I’ve started my Chinese learning journey, and I’m collecting a list of free resources available to self-study Mandarin online here. I’ve focused on learning traditional characters, but many resources support simplified as well. For transparency, I work for Babbel but am writing this in a completely private capacity. Babbel does not offer Chinese as a learning language. In general all of these resources are free, have a freemium model (in which case I can only comment on the free versions) or are books, in which case can be bought second hand relatively cheaply.
General Resources
- HelloChinese– the best general Chinese learning app I’ve used, includes a large range of features, including a pretty sensitive tonal voice recognition feature, writing practice and a variety of sentence-filling, word choice exercises. Along with that it offers a range of time-limited free games around vocabulary, grammar and character recognition. The explanatory text is very good, easy to understand and markedly more comprehensive than Duolingo. Additionally, the app includes short videos of what appear to be normal Chinese speakers saying short sentences or words that you need to identify/answer. This feature alone is really nice- both because it helps with comprehension in a natural environment, and because it helps to give you the feeling that you are learning the authentic language as it is spoken in real life.
- Duolingo– the Chinese offering is solid, they offer both traditional and simplified characters, though as a result of the smaller size of the language pair (English-Chinese) a lot of the content features available in bigger language pairs are missing. Importantly compared to other general apps there is nothing to support learning to write. The learning curve is not steep, and some of the gamified elements can be annoying- repetition of lessons is encouraged too much for my liking. The voice recognition is a key part of the programme, but is not particularly sensitive to tonal accuracy. Overall a solid medium.
- Drops– really nice user interface, very engaging and it takes a while to get boring. Spaced repetition works very well, and words that you get wrong come back again and again in different contexts. Limited by the concept- is good for vocabulary, but that’s really the limit. No voice recognition, no writing exercises, not too much except for vocabulary practice, for which it is the best example that I have come across.
- TOCFL Word Lists– Lists of characters according to the TOCFL (Test of Chinese as a Foreign Language) levels, the nationally administered test of Chinese fluency of Taiwan. I’ve used these lists to undergird some of the other resources below, and have found it useful to have a central learning path to build other learning activities around. I chose TOCFL because I wanted to learn traditional characters, but I’m sure the HSK (mainland China’s official test) would work just as well. Anecdotally I have read that the HSK does not go as high in terms of levels as the TOCFL, and does not relate as well to the CEFR levels as the TOCFL. The levels and characters are as follows:
- A1 (and Novice levels) covers the first 524 characters
- A2 covers the next 506 characters (1,030 in total)
- B1 covers the following 1,527 characters (2,558 in total)
- B2 covers the following 2,542 characters (5,101 in total)
- C1 and C2 cover the following 2980 characters (8,021 in total)
- Here is an excel table of these words, with formatted columns for use with Anki and the Chinese Worksheet Generator, for which see more information below.
Writing Resources
- Chinese Worksheet Generator– really great tool that I used in combination with the TOCFL word list above to generate practice sheets for writing characters. This is a key part of language learning that is often less covered by other resources- particularly because online attempts at teaching character writing can be a little lacklustre, and do not teach handwriting. I used it to create these character worksheets, which cover the first 524 characters.
- Chinese Writer– That said, this is a very nice game that covers the basic characters for free, in which you have to write the character with correct stroke order on your smartphone increasingly quickly. A nice way to get used to stroke order and to internalise it.
Reading Resources
- Anki– Anki was a revelation for me. It’s an open-source, free (the smartphone app is pretty pricy but the desktop version is free) flashcard system that allows you a lot of control over the spaced repetition of learning characters. It’s pretty spartan and good for nerdy people, not particularly user-friendly. This is a nice guide to setting Anki up to learn Chinese- basically it’s a flashcard system, but includes pronunciation, coloured notation of tones, and automatic dictionary definitions. There are many decks available in both simplified and traditional, for HSK or TOCFL or including only radicals, Bomofoko, the most used characters etc. etc. etc. I used it with the TOCFL lists above, and I really understood the power of spaced repetition when I realised that I knew what characters meant almost unconsciously- being someone who learns rather analytically, with limited experience of rote learning, this seemed almost like magic. A system like this seems necessary for the number of characters required by the Chinese language. I put together a deck of Anki cards that correspond to the first 500 characters of the TOCFL course.
- Du Chinese
- Swallowing Clouds by A. Zee
- Meine 80er Jahre- Eine Jugend in Taiwan by Sean Chang
Listening Resources
- Chillchat (Learn Chinese and Chill) is a low-intermediate podcast with a great mix of dialogue, explanation and vocabulary, hosted by an American and a Chinese from Shenzhen with charm. Definitely the most enjoyable, and simultaneously useful, podcast I’ve come across.
- Learn Chinese the Taiwanese Way is a very sweet, intermediate level wholly Chinese podcast with a Taiwanese focus. The presenter’s pace is slow but authentic, and his tone is really pleasant to listen to.
- Talk Taiwanese Mandarin with Abby was the first wholly Chinese Podcast I listened to, and Abby made it feel enjoyable and natural. She has a really nice voice, and very interesting topics that she makes accessible through her deft choice of vocabulary. Watch out for the episode on the history of Wanhua, Taipei, a personal favourite!
- Learn Chinese with Ease (Chineasy Podcast) was the very first Chinese podcast I listened to, and it’s perfect for beginners. it’s super short, five to ten minutes long, and dynamic due to the range of, sometimes a bit weird, guests. One piece of vocabulary, plus associated vocab items, is outlined in every episode and the episodes come out daily.
- Graded Watching
- LearningLanguageswithNetflix
Speaking Resources
- Online Chinese course organised by Ellie Liu Hsin Yi– I participated in a free, online course organised by Ellie Liu Hsin Yi for three weeks as a part of her Masters’ thesis research. It was particularly useful for me because of the focus on pronunciation, perhaps in part playing to the strengths of VoIP, which very much complemented the other learning activities I was doing. Particularly regularly hearing a native Chinese speaker and repeating words back helped to develop an elemental sense of tone, which was very difficult in all of the other resources above.