Mandarin Chinese Resources
Learning resources I have collected over the years. Categorized, and with comments or mini-reviews.
I’ve used almost all of these at least a little throughout my studies. Share the link to this content to anyone who may find this useful!
DISCLAIMER: I won’t claim these are definitive, top resources. I may praise some of them but there could be better sites out there. These are simply what I’ve come across and have indeed found useful and worth keeping.
PLEASE REPORT BROKEN LINKS!
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Contents
- General Resources – Things on culture, encouragement and anything not really for learning the language per se.
- Top Sites: A few highly recommended sites, usually for serious study.
- Pronunciation – Pinyin &Tones: If you’re looking to explore, start learning, or perfect your pronunciation and/or pinyin knowledge, go here. Subdivided into Pinyin and Tones.
- Dictionaries: Good online dictionaries and their features so you can pick a few that will serve you best.
- Structured Lessons / Courses: Sites that attempt to teach you through a sort of curriculum. They may be articles, video lessons, podcasts, TV shows, etc.
- Random / Unstructured Lessons: Either collections of content that do not really work as a teaching curriculum, or random, single-topic lesson I found that were good and could be useful. I picked out those I thought were particularly good, especially if they cover a topic that is normally a little hard to find or understand. Subdivided into Grammar, Phrases, and Vocabulary.
- Learning Characters: A few resources specifically to help learning to read or write characters, but no real lessons here at the moment.
- Practice Listening, Reading, etc.: A few resources to help you practice.
- Hanzi Etymology: For those interested, a few resources on learning about why characters look the way they do, either because you’re curious or because you want to learn it as a study aid – although it is usually not the best learning aid and should only be used as such if you have real interest.
- Hanzi IME: How to type Chinese on your device.
- Hanzi Online IME: How to type Chinese using online tools, for when you’re not on your personal device.
- Flashcard Collections: Just small bank of flashcard collections or resources if I run into them. Not a lot here because in my system of study, I make my own cards.
- Un-reviewed Resources and Other links: Potentially useful links (including some huge resources) that I have not yet evaluated. I will slowly review them over time, emptying this section and moving them to the appropriate category.
- Software and Other Learning Programs: I use a lot of language learning apps (it’s the main reason I got a smartphone), but I haven’t listed many here yet. Will be doing so.
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General Resources
TravelChinaGuide.com: Chinese Greetings – Greetings including rhetorical questions used as greetings (phatic expressions) and some related comments on culture.
Wikipedia: Chinese Number Gestures – How to count from 1 – 10 with one hand – the Chinese way.
mandarin.about.com: Number Gestures – Shows other alternative number gestures.
hisnibs.com: Uranus 2018 Multifunction Pen – Affordable pen, one side ballpoint, the other foam brush. Not the exact feel of authentic calligraphy, but a great portable option that can give great results.
Top Sites
For serious study. More coming soon
Considering how many links came from the same sources, and Mandarin being the language with which I have the most online-learning experience, I feel I may be confident enough to mention full sites and give them a mini review.
- Promotes paying attention to the tone contour of full phrases when practicing, rather than over-focusing on individual words, as she may do to train actors who don’t speak Chinese.
- On a related note of using music, she even gave 2 lessons at the piano, the first being a song to teach some phrases you’ll probably want if you ever want to tell someone that you have good news.
- The YouTube channel has various great video for teaching certain vocabulary, phrases, etc. Despite relatively short lengths, they have pinyin, characters, good examples, balanced pronunciation speed, and clear explanations made me find many quite worthwhile. Here’s one of first ones I saw; how to say “hate something,” including the word’s extra usage of annoying, and how to say “so what?” There are also grammar videos.
- There are also some videos of “tips” which seem to be lessons based on a common mistakes such as what to call your children and not using shi4 是 with adjectives, and using rang4 让。
- Has recently (as of August 2013) starting doing live streams with Q&A’s, so she expanding the kind of content available. One of them is linked to and described below, under the Pronunciation section.
- The website has full courses under a premium account, but still has a lot of other videos which may or may not be on YouTube (I haven’t checked). One sort of video I always like running into is the hand gestures for counting.
- Facebook page regularly posts picture with advice, quotes, vocabulary, places in China, cool and fun info graphics, video updates, and more.
Pronunciation – Pinyin & Tones
Pinyin
Youtube: Pinyin pronunciation, includes tones. (Weird kiddy video warning!) Goes fast, but it’s also good that you get related sounds said in a row so that the differences can be compared.
Chinesepod.com: Pronunciation Guide– Very nice, more in depth explanation on how to pronounce all the sounds. Includes audio and sometimes pictures (ie, tongue placement). Navigation is on side bar on the right.
