Playbooks
A Daily Chinese Character Writing Routine
A ten-minute routine in three fixed blocks, the rules that keep it honest, how to choose a character set, and what to do after you miss several days.
Lawrence Arya··10 min
Research
How to Remember Chinese Characters for Good
Forgetting characters is a method problem, not a memory problem: why recognition fades, what handwriting research shows, and four techniques that build recall.
Lawrence Arya··10 min
Playbooks
Practising Hanzi From Memory: The Whole Method
Recall practice is the one method that rehearses writing rather than recognising. The four-step loop, why it works, how to set it up, and the three ways it fails.
Lawrence Arya··10 min
Essays
Track Recall, Not Input: Test What You Can Actually Write
Treat learning like an experiment, but test the right variable. The data that matters is not how much input you logged, it is whether you can produce the character from memory.
Lawrence Arya··5 min
Essays
Skip Passive Repetition: Active Recall for Hanzi
Immersion crowds reward output. Passive review just re-shows you a character; active recall makes you produce it. For writing, that difference is the whole game.
Lawrence Arya··4 min
Research
Active Writing vs Passive Quizzes: A Pleco Alternative
Multiple-choice quizzes test recognition by letting you pick from options. Writing a character from memory tests production. For handwriting, the gap between them is the whole ballgame.
Lawrence Arya··5 min
Essays
Tracking Dashboards vs Active Testing: What Builds Recall
A tool that tracks and maps your practice on-device looks rigorous, but dashboards do not build memory. Active testing does: producing characters from memory, offline, scored by performance.
Lawrence Arya··4 min
Playbooks
Chinese Character Writing Practice That Sticks
A practical guide to Chinese character writing practice: how to build real recall through short daily drawing sessions instead of endless passive review.
Lawrence Arya··5 min