A Short List of Resources for Studying Chinese

[艾墨本]

Bolded resources are especially useful. If you are a new learner, start there.

 

This is an attempt at updating the previous list while also consolidating it. All but a few of these are resources I have personally used and found crucial to my learning at different points. This list is curated to cut down on the time you need to spend checking finding good resources. For an extensive list of resources, see Hacking Chinese and search through an enormous catalogue of properly tagged resources and guides. 

 

If you think any suggestion could be replaced with a better resource or if another resource should be added, please post and explain why you think so.

 

And a note on studying: When learning a language, it is important to combine extensive methods with intensive methods. Extensive methods rely on consuming a lot of relatively easily understood content and focusing on the general gist rather than nuance. When studying extensively, use context to learn new words or just quickly look them up and move on. In contrast, intensive studying methods rely on understanding the nuance and depth of the content. When studying intensively, take the time to learn the new words, replay or re-read the content many times, and analyze the logical structure. 

 

Language Courses:

• Hello Chinese - Duolingo-like phone app for Chinese learners with a handwriting function like Skritter and voice recognition[free]
• Ninchanese - Gamified learning. Great for character memorization and has 5 worlds that go through HSK 5ish. Strong and supportive learning communitee . [free-$$]
• Pimsleur - Audio-based mandarin Chinese course. Wordlist [$22-$550 but look for frequent discounts]
• EdX Beginner Chinese - Part 1 and Part 2 [free]
• Coursera Beginner Chinese- Part 1 and Part 2 [free]
• EdX Intermediate Chinese - [free]
• EdX Business Chinese (intermediate level) - [free]
• For advanced learners, simply enroll in a content course that is taught in Chinese. Good luck!

Textbooks

• New Practical Chinese Reader - progressively teaches reading, writing and listening. Often recommended on these forums.

 

Dictionaries

 

Popup Dictionaries for Browsers:

• Google Chrome: Zhongwen: A Chinese-English Popup Dictionary [free]

• Mozilla Firefox: Perapera Chinese [free]

• Safari: Frill [free]

Online Dictionaries:

• YellowBridge Chinese English Dictionary - Overall dictionary [free]
• Jukuu - example sentences dictionary with statistical breakdown [free]

Offline Dictionaries:

• Wenlin - (Mac/Win) worth getting used to user-interface [100$ with frequent 50% off deals]
• Pleco - (iOS/Android) nothing comparable. It does everything. If you're are committed to Chinese, then get the professional pack. [free - $100's]
• Built-in-dictionary - (MacOS)

 

Grammar

• Chinese Grammar Wiki - Excelent grammar explanations [free]
• Oxford’s Elementary Chinese Grammar Course - Self-teach yourself the basics. [free]

 

Tones

• Hacking Chinese - A comprehensive explanation and guide to pinyin [free]
• Tone Trainer  online exercises to develop an ear for single tones [free]
• SpeakGoodChinese (program for training tone pronunciation, see discussion)  [free?]

 

Listening Material

• ChinesePod - An enormous library of podcats [free/$$]
• Chinese Learn Online - Leveled podcasts that systematically progress in difficulty
• Glossika Method - Shadow audio recordings to simultaneously improve listening, speaking, and grammar. [Wide range of $]
• 爱奇艺 - Start with kids shows (喜羊羊与灰太狼) and work up to teens (降世神通) and finally, adult content (欢乐颂). [free]

 

Reading Material (For an extensive list of options and levels, see Graded readers, by the numbers (character/words, page count)

• The Chairman's Bao - Graded reader-esque news with recordings. [80$/year]
• Just Learn Chinese - Online graded readers with audio. Beginner to advanced. [free]
• Graded Readers - Search Amazon for Chinese Breeze (includes audio files) or Mandarin Companion (captivating stories for adults) and DeFrancis (free with traditional character).  [free-$15ish]
• Chinese Text Analyser - Analyze a text for difficulty and known words, also has a built in dictionary which makes using it as a text reader simple. [$10ish?]

