Mandarin Chinese Resources

Lingodeer may not be as well known as other language learning apps, but it’s actually better and cheaper than most of them. You’ll practice the language by completing lots of different types of exercises. They also include plenty of grammar explanations and opportunities to review what you’ve studied. All in all, it’s one of the better options for getting started learning a language.

Yabla is a language-learning platform that uses videos with interactive subtitles and language games to help users learn a language. It’s currently available on the web and for iOS, with an Android app in development. Its videos are of varying difficulty levels and types, and are either sourced from the internet or originally produced, but all videos use native speakers.

Beelinguapp makes it easier to read and listen to interesting content in a number of languages. You’ll find short stories, news, fairy tales, music, and more. Their side-by-side reading functionality highlights the sentence in the language you’re learning, as well as in a language you’re familiar with. The karaoke feature makes it easy to follow the audio with the written text. Some of the content and features are available for free, but there are also premium plans to unlock more.

Outlier Linguistics is the best tool for understanding the logic behind Chinese characters. Available as an add-on for the must-have Pleco dictionary, Outlier shows how the characters actually work. This makes it easier to connect the sound and meaning components of characters, as well as understand how the various meanings relate to each other. Besides the dictionary add-on, there’s also a Chinese Characters Masterclass, a Pronunciation and Accent Masterclass, and more.

You can save 20% on a purchase by using the coupon code ‘ALR20’.

Although the user interface seems quite outdated, YellowBridge is a quality, comprehensive dictionary and thesaurus for Chinese characters. The website breaks down each character, providing related words, synonyms, antonyms, example sentences, interactive stroke order diagrams, etymology, and more. Subscribing to the site gives you access to more features, such as derived words or similar-sounding words.

They also have pre-loaded flashcards and memory games for several common textbooks, such as the New Practical Chinese Reader or Integrated Chinese. However, these flashcards don’t seem as intuitive as Pleco’s system, so it might be more effective to download a user-made deck for your current textbook and input it into Pleco.

YellowBridge keeps up to date with current issues and helps you learn the vocabulary of today — on the side, you will see a section of “words in the news,” which lists popular phrases that are circulating around the world.

Beyond the language learning tools, YellowBridge also has some cultural notes on humor, literature, mysticism and divination, and famous Chinese Americans. These are probably not the site’s major selling points, but they may be a fun read.

Shuo is a native Chinese speaker and teacher who lives in Thailand. Every week she uploads YouTube videos exploring Chinese vocabulary, grammar, and culture, showing you how to use simple concepts to make your Chinese sound more advanced (like in this video). She diversifies her videos by adding video clips and images, dressing up as different characters, and reenacting scenes from her life. She makes the lessons fun, and if you pay close attention you’ll notice that she also has an excellent sense of humour. 

Shuo mostly uses English to explain different concepts, but she has videos dedicated to listening practice with subtitles and translations. She also identifies the level of HSK vocabulary words she uses.

Although Shuo does not have the hundreds of videos that other channels may have accumulated, the quality of her videos is reflected in the over 66k subscribers she seems to have accumulated in less than a year. Her channel has material from HSK 1-6, so learners of all levels can find some gems of knowledge. She understands Chinese learners’ potential missteps and clearly explains how to avoid them — even the beginner videos contain concepts that an upper-intermediate learner may not have considered, so check them out!

Easy Languages gets people involved from all around the globe —from Brazil to Mongolia — to film authentic interviews about everyday life with locals on the street.

A typical episode format starts with the interviewer (or interviewers) introducing the topic and location for the day. Then, they will approach various locals to ask their opinion or test their knowledge. Only a handful of languages, like Hindi, and Swahili, don’t follow this format — these are also typically the languages with fewer videos.

Easy Languages invites co-producers to join their channel, which means that anyone can apply to create videos, as long as they are filmed according to the Easy Languages guidelines. These co-producers receive multimedia training if they don’t already have experience in the field, so the videos typically have a baseline quality standard (although sometimes the filming can be a bit shaky).

Most of the interviewers have a bubbly personality, and some of them appear in multiple language interviews within Easy Languages. Overall, the interviews are enjoyable and will train your ear to understand a range of voices and accents. Also, for anyone who uses Seedlang for German, you’ll be pleasantly surprised to see Cari’s friendly face in the Easy German episodes!

Taiwanese language schools have been using the Practical Audio-Visual Chinese series for decades. You may find that the earlier versions use some slightly out-of-date vocabulary words, as they were originally written in the time of CD-ROMs and VCRs. However, the series recently underwent a makeover that seems to have brought the content up to speed with modern technology.

Unlike many textbooks that contain short dialogues that students can use to practice speaking, some of the dialogues in this series extend up to five pages long. However, the idioms, phrases, and content of these dialogues are true to Taiwanese culture and everyday conversation. Listening or reading the text feels more like entering a movie scene than it does reading a university textbook.

Each chapter has an extensive vocabulary section that focuses on new words and words with similar characters. There are additional exercises in the grammar section, speaking activities, comics, and material straight from newspaper articles or magazines. You will also find a section that compiles the grammar and vocabulary words from the chapter into a short essay written both by hand and on the computer.

Overall, Practical Audio-Visual Chinese is a practical resource for anyone learning traditional Chinese characters.

If you purchase these textbooks in Taiwan, they are only about $35 USD. Online, however, the prices vary. Make sure you differentiate between purchasing the full textbook or the accompanying workbook!

Through the six volumes of this series, the authors reinforce language structure and function, integrating lessons with dialogues and cultural information. Students will follow the lives of nine main characters, initially learning basic sentence patterns through reading their dialogues, and then advancing to more complex material.

The New Practical Chinese Reader does not have as flashy of a textbook design as the Integrated Chinese textbook series. However, it is significantly cheaper and has several other advantages — including having been published by the Beijing Language and Culture University Press. Unlike in the Integrated Chinese textbook series, the focus on character writing extends beyond what is contained in the dialogues. Before attacking more complex characters, you will learn the fundamental rules of Chinese characters and break down character components. There is also a 34-page introduction to pronunciation with drills to reinforce your understanding throughout the early chapters. For the beginner levels, you will notice tone marks indicated above each character so you can get accustomed to proper tone use.

Overall, the New Practical Chinese Reader has a stronger focus on writing and pronunciation than Integrated Chinese, but the grammar explanations may not be as strong. Luckily, Chinese Grammar Wiki can be used to supplement your understanding if you do end up using this textbook.

The DLI and FSI language courses are still some of the most comprehensive resources for language learning today, and probably the most comprehensive free resources you will find. 

Although the DLI and FSI courses are comparable in quality, DLI courses focus more on military terminology in the later lessons, while FSI courses focus on everyday communication and communication for diplomats. Another key difference between them is that the DLI courses may go into more depth, and also seem to provide a more comprehensive guide to the study of each language; the FSI courses either have briefer explanations or dive straight into the content. Both of them have outdated content, which is understandable considering that they were developed in the mid-1900s and have scarcely been updated since then.

Often the DLI courses outline clear practice strategies to reproduce your target language’s sounds. Also, depending on the language, literal translations are sometimes used so that you get accustomed to each language’s grammar structure.

All the PDFs and audio files are available for download on various sites, although Live Lingua has made navigating between the material quite intuitive. If you can’t find your desired language in the DLI courses, check out the FSI courses for different options.