Why do I blog about learning Chinese online
1. Education 2.0 – Here I call it Chinese 2.0, but what I mean to do is to give you the image that Web2.0 is not just the social networks and the entertainment with videos, images etc, it is influencing every part of your life.
2. Language barrier of Chinese Internet – It is the key issue. I list the resources which might help you understand more about Chinese web. Learning Chinese is not easy, but with the aid of Internet technology, it could be something interesting.
The Nine resources for learning Chinese online
ChinesePod.com (Universe) – A Shanghai based company run by my friend Ken Carroll. We have it covered many times, and it was ranked by TIME the TOP10 Podcast 2006, definitely my favorite. Here is a comment left by one of my readers: “I am so impressed by ChinesePod and it is for me such a pleasure to find you any day, any time on my PC. Started learning Chinese after my retirement from the UN (economist in a section mainly concerned with environmental protection), have passed the first degree HSK -and, in spite of my age (just 90) feel I am making great progress with you. Many, many thanks to you all”, by Siri Kalnins.
ChineseLearnOnline.com (Universe) – Founded by Adam, a Canada-based startup which is also using Podcast for teaching Chinese. The users can learn Mandarin Chinese with its audio Podcast every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. The users are able to subscribe to the lessons from any resource such as iTunes, Yahoo etc, or listen to them directly from main site. It is now also offering a Premium subscription services.
Chinese-Tools.com – This site is offering quite a range of resources for learning Chinese, including Online mandarin courses, Chinese dictionary, Chinese calligraphy studio, Chinese name translation, Chinese songs, Chinese poems, Chinese editor, Chinese annotation tool, Chinese dictionary, converters for pinyin, Unicode, traditional and simplified Chinese, tools to build Chinese websites, etc.
HelloMandarin.com – Hello! Mandarin not only offers courseware, learning materials and textbook in the student zone, but also offers Live Class by Real Teachers in Beijing through their high technical Internet classroom system. It says that their classroom system is a professional teaching system including video, audio, whiteboard, data sharing, pointer tools, pen tools for Chinese characters writing, presentation or textbook screen and the other functions for education, NOT just a general MSN messenger, Yahoo messenger or Skype and other free chat tools. Students who have broadband Internet and a headset can take Chinese class face to face, absolutely like in a traditional classroom, with real professional Chinese teachers from Beijing 24/7.
Hanyu.com.cn – sponsored by the Office of Chinese Language Council International of P.R China & EastChina Normal University (ECNU). They offer the E-Class for Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced learners, and also do a so-called Hanyu WebRadio which broadcast some teaching programs such as Easy Chinese, Chinese Pop Songs and Chinese Music.
Zhongwen.com – This site is cool one particularly for the guys want to know more about Chinese characters. It contains the complete text of Amazon’s (sometimes) best-selling and (frequently) best-reviewed Chinese Characters: A Genealogy and Dictionary using a character tree system.
Miktamchinese.com – The official website of The Miktam of Chinese International Inc. A superb site recently discovered by my friend Marjolein. Her two daughters are now enrolled in a school that teaches the “Chinese Character Canon (CCC)”. The site describes the CCC as a superior teaching material for learning Chinese characters. It says that “Chinese Character Canon” is a poem composed of 4,000 characters which covers 99% of modern Chinese and covers 50 fields of knowledge, like a mini-encyclopedia. After learning this book within a short period of time(6-12month), learners will be able to master all regularly used Chinese characters while enjoying the rich cultural background and stories behind each sentence. CCC has been selected by the All-China Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese as the designated Chinese textbook for overseas Chinese.
LearnMandarinOnline.org – This site looks quite amateur, but they have some nice resources, especially those video-clips on its main site and blog which worth dropping by.
Finally, if you want to input Chinese online, dont forget the GownFull, the online Ajax-based IME.
Conclusion
Which one is the best? I am afraid I have to leave this question to you since I am a Chinese native speaker. Are there only 9 online resources? Of course there are many more out there. If you happen to know any site also good at it, you are definitely welcome to mention it in a comment.
Very nice overview of available resources. I personally like Chinesepod the most but some of the others are pretty nice as well. Another good overview of resources for learning Chinese is http://learn-chinese.mychinastart.com
Came across this site through a technorati tag on CozyChinese.COM which I use all the time. It has many chinese tools for handling both simplified and traditional Chinese.
Interesting enough that I don’t see it list here.
Thank you for the links! Chinese-Tools.com’s language club/forum is exactly what I was looking for!
Thanks for this blog!
I just checked out miktamchinese.com. What an amazing idea!
Also, I just put together a website for learning to read characters. http://www.readmandarin.com.
Thanks!
Daniel
ni hao!
I found this Chinese 2.0 blog to be of great interest and importance! Thank you for a great list of useful sites and tools.
A kind of ‘project’ of mine has been to develop the above website, TutorSearchChina, with the catchphrase: “Be a Tutor, Find a Tutor, Anywhere in China!” Since this summer we’ve attracted 20-30 English, Mandarin, and Cantonese teachers from 5+ Chinese cities to show their abilities on the site; most of this interest is rooted in Guangdong.
I created this site due to the growing demand of personalized language training in China. Students of ESL here worry so much about making mistakes in front of others. This site gives them a real chance not to be left behind AND accomplish “performance-oriented goals,” which is an application of my Master’s degree based in Instructional Design.
Please have a look! I appreciate your comments, private or public:)
I have found that the few online Chinese training sites spend a lof of time being cool instead of showing concern for the proper pronunciation and character usage. Also, I’m finding the chit chat in may of these types of podcasts boring when I have to listen to them over and over. I think a site from Taiwan I just found two days ago spends more time on explaination and pronunciaton. That’s important to me.
hello i want to travel to china so i want to learn chinese
thanks
thank you for full listing of available chinese resources. it's exactly what i was looking for
HI,I am Edward,a chinese boy, and i would like to find a friend to teach my speaking English,and i will teach him chinese. If you are interesting in this,please connect me with Skype,my username is guanghua061.
I learn chinese on miktamchinese.com, and want to admit, that this website gives all you need to learn chinese
I learn chinese on miktamchinese.com, and want to admit, that this website gives all you need to learn chinese
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Hi guys! I would like to recommend Kuaile Hanyu. It is a good textbook for teenagers in learning the chinese language. It is definitely helpful.
Hi guys! I would like to recommend Kuaile Hanyu. It is a good textbook for teenagers in learning the chinese language. It is definitely helpful.
I would like to recommend My First Chinese Reader. It is a good chinese learning textbook for kids. Really Helpful
I would like to recommend My First Chinese Reader. It is a good chinese learning textbook for kids. Really Helpful
In addition to the above recommendations. New Practical Chinese Reader is also another material that really helps children write and recognize chinese character from memory. This might be helpful to your readers.
In addition to the above recommendations. New Practical Chinese Reader is also another material that really helps children write and recognize chinese character from memory. This might be helpful to your readers.
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Each of the Chinese learning program has its feature. Choose one or two which is suitable for yourself is more important. To me I learn Chinese here http://www.easilylearnchinese.blogspot.com/, and this program is right for me.
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HI,I am a chinese boy, and i would like to find a friend to teach my speaking English,and i will teach him chinese. If you are interesting in this,please connect me with Skype,my username is guanghua061.
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