Chinese for Beginners free online course

[character]

https://www.coursera.org/learn/chineseforbeginners
 
Self-paced online course
6 hours of videos and quizzes
Subtitles: English


About this Course
Nowadays, there is an increasing number of people who are interested in Chinese culture and language. And it is useful to know about the language when coming to China for travel or business. This is an ABC Chinese course for beginners, including introduction of phonetics and daily expressions. After taking this class, learners can have a basic understanding of Chinese Mandarin and make basic conversations of daily living such as exchanging personal information, talking about daily arrangements and food, asking about price, introducing the city and the weather, telling your hobbies etc. Selected topics and situations come from real life scenarios and can be used for everyday communications. In addition to the dialogues, the selection of reading materials and practice activities will make the content as rich and varied as possible, in order to stimulate the learners’ interests. This is an elementary course on Chinese speaking. The learners don’t need to study Chinese characters, so it is easier to follow and complete this course.

[Silent]

I think some-one else already mentioned it here too.

I have not taken an in depth look at the course, but to me it looks disappointing. Six hours of videos and quizzes is 'nothing'. Learning a language takes years. Six hours of material for a beginners course doesn't really go beyond the plethora of free absolute beginners resources that are available on the internet. When in comes to free Chinese courses imho nothing beats the wide range of lessons on the CCTV website. Though, admittedly, it lacks exercises and assignments to practice active use.   

[character]

I did search the forum but didn't see this course mentioned.

 

It may or may not be a great course; I'm willing to give it the benefit of the doubt until I actually look at in depth.  Since different people have different learning styles, I think it's best to share such resources in case this course works for some people, even if some other set of material seems better on some criteria.