com and other Chinese language related ventures that have allowed me to work with many, many Chinese learners, helping them out and giving them the road-map they so dearly needed.

For the first time, I'm making the whole System available to everyone.

Up to now the elements of the System, and all the Knowledge required to make it work, have been scattered across my blog, scribbled in notebooks and in my head.

 That's why now I'm happy to reveal the  “Sensible Chinese Character Course”

The exact Knowledge and System you need to master the Chinese characters in record time in a step-by-step guided video course.

With this course you will learn Chinese characters more efficiently. Let's have a look at the course contents in detail, what you can expect and how it'll take your character learning to another level.

Detailed Course Contents

Frequently Asked Questions

Can't I work all this stuff out myself?

Maybe. It's taken me years of systematically thinking about the Chinese language and the best methods for learning the language. It's true that some of the patterns and strategies I discuss will reveal themselves as you progress in your study. However the real purpose of this course is to equip you with these strategies as early as possible.

Ideally you are on Day 1 of learning the characters - if this is the case then I can save you the most time, energy and lower the frustration of dead-ends.

More likely you've already started to learn the characters either using the traditional rote-memorization methods or maybe a hotchpotch of new techniques sewn together. If this is the case then what the course really offers is a way to tie everything together into a systematic whole, a day-to-day, month-to-month action plan.

Can't I get this stuff on such-and-such website for free?

As of yet the answer is no. I've extensively trawled the best Chinese language learning books, blogs and courses and no one has yet provided such a systematic approach to learning the Chinese characters.

It's true that other blogs may talk about individual components and these articles are very helpful. But often there's just too much information out there! This leads to paralysis - which technique should I use here, which strategy there?

I've gone through everything available, tested it, added a lot of my own material and then sewn everything together into an easily digestible video course for you.

"You live a new life for every new language you speak. If you only know one language you only live once.” - Czech Proverb

 I hope we can take the next step in your Chinese journey and open up a new life together!

Kyle Balmer 白马楷, Sensiblechinese.com