SinoSplice blog: Pronunciation of Mandarin Chinese – Possibly best description of pronunciation, though it doesn’t say widen mouth for x, q, j.
LivingChineseSymbols.com: Chinese Pronunciation – Another decent overview of all pinyin initial and final sounds; explains -an vs -ang, though not too clearly, it point it out.
China-On-Site.com: Pinyin – Downloadable MP3’s of pinyin sounds. I recommend you ignore the English words given for supposedly English equivalents of the letters; they’re not good.
LearnChineseABC.com: Chinese Pinyin System– Haven’t looked at it much. Seems pretty nice with its pinyin, tone, and pronunciation guides. Lots of the pinyin words are click-able for audio and there are some audio samples within the articles as well. Covers just about everything, just not too deeply.
Tones
Wikipedia: Mandarin Phonology: Tones – Short, sweet, concise, good.
InstantSpeakChinese.com: Pinyin Tones – BROKEN LINK; will keep the link in case site returns. If I remember correctly, this was the source for the Wikipedia content.
Wikipedia: Mandarin Phonology: Tone Sandhi – A very good explanation to the small exceptions when tones change.
Tone Sandhi [change] Discussions:
Dictionaries
YellowBridge.com’s Chinese Dictionary – My top Chinese dictionary. You can search with any kind of pinyin, paste in the character, OR click handwriting input button to draw it in (box is a tad small, though). It will get you definition, parts of speech, audio pronunciation, trad/simp variants, etymology, common words, example sentences, and animated stroke order! If it’s as good as it seem, this could be your main or only dictionary. However, it uses java for some things(which takes time to load), so if you know what you’re looking for and want a faster site to find it, you may opt to use one of the others listed below; that’s what I do. [not anymore; maybe I should, haha, especially when Im on my phone]
Wiktionary – As I said, sometimes you want another option; I mainly use this as a quick [character] dictionary because it’s quick loading and search is as flexible as YellowBridge; eg., you can search “木”, “mù,” “mu,” or even “mu4.” Sometimes has example sentences. My best use for it is as a quick look-up for a character I’m familiar with, like to confirm I know the meaning or pronunciation.
Popupchinese.com’s Dictionary – search is almost as flexible as wiktionary (you can search “木”, “mu,” or “mu4” but NOT “mù.”); special things to note is that it also has radical search, pinyin chart, and simplified-traditional converter.
Google Translate – like Wiktionary, I tend to only use as quick reference, a character I’m familiar with, or quick/vague idea of a character meaning. The more you understand Mandarin grammar, the more effective this is for full-sentence translation since you are able to tweak translations or translate in pieces. Can also convert simplified to traditional and vice versa.
Instantspeakchinese.com’s Dictionary– another dictionary with audio
cojak.org– hanzi dictionary (radical search)
zhongwen.com– supposedly good dictionary (though has more than just dictionary). However, I find it really funky and have a hard time using it – and I hate that I can’t highlight and copy anything on there.
nciku.com – has handwriting input and sound for the entry. There is a Japanese version, and seems like it works as a study aid if you register (don’t know if free or not)
ichacha.net – seems to have many decent, example sentences. Compare with nciku sentences (same or different databases?).
Structured Lessons / Courses
CCTV’s Video Lessons & Shows – CCTV has a few different series for learning Mandarin that have been aired on TV; check the sidebar on the right for the listing of individual series by learning level. Haven’t checked them out much.
Easy Chinese
Growing with Chinese
Survival Chinese
Communicate in Chinese
Travel in Chinese
Confucius Institute: Happy Chinese – Video lessons with text, aimed at pre-teens / young teens.
LearnChineseABC.com: Learning Chinese Lesson and Practice – a lot of different phrases (they claim thousands?) for various situations, but beware there’s no explanation on them; no analysis or discussion of context. Organized by situation, but not very neatly. What you find at this link are pages with a table of pinyin expressions, audio, and english translation. However, it SEEMS like they are all also listed under Major Sentence Patterns, and here they include the hanzi.
Asking about birthdays and dates – how to ask a date (ji3 yue4 ji3 hao4) Not yet checked out; phrases? with proper pinyin & hanzi.
mandarin.about.com: Mandarin Particles – Short lessons on various particles. Very good, do not ignore and study these early on. They are short, applicable, important.
Voice of America: English Teaching – These are actually English lesson for Mandarin speakers, but you can use them as well to learn in Mandarin the very same things they are teaching, or to practice listening, pick up new vocabulary, etc. Audio lessons are on the left, and video lessons are listed on the right. All the audio ones seem to have full transcripts, and the videos seem to be sufficiently subtitled. As its name may have already warned you, the “OMG! 美语” features…. quite a bubbly host. Still, there seem to be some decent videos there despite each being only a few minutes long. NOTE: Any of the series with the note of “No records available” seem to have the audio missing, but the transcripts are still there.
