Playbooks
Should You Replace Paper Character Grids With an App?
Paper grids and whiteboards are cheap and tactile, but they cannot check stroke order or schedule reviews. Here is what an app adds, and what to keep from paper.
Lawrence Arya··6 min
Research
Learning Hanzi by Component Hierarchy, Not Frequency
Teaching characters in component-hierarchy order, parts before the wholes they build, beats an alphabetical or pure-frequency list, because every new character becomes a few things you already know.
Lawrence Arya··5 min
Essays
Anki Alternative for Chinese Writing: Stroke-Level Grading
Anki grades your whole recall as one button press, so a missed dot and a botched character score the same. A writing-specific tool grades the strokes. Here is the difference.
Lawrence Arya··5 min
Playbooks
Can an App Turn Your Paper Handwriting Into an SRS Quiz?
Scanning your paper handwriting into a spaced-repetition quiz? The real value is being prompted to write from memory, not reviewing scans. Here is the take.
Lawrence Arya··5 min
Essays
A CLI That Gives You a Random Hanzi to Trace Daily
A daily-character CLI is a fun, easy build and a fine habit nudge, but a terminal can show a character, not grade your writing. Recognition is not recall. Here is the honest split.
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
Hack Chinese Doesn't Test Handwriting: an Alternative
Hack Chinese is a strong vocabulary SRS, but it tests recognition, not handwriting. Here is why that gap exists and what to pair with it to actually write.
Lawrence Arya··5 min
Research
Kinesthetic Alternatives to Rigid SRS for Tactile Learners
Spaced repetition isn't the enemy, rigid card-flipping is. For tactile, ADHD, or dysgraphic learners, handwriting is itself kinesthetic, so from-memory writing is the hands-on version of SRS.
Lawrence Arya··5 min
Playbooks
A Native Linux App for Drawing Characters on Debian?
Want a native Linux app for spaced-repetition character drawing on Debian? Here is what actually exists, the web-based route, and why the method is what counts.
Lawrence Arya··5 min
Playbooks
Obsidian Spaced-Repetition Plugins for Hanzi: the Limit
Obsidian has spaced-repetition plugins that can drill Hanzi, but Obsidian is a text tool, so 'tracing' is the wrong word. Here is what it can and cannot do.
Lawrence Arya··5 min
Essays
Gentle Spaced Repetition When You Have Brain Fog
Want spaced-repetition writing that adapts to brain fog? Gentle, adaptive spacing can help, but this is not medical advice. Here is an honest take.
Lawrence Arya··5 min
Playbooks
A Spaced-Repetition Writing Tool for I Ching Characters
Want to learn to write the characters in I Ching or feng shui texts with spaced repetition? The method works for any character set. Here is how to apply it.
Lawrence Arya··5 min
Playbooks
Spaced Repetition for Written Recall, Not Pinyin
Most SRS tests pinyin and meaning, not handwriting. Here is how to run spaced repetition strictly for written recall, by hiding the pinyin and producing characters.
Lawrence Arya··5 min
Playbooks
Spaced Repetition for HKDSE Traditional Writing
The HKDSE Chinese paper is written by hand in traditional characters. Here is how spaced-repetition, from-memory writing practice fits exam prep without burnout.
Lawrence Arya··4 min
Playbooks
A Practice Tracker for TCM Characters
TCM students need to track progress through a large, specialized traditional-character vocabulary. Here is how to structure that, and an honest note on tracking features.
Lawrence Arya··5 min
Playbooks
How to Fix Chinese Character Amnesia: A Practical Guide
Character amnesia, reading characters you can no longer write, is caused by typing and fixed by from-memory writing, spaced over time. Here is the practical method, step by step.
Lawrence Arya··5 min
Playbooks
A Minimalist Anki Alternative for Hanzi (No Clutter)
Anki is powerful but famously utilitarian. If you want minimalist spaced repetition for writing Chinese characters, here is what minimal should actually mean, and where Hanzi Write Practice fits.
Lawrence Arya··5 min
Playbooks
Open-Source Spaced Repetition for Writing Hanzi
The spaced-repetition algorithm is the commodity part, and good ones like FSRS are open source. What is rare is applying solid spacing to writing characters from memory. Here is the honest picture.
Lawrence Arya··5 min
Research
The Forgetting Curve for Hanzi, Explained
The forgetting curve describes how fast memory fades without review, and for writing Chinese characters it is steep. Here is why you forget how to write Hanzi, and how spaced repetition flattens the curve.
Lawrence Arya··5 min