Comprehensive Guide to Chinese Learning Resources for Beginners
Mandarin Chinese boasts the title of the second most spoken language globally, making it a sought-after language to learn. This popularity has led to an abundance of resources, particularly apps, designed to aid beginners in their language learning journey. While a plethora of options is beneficial, navigating this landscape to find the most suitable resources can be overwhelming. This article aims to simplify the selection process by highlighting some of the most effective and comprehensive apps and resources available for learning Mandarin Chinese.
Comprehensive Language Learning Apps
These apps offer a well-rounded approach to language instruction, covering various aspects of Chinese, making them ideal for complete beginners.
Du Chinese
Best Reading Practice for Beginners and Up
Du Chinese excels as a resource for improving reading skills. It features a user-friendly interface and engaging content. Users can also enhance their listening abilities by listening to the material being read aloud. Although new content is not updated as frequently as on The Chairman’s Bao, the app is better suited for beginner-level learners. Du Chinese offers relevant and interesting articles, making it a great resource for those looking to improve their reading comprehension.
Pimsleur Chinese
Best Communication Skills App
Pimsleur Chinese is a reputable and widely used resource for learning Mandarin. It focuses on developing listening and speaking skills through extensive audio-based lessons, helping learners improve their pronunciation and conversational fluency. While it doesn't emphasize grammar explanations, reading, or writing, it provides a solid foundation for verbal communication in everyday Chinese. The course uses real-world contexts, such as ordering food in a restaurant or asking for directions, to help learners feel more confident speaking Chinese.
HelloChinese
Best Interactive App
HelloChinese is a highly recommended free app for learning Chinese. The lessons are well-organized and provide detailed explanations. The app also includes many speaking exercises, encouraging active learning. It is a well-structured app with a wealth of content. Premium and Premium+ plans are available, unlocking extra features such as mini-games for practicing learned material and podcast-like content with additional exercises.
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Yabla
Best Immersion Approach App
Yabla is a language-learning platform that uses videos with interactive subtitles and engaging language games to help users learn Mandarin. The platform offers videos at different difficulty levels, including both original and internet-sourced content, all featuring native Mandarin speakers. While the Mandarin course doesn't include language lessons, it has unique features like the Mandarin Pinyin Chart and a practice tool to understand tone pairs. It is available on the web and iOS, with an Android app in development.
Resources for Reading and Listening Comprehension
Reading and listening to Chinese learning material is essential for improving overall understanding of the language.
The Chairman’s Bao
Best for Reading About Current Events
The Chairman’s Bao is an online graded newspaper that publishes new articles covering current events daily. It also boasts video lessons for lower-level learners and lessons on historical folk tales and legends. Reading news stories on TCB feels less like studying and more like something enjoyable. With much of the content being China-centric, users will learn a lot about the culture. Each article includes reading and listening comprehension exercises for additional practice.
Outlier Linguistics
Best for Learning Chinese Characters
Outlier Linguistics is an excellent resource for those who want to delve deep into Chinese characters, learning about their components, origins, evolution, and more. These dictionaries are available as an add-on in the Pleco app and in both Simplified and Traditional characters. Learning about how characters are constructed and how they’ve changed over time can make them more meaningful and easier to remember.
WordSwing
Best Interactive Reading Practice
WordSwing is a blend of a graded reader and a choose-your-own-adventure game. As users read through the stories, they make choices that affect the story's outcome. It forces users to actively use the language while reading. It mainly targets intermediate and higher-level students who are advanced beyond most graded readers but not quite ready for native materials.
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M Mandarin
M Mandarin uses engaging comics to teach the language, making reading and listening to Chinese more fun. There are also grammar and cultural explanations.
ChinesePod
Best Audio Lessons in a Podcast Format
ChinesePod has a massive library of lessons across all difficulty levels, making it a great way to improve listening skills. Material at higher levels is taught entirely in Chinese, while an appropriate amount of English is used at the lower levels. Though this scales well, the lessons don’t necessarily build on each other intentionally.
Apps for Speaking and Writing
These apps will help improve articulation and pronunciation of Chinese words and help understand Chinese word and sentence structure. They’ll guide on how to write Chinese characters, words, and sentences.
