A few months ago, I moved to China to pursue my education as a CS major. One of the first things I had to do was learn Chinese. During my first year, my Chinese teacher would give us a small dictation quiz at the end of almost every lesson. We’d listen to new words and characters, then write them down from memory. It was simple, but it was one of the most effective ways I found to improve my listening, reading, and writing at the same time. Then, after our first year, the university told us they would no longer offer Chinese as a course. From then on, we’d have to study on our own. I didn’t want to lose the progress I had made, so I decided to build the tool I wished I had. That’s how I started building this app — a way to practice Chinese through dictation and active recall, while improving listening, reading, and writing together. What started as a personal solution to continue learning Chinese has now become something I’m excited to share with other learners.

听写 (tīng xiě)

Your Chinese character dictation companion

Your Chinese character dictation companion