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Useful Tools

Pleco

Pleco is a free Chinese-English dictionary app available on Android and iOS. Additional add-ons can be purchased, which provide extra features such as a flashcard (SRS) system, Chinese to Chinese dictionary, stroke order, additional native sound packs, OCR, and graded readers. Pleco is a must-have app for learners of all stages, and its Basic Bundle is a very worthwhile investment.

An SRS app (Anki or Pleco)

Ideally, this app should utilize spaced repetition, so that you only learn words when you’re on the verge of forgetting them.

Anki is a spaced repetition flashcard software, available on Mac OS, PC and mobile devices with cloud syncing. It’s customizable with plugins for extra features such as dictionaries and audio. While free on Windows, MacOS, and Android phones, it is priced $25 for iPhone users.

Onto Pleco: as well as being a brilliant dictionary, it has a $10 spaced repetition flashcard add-on. This has the added benefit of native audio and a dictionary right out of the box and is specifically catered to Chinese learners.

Regular review of vocabulary, pronunciation, and phrases using spaced repetition is highly recommended at all stages of your Chinese learning journey.

A popup Chinese → English dictionary

There are browser extensions that enable you to hover over any Chinese word to see its pinyin and definition. Some additional features include audio, dictionary look-up, and add-to wordlist. We recommend Zhongwen or Zhongzhong — try these two extensions and see which you prefer.

Available on Chrome and Firefox.

Must-have for all learners.

Exporting from Zhongwen to Anki

Guide to exporting from Zhongwen’s wordlist to Anki - Step-by-step guide written by Nad of 看剧学汉语 Discord server to guide you in exporting words from the browser extension Zhongwen into the SRS programme Anki.

Readibu

Readibu is an app that allows for easy immersion into the webnovel world. It puts the content of a webpage into a user-friendly reader mode, with a one-tap popup Chinese -> English dictionary and text-to-speech.

Readibu has popular webnovels already listed in the app, as well as the ability to create your own custom bookmarks of any webnovels, short stories or articles you find online.

Available for both iOS and Android. However, as of January 2022, the app does not support iPad devices - you can take a look at the Waiyü Safari extension instead.

Suitable for HSK 4+ (1000 characters+) learners

Baidu Fanyi

Baidu Fanyi is a translation tool for natives. As well as providing translations to any Chinese word or phrase, a further explanation of each word is also included for both English and Chinese. It is more accurate than Google Translate (for English–Chinese).

Example sentences with an English translation can also be found for any word that you search for.

Looking up example sentences is a great way to further deepen your understanding of a word or phrase.

OCR on a Windows computer

Guide to setting up OCR on a Windows computer Nad and Casiyus of our 看剧学汉语 Discord server wrote this guide to setting up OCR on a Windows computer, showing you the tools and steps you need to set up OCR on your Windows computer. This’ll be a boon when playing games, reading manhua (漫画, Chinese comics), or reading the hardcoded subtitles of Chinese TV shows.


Tips

Don’t add every single unknown new word to your flashcard deck

We generally recommend learners add no more than 20 new words a day to their flashcard deck. Beginners should start with 5 or fewer new words a day. There is no need to add every single unknown word because they will make an appearance again in the future.

<aside> ☀️ Remember language learning is a life-long journey, not a race or a marathon so take your time and enjoy the process!

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FAQ

Difficulty Levels

Which level is suitable for me?

What’s the ideal difficulty for reading?

Learning Techniques

How long will it take to learn enough words to be able to read novels without a dictionary?

Is following the HSK worthwhile?

Shall I wait till I’ve passed HSK 6 before reading?

Should I first memorize the most common 3,000 characters before reading?

Is it better to pre-learn the new words before reading a chapter, or use a dictionary while reading?

How often should I be reading?

Does pronunciation and tone matter for reading?

Can I ignore listening, writing and speaking?

How can I achieve high reading speeds?

Shall I read along with a translation in my native language?

Narrow or broad reading, which is better?

Other

I’m a heritage Mandarin speaker, but I can’t read well. What should I do?