Learn Mandarin — pinyin first, characters in their own time.

Strive builds a Mandarin course around your reason — work in mainland China, family roots, a move, or HSK prep. Pinyin and tones come first, characters arrive gradually, and the daily recall queue (1 / 3 / 7 / 14 / 30 days) keeps the tones honest long after the lesson ends.

What you’ll learn

• Hear and produce the four tones (and the neutral) without guessing.
• Read pinyin fluently and pronounce unfamiliar words on sight.
• Recognise around 300 high-frequency characters and the radicals behind them.
• Use the core sentence patterns — 是, 有, 在, measure words, 了, 过, 把.
• Hold a short introduction, restaurant, taxi, or shop conversation.
• Read a simple native text (menu, sign, short message) without translating word-for-word.
• Retain it — recall queue brings tones, characters, and patterns back over weeks.

A typical Strive course on Mandarin (HSK 1 → HSK 3)

1. Pinyin and the four tones — the part you cannot skip5 lessons
2. Sentence patterns — 是, 有, 在 and the verb that does no work5 lessons
3. Measure words, numbers, and time4 lessons
4. Characters by radical — your first 3005 lessons
5. Aspect and 了 — talking about completion and change4 lessons
6. Reading a short native text — what you already know3 lessons

Demonstration outline — your course is generated around your answers, so module count, depth, and difficulty will differ from this. Across the 6 modules above there are 26 lessons.

Frequently asked