Chinese is a language spoken by more than 1.3 billion people word wide. Mandarin is the most commonly used and widely spread dialect of the Chinese language group, and the Official language of the People’s Republic of China.
China is an economy which enjoys a high annual growth and continuously attracts the interest of businesses around the world. Listing Chinese on your resume, is a skill valued by most employers, extremely useful in getting a good job or even if you want your own business to expand with activities in China.
The following hand picked online resources will get you started in the study of Chinese. I’ve used them as well, and highly recommend them. Valuable educational material, well planned courses and learning tools, available freely online.
Wikibooks
The Chinese Mandarin Wikibook is a free – constantly developed and enhanced FREE online textbook. Every online student of Chinese should have this one bookmarked.
Wikipedia
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, has some very informative and well written articles that will give you an introduction to the language and culture of China. Excellent reading for someone interested in learning the language.
By members of the Academia
Dr. Tianwei Xie of CSULB, has put together one of the early directories of resources for learning Chinese online, over at “Learning Chinese Online”. Complimented with an amazing, free course featuring lessons and audio read-outs. First course I ever took, now also featured in a printed book.
Ting is a wonderful assortment of lessons, interactive games, a dictionary and character flashcard tools for learning Chinese.
Set up by the Beijing Language And Culture University, Linese features interactive lessons and audiovisual tools that will help you learn Chinese and understand Chinese culture.
Podcasts
More
The BBC Languages department has set up this “lively introduction to Mandarin Chinese in 10 short parts” as described on site, which is fun and easy to complete, and makes it easy to remember what you learned.
zhongwen.com is the ultimate and comprehensive resource for learning and referencing when it comes to Chinese characters.
Happy learning everybody!
Zhou Ran Says:
August 6th, 2006 at 1:11 am
Hope you can write your blog in Chinese in the future:-)
Pavlos Says:
August 6th, 2006 at 2:59 am
Ran, and let us not forget about other possible events, such as world peace, fair trade and Elvis landing on the Acropolis in a space shuttle.
Perhaps though I could start another blog in Chinese, under an alias.. hmmm what would my Chinese name be?
zhou ran Says:
August 7th, 2006 at 5:05 am
Hehe, to be a “great” person, you should start at doing simple thing, like to learn chinese, not just speak, but also write
Pavlos Says:
August 7th, 2006 at 10:38 am
This is truly a wise quote. Thanks.
However, I don’t know if “simple” is a word which could describe learning how to write Chinese, but the links on this article do make it as simple as possible
Ken McGuire Says:
August 7th, 2006 at 12:17 pm
Maybe an AllEver.cn?
If I could get those resources for Russian (which I still want to learn) or French (to brush up on the French I have) would be good!
Pavlos Says:
August 7th, 2006 at 10:12 pm
Ask and you shall receive!
Learn Chinese Says:
December 26th, 2006 at 7:30 am
Thanks a lot for the links! I really liked how the Chinese Wikibook has gif animations to show you how to write the characters. No textbook can do that!
Pavlos Says:
January 3rd, 2007 at 9:39 pm
You’re most welcome. I agree, those animated characters are a great help in learning how to write in Chinese.