How to use Anki to learn Chinese

Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been sharing ideas from Gabriel Wyner’s Fluent Forever and how you can apply them to learning Chinese. In his book, Gabriel recommends using the Anki app because it’s a great free flashcard tool with a powerful spaced repetition system (SRS) that really helps with language learning. Honestly, I haven’t talked much about Anki in my newsletters until now, so I figured it’s about time I show you how to use it, from creating flashcards to testing yourself effectively.

Downloading Anki

Anki is free to use on your PC, Mac, or Android device. However, on iPhone, it comes with a one-time fee (currently $24.99). You can download the app from the official website. If you’re downloading the app from your app store, make sure the name matches what’s listed on the official website. For Android, it’s AnkiDroid, and for iOS, it’s AnkiMobile. There are several other apps that use the name Anki, so be careful.

Also, when I tried to download Anki on my PC, the latest version didn’t want to work on my laptop. Honestly, this was the most frustrating part of using the app because for some reason it just would not start properly. I had to download an older version, but that did not work either. After uninstalling and reinstalling several older versions, one release from a few months ago finally worked. Hopefully you will not run into the same problem. If the recent versions do not work for you, try some of the older ones. You can find them all here.

While you’re on the official website, be sure to register an account. This is necessary so you can sync your flashcards and learning progress between your computer and your phone later on.

Premade Decks

Gabriel Wyner suggests that creating your own Anki cards can really speed up how quickly you remember new words for the long term. That said, making these cards takes quite a bit of time. If you'd prefer to use premade decks, there are plenty available. Whenever you can, try to choose decks that include images and sound, as they can make it easier to memorize words faster.

Here are some great sources where you can find premade Anki decks for learning Mandarin Chinese:

The official Anki website

Reddit: you can simply search for terms like “Anki” or “Anki deck” to find plenty of recommendations and resources

Importing an Anki deck is relatively straightforward, you just click on the file of your downloaded deck, and it will automatically install the new cards.

Create Your Own Decks

And if you’d rather make your own personalized flashcards, then here I’ll share how you can do that. I’ll guide you through creating flashcards on your PC since it’s generally easier and faster. But if you’d rather use your phone, that works too.

After launching Anki, just click on the Decks tab, and then click the Create Deck button. Name your new deck, and it will show up under the Decks tab. Click on your newly created deck and click on the Add button. This is what you will see:

From here, you can create your flashcards however you like, but I recommend adding sound and images whenever possible. Try to avoid translations unless the word is so abstract that a picture would not help you figure out the meaning.

You can find images on Google or anywhere else. Just press Prt Scr on your computer when you see one you like, take a screenshot of the image and then paste it into the front, back, or both sides of your card.

For audio, Forvo is a great free resource. Once you register, you can download pronunciation files and copy and paste them to your cards. Keep in mind that not every word will have a recording on Forvo, so you might need to look elsewhere for certain sounds (like using Google Translate recordings), which can make creating your own flashcards a bit more time-consuming.

If you want to add IPA to your cards, your favorite AI like ChatGPT, Grok, or Gemini can help you do that. You can also add tags to your cards if later you want to organize them by topic or find specific groups of cards quickly.

Below I’ll share some example cards from Gabriel Wyner:

These are just a few types of cards you can create with Anki. By making your own, you can focus on the areas you need the most practice with, whether that is characters, pinyin, pronunciation, or grammar rules. Besides customizing your cards, you can also adjust how Anki schedules your reviews and manages your study sessions to match your learning style.

Testing Yourself

I won’t go into too much detail because testing yourself with Anki is pretty straightforward. Just load a downloaded deck or your own custom-made cards, and the software will automatically schedule reviews at optimal intervals to help you remember better. When you review a card, Anki shows you the prompt, and after you try to recall the answer, you reveal it and then rate how easy or difficult it was to remember. Based on your response, Anki adjusts when the card will appear again. Cards you find easy will show up less often, while harder ones come up more frequently, making your study sessions efficient and personalized.

If you have any questions about the app or want me to share some Anki decks in the future, just reply to this message and let me know! Next week we’ll be taking a break from Fluent Forever, and I’ll be back with a different topic!

Until then, happy learning!

Sandy