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588 posts · page 13 of 49.

Ink-wash mountains and pavilions with cranes in flight under the calligraphy 山水清音, illustrating whether apps wrongly penalize natural running strokes
Essays

Do Apps Wrongly Penalize Natural Running Strokes?

Fluent native writing connects strokes the way running script does, and rigid apps flag that as an error. A good tool should grade stroke order and structure, not demand robotic separation.

Lawrence Arya··5 min
Traditional ink landscape with calligraphy 漢字學堂 (a school for Chinese characters) beside a calm river, illustrating whether Boox native apps can track your Chinese stroke-order mistakes
Playbooks

Can Boox Apps Track Your Stroke-Order Mistakes?

Boox e-ink tablets are lovely for writing, but their native note apps don't check stroke order. Here is what they can and can't do, and the workaround.

Lawrence Arya··5 min
Traditional ink landscape with calligraphy 漢字學堂 (a school for Chinese characters) beside a calm river, illustrating whether ChatGPT can accurately track your physical pen trace
Essays

Can ChatGPT Track Your Physical Pen Strokes? No

ChatGPT cannot watch your pen and grade your strokes in real time. Here is what an AI chatbot can and cannot do for handwriting, and what actually evaluates it.

Lawrence Arya··5 min
Ink-wash mountains and pavilions with cranes in flight under the calligraphy 山水清音, illustrating whether you can just use kanji in China if you get character amnesia
Essays

Can You Just Use Kanji in China? Not Really

If you blank on a Chinese character, can you write the Japanese kanji instead? Mostly no. Here is where they diverge and what to do when you forget.

Lawrence Arya··5 min
Chinese ink painting of a scholar crossing a stone bridge beneath the calligraphy 學而時習不亦說乎, illustrating syncing GitHub commits to a Mandarin habit tracker script
Playbooks

Syncing GitHub Commits to a Hanzi Habit Tracker

Could you tie your Mandarin writing streak to your GitHub commit graph? You can script it, but the practice still has to be real. Here is how to do it well.

Lawrence Arya··5 min
Chinese ink painting of a scholar crossing a stone bridge beneath the calligraphy 學而時習不亦說乎, illustrating whether you can take HSK 5 online to avoid handwriting
Playbooks

Can You Take HSK 5 Online to Avoid Handwriting?

Want to take HSK 5 on a computer to type instead of handwrite? Yes, the computer-based HSK is typed. Here is the catch, and why handwriting still helps.

Lawrence Arya··5 min
Chinese ink-wash landscape with bold calligraphy 汉字之美 (the beauty of Chinese characters) above a misty river, illustrating whether a Kindle Scribe can grade Chinese handwriting
Essays

Can a Kindle Scribe Grade Your Chinese Handwriting?

A Kindle Scribe is a lovely e-ink notebook, but it captures ink without grading it. It cannot check stroke order or score your characters. For that you need a dedicated practice app.

Lawrence Arya··5 min
Chinese ink painting of a scholar crossing a stone bridge beneath the calligraphy 學而時習不亦說乎, illustrating caoshu cursive character recognition
Essays

Caoshu (Cursive) Recognition: Why It Is So Hard

Cursive script is so abbreviated that even native readers struggle, and apps cannot reliably recognize it. Here is why, and what foundation actually helps.

Lawrence Arya··5 min
Ink-wash mountains and pavilions with cranes in flight under the calligraphy 山水清音, illustrating handwriting support for China trade and supply-chain dictionary work
Playbooks

Writing Chinese for Trade and Supply-Chain Work

Sourcing from China means handling forms, contracts, and labels by hand. Here is the trade vocabulary worth being able to write and why a dictionary is not enough.

Lawrence Arya··4 min