Coming back to Mandarin after a hiatus, I needed something to bridge the gap before jumping back into tutoring sessions. HSKcourse.com came at the right moment, and it feels less like an online course and more like having a tutor actually walk you through the material. After almost a month with it, here’s my honest take on whether it’s worth it for self-learners.
Month: March 2026
HSK 1-3 Character progress sheet
I needed to do a bit of review on the Hanzi from HSK 1-3 and used Claude to help me create a list that I could track my own practice. Feel free to try it out.
Getting into Claude
I’ve been experimenting with a bunch of AI tools lately – ChatGPT, Grok, Copilot, Gemini, and most recently Claude – and I have to say, I’m genuinely impressed. What I enjoy most is that even without being a coder, you can still create surprisingly polished “artifacts” like this one. I’ve been generating a few comprehension…
A glimpse into Myheritage.
I was fortunate enough to meet three out of my four grandparents. On my mother’s side, the stories were quite clear. My maternal grandparents came from Javanese and Bugis backgrounds, both cultures rooted in the Indonesian archipelago. From my father’s side, my grandmother was Telugu Indian. These parts of my heritage were always known within the family.
The person who remained something of an enigma was my Japanese grandfather.
When life was put on hold
It has been quite a while since my last post. The past few months unfolded quickly — exams for an accountancy certification, long evenings of studying, workplace projects, a promotion, a new team. Life did not stop. It accelerated. Somewhere in that acceleration, I pressed pause on Mandarin lessons. What started as “just for a…