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I am trying to find a clear and comprehensive path for learning Chinese through self-study. I know that many other blogs and methods exist, but I think some unified method is necessary unless you really have a solid basis with the language and know exactly what you should be studying to advance further.
R/ChineseLanguage DiscordAbout UsThis is a community for people studying or teaching Chinese - or even if you're just interested in the languages of China. Discussion of all Chinese languages/dialects is welcome!Please post interesting links, language learning advice, or questions! Character/Word LookupType grave accents around characters and words to look up their readings and meanings.`文` / `語言` / `国际化` / `一字千金`Community RulesPlease take a moment to familiarize yourself with.If you're seeking a translation, please post your question in our biweekly translation thread. It's stickied on our front page.Videos and video lessons are only allowed on Wednesdays.Memes and humorous posts are only allowed on Fridays.
Learning ChineseOur Community.Resources.Apps.Related CommunitiesLanguages.Media/Culture.Regions.Other. WHY A COMPREHENSIVE PATH???I'm better at looking at books than I am at actually reading them. I'm better at finding study materials than I am at studying them. Mostly, though, I have recently been looking for comprehensive materials for learning Chinese through self-study. This means quality textbooks like what would be found in a university classroom setting that teach not only basic words, phrases, and Pinyin, but also Chinese characters and literacy, all taught in an integrated teaching method (not artificially separating each aspect of the language).This means that I am not interested in gimmicks or 'courses' that just teach one thing. A list of common Chinese characters, or a novel way to remember some easy characters doesn't cut it.
An audio course to mindlessly drive some phrases into my brain doesn't cut it. I am looking for real comprehensive learning materials, not some Barnes & Noble 1980s audio tapes. MIT OPENCOURSEWARE: LEARNING CHINESESometime back in the 2000s, MIT began opening up its textbooks and course materials for open access and download. This included several courses on Chinese, including four main language learning courses for non-Chinese speakers. These are divided into courses that each take one semester to take at MIT. The first two semesters teach elementary Chinese, and the last two semesters teach intermediate Chinese.
Both simplified and traditional characters are taught, with the idea that it should not take much additional effort to learn both systems. The textbook is produced by the teacher of the course, Julian Wheatley. All the PDFs are freely available and a print version of the book can also be bought on places like Amazon.Learning Chinese: A Foundation Course in Mandarin.This should serve as a decent free textbook and curriculum. Practice tests, character workbooks, audio recordings, and other materials are also included. One of the nicest things is that you can actually see what to read for each study session in the 'readings' section. It shows you: read these PDFs, listen to these MP3s, etc.There is also a series of separate courses for Chinese speakers wishing to gain further literacy, and also a few others teaching about cultures and literature. Check it out if you are looking for a comprehensive type of university course for self-study.
FANCY PANTS TEXTBOOKS: INTEGRATED CHINESEAlthough MIT has its own textbook for Chinese, most universities use course materials and textbooks produced professionally by another publisher. The most popular series, I believe, is Integrated Chinese, a course that provides a comprehensive introduction to Chinese in a very polished textbook format. This textbook series has been around since at least 1997, and has been updated several times, so its teaching methods are much more refined and suitable to more types of students than MIT's textbook. If you were a university student learning Chinese, these would very likely be the textbooks you would use.When I was a student, I used the second edition of these books, and I was always happy with them. The third edition has undergone numerous improvements and is much clearer than the second edition that I used. The series is divided into simplified and traditional, and with the existence of workbooks and other course materials, it makes finding the right books a little difficult.
I've included the ISBN numbers from the publisher's website here.Integrated Chinese, Simplified. L1 P1 Textbook: ISBN 385. L1 P2 Textbook: ISBN 705. L2 P1 Textbook: ISBN 798. L2 P2 Textbook: ISBN 880BAI XUE: MANDARIN CHINESE LESSONSOn Youtube, Bai Xue has created over 170 free lessons for learning Mandarin Chinese. They take the form of a narrated presentation with text and graphics on the screen.
If you have learned Chinese before, the intro lessons are likely too easy and you can skip ahead. On her blog, Bai Xue has provided a transcript and graphics for every lesson (!). This must have been an enormous amount of work to put together, and it seems really nice so far, if a little slow-moving. I would definitely recommend this course.Most other video or audio lessons are either (1) not comprehensive or (2) not free.
Even some commonly used courses like Pimsleurs have some serious issues because they use erhua and the Beijing dialect, so many words end with an 'arrr' sound like a pirate (not proper Mandarin). MEMRISE: CHARACTER MEMORIZATIONMemrise is a very quick, free, and easy way to learn and review characters and some basic phrases. It can be used either with a PC or with their phone app. Since everyone will need to learn and review characters at some point, I think at least mentioning something like this one is really obvious and necessary.DISCLAIMERI really don't care so much about every little gimmick and trick for learning Chinese.
I am trying to find a clear and comprehensive path for learning Chinese through self-study. I know that many other blogs and methods exist, but I think some unified method is necessary unless you really have a solid basis with the language and know exactly what you should be studying to advance further. Also, I am not affiliated with any of these methods or authors, but I think they all deserve some credit for making useful materials, especially those who have done so for free. Learning a language is always a chaotic and messy process, this is fine.
You'll learn stuff double and you'll learn stuff you won't need. It doesn't matter which methodology you choose to use.
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In fact mixing methodologies up is probably better.Although I do think most courses have an initial stupid focus. Greeting people is irrelevant, you need to learn how to ask questions instead, for example 'how do you say x' and 'what is that'.I do like the overview you provided. Here is another Chinese learning channel on youtube: the authors are still active I believe, I wrote the anwsers to the questions in a little book in Chinese, I think this works sort off well, although only YouTube is not enough.Another method I used while in China was just going out with Chinese people and keep asking the questions on their langauge, I forgot more than 90% of the things they thought me, but some things stuck, mainly the most important ones. You'll get free pronunciation checks and they love it when you try to speak in Chinese (although there is a time an place).
Thank you very much for the links and tips there! I am (have to) do a hardcore Chinese self-study program right now since I'm about to move to China and want to get as good as possible till late autumn. So I only have half a yr.I have already decided on the old De Francis as my standard textbook for reasons of practicality (I happened to own the Beginner vols) and the tapes are available free on iTunes from Setton Hall University, I find it good as a basic text, still. Its also absolutely apt for a motivated adult since it does the job w/o any fancy pictures and kiddy stuff and teaches you straight on w text and sound (of course at some point a native speaker is indispenable for training).I also am challenging myself w 快乐汉语 on YT as well as other stuff there for entertainment and I also added your Bai Xue to my favs. I'll also watch Travel in Chinese (100 lessons) and Growing Up With Chinese, next.
To begin, I thought BBC Real Chinese to be of some help to get into some phrases etc., also some HSK vocabulary-courses are ok like the one from Hua Jie Language School on YT.Other indispensable links:Dictionary:Forum:The wiki is linked on this page I just saw.好好努力吧!.
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