Today I’m very excited to announce the launch of a small project of mine - Cuehanzi!

Being somewhat of a language-geek, I’ve been fascinated with linguistics for as long as I can remember. Among the languages I’ve been interested in, Chinese/Mandarin is definitely the most unusual, the most mind-blowing, and the most wonderful of all. Having spent years trying to conquer it (the journey which is still far from being over, btw), I’ve probably made all the possible mistakes and stumbled upon all the possible hurdles along the way.

Cuehanzi is an app that should (hopefully) help others along this exciting but often challenging journey of learning the Mandarin language. Point to hidden pitfalls, encourage and help to stay on course.

The first phase is all about characters, or “hanzi”, how they’re called in Mandarin. Building blocks and the foundation of the broader language, characters may seem scary and even somewhat alien to us.

My goal was to build an app that could lead a newbie learner through a wealth of information in a friendly and easy-to-follow manner. To reveal the beauty and elegance, to provide a historical context, and show the internal structure of Chinese characters, leverage mnemonic techniques to facilitate understanding and increase information retention.

It’s hard to tell if I was able to achieve my goal just yet, but I intend to continue improving! In the future versions, I’m hoping to move beyond characters, introduce words, sentences, grammar, and maybe even an AI-powered conversational engine!