36 Everyday Objects in Chinese: A Room-by-Room Illustrated Guide
Learn the Chinese words for the objects actually in your home, illustrated and organized room by room: living room, bedroom, bathroom, and kitchen.
Mid-Autumn Festival in Chinese: Greetings, Mooncakes, and What They Really Mean
What to actually say for Mid-Autumn Festival: the right greeting for the moment, the mooncake vocabulary you'll need, and the honest story behind the holiday's reunion imagery.
Do You Need to Learn to Handwrite Chinese Characters?
What the actual research says about handwriting versus typing for learning Chinese: recognition scores, a 2024 delayed-test study, and the honest, non-absolutist answer.
Merry Mandarin 4.4: 62,000+ Dictionary Entries and Four New East Asian Languages
Merry Mandarin 4.4 is out: the dictionary has grown to over 62,000 entries, and the app is now fully available in Japanese, Vietnamese, Indonesian, and Tagalog.
Chinese Family Terms: The Complete Guide to Aunts, Uncles, and Cousins
Chinese family terms explained with diagrams: why 姑姑 and 阿姨 aren't the same word, why cousins split into 堂 and 表, and a family tree for every generation.
Chinese Business Etiquette: The Complete, Ranked Guide
The complete guide to Chinese business etiquette: business cards, gifts, banquet seating, and hierarchy, ranked by real consequence instead of folklore.
All 46 Asian Countries in Chinese — and the Five Names China Never Had to Translate
All 46 Asian countries in Chinese with pinyin and etymology, and why Japan, Korea, and Vietnam were never transliterated the way the rest of the list was.
What It Actually Takes to Replace Five Chinese Learning Apps With One
An honest audit of what Merry Mandarin does compared to Duolingo, Pleco, Skritter, and Du Chinese: the retention engine underneath it, the routine it actually recommends, and where it still loses.
Why Chinese Stroke Order Matters (It's Not About Neatness)
Why Chinese stroke order rules exist: the neuroscience of writing and memory, character amnesia in native speakers, and exactly where the rule stops mattering.