 

Flashcards/Vocabulary

• Pleco - Their flashcards can do a lot. Study by drawing characters, selecting pinyin, drawing characters, and more. one-time payment and includes HSK word lists. and other ways. [$5???]
• Skritter- Fully supported vocabulary learning with software that makes all of the decisions for how to learn effectively for you. Word lists cover most all text books and interests BUT is quite expensive. [$179/year]
• Anki - Less user friendly but superior SRS algorithm. Read the guide and use the forums. Learn how to use this application. Shared decks for Chinese [free on MacOS, Windows, Android, but $10 and iOS]

Writing Characters

• The Minimum Requirements - A guide to writing technically correct characters [free]
• Pleco - Their flashcard app has a built-in function to practice writing characters or selecting each of the strokes in order to practice stroke order. [$5???]
• Hanzi Grids - customizable and printable grids to practice writing characters [free, $10 one time for additional features]

 

Online Language Partners

• HelloTalk - phone app for finding language partners [free]

 

Test Prep (HSK)

• Official Website - Link directly to info about HSK tests. Also search for "Hanban." 

[wibr]

Skritter is quite good but also expensive, it definitely teaches stroke order, so I would include it. Maybe also include Glossika somewhere with a link to our thread on chinese-forums. I also recommend DeFrancis readers for those who study traditional characters.

[艾墨本]

Does DeFrancis have any advantages over the Chinese Breeze readers or Mandarin Companion readers beyond being traditional characters?

 

Edit: added a link to the comprehensive list of graded readers on these forums.

[li3wei1]

For online dictionaries, I find Archchinese and Written Chinese good, for different reasons. Archchinese because from any given character, you can very quickly see what other characters have the same semantic or phonetic component, or use that character as a component, or are a component of that character. Written Chinese gives you all the words containing that character in order of frequency.

 

Also, don't forget Jukuu.

[Shelley]

For writing practice i would add Hanzi Grids to the list. Very good for actual pen and paper writing practice. More info here https://www.hanzigrids.com/

[wibr]

The DeFrancis readers start from zero and then build up your vocabulary systematically with a lot of repetition, the main disadvantage is that they are a little dated.

[艾墨本]

I swapped out the dictionaries to include arch Chinese and jukuu. Hard to delete zdic but trying to keep the list condense. With that in mind, I didn't add the hanzigrids that shelley recommends since arch Chinese offers those as well.

[Flickserve]

ITalki is going to get a significant downgrade soon. Their new website is nearly a disaster.

[艾墨本]

This is horrible news. What's an alternative language exchange website or app, then?

[etm001]

A few resources I think are worth adding to the list:

• Online dictionaries: MDBG 
• Listening Material:
  • Chinese Learn Online (CLO). Unlike ChinesePod this is a progressive course. (It's produced in Taiwan, you can note that accordingly if you add it to the list.)
  • Slow Chinese: this is a well-known instructional podcast. Each episode includes a transcript.

Two comments:

• Perapera is also available for Chrome.
• What are your concerns in regards to Pleco's flashcard SRS algorithm (you noted that "SRS is mediocre")? Certain features are missing (two that I can think of right away are clozes and native leech handling; as you noted the module is currently being rewritten).

[mikelove]

Both clozes and leeches are coming in that update, though you could already mimic Anki's leech behavior by adding a card filter to exclude cards with 8 total incorrect answers (so all we're really doing is giving it its own separate filter configuration + adding a warning about a card's leechiness).

[艾墨本]

@etm001 and @mikelove, I find the features of Pleco's notecards to be far superior to ANKI, largely due to their simplicity and the variety of testing methods that can be easily moved between. But the actual way that Anki feeds me the cards is much better. I like that it does it in 1m/10m/1d/4d increments and that it won't keep shooting the card at me too rapidly after I get it wrong. If I introduce a new card on Pleco, I get it wrong, and it gives it back to me in 3 seconds, and then it disappears for the day. I like the emphasis on review with Anki. Perhaps this can be adjusted in the settings?

 

I have left off MDBG because all the functionality that it provides is covered in the other online dictionaries. Besides the GUI, Yellow Bridge offers more as a free online dictionary. 

 

Skimmed some of the old posts on these forums about Chinese Learn Online:

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/17781-chineselearnonlinecom/

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/11192-chinesepodcom-does-it-really-work/

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/18805-which-of-these-podcasts-do-you-like-best/?mode=show

 

It looks like a pretty amazing tool. I'll add it in place of AiQiYi. People can figure that out on their own.

