Character Coach: A Second Love Letter to Mandarin
For many years, I felt something was missing in online Mandarin learning.
There were plenty of platforms that allowed teachers to create quizzes, flashcards, and multiple-choice exercises. But when it came to learning Chinese characters properly—especially Chinese character writing practice—things felt surprisingly shallow. Writing characters was often treated as an afterthought. There was little adaptive learning, little focus on repetition, and very few tools that could help students spend more time on the Chinese characters they struggled with most.
As someone who has spent years creating Mandarin learning songs and educational content, I kept encountering this same gap. Mandarin teachers were doing incredible work in their classrooms, but the digital tools available to them weren’t truly built for teaching Mandarin. Most platforms weren’t designed around Chinese character acquisition, stroke order, long-term retention, or the realities of how students actually learn to read and write Chinese.
That frustration eventually turned into an idea.
Several years ago, I reached out to a developer friend with a clear vision: build an online Chinese learning platform focused on Chinese character writing, adaptive practice, and meaningful repetition—while still keeping learning fun and motivating. That early idea became what is now Character Coach.
Along the way, I dove into web development myself. After completing a full web development bootcamp, I took over the project entirely. What started as a collaboration became deeply personal. Over the last six months especially, I’ve focused on turning Character Coach into a platform that is genuinely ready for Mandarin teachers and their students.
At its core, Character Coach is about gamified Mandarin learning. It combines Chinese character writing practice, quizzes, AI-assisted lesson creation, and game-based learning elements like points, challenges, and leaderboards. Teachers can bring their own Mandarin content—texts, lessons, songs—and Character Coach amplifies it. Students practice more, stay motivated longer, and engage with Chinese characters both in the classroom and at home.
In many ways, Character Coach is my second love letter to the Mandarin language. The first was music. This one is technology—built to support Mandarin teachers, excite students, and make learning Chinese characters meaningful, effective, and fun.
I hope you try out Character Coach, and I look forward to welcoming you into it.
Character Coach：献给普通话的第二封情书
多年来，我一直觉得在线普通话学习中缺少了一些关键的东西。
市面上有很多平台可以让老师创建测验、单词卡和选择题。但当真正谈到系统地学习汉字——尤其是汉字书写练习时，整体体验却显得非常薄弱。汉字书写常常被当作附属功能，缺乏针对学生弱点的自适应学习，也很少有平台真正重视重复练习，帮助学生反复练习他们最容易出错的汉字。
作为一名多年来一直创作普通话学习歌曲和教学内容的创作者，我不断遇到同样的问题。普通话老师在课堂上付出了大量心血，但可用的数字教学工具却并非真正为普通话教学而设计。大多数平台并没有围绕汉字习得、笔顺、长期记忆，或学生学习中文读写的真实过程来打造。
这种长期的落差，最终催生了一个想法。
几年前，我联系了一位开发者朋友，提出了一个清晰的愿景：打造一个真正以汉字书写、自适应练习和高质量重复学习为核心的在线中文学习平台，同时保持学习过程的趣味性和动力。这便是 Character Coach 的起点。
在开发过程中，我也开始深入学习网页开发。在完成一整套网页开发训练课程后，我全面接手了 Character Coach 的开发工作。从最初的合作项目，逐渐变成了一项非常个人化的事业。尤其是在过去六个月里，我持续投入大量时间，致力于让 Character Coach 真正成为一个为普通话老师和学生准备好的平台。
Character Coach 的核心，是游戏化普通话学习。它结合了汉字书写练习、测验、AI 辅助课程内容生成，以及积分、挑战、排行榜等游戏化学习机制。老师可以将自己的普通话教学内容——课文、课程、歌曲——带入平台，而 Character Coach 会进一步放大这些内容的教学效果。学生练习得更多，学习动力更持久，并且能在课堂内外持续接触和使用汉字。
从某种意义上说，Character Coach 是我献给普通话的第二封情书。第一封是音乐，这一封是技术——它的目标是支持普通话老师，激发学生兴趣，让汉字学习变得更有意义、更有效，也更有趣。
希望你能尝试 Character Coach，也期待你加入我们的学习旅程。