美语怎么说:放鸽子 (How to say in American English: Standing Someone Up) – Just giving this link as an example. This is lesson 1 of a series teaching American English idioms and other expressions. You can thus also learn the Chinese equivalents.
美语怎么说008讲:方鸽子 – Essentially the same lesson as above, but there’s something wrong and while the transcript is on “standing someone up,” the audio lesson is actually on phrases of one’s workload, such as “I have a lot on my plate.” So I guess you can consider this two lessons in one?
Random, Unstructured Lessons
Here, comments, yes; reviews, not so much; they’re here because I approve.
Grammar
Living-Chinese-Symbols.com: Chinese Grammar – nice overview with examples.
Wiktionary.org: 什么– Wiktionary’s entry for shenme (what) has some good examples of less-obvious uses
ctcfl.ox.ac.uk: Jiu & Cai – use of 就 and 才
chinese-tools.com forums: Difference between « 没 » (mei) and « 不 » (bu) ? – Forum discussion of negation with mei2 vs. bu4; last replies are best.
mandarin.about.com: Yao & Hui – using 要 (yao4) and 会 (hui4) for future / will do or plan to do.
Transparent.com: Two Crucial Characters – Lesson on various uses of shang4 & xia4.
Chinese-Forums.com: 么 vs. 吗 – Short discussion on different between 么 vs. 吗 in questions. (Quick answer: 么simply represents spoken style or accent)
Wikipedia: Chinese Particles – Summary on the most common particles; very short and good for quick-reference.
about.com: Keyi – Asking permission with 可以 (ke3yi3)
Yale University: shide – detailed explanation of the “shi….de” construction when emphasizing a detail of something in the past.
EastAsiaStudent.net: Four Kinds of Le/ – Great lesson on 4 main uses of 了 ; includes the situation of two 了 in one sentence to mean so far, or up to now.
ChineseGrammar.Info: Ba Structure Basics – A primer on using ba3 construction.
Related: Expressing “almost” using “chadian mei”
A few more examples of expressing that something almost didn’t happen.
Related: “Nearly” with “jihu” – Another translation for “almost,” but is more for the idea of something reaching a certain level. Still, some uses may be similar to those that use chadian.
Chinese Grammar Wiki: Approximations with “chabuduo” – Using
Phrases
Chinese-Tools.com: What’s your name? – Phrases for meetings and introductions.
TravelChinaGuide.com: Chinese Greetings – Greetings including rhetorical questions used as greetings (phatic expressions).
Chinese-Forums.com: 28261-What-Are-You-Supposed-to-Say-When-Chinese-Pay-You-Compliments – Discussion on responding to compliments. Read thoroughly; some early replies are not good.
Chinese for MMORPG’s – Haha, Mandarin for MMORPG gaming; however, it’s toneless pinyin. :(
YoyoChinese.com: Mandarin Chinese Learning Tips Lesson 1: Have a Good Time – how to say “have fun!”
Yahoo Answers: Does “wo ai ni” mean the same as “wo xi huan ni” in everyday use? – The usage of “I like you” and “I love you” in Chinese and difference with English.
Vocabulary
Videojug.com: Pronouncing Days of the Week – includes couple sample sentences with verb for go (qu4) and how to ask when.
Top 10 Lucky Symbols – Happiness, Fortune, Longevity, etc.
AssociatedContent.com (reposted): Top 10 Mandarin Words that you Should Know.html – All words are used in most Mandarin-speaking areas, but “laojia” may be more typical of Beijing. See next link:
Excuse me, Beijing Folk Say it Another Way – use of laojia in Beijing.
Wikipedia: Chinese Numerals – Includes the financial variants you may see but not use, and large numbers.
about.com: Mandarin Time – A quick run-down on the most important words for telling time.
University of Gothenburg: Nonverbal Communication – Some useful Chinese gestures, but not too many. Make sure you skip over the “dead gestures.”
YouTube: ChengTsui’s videos – The official YouTube channel of the company responsible for the Integrated Chinese textbook series. I mainly point it out because they have a few videos on slang – if you tolerate (or skip) a relatively long skit and its bad acting.
ywb.ujs.edu.cn/4/40101.htm – Beijing accent sample words with audio. (BROKEN LINK; will keep in case it returns)
3000hanzi.com: Chinese Measure Words – A good, short explanation on the types of measure words.
carlgene.com: “Untranslatable” Words in Chinese – Certain unique words that are difficult to translate.
InterestingChinese.com: What People Call Each Other – Addressing others; family terms and titles.
Chinese Opposites Words – Words that are formed with two characters that are opposites.
