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How to Learn Chinese Fast – Best Tips To Improve Your Language Skills

October 3, 2018 by Furio Fu 44 Comments

learn Chinese fast

Click here to discover what Chinese courses
that we recommend at the moment!

Before you begin

Update: We’re republishing an updated version of this article, which was originally published in 2012.

This article introduces my plan to learn Chinese fast, where “fast” doesn’t mean that I hope to learn how to speak Mandarin within two months. Conversely, I intend to optimizing my time and efforts to learn Chinese by only studying an hour per day.

My goal is to be able to read Chinese newspapers, understand a talk show and have a “normal speed” conversation with any Chinese person. I want to achieve this purpose within one year.

Chinese is the sixth language that I’m learning so this plan is based on my past experience.

Also, I’m a big fan of SRS (spaced repetition software). If you are just starting to study Mandarin or you never heard the word “SRS” before, you should definitely keep reading!

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Learn Chinese, Survival Tips Tagged With: Chinese course, Learn Chinese, Learn Chinese online

Learn Chinese Online: 71 Excellent Free Resources

September 4, 2018 by Furio Fu

Learn Chinese

This article contains a list of free resources to learn Chinese online. Click on one of the following links to “jump” directly to the section of the article that interests you most:

Free Resources to Learn Chinese Online – Index

  1. Dictionaries;
  2. Grammar;
  3. Audio and Video;
  4. Reading;
  5. Prounciation (pinyin);
  6. Characters, flashcards and SRS;
  7. Motivation and advice (Personal blogs);
  8. Motivation and advice (Company blogs);
  9. HSK (standard Chinese language proficiency test);
  10. Forums and Social Networks;
  11. For those looking for a specific resource;
  12. Conclusions;

When we firstly published it, in June 2012, this list contained 25 resources. However, we update it every year with the best web sites and free apps that we “discover” (many of which were suggested to us by you readers).

Our goal is not to list all the free resources dedicated to learning Chinese; rather it’s to present to you the best of each of the categories listed above.

Keep reading to find a brief review and corresponding link to the web site of each resource cited.

Enjoy!

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Learn Chinese Tagged With: Chinese course, Learn Chinese, Learn Chinese online

One-to-One Chinese Online Lessons: Our Review of the Best Platforms

June 12, 2018 by Sborto Zhou 6 Comments

chinese 1 on 1 online

The unstoppable progress of today’s technology has been the source of significant advances in language learning, and Chinese is no exception.

Both mobile apps and online resources have led to many possibilities for improving the effectiveness of studying. However, in this article, we are going to focus on individual lessons online, which constitute a veritable revolution, as they permit access to good teachers regardless of where you are.

Click here to skip directly to the review of the platforms offering 1-on1 lessons which we recommend [Read more…]

Filed Under: Learn Chinese Tagged With: Chinese course, Learn Chinese, Learn Chinese online

Skritter Review: Learn How to Write Chinese Characters

June 6, 2018 by Furio Fu 15 Comments

If you sign up to Skritter using one of the links on this page with the coupon “FURIO3952” you get a 33% discount for the first six months (only valid for new accounts)

What is Skritter?

Skritter is, in my opinion, the best way to learn how to write Chinese characters.

I used it ten minutes per day for about one year and I managed to learn how to write more than 1,000 characters (all the charactares on the HK4 list, to be precise). Also, I learned the meaning and pronunciation of those characters.

Why do you need a software to write characters?

If you watched the video at the beginning of this post you already know that the software is pretty cool.

But the real reason for using Skritter is the algorithm behind the software, which allows you to remember more than the 90% of the characters that you are studying (in the photo below you can see that in 30 days I was able to remember the 92.9% of the characters that I studied, [Read more…]

Filed Under: Learn Chinese Tagged With: Chinese course, Learn Chinese, Learn Chinese online

Review of ChineseClass101: Learn Chinese with Podcasts

September 17, 2015 by Sborto Zhou 4 Comments

http://traffic.libsyn.com/chineseclass101/promo_201504_Chinese.mp4

This article is a review of ChineseClass101, a popular online platform for learning Chinese through podcasts, although it is much more than just that.

