Top Ten Learning Chinese online sites, review

[Madelynne]

http://learn-chinese...tenreviews.com/

Any opinions on these?

I am a beginner and want to learn reading and writing as well as speaking but don't want to invest in a class until I know I can handle it, some of these seem reasonable...

Thanks so much!

[roddy]

I wouldn't pay too much attention to a dedicated review site - how much do they actually know about Chinese? How about a longer post about who you are, what you want to achieve, and what you can spend (nothing? really not even a cent?) and we'll see what we can come up with.

[Hofmann]

My opinion is that chinese-forums.com should be #1.

[Ruben von Zwack]

The one I systematically used of these is Livemocha and I'll admit it, I hated their Chinese lessons with a passion.

One of the things that bugged me:

Speaker says "女孩儿" (nǚháir), but vocab you see at the screen is "女孩" (nǚhái). Erm, isn't the last third of the word, the "儿" (er), missing?

I corrected a few dozen people's German pronunciation homework and pitied them for the *?@! they had to say: "That girl has got a silver purse. My purse is not golden."

But I know a guy who actually got fluent in Brazilian by Livemocha. So I guess it's what you make of it. And the option to have your homework corrected by native speakers is of course great.

PS -

don't want to invest in a class until I know I can handle it

I mean, Chinese is just like any other language, or any other hobby. When you're interested and motivated, you will handle most in a breeze. When you're just "meh" about it (or if you're unfortunate to be stuck with a book or course that sucks), the smallest thing will seem a drag.

Edit: I just noticed your other topic. So you are in the lucky situation that you can concentrate on what you like, right? What are your hobbies and other interests?

[Madelynne]

Thanks for the responses

Hi I posted some information about myself on this thread http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/41349-learning-chinese-too-old/

I'm not adverse to spending money tho-just not a large amount to start