The project
About Chety
Chety is an educational application designed to help learners understand Mandarin Chinese characters and words through their structure, etymology, morphology, and historical evolution.
The application brings together etymological explanations, visual character evolution, pronunciation, a word dictionary, flashcards, and an interactive reader. Its purpose is to make learning more than an exercise in memorization by helping learners understand how characters were formed, how they changed over time, and how they function within the language.
Chety is developed by Ian Blas in formal collaboration with Pedro Ceinos-Arcones and Axel Borgia. The project combines software development, research on Chinese writing, and experience teaching Mandarin Chinese.
The team
Pedro Ceinos-Arcones
Pedro Ceinos-Arcones is a Spanish writer and independent researcher who has lived in China for more than twenty years. His work focuses on Chinese culture and writing, the ideographic writing systems of East Asia—particularly those of China and Japan—and the ethnic minorities of China.
He is the author of more than a dozen books. His publications include Manual de escritura de los caracteres chinos, originally published in 1998 and reissued numerous times; Shangrilá. Viaje por las fronteras chino tibetanas (2006); Leyendas de la Diosa Madre y otros mitos de diosas y mujeres de los pueblos de China (2007); El tigre en China: imagen y símbolo (2010); El Matriarcado en China. Madres, Reinas, Diosas y Chamanes (2011); and Kanjis japoneses. Un aprendizaje fácil basado en su etimología y evolución (2014), co-authored with Siho Miyagi.
His research and knowledge of the etymology, evolution, and cultural context of Chinese writing form an important part of Chety’s educational content.
Axel Borgia
Axel Borgia is a Mandarin Chinese teacher and a collaborator on Chety. His teaching experience contributes a practical perspective on learners’ needs, character explanations, vocabulary acquisition, and language learning.
Ian Blas
Ian Blas is a software developer based in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He is responsible for the development of Chety and builds educational tools related to Mandarin Chinese, etymology, morphology, writing systems, and language learning.
He also develops Schola Interlingua, a free and open-source platform for learning Interlingua IALA.
Chety
Our educational approach
We believe that learning Chinese characters becomes more meaningful when learners can recognize their components, understand their history, and connect their forms with their use.
Chety turns this information into accessible digital tools for students, teachers, and anyone interested in the Chinese language and its writing system.