Ctory emerged in response to the huge number of frustrated Chinese students who were giving up on learning this mysterious language – including ourselves. The shift from letters to strokes, combined with homophones and complex meanings is daunting for Western minds.

While analysing hundreds of Chinese words, we uncovered that certain stroke combinations within Chinese words (components) haven’t lost their original pictographic look. These components can be systemically combined to build multiple new Chinese words, each revealing the story of an ancient Chinese agricultural society.

For example, the component 羊 means sheep. You find this component in many Chinese words such as  样，养，洋 ， 氧. The character ‘养’ means ‘raise’ and it consists of the components ‘羊 | sheep’ and  ‘儿 | child’. In ancient China sheep were raised alongside children.

We developed a graphic-led learning technique in which word components and their original meaning are rediscovered through beautiful visuals and animations, telling a story of the past. Designed for effectiveness, we are following the HSK learning schedule.  

Ctory – Learn Chinese effortlessly, for every character has a story to tell!