Learning Mandarin Chinese

Learning Chinese is not easy. Sometimes you might find yourself hitting a (great) wall. I have been studying Mandarin Chinese for about two and a half years. I remember when I first moved to China, barely being able to utter “ni hao!” and trying to eavesdrop on conversations that locals were having. It honestly seemed like endless unintelligible sounds and I felt frustrated that I couldn’t decipher the general meaning of their exchanges. At that time I thought that understanding Mandarin would be an unattainable skill. 

There have been a number of people and resources that have helped me to build on my ability in all aspects of Chinese language; reading, writing, speaking and listening. I know there is still a long way to travel on my Mandarin journey but I wanted to share the things that I have found useful.

Chinese lessons

After six months of adjusting to life in Beijing, I decided that it was time to expand on my basic Mandarin skills. After doing some research online, I came across the website for the Hutong School. I contacted them via email and they invited me to visit the school. The Beijing school is located in the Sanlitun area, which is perfect for when you need to have a post-lesson beverage. The staff spoke to me about the types of classes they offered and spoke to me in basic Chinese to gauge my ability. The school has both group and individual classes. I decided to go for one-to-one lessons because I knew that asking lots of questions would probably irritate my classmates if I chose the group sessions. 

I have been lucky to keep the same teacher since I first started having lessons. Maggie is a very enthusiastic and encouraging teacher. To begin with, I focused on speaking and using pinyin. Maggie always comes to class with a lesson prepared but is happy to go off topic if I ask her about learning different vocabulary. After a while, Maggie convinced me to study Chinese characters. It is a great feeling to recognise Chinese characters, so I really appreciate her invaluable help in learning Mandarin. Now, she is not only my teacher but also a great friend. In 2014, she invited me to spend Chinese New Year with her family. The Hutong School offers classes in Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu, Brussels, London, Milan, Paris and Sydney.

Books

I have used a few books since starting to learn Chinese. Here is a list of some of them:

“Easy Peasy Chinese-Mandarin Chinese For Beginners” by Dorling Kindersley.

I used this book when I first started learning (before having formal lessons). This is good for learning the basics of Chinese and it came with a CD. If you aren’t having lessons with a teacher, it is quite helpful to listen to the correct pronunciation of new vocabulary.

“The First 100 Chinese Characters: Simplified Character Edition” by Alison Matthews and Laurence Matthews.

This book is useful for learning common Chinese characters. It explains the stroke order for each character and provides boxes for writing practice. Currently, I am not learning how to write Chinese characters by hand, instead I often type on the computer or mobile phone. However, I think this book is good for character recognition and I will probably use this more if I decide to advance to handwritten Chinese.

“Short-term Spoken Chinese” by Beijing Language And Culture University Press

There are a number of books in this series. They definitely help build and expand Chinese vocabulary and the earlier books come with pinyin. The later editions become more challenging as there is less pinyin offered, so I often require help from my teacher to access some of the activities.

“Learning Chinese Characters From Ms. Zhang” by Beijing Language And Culture University Press

Like the previous book in the list, this book helps to build on vocabulary and has lists of new characters accompanied by the pinyin and English translation. However, when it comes to the reading activities there is no pinyin offered. 
I have a love/hate relationship with pinyin now. If pinyin is included, I will focus too much on it and not learn the character, but without pinyin I can often struggle. I use this book in my lessons with my teacher as she can support me when there are characters that I don’t recognise.

“Graded Chinese Reader – Contemporary Short Stories” by Sinolingua

This is a series of leveled books that can help people to prepare for HSK (Chinese proficiency) tests. I have recently bought the 2000 words edition, which will definitely challenge me. What I like about this book is that it comes with a CD and optional pinyin. “How is the pinyin optional?!” I hear you ask. Well, it comes with a “pinyin-invisible card” which you can place over each page. When the card is placed over a page, it can conceal the pinyin so that only Chinese characters are visible. This is great for a learner like me who can become distracted by the pinyin, but also likes the option to check the correct word or tone is being used.

Mandarin Companion

I have also recently bought Level 1 books by Mandarin Companion. These books are designed for people with a basic grasp of common Chinese characters while introducing the reader to some new vocabulary. Each book is originally an English story that has been changed to a Chinese setting. I have just finished reading “Sherlock Holmes And The Case Of The Curly Haired Company”. It was a great feeling to recognise the majority of the characters on the pages and many of the unfamiliar vocabulary is translated with pinyin in the footnote of each page. I had such a feeling of accomplishment to complete a whole storybook by myself without the support of a teacher and very little pinyin being offered. These books have definitely encouraged me to continue learning Chinese characters and helped to reignite my enthusiasm for studying Mandarin.

Apps

Wechat

Wechat (微信) is an instant messenger app and one of the most popular social media tools in China. Users can send messages but also post statuses and photographs. This is a great tool for Chinese learners to communicate and practice reading different statuses. Updated versions of Wechat also also users to translate statuses and messages from Chinese into English. 
In addition to adding friends as contacts, you can also follow official accounts. I have found the following accounts helpful in studying Chinese: sinologyinstitute, go_mandarin and imandarin.

Youdao Dictionary (有道词典)

My Huawei mobile phone already had this application installed. I was impressed by it so also downloaded it from the app store to my Macboook. It offers users translations of words and it can often provide sample sentences, which has definitely helped me to gain an understanding of how to correctly use new vocabulary.

Internet

The Chairman’s Bao

I first saw an advertisement for this website on Facebook. It offers users the chance to read news stories in simplified or traditional Chinese characters. Users of this website can read articles, click on words they are not familiar with and also listen to an audio recording of a native speaker reading the same article. This is definitely a useful tool for anyone wanting to improve on his or her reading and listening skills. I often try reading an article with my Chinese teacher during our lessons.

Chinesereadingpractice.com
This website hasn't been updated for a few months, but there are quite a few blog entries to keep Chinese learners busy. As the name of the website suggests, it is aimed at helping people to practice reading Chinese.

Youtube

There are so many videos available on Youtube that help support Chinese learning. In particular, I have enjoyed videos made by the following users:

YangYang Cheng

Yang Yang makes short and informative videos.

Fiona Tian

Fiona uploads humorous videos and often includes slang or expressions used by young people. She also makes videos for ChinesePodTV.

Peggyteacheschinese

Peggy is another Youtuber who uploads Mandarin lessons that cover a wide variety of subjects.

Facebook

Two of the users mentioned above also have Facebook pages, so their posts and videos can be included in your news feed. You can find Fiona at Mandarin Made Easy, and Yang Yang at Yoyo Chinese.

Two other Facebook pages that I have found useful are TouchChinese and Digmandarin, as both pages often post pictures with new phrases and vocabulary (usually with pinyin provided).

I am sure to continue adding to the resources that help me to study Chinese. I hope that this list can help others to build on their skills too!