Chinese Flash Characters

Break the Great Wall of Chinese characters!

Learning Chinese characters is a big job. Because they are many (you need hundreds just to read a newspaper) and because they are full of info (shapes, meaning, tones and pronunciation). It is hard work indeed, like a very long list that needs to be ticked one after the other.

And for all their efforts, new Chinese learners don't even have the chance to practice much: plenty of reading material around but they always contain characters you don't know yet (which is so frustrating).

At Chinese Flash Characters, we want to help you learn these characters and words to use them to read (that's the objective after all). We believe it is more efficient and engaging to learn
- with grouping and organizing
- with cross-references
- with many examples and different contexts

We see this as a step-by-step approach, from character to word to sentence, that deserve each specific learning tools.

This is why we have different types of decks, all available on the same app by level:

1/ assimilate CHARACTERS with SIM flashcards
Either as words or elements of poly-syllabic ones, characters are the fundamental building unit of the Chinese language.
Their volume is the problem compared to our 26 letters alphabet.
Our approach: how do we need to know Chinese characters? The answer is deceptively simple: when we see them.

- But do we take this into account? Not if you learn a Chinese character because it appears in a word, sentence, it is because in function of its meaning. Same thing for an alphabetical list ...

- And because we do not adapt our learning to the type of memory for which is needed (our passive visual memory in this case), we also overlook a fundamental element of Chinese characters: 70% of Chinese characters are re-combinations of existing visual elements. We exploit this partially with radicals, but we can extend this principle to other visual elements.

Our SIM flashcards group Chinese characters by common visual element and/or common radical, so you can easily compare and identify their respective elements, spot easily the 'fake friends' and create associations.

2/ learn WORDS with DICO flashcards
Time to focus on the vocabulary itself with DICO. All words belonging to your test level are presented by
- topic
- "grammar" words
- most useful adverbs & adjectives
- colloquial expressions
- all characters with double meaning and/or pronunciation

3/ CHENGYU flashcards
Learn the CHENGYU (ancient Chinese proverbs) that contain characters part of your level so you can expand your vocabulary and show off your erudition.

4/ practice with READ flashcards
Short sentences and expressions to start reading. Improve your literacy and discover structures and turns of phrase used by native Chinese speakers.

Also on our app:
- CUMULATIVE content : For the HSK by example, if you use HSK123 bundle, we focus on the new words (& their characters) from the HSK 3 level, but we will also words/characters from HSK 1&2. We only use characters relative to your test level. We use all the words part of your test level.

- ORDERED / RANDOM : we put a lot of pride in the way we try to organize things, but if it doesn't work for you or if you want to twist things up, you can change the order in the 'settings'.

- SRS (Spaced Repetition System) : this way, you only study the Chinese characters you don’t know. During a review, mark a flashcard as ‘learned’ and the card will go to ‘sleep’ (will not appear at your next review, leaving only the cards you don’t know yet).

- STATS BAR: check your progress on every deck with the stats bar on the app homepage

- SETTINGS: modify the length of the ‘sleeping’ period or reset your scores.
Once your deck has been downloaded, all the cards will be stored on your device.

To assist you in your study and help you keep up with your textbook or favorite method, Chinese Flash can help you.

Try our sample for free and start reading from day one