What is ChineseClass101

ChineseClass101 is an online platform that offers a complete Chinese course for all levels, ranging from people who don’t know a single word to those who have already been studying it for a few years. The course is structured around hundreds of podcasts as the main study material and also contains a series of tools to help you consolidate what you learn from the audio tracks.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Learn Chinese Tagged With: Chinese course, Learn Chinese, Learn Chinese online

Chinese With Mike – Video course review

February 9, 2015 by Furio Fu 4 Comments

Chinese with Mike

Click here to discover what Chinese courses
that we recommend at the moment!

I “discovered” the videos of Mike Laoshi, at the time Mike Hainzinger, in 2012, a few months after I began writing here on SDC. I spoke well of him on various occasions and a few months ago, John Murray Learning, the English publishing house that has published the course, has asked me if I was willing to review “Chinese with Mike”. I said yes.

So they sent me a copy of the DVDs and textbook that goes along with the video course. If you want I send it to you… just joking, if you’re interested the course is available on Amazon.com, you’ll find it here.

Why is “Chinese with Mike” not just another video course?

If you watch the above trailer (it only lasts 30 seconds) you’ll see that Mike Laoshi is an unconventional teacher to say the least. In fact it was just that which struck me about his lessons: he manages to explain Chinese grammar without boring you. Since I believe boredom is the greatest danger when one takes on learning Chinese, this is not a minor detail. Below you’ll find one of the few lessons available on the Youtube channel Chinese with Mike:

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Learn Chinese Tagged With: Chinese course, Learn Chinese, Learn Chinese online

Linguese: Learn Chinese Online with native-speaking professors

May 12, 2014 by Sborto Zhou Leave a Comment

Learn Chinese online

Click here to discover what Chinese courses
that we recommend at the moment!

A couple of weeks ago we received an email from Paola Costa, founder and director of Linguese, an online platform that provides private Mandarin lessons through Skype. The idea seemed quite interesting to me, especially because the teachers are language professors that teach in Chinese universities and, at the same time, the prices aren’t too high.

So I sign up on to their website and I scheduled a free trial lesson.

Even if at the beginning I was a bit skeptical, after the trial class I was convinced that Linguese offers an interesting alternative to who wants to learn Mandarin but is too busy to join a traditional Chinese school on his city.

Thus we decided to publish this review and even got a discount code of 10% for all the readers of SDC that want to purchase any Linguese’s package. The discount code is “SdC10off”.
[Read more…]

Filed Under: Learn Chinese Tagged With: Chinese course, Learn Chinese, Learn Chinese online

Mandarin Companion: Novels in Chinese that even a beginner can read

April 21, 2014 by Furio Fu 9 Comments

Mandarin Companion

Click here to discover what Chinese courses
that we recommend at the moment!

When Jared Turner, the co-founder of Mandarin Companion, sent an email to me, I’ve went to check his website right away.

Why? Because, as you can read on the headline above, they offer an elegant solution to a difficult problem. No, I’m sorry to disappoint you but they don’t solve the pollution issue that is affecting China.

But if you’re learning Chinese and you feel frustrated…

A big problem when you begin to study Chinese Mandarin

What’s the biggest problem for people that start to study Chinese? What’s the biggest obstacle to become fluent (whatever “fluent” means to you)?

You may differ with me, but in my opinion is the fact that everyday Chinese sources – newspapers, novels, movies, – are so difficult to understand and, after a few trials, you give up ’cause it’s just too boring. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Books & Movies, Learn Chinese Tagged With: Book Review, Chinese course, Learn Chinese

How to get the most out of your Chinese course

October 1, 2012 by Furio Fu 4 Comments

how to study chinese

Click here to discover what Chinese courses
that we recommend at the moment!

Which Chinese course should you choose?

There are many Chinese courses out there. For the records, I started with Rocket Chinese and I’m currently using Chinesepod.

I prefer to spend some $$$ in language courses so that I feel guilty when I don’t study but nowadays you can find everything you need to learn a language for free. I enumerated the best free resources in this article: Learn Chinese online: 27 excellent free resources.

Let’s suppose I got this bunch of Chinese courses. How the hell I’m going to use them? [Read more…]

Filed Under: Learn Chinese Tagged With: Chinese course, Learn Chinese

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