I am avidly learning Chinese. Amongst other things (ChinesePod, talking to Harry, finding fun 中文 things on the internet), I’ve resumed learning characters from the famous Heisig system for learning to read.

I’ve just reached the end of Heisig Lesson 10, which means I’ve absorbed 236 characters, a personal record. 236 characters feels like a lot of small units of information to commit to memory. At this point, Heisig advises you to pause and review what you have learned until you can read and write all 236 characters with 100% accuracy. The reason for this is that Heisig is going to build another 2,800 characters on those foundations, so you need to know the first 236 really solidly. That’s why I’m avidly practising and making sure I’ve got everything down before moving on to the next lesson.

My task today has been to remember the differences between six MOs and four MUs, as you see here.

I’m also working on the difference between shi and zhi, and between zhao, shao and chao, of which more another time.

I have a Chinese Pinterest board, just so you know. Come over and take a look, I am collecting cool learning resources.