About Hanzi Hunter

Introduction

Hanzi Hunter helps you quickly learn Chinese characters through short reviews and a fun "bubbles" session that stimulates your eyes and brain. In preliminary testing, participants reported studying for longer periods and retaining more information with the "Bubble Hunt" feature. Based on our initial tests, motivated learners can realistically expect to learn 500 characters and 500–1,000 words per month by studying about an hour per day.

Quick-start — first day + daily routine

1. Review the words due today using the red button.
2. Expand your vocabulary by learning new words.
3. Complete the blue Bubble Hunt training twice.

In the evening, finish one final round of Bubble Hunt, and then review 10–20 green Prey cards.

Spaced Repetition — promoting words

Hanzi Hunter uses a spaced-repetition system. Each time you correctly answer a question about a character or word, that item moves up one level, and the next time you are asked about it is scheduled further in the future. For example: Level 1 is after two days, Level 2 is after four days, Level 3 is after eight days, Level 4 is after 16 days, and Level 5 is after 32 days, and so on. Tapping "Again" (which is equivalent to answering incorrectly) takes the characters level back to zero and schedules the next review for the following day.

Optional: Train your ear

Use the audio drill (click the right half of the yellow button) to improve your listening skills.

The following features make the Hanzi Hunter cards uniquely powerful

• Click on a Chinese sentence to hear it spoken.
• Click the pinyin or translation to switch to a different Chinese sentence, if available.
• Click the Pleco button to send the current sentence directly to the Pleco dictionary.

Design

Hanzi Hunter was designed by a fifth-year Chinese language student and a programmer with decades of experience.