Skritter
Best for Learning to Write Chinese Characters
Skritter is ideal for serious learners focused on mastering Chinese character writing. The app guides users to practice by tracing characters with a finger on their phone’s touch screen, combining this method with SRS flashcards and stroke recognition for effective memorization.
Tofu Learn
Tofu Learn is a free alternative for improving vocabulary and learning to write Chinese characters.
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Speechling
Best for Pronunciation Feedback
Speechling is an excellent tool for practicing Mandarin by mimicking native speakers. This can do wonders in helping to improve speaking cadence, confidence, and pronunciation. The method involves listening to a recorded Mandarin sentence and then recording yourself repeating it. Hearing your voice alongside a native speaker’s helps to catch differences and areas for improvement. It’s also one of the few resources where it is possible to choose between hearing a male or female voice. For subscribers, an unlimited number of recordings can be submitted to be reviewed by a native Mandarin speaker, helping to pinpoint pronunciation errors.
Pimsleur Chinese
Best for Speaking Chinese from Day 1
Pimsleur is a widely used resource for learning languages, Chinese included. Its courses focus on developing speaking and listening skills, giving learners a solid foundation in conversational communication.
Vocabulary Apps
As a Chinese language learner, strive to always learn new vocabulary and practice regularly.
Pleco
Best Dictionary App
Pleco is a must-have resource for anyone studying Chinese. It’s more than just a dictionary. It allows users to look up words, get example sentences, make flashcards, read Chinese documents, look up words from your phone’s camera, and so much more.
Chinese Grammar
Best for Grammar Practice
This app comes from the makers of Ninchanese and is purpose-built to teach grammar. It features over 130 grammar lessons, which can be sorted from HSK1 to HSK5. Each lesson comes with detailed explanations and lots of examples.
Clozemaster
Best for Learning Words in Context
Clozemaster is a popular tool for practicing Chinese, especially useful for exposing learners to a wide range of sentences and vocabulary. This app uses fill-in-the-blank exercises in which you can type in your answer or choose from multiple choices. You can filter sentences based on HSK level and you’ll earn points for answering questions correctly.
Anki
Best Customizable Study Tool
Anki is the best memorization tool out there when it comes to customization. With its straightforward yet powerful design, it employs a spaced repetition system (SRS) to help users retain Chinese characters, words, and phrases. Customization is extensive, allowing you to add images, audio, sentences, notes, tags, and more to your cards. While there’s a learning curve at the beginning, users who prefer not to create their own decks can explore a variety of pre-made Chinese decks available.
Tutors and Language Exchange Apps
If you prefer learning with the help of a tutor or through language exchange with a native Chinese speaker, then these resources are for you.
TutorMing
Best for Structured Lessons
TutorMing is an online Mandarin school that offers classes 24 hours a day, with qualified teachers, using unique content.
Preply
Best for Finding an Affordable Tutor
Preply is another online tutor directory with a vast selection of tutors for various language courses, including Mandarin. The platform is user-friendly, and supplementary resources help reinforce lessons.
italki
italki is the most affordable and accessible option for finding a Chinese tutor online, with a large selection of teachers to suit any budget or learning style.
HiNative
Best Q&A App
HiNative is a platform that connects Chinese learners with native speakers for quick answers and cultural insights. It’s an excellent tool for asking those questions that aren’t easily found in textbooks or online searches.
Additional Recommended Resources
Here are some additional resources that are highly recommended for learning Chinese:
- ChineseFor.Us: A newer online Chinese course that is very thorough and affordable.
- Yoyo Chinese: Offers several affordable online Chinese courses for sale, along with a popular Youtube channel.
- LingoDeer: A bit less well-known than some popular apps like Duolingo, but one that I like much more.
- Tandem: A language exchange app created to connect learners from around the world.
- Chinese Zero to Hero!: A course that follows the HSK Standard Course textbook series.
- Ninchanese: A unique Chinese course created in a manner that’s similar to a game.
- Chinese Grammar Wiki: An amazing resource that’s completely free to use.
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