Chinese Log - Step 1: Searching for Resources
Updated: 2019.05.29
Few years ago, in 2016, I started to learn Chinese, but I very quickly realised what a humongous task it was. I had planned to document my whole journey into learning a new language but reality struck hard. So, here I am, updating this for the first time in years to tell you that I did not learn much Chinese with the methodology, I wanted to use, and opted for something less hard core, something that takes me 30 minutes a day. So far, so good. I have tried hard to learn the sounds of the language, some grammar, some basic phrases, and I have gone full into hearing conversations.
Original article:
This article is part of a series of posts on my Chinese learning experience, for more information visit the main series page
Here are the web pages I found useful when reading about Chinese Language as a complete beginner (huh, I’m talking like I knew Chinese, for the record: I’m a beginner!). Not all links are meant to be helpful for the beginner though, they’re just resources I found useful.
The bold links are the most relevant for the first stage of the learning process, the pronunciation part. But I think it’s worthed to read all the links to get an initial picture of the Chinese language.
First of all, why do you wanna learn chinese?
- Goals and motivation, part 1 – Introduction (my answer: just to know a different language. I wanted to learn French, Portuguese, or Chinese, and I decide for Chinese because is the hardest from my mother language (Spanish))
- How to learn effectively Few science based tips to improve learning, so you can achieve your learning goals (part of the reason why am I writing this in the first place ;) )
About pronunciation and Pinyin
- IPA for Mandarin Take a look at the awesome chart in the wikipedia. Learn what is IPA and how can you use it to learn a new language.
- IPA explanation | Pronunciation/Ear training A clear explanation of IPA.
- Pinyin - Wikipedia An explanation of pinyin.
- Chinese Pronunciation A detailed explanation of those difficult sounds in Chinese (for English speakers). The post gives interesting tips on how to pronounce the tricky j,q,x, zh,ch, sh,z,c,s sounds, even if you’re not a native English speaker his explanation could help you a lot.
- Learning Chinese pronunciation as a beginner Motivational post for pronunciation.
- Mandarin Chinese Tones An explanation on how to produce the tones in Chinese. One more from Yangyang
- 24 Resources for improving pronunciation
- Some Pinyin Charts:
- Pinyin Table - Wikipedia
- Pinyin Chart - All Set Learning it also has each pinyin in IPA
- iChineseLearning Chart
- Yoyo Chinese it has an special emphasis in the 3rd tone as a low tone (or half-3rd-tone)
- ArchChinese Chart
- Traditional Pinyin Chart in IPA - TalkBank
- Pinyin Chart - Yabla
- Mandarin Chinese Phonetics Table - Lost Theory
- Chinese Pinyin Chart - Gettysburg College
- About the third tone:
- Toward Better Tones in Natural Speech
- Learning the third tone
- How to pronounce the 3rd tone like a native A video if you feel like not reading the other to resources ;).
- Tone pairs for improving pronunciation
- Tone pair drills
- Standard Chinese phonology I left this at last because I haven’t even finish reading it. But it’s the wikipedia, so, I think, it has valuable information.
About books
- Assimil Chinese with Ease Book focus in self-learning
- Schaum’s Outline of Chinese Grammar
- Modern Mandarin Chinese Grammar: A Practical Guide
- Reading and Writing Chinese: Third Edition I’m not sure if this book is good because I don’t plan to learn to write in Chinese until I have the enough knowledge to understand Spoken Chinese.
Characters
- Chinese Characters - Wikipedia (Man, I love the wikipedia so much)
- Learn Chinese characters through radicals, etymology, …
- How to learn to read Chinese this and other posts motivated me to not study the characters in the beginning, but rather when I’m experienced in the language. For more: How to learn Chinese and Japanese
- Introduction to Chinese Characters
- Character decomposition (should this be in the dictionary list of resources below?)
About Grammar
- Chinese Grammar - Wikipedia
- Chinese Grammar Wiki
- Basic Chinese Grammar
- StackExchange discussion about resources for chinese grammar
- Learning grammar and abstract words without translation A little tip to learn grammar without using translation (or trying it)
Software
- Timo’s All-In-One Chinese Deck a deck to use with Anki
- Using Audacity to learn Chinese
- Praat software to study phonetics, how to use it: Seeing the Tones of Mandarin Chinese with Praat
Dictionaries and word lists
- Line Dict
- HSK Lists word lists from the Chinese Proficiency Test
- Pleco dictionary
- Forvo a web data base for thousands of word recordings in many languages
Audios y videos
- Chinesepod podcasts in Chinese/English with different levels of difficulty, and other audio/video resources.
- CCTV Learn Chinese national Chinese news for foreigners
- Slow Chinese Podcasts in a slow Chinese, specially for learners
- I heard from this guy (Steve Kaufmann) that the dialogs from "Xiang Sheng 相声 (crosstalk)" usually emphasize on the tones, so search for them, and tell me what you think.
- FluentU a platform with videos subtitled in English and Chinese
- More audio video resources (advanced, but saved for the future):
- Manhua (“chinese manga”):
- Chinese Animation (or “Chinese Anime” if you like):
- TV Series Recommendations - Chinese-forums.com
(more) web pages for learning Chinese
- Learn Chinese - Livemocha
- ChineseSkill Chinese doulingo-ish app
- ArchChinese dictionary, flashcards, tones, …
More resources pages
- 111 Mandarin Chinese resources you wish you knew
- My favourite Chinese learning tools
- Resources for learning Mandarin Chinese - StackExchange