Mandarin Blueprint

Pros

• Here’s a good explanation of the strike order rules: https://www.mandarinblueprint.com/blog/chinese-stroke-order?
• I spent several weeks evaluating the Mandarin Blueprint course and I consider it excellent. ... If you like doing that, it's a very good course.
• Mandarin Blueprint is a good course if you like doing A LOT of memorizing using Anki. They have created Anki decks for each section, so you don't need to do that yourself. ... But if Anki is a good learning method for you, MB is a good c...
• Everything I learned about the MB course was good. Classes were all videos from the two founders (both good speakers, native English speakers who reached Chinese fluency). The course used Anki a lot, but the course included pre-made Anki...
• I liked their teaching method (videos of a teacher speaking to you). ... The course contained several unique methods to help students (for example, Anki decks the course created for you: no need to create your own). Overall I had a good...

Cons

• I finally decided that the course was not a good fit for me for personal reasons. One main reason is that I hate memorization.
• I like the MB mnemonic method, but for me it's overkill. It is simply not that difficult to learn that 喜欢 is pronounced "xi huan" and means "like; love".
• I tried to start a few times but only managed to reach around Phase 1, Level 5 before my dedication wore out. The learning curve might come later, so I wouldn’t say I’ve benefited from it.
• I used it for a couple months the lessons are long and the videos are tedious. It’s basically a memory system where you make up funny stories in your head to go with each radical and build it up from there. Maybe ok to learn characters a...
• I think the whole concept is a waste of time at best and detrimental to learning at worst. Your brain is already wired to understand language naturally, you don't need to use any fancy memory techniques in order to learn. You also don't...