Essays
Etymology Breakdown Plus Writing: the Right Combo
An algorithm that breaks a character into its etymological parts is a learning aid, not a substitute for writing it. Here is how decomposition and recall fit together.
Lawrence Arya··5 min
Playbooks
Exporting Your Hand-Drawn Hanzi to PDF
Want to export the characters you have written to a PDF worksheet or record? Here is what a good PDF export should include and why it is worth having.
Lawrence Arya··5 min
Essays
Exporting Hanzi Practice to Notion or a Bullet Journal?
Exporting practice visuals into Notion or a bullet journal is appealing, but a dashboard of your writing is not the learning. The from-memory reps are. Here is the honest split, plus a free grid.
Lawrence Arya··5 min
Playbooks
Exporting Your Handwriting SRS Stats to CSV
Want your spaced-repetition handwriting data in a CSV you can analyze yourself? Here is what those stats contain, why export matters, and how to think about it.
Lawrence Arya··5 min
Playbooks
Police Residence Registration in China: Writing It by Hand
Registering your residence at the local police station means writing your address and details by hand, often within a day of arrival. Learn that fixed set from memory so the desk is routine.
Lawrence Arya··5 min
Playbooks
Fixing Character Amnesia One-Handed in a Queue
Only one hand free, waiting in a queue? Micro-sessions of from-memory writing on your phone can fix character amnesia in the gaps of your day. Here is how.
Lawrence Arya··5 min
Playbooks
Gaokao-Level Chinese Handwriting for Foreign Students
The gaokao demands native-level Chinese writing, far beyond recognition. No app grades it, but one can drill the handwriting piece: stroke order and structure, from memory, under time.
Lawrence Arya··5 min
Playbooks
Gamified Chinese Stroke Order, Minus the Timer Pressure
Aggressive countdown timers punish the very learners who need stroke practice most. Here is what calm, no-timer gamification for Chinese characters looks like.
Lawrence Arya··5 min
Playbooks
Custom E-Ink Practice Templates: Useful, Up to a Point
A good writing-grid template for your e-ink tablet genuinely helps the writing surface. A custom tracking dashboard does not help the learning. Here is which to make and which to skip.
Lawrence Arya··5 min
Research
Can You Export Your Wrong Strokes as SVG Animations?
Turning your own incorrect stroke data into SVG animations is technically clean but not a shipped export feature. Here is how it works, and why error replay aids recall.
Lawrence Arya··5 min
Playbooks
Bulk Licensing, Gift Codes, and LMS Integration: What Is Realistic
Schools and teams want bulk license keys, student codes, gift access, and LMS integration. Some of that is straightforward; deep API and LMS work is a later enterprise layer. Here is the honest picture.
Lawrence Arya··5 min
Playbooks
GitHub Commits and Productivity APIs for Hanzi Tracking
Want to wire Hanzi practice into GitHub commits, exports, and productivity APIs? It is doable, but tracking tracing time is the wrong metric. Here is the honest take.
Lawrence Arya··5 min