When learning a new language, it’s common to feel overwhelmed by the sheer number of things one needs to learn. This feeling doesn’t really go away with time either, so it’s perfectly natural for intermediate and advanced learners to still feel daunted: you know you should read more books and listen to more podcasts, but you also need to practise speaking and writing, as well as maintain all the vocabulary you have learnt.

In this situation, it’s easy to focus on the skills you are already good at or maybe even stop learning altogether.

This is the problem that Hacking Chinese Challenges is meant to address. Participating in challenges with a clear focus that periodically shifts between the core areas of language learning makes sure you invest the time necessary to make progress. When there’s a listening or reading challenge on, I spend two to three times as much time learning than I normally do. When it comes to more active challenges like writing, it usually means the difference between investing some time and not getting anything done at all!

The general idea is simple. Each month, there is a challenge focusing on a particular area of language learning. You set a goal, and then study as much as you can, logging your activity and making sure you reach your goal before the end of the month. You can also see what other people in the challenge are doing, comment on their progress and compete against them on the leaderboard (but feel free to ignore that aspect if you like).

This month’s challenge starts on February 10th and ends at the end of the month. The focus is writing, which is why I’m writing this here on Journaly. Robin has created a topic you can use for anything you write for the challenge, which will allow us to see how much people write and follow your progress. Robin has also been kind enough to sponsor the challenge with five monthly subscriptions to the upcoming premium membership on Journaly. Winners will be randomly chosen among active participants (note that active means more than just logging a large number of hours).

The challenge is completely free, of course, and joining is easy:

1. Sign-up (using your e-mail, Facebook or Twitter)
2. View current and upcoming challenges on the front page
3. Join the writing challenge
4. Set a reasonable goal
5. Start writing!
6. Report your progress on your computer or mobile device
7. Check the graph to see if you’re on track to reaching your goal
8. Check the leaderboard to see how you compare to others (if you want)
9. Share progress, tips and resources with fellow students

Please note: The challenge starts on February 10th, so even if you join now, you won’t be able to report progress until then. I'm posting this article today so you have a few days to prepare!

That’s all you need to know about the challenge, but what about the writing itself? While all challenges focus on Chinese, it’s perfectly possible to use the challenges for any language, it’s just that my recommendations will focus on Chinese because that’s what I study and teach.

Here’s my best advice for people who want to improve their Chinese writing (note that I mean writing as in composing text in Chinese here, not handwriting characters):

• Improving writing ability: Common problems and how to tackle them
• 5 tips to help you improve your Chinese writing ability
• How to improve your Chinese writing ability through focused reading
• Hone your Chinese writing ability by writing summaries
• Improving your spoken and written Chinese by focusing on the process
• Translating to improve your Chinese

Normally, I also suggest that students start a blog to make their writing easily accessible for other learners or friendly native speakers who might want to help you, but not this time! Instead, I suggest you use Journaly! I look forward to seeing your writing here and wish you good luck with the challenge and your writing practice!

Best wishes,

Olle Linge (凌雲龍 )

Founder and editor of Hacking Chinese