Language-Learning on Steven's blog

Improved Chinese dictionary mapping model

Sun, 07 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The core piece of functionality in Bookchoy is “tap on a character, see a popup with the dictionary definition”. Sounds simple, but because of the ambiguity in the language it’s not a trivial problem. I think while it can be a crutch, having the ability to not lose your flow in reading/navigating/writing is critical, to avoid just getting bored or frustrated and stopping the session. I want this functionality everywhere: on my phone, in my browser, in my primary text editor (neovim).

I'm gonna release my Chinese app

Mon, 01 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

It’s been a while! My last post was about this app, about a year ago after a couple months of work. I did not expect this to be a long-term project.

Studying Mandarin became one of my main hobbies. Using my own app to study was cool, but it had lots of issues so I kept chipping away at it over nights and weekends. At this point I use it daily. After showing my in-laws (who are Malaysian Chinese, and native speakers), they showed enormous support and ended up motivating me to polish it for release as a proper app.

Building my own app for learning Chinese

Sun, 13 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve been studying Mandarin Chinese for a few years, starting with basic phrases (Pimsleur) and then moving on to Hello Chinese. This app was excellent for the basics, offering (quality!) gamified lessons and a content of library with a slick reading interface where you could tap unknown words for translation and audio.

After completing all the structured lessons, I focused on reading. When I saved new words, they went into a separate review system: flashcards. I found this system, particularly the self-grading aspect, less engaging than the original lessons and their multiple-choice based review system.