*Edit* left Aiqiyi because finding good native content is so darn hard. Removed popup Chinese. While it's my personal favorite, it makes more sense to leave the enormous library of Chinese pod and pair that with progressing levels for CLO. Also, Popup Chinese can be found in the HSK section, still.

[mikelove]

Interval for incorrect cards in a session can be adjusted, yes - Commands / Repeat Incorrect, set "time" to "during test" and you can configure "delay before repeat" to whatever interval you like. It'll be shorter than that if you run out of other cards to study, though.

 

Interval previews and more dynamic scheduling (i.e., one card might be delayed by 5 minutes and one by an hour instead of every incorrect card getting the same delay) are coming in that big update; we offered the former as an option for a little while, but it turned out the scheduling algorithm was predicting them inaccurately for reasons that would take a major update to fix, so we pulled them until we can get them working nicely in that update.

[艾墨本]

The difference is that with Anki, the 'delay before repeat' part is automated and dependent on the cards history. So, if I get the card wrong I self-grade as "again" it depends on if it's a new card, studied card, or mature card, for how long until it gives it to me again. With Pleco, this might go depending on "don't know" "forgot" or "barely remembered." If I selected "don't know," maybe it would give it again in 30 seconds, and then again in a few minutes (assuming I got it right that time). But if I select "barely remembered" maybe it give it again in a few minutes and then not again that day or more. The default way that Anki has this set is really good, IMO. I just turned on the "show SRS intervals" button. I'll pay closer attention to what it is currently set at, now. However "more dynamic scheduling (i.e., one card might be delayed by 5 minutes and one by an hour instead of every incorrect card getting the same delay)" might just solve this for me. 

 

Note, noticed that the "repeat incorrect" in commands has a subheading as "review incorrect cards at the end of the session" but then another button to set "time" as "at end of test" or "during test." Perhaps drop the heading and leave the "time" section to define it.

[mikelove]

Yeah, we should cover that pretty well - basically intervals will now be able to be arbitrarily short / long and allow for a card to be rescheduled during the same session, and there'll be larger card 'statuses' so that a new versus learned card has a different set of parameters for its interval advances. (user-definable, actually, and with flexible test types / fields for each one; can have half a dozen different levels so that a card progresses e.g. from reading to writing as you learn it better and doesn't get dumped all the way back to 'lapsed' if you fail to write it correctly in a fill-in-the-blanks test but have already demonstrated you can recognize it very well)

[Shelley]

I can't find the exactly same thing on arch chinese as Hanzi Grids does. Hanzi grids is a dedicated, simple to use, value for money way of printing out character practice sheets.

 

Arch chinese does do a lot but you also have to pay a subscription, Hanzi grids is a small one off payment. If you just want to print practice sheets I prefer Hanzi Grids.

[艾墨本]

Thank you, Shelley. I didn't realize that Arch Chinese required money for those features. That's a bummer. Then, yeah, even the free features of Hanzi Grids would have been enough for me and many of my classmates back when I used these grids a lot. Once again, imron kills it.

[Shelley]

I prefer HelloChinese to ChineseSkill. I like the style and features of HelloChinese.

 

Two main reasons I prefer HelloChinese:

 

1) the android version of chineseskill has in-app purchase while hellochinese is totally free.

 

2) the ios version of chineseskill lacks two main features that hellochinese has: one is the character handwriting like skritter, another is the voice recognition.

 

Have a look at their website http://www.hellochinese.cc/

[Luxi]

For Windows 10, the best dictionary I've found so far is the Chinese - English dictionary by Hein Htat, powered by CEDict and Google Translate. It's a free app, downloadable through the Windows Store in Win 10. It can search online and offline for simplified or traditional characters as well as pinyin. It gives the sound pronunciation but only online. It's very fast, simple and quite powerful for a free dictionary. 

Added Edit: Forgot to say, it also works as an English - Chinese dictionary,

 

It's also possible to use the Windows Translator App as a dictionary, which also works on- and offline (although more limited off). It takes text, sound or scanned pictures, and can read the Chinese text using Windows 10 excellent TTS if one has the Chinese language pack installed. 

[Bigdumogre]

i would add Pimsluer audio and NPCR to the list

both are very good