Learning Characters
Zhongwen.com: How to write Chinese Characters– Hanzi stroke order; starts with the Eight Principles of Yong though it doesn’t tell you it’s called that, but it’s basically the 8 basic strokes in hanzi.
Chinese Characters in Order of Frequency– list of top 3000 hanzi
Practice Listening, Reading, etc.
http://www.ctcfl.ox.ac.uk/Chinese/– Supplementary “lessons” for someone who’s been studying for a couple of months and should be able to work through a few basic exchanges. I put lessons in parenthesis because they don’t seem organized well for teaching, but each lesson (I would really say chapter or module), seems to have enough to help you understand the dialogue. Even if you’ve studied a good bit, it’s a good thing to use as review to check back to and see if you understand and know everything that is covered.
Hanzi Etymology
Note: I could write a whole essay discussing whether or not it’s worth learning etymologies. It is less useful now that people are learning simplified, and thus may not help as much as one would like, so mnemonics are more commonly used and taught rather than etymology – keep that in mind, because a lot of people may “explain” a character to you but it’s actually the mnemonic and not really how it was derived. So it’s up to you how much etymology you look up, but at least check it out once in a while; it’s cool stuff. If you do, always check out more than one source because different places may sometimes claim different things.
ChineseEtymology.org (seems more trustworthy [provides pictures of evolution], most complete, but explanation not always clear and may be hard to follow because you need to understand what some terms like “remnant” and “signific” mean.)
KanjiNetworks.com’s Etymology Dictionary (best, most clear explanations – but only Japanese characters. Includes pictures.)
Wiktionary.org – Seriously; sometimes has etymology.
YellowBridge (see Dictionaries section of this email) has an etymology section, but it is NOT real; it’s more of a visual look at the character’s components.
Hanzi IME (input method editor)
Hanzi Online IME (input method editor)
Google Translate– if you pick Chinese as input language, you are now able to “type phonetically” (toneless pinyin), so you can write full sentences in hanzi with this.
chinese-tools.com: IME, dictionary, thesaurus, and even more things I haven’t looked into yet.
Flashcard Collections
Un-reviewed Resources and Other links
http://www.traveltripreport.com/chinese/ – only two blog posts but the resources and links might help. In case of removal, here are few that stuck out for me. NOTE: I am copying and pasting; the comments in the following list are NOT mine.
- Confucious Institute Online offers lots tools in learning Chinese. I went ahead and bought the 3 books, Kuaile Hanyu (Happy Chinese) , to follow the 24 lessons.
- Chinese Dictionary and Translator This is another priceless resource. It translates words in Chinese/English. It also has sound aid. I use this a lot to learn new words.
- How to Say is another resource that I use to translate some come terms like “close your eyes”, etc…
- Change of Tone is great to understand that the absolute tone of each word changes when put together with other words.
SocialMandarin.com – A site aimed at collecting resources.
Software and Other Learning Programs
These will later be put on a different page dedicated to learning software.
Living-chinese-symbols.com: Pimsleur Chinese Mandarin – recommendation for Pimsleur as a learning method; one of those 30-day things but theory might be good and claims should be free trial. I would check other reviews, and keep in mind you should not stick to a single method, and there’s more than enough free stuff out there.
www.skritter.com – (Paid service) Learn and practice drawing characters and learn a few words along the way.
For institutions: http://www.skritter.com/institutions
Mobile apps:
iCED – (for iOS only?) is my favorite dictionary, but gives no example sentences. A better review will be coming. nciku (listed above under dictionaries) has an app too, though it runs a little slow for me.
Pleco – (iOS and Android) is another dictionary alternative, though I don’t like the layout of the results. However, the big plus side is you can install / buy extra modules, including a really great OCR module. Benny Lewis demonstrates / reviews this in this video, where it uses your phone’s camera to read Chinese characters and give you info from the dictionary. The free trial of the module only gives you the pronunciation – which is sometimes helpful enough, so that you can look it up yourself. However, if you need the speed and convenience (like if you’re traveling), you’ll want to buy the module.
Gengo Word Power Word of the Day by Innovative Language Learning (creators of the Language Pod 101 series of websites) – mind boggling-y huge (at least 400 MB), but really good since you get a random word each day. As long as you open the app each day, the word for that day will be saved. However, you can ALSO add your favorites / most critical to a wordlist that you can review normally or as flashcards. All words have audio and most have many example sentences with different voices. No need to buy the paid version – that’s only if you want more starter / pre-included flashcard sets.
Chinese Number Trainer by trainchinese, published by Molatra – Study all you want; you can know all the Chinese numbers and have no trouble writing, reading, or maybe even speaking them, but even in your native language, a string of numbers can be too much if you’re not paying enough attention. It’s only worse trying to understand even a number below 100 if it’s a foreign language, so train your listening with this simple app.