Learn Mandarin Chinese
Progressive self study course for absolute beginners to intermediate learners
Progressive self study course for absolute beginners to intermediate learners
There are over 400 lessons to choose from. Absolute beginners should start at lesson 1. Each lesson continues where the last one left off.
Later lessons use the Chinese that was taught in earlier lessons. This way you are constantly reusing and remembering what was taught.
Premium subscribers get access to exercises, games and flashcard activities to reinforce what was taught.
Sign up with your Facebook account to try out the first 4 lessons of the course for free.
I've been learning Chinese characters for a couple of years (after I learned Japanese for a while). Reading simplified characters is therefore relatively easy for me, but there is a big gap to my listening and speaking skills, incl. usage of grammar.
What I like most about Chinese Learn Online is really the English-to-Chinese practice, something others (incl. ChinesePod) don't have enough of even though it is THE key skill I believe. The more is really the better here. I just feel the CLO approach is more organized, at least it helped me more.
In preparation for a trip overseas, I looked around for months trying to find a podcast/website that would help me learn Mandarin. So many were complicated to navigate or had really boring lesson plans. Some podcasts had audio that was not clear or were chanted by dull teachers. Some are just lists of vocabulary or phrases that you memorize, without context. A lot of bad teaching. I had almost given up and then found Chinese Learn Online. What a difference! The lessons are brief, memorable and logically arranged. The audio is clear and the narration friendly and very informative.
I stumbled upon this excellently programmed podcast back in Spring and I am ever so glad that I did, because I think it is one of the major reasons for my improved listening ability. One of the things I believe Stanford’s program doesn’t get right is the listening speed. We learnt grammar properly, vocabulary was good and we spoke about as fast as beginners at our level ought to, but we sucked at listening. This is because the teacher always spoke at a slower-than-normal speed which we could easily understand.
I am back from China! It was a very surprising and intensive experience. Thanks to you I was able to chat with chinese people, and also and very important, to bargain in the beautiful and colorful markets. No doubt I will renovate my Premium subscription to your site so I will be able to freely talk in my next visit to China.
I've been with you for about 2 months and I think your course is the best available !
I'm interested in Chinese culture. I spend about an hour and a half each day commuting by car, and I was looking for something to do with that time rather than waste it. I hit upon learning Mandarin via podcasts. I think I found your site by a random Google search. I tried "chinesepod"... they are good too, but because your approach is much more progressive I'm learning a lot more from you, and it's sticking !