Aleksa (翱磊)'s Study Log

If you have time, add Suzhou to the trip to Hangzhou, and could do a Pearl River Delta trip after Guangzhou, take the train down to Shenzen, subway down to HK border, ferry over to Macau, although that would eat up several days.

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As of today (February 07, 2026)

Character Progression

2026-02-07

Unskipped Skipped Total
Learned 1,367 90 1,457
Non-learned - 917 -
Total - 1007 -

My HH learning total: 2,374 characters ([learned] union [skipped])

Level Learned Out Of
HSK 1 300 300
HSK 2 300 300
HSK 3 300 300
HSK 4 300 300
HSK 5 300 300
HSK 6 300 300
HSK 7-9 546 1200
Non-HSK 28 229

This table includes all of the ones I’ve skipped.

Learning

HelloTalk

I’m beginning to make a larger effort to force myself to speak more on HelloTalk. Granted, I only just finally replied to a voice message from over a year ago, and the guy was nice enough to not mind and still reply welcomingly.

I think I’ve talked about this before, but as a working adult, especially in the US (unless you’re in NYC or Chicago), it gets harder and harder to casually just make friends here and there. It’s not really a time issue as it is an energy issue.

HSK

I’ve slowed down a little bit in my progress, so this is more of a self-reminder to get on it lol.

iTalki

I have a “favorite” teacher on iTalki. She’s great, and we’ve been having lessons together for about 3 years now(?) Because she’s great, however, her calendar is SUPER booked!!! I ended up buying two 10-lesson packages with her, just so I could schedule a few months in advance.

The hard thing about classes is that it’s hard to feel like you’re making progress unless you’re taking classes regularly. Of course, since iTalki is a paid platform (understandably), the money adds up.

TokiMonki: thoughts??

There’s this guy I’ve followed on Instagram for a little while, and I think he has some great, bite-sized videos of natural/authentic Chinese phrases or points. He founded a site called TokiMonki which is supposed to pair serious Chinese learners with serious English learners, and essentially you’re provided a topic, video, article, etc. and there are different modes to practice on: summarizing the text, discussing your thoughts, asking questions, practicing reading out loud, etc.

It seems like a great idea since I think a lot of language exchange “partners” might struggle to focus on the learning aspect (if that’s what they’re looking for).

Once again, however, it’s a paid platform. There is a free tier! I might give it a shot. I was just curious if anyone else has tried it out.

China Trip

Thank you, these sound like great ideas! I have a pretty packed itinerary for my trip already, but I’ll definitely note it for future travel. I have a notebook where I’m noting things in lists and maps. On rednote, I also have a China travel collection lol.