What is Solved?

Hello there! If you have just started learning Chinese as a foreign language, congratulations—

You are in good hands!

Learning Chinese characters with Solved is going to be going to be intuitive, fun, and culturally meaningful—how can we be so sure? Because the plan we’ve prepared for you is not at all arbitrary, but one one based on scientific research.

The secret? Chinese characters, despite their seeming complexity, are actually made from a rather small base of building-blocks (called “radicals”). Here at Solved, you will learn these building-blocks, as well as how they piece together. Then, you will find that not only Chinese characters “make sense” now, you could even speculate the meaning and pronunciation of a character that you’ve never learned, just like you could probably guess what “un-break-able” means from its parts even the first time you saw it. This method, formally called “radical breakdown,” is how native speakers learn Chinese characters. It has been proven effective both theoretically and experimentally by many studies.

Solved also incorporates traditional wisdom with modern technology—our intelligent Spaced Repetition algorithm will create a personalized review plan that works just right for you! Read more about our research-based learning strategies on our home page.

We have vocabulary sets tailored to your textbook, so you can seamlessly integrate Solved into your Chinese learning at school. In one page, learn what a character means, hear what it sounds like, watch how to write it step by step, see its real usage in day-to-day life, and most importantly—solve it like a puzzle!

The Team

We are a group of Chinese college and high school students studying around the world, brought together by our passion for linguistics, culture, and education (and who span so many different time zones that they can barely find a time in the day to meet :P).

We’d love to hear any questions or comments, and we are looking for more volunteers to help us improve and expand this project. You can reach us at info@solvedchinese.org.

Sources Cited

[1] Chinese Stroke Order Lookup - Chinese Learning Tools. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.chineseconverter.com/en/convert/chinese-stroke-order-tool.

[2] Li, L. (2015). Han zi yan bian 500 li: Xu bian. Beijing: Beijing Language and Culture University Press.

[3] Vividict. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.vividict.com/Public/index/page/index/index.html.

[4] Yankui, G. (2008). Hanzi yuanliu zidian (Chinese Etymology Dictionary). Beijing: Language & Culture Press.

[5] Chinese Etymology. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://hanziyuan.net/.