November 26, 2018

Self-Study Starter Kit: Mandarin Chinese

Mandarin Chinese Resources Self-Study Starter Kit Uncategorized

Want to learn Mandarin? You’re not alone.

In the last decade the number of English speakers studying Mandarin has skyrocketed as China grows in prominence, and as Singapore, Hong Kong, and Taiwan claim their rightful places on the global stage.

Here’s your free starter kit, everything you’ll need to fall in love with the Chinese language: some online resources which I have found to be particularly helpful.

 

HOW TO GET STARTED

To learn to write Chinese, you’ll need to learn two different writing systems.

I know, right?

But trust me, the first system, Pinyin (Romanized Chinese) is going to save your life. It has no exceptions and no irregularities. Given, it is not exactly the same as English, but it uses the Roman alphabet so that it easier for us to use. Pinyin will help you know how each word is pronounced.

However, you’ll still have to learn a Chinese character for each word in order to know how to read and write it. So yes, to learn Chinese, you’re pretty much learning two separate writing systems.

 

LEARN PINYIN

Pinyin Chart

I'm working on making a Pinyin course, because I've had trouble finding good resources for this. If you're interested, please let me know in the comments, and be sure to subscribe for updates!

 

LEARNING THE CHARACTERS

Chinese characters take commitment. I recommend taking the time to solidify the basics of stroke order, not because that’s the way you’re “supposed” to do it, but because if you get in the habit of writing characters the same way every time, you’ll learn to write by muscle memory, the way the Chinese do.

Check out my comprehensive blog post on how to learn Chinese characters (including the stroke order!)

 

LEARNING THE TONES

Mandarin tones are actually not that hard (especially if you compare them to other tonal languages!) The hardest part of learning the tones will be learning how to modulate your pitch so that the tones all sound natural next to each other in a sentence.  The best (and in my opinion, only) way to do this is to drill, drill, drill. Listen to as much Mandarin as you can, and speak as much Mandarin as you can, until you learn them by heart, even if you can’t consciously explain how you know them. Here are the tools I recommend for improving your tones:

New! Misslinguistic Mandarin Tones Exercise

After so many readers wrote in to ask how I perfected my Mandarin tones, I created this exercise based on the ones we did at Columbia University, which has a famously rigorous Mandarin program. It is simple, boring, and very effective. Check it out here!

Glossika

I recommend getting a Chinese tutor on italki (see below) to sit with you (on Skype) and listen to you do your Glossika reps, sort of like a personal trainer. Get your discount for Glossika here

 

FINDING A TUTOR

Italki: There are dozens of excellent tutors for Mandarin on italki. If you're just starting out, look for a Professional tutor, ideally with over a thousand classes under his or her belt.

 

APPS

Mondly: Lessons will all be in Pinyin instead of Chinese characters, but as long as you are working on your Chinese characters elsewhere this is a big help (because after all, you need to know how to pronounce the words, and the characters aren’t much help!)

Memrise: Great for learning vocabulary on the go. Try these packs:

Chinese

HSK (the Chinese proficiency test) 

 

ONLINE SELF-STUDY PROGRAMS

Pimsleur (I love to listen to their Chinese audio lessons while I workout or while I get my eyelashes done! ) Get 10% off with this link

ChineseClass101

 

FINDING A TEXTBOOK

Not everyone likes to learn Chinese from a textbook, and you certainly don’t need to, but they can be a convenient way to structure your learning.

Living Language Chinese

 

YOUTUBE CHANNELS

ChineseClass101

Fluenz

Yoyo Chinese

 

FINDING A LANGUAGE PARTNER

If you want to practice Chinese, here are some places you can go to find a partner!

Italki

Tandem

HelloTalk

Amikumu

 

TV SHOWS TO WATCH

Chinese dramas are here for you! Here are some of my favorites.

All Is Well (都挺好)

The Interpreter

Meteor Garden

 

MOVIES TO WATCH

Lust/Caution (do not watch this with your parents)

Red Cliff

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

Beijing Bicycle

 

Want to study in a class?

If you go to China, I can personally recommend:

DiQiuCun (Global Village)

BCLU

 

But you might also want to try Taiwan (just be aware that you’ll be studying Traditional Characters). There are many programs to study Chinese in Taiwan, but I haven’t tried any of them myself. Can anyone recommend one?

 

This post includes affiliate links, but I’ve only included products that I’ve tried myself and stand behind.

Have any more suggestions? Please leave them in the comments! I’ll update this post as much as I can as I find new resources!

Check Also

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11 comments

  1. I was just thinking yesterday about how I really want to learn Mandarin next year! Thanks for the great info.

  2. Thanks, it’s very informative

  3. I use Hello Chinese app. The topics covered there are good from HSK1 to HSK3. That’s my primary source for studying basic Chinese.

    DuChinese is a perfect app to practice reading Chinese, and the contents are very interesting!

    HSK Online by Super Chinese is a highly recommended app for those who want to take HSK. The lifetime VIP of ~US$30 is worth it, and you don’t need other sources just to do practice exercises for HSK.

    There are many YouTube channels out there, and Chinese Buddy is one of my favorites.
    I started studying Chinese early last year thanks to the YouTube advertisement about Yoyo Chinese. I eventually purchased their course on Upper Intermediate last November.

    Self-study in Chinese is doable, if you choose the right sources. I also learn Japanese, but I find Chinese having better sources for self-study, especially if you learn from the apps!

  4. I use everyday Pleco to review words. It’s very useful for me.
    I like a lot chinese movies, there are a lot of good movies.
    Jia Zhangke, Lou Ye and Bi Gan are my favourite Movie Directors.

  5. i tried for years to learn Mandarin Chinese but i failed miserably. Eating all that Mandarin food added nothing to my Chinese vocabulary.

  6. Thankyou so much for all the information, very helpful

  7. Thank you

  8. Thank you ever so much for this very informative information and also including comments. Have desired learning Chinese long time, tried once and stopped.

  9. The hyperlind for “Learn Pinyin” is out-of-date

  10. Chinese is a beautiful language but that language is hard. I’ve tried but I see progress, Right now, I need a personal trainer or Chinese friend that understands English.