every character tells a story

Guides for beginners

Plain-language answers for people starting Chinese: the easiest characters, Mandarin vs Cantonese, how many characters you need, and more.

The 10 easiest Chinese characters to learn firstStart here: ten simple Chinese characters that were once little drawings — 日 sun, 山 mountain, 人 person — with meaning and how to remember each.Mandarin vs Cantonese: what is the difference?Mandarin and Cantonese share the same characters but sound completely different. Here is what sets them apart — tones, speakers, and which to learn.How many Chinese characters do you need to know?There are ~50,000 Chinese characters — but you need far fewer than you think. Here is how many to read a menu, a text message, or a newspaper.Do you need to learn to write Chinese characters?Handwriting Chinese by hand is slow to learn. Do beginners actually need it? An honest look at reading vs writing, and where to spend your time.Why Chinese has no alphabet (and what it uses instead)Chinese never developed an alphabet. Instead it grew a construction kit of a few hundred pieces that build tens of thousands of characters. Here is how.How to start learning Chinese as a complete beginnerA calm, practical plan for absolute beginners: what to learn first, how to handle tones and characters, and how to keep it up. No account needed.