#i've been steadily working on this for a solid 5 going on 6 months

[eirenical]

about the tags on that japanese learning post...could you share the good mandarin website? please :)

[In reference to my tags on this post.]

I'm happy to, nonny! Thank you for asking. ^_^

The site I use is https://www.dong-chinese.com/. They also have a nifty app that makes writing the hanzi so much easier, because you can just draw on your phone screen with your finger.

There are reading, writing, and speaking exercises, so you're getting the whole package. The free version lets you do two lessons/quizzes per day (1 every 12 hours), which I honestly find is just the right pace for me. They usually introduce somewhere between 3 and 6 new hanzi per lesson combined with review of all the ones you learned before. They introduce hanzi in reading lessons first, then in the subsequent writing lesson you learn to write it. There is also a really good dictionary and a pronunciation guide that has SAVED MY ASS more than once. You also have a choice between simple and traditional characters. I think you can also flip back and forth and learn both. And if you choose to just do simple characters (I did), then they also at least provide you with the traditional character next to it, so you can see what it would look like.

(Gonna stick a readmore here because it's getting a bit long...)

There are also a lot of videos provided to watch. And for each video, they show you what percentage of it you should understand based on the hanzi you know, so you can pick one to watch that you'll understand completely or that may be a challenge. (Heads up, though, some of the kids' songs videos are VERY catchy and you WILL find yourself humming them under your breath at odds moments of the day. ...this HAS left me singing softly under my breath in public "1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, Where's my friend? Where? Where? There they are, There's my friend!" so if any of our faculty who speak Mandarin have caught me at it, they probably got a good chuckle out of it. ;D)

But yeah, it's been working really well for me, and I've not really felt the need to get the paid version, mostly because doing 1-2 lessons per day has felt like just about the right speed for me in terms of learning, and I don't want to tempt myself to cram. :P The ONLY thing that they don't have that I kind of wish they did is the ability to go back and practice older lessons. Or if they do, I haven't found it yet. Because even though you get review in every lesson you do, as the hanzi start to stack up, there's only so much review they can do without making each lesson ridiculously long.

But I've been working at it steadily and consistently for about a month and I have about 65 hanzi under my belt and at least 45-50 of those are pretty solid with the newest ones still a bit shaky but getting there. So, that's... not bad for a month? I"m already finding myself picking out a LOT more words and phrases in c-dramas and some even without the subtitles. ^_^ (Breakthrough moment was during an episode of Ultimate Note when someone was yelling 我 的书!! (wǒ de shū!!/My book!!) over and over and I hadn't been looking up, but my head snapped up and I was all "I UNDERSTOOD THAT. I UNDERSTOOD IT WITHOUT A SUBTITLE. :D :D :D :D :D" It was a very proud moment. ;D) So, yeah, it's been working really well for me. ^_^ If you give it a try, you'll have to come back and let me know if it works for you!