Chinese is one of the most widely spoken languages worldwide. According to statistics it has over a billion native speakers. Considering the rate at which China’s global influence is increasing, learning Chinese is now a valuable task for personal growth and career advancement.
The act of doing so has been streamlined, all thanks to this digital era. Now you can learn Chinese online for free and at the comfort of your home. If you’re looking to study Chinese online, journey with me as I guide you through the numerous strategies, methods and resources to help you learn and speak Chinese fluently.
Why Learn Chinese?
Here are a few reasons why it is advisable that one learns Chinese, they are:
1. Global opportunities: considering China’s position in world power, and their economic stand. Learning Chinese enables numerous business and career opportunities, which you wouldn’t have ordinarily gotten.
2. Cultural enrichment: learning to understand and speak Chinese fluently can help you excel in other fields like literature, philosophy, history, arts and can broaden how you see the world.
3. Cognitive benefits: learning Chinese online can be a great way to develop your cognitives, including problem solving skills, leadership skills, memory and multitasking abilities, all these contribute to overall self development.
4. Travel experiences: speaking Chinese fluently can come in handy, by making your travel to China of any other country that widely speaks Chinese, a more exciting trip, as you can better understand and converse with them.
Online Resources for Learning Chinese
Here are a few resources you can use to learn Chinese online, they include:
1. Language Learning Platforms
Several online platforms offer comprehensive Chinese courses:
- Duolingo
This online language learning application Offers fun lessons that focus on vocabulary and basic sentence structures. They tutor on a vast array of languages which includes Chinese. They sure can be a good online learning platform option, for your language journey.
- Busuu
This online application Offers Chinese language learning lessons for beginners, this tutelage comes with native speaker interactions to help their overall speaking abilities.
- Coursera
Coursera is also a language learning application like Duolingo, it offers Chinese language learning courses from reputable universities, it comes with interactive exercises and native speakers voice notes.
- edX
This online language learning platform provides beginners with free Chinese language and culture courses from prestigious universities around the world. They are also a good option for your Chinese study.
2. Online Tutoring and Language Exchange
For every language learning journey there’s a point in time where one-on-one interactions are needed the most. Online tutelage is very ideal for your language learning journey as it’ll help your fluency. Some of these are is language exchange platforms:
- italki
This platform will help you connect with Connected professional Chinese tutors and community tutors. As a beginner this is very helpful as they can teach you hacks, pronunciations and lots more.
- Verbling
This platform Offers beginners online Chinese classes with professional Chinese tutors who are either native speakers or have learned speaking Chinese for years.
- Tandem
This platform focuses on connecting learners and experts of Chinese, they can hold meaningful conversations that’ll boost overall fluency in the language.
- HelloTalk
Here is another language exchange app that focuses on using text and voice chats, for fluency development.
3. YouTube Channels
YouTube can also be a great resource for learning Chinese online. It has numerous hosts channels that are dedicated to Chinese language learning, you can search them up, follow and learn. Here are a few channels you should consider following:
- ChinesePod TV
This channel offers helpful Chinese tutoring lessons on various aspects of Chinese language and culture.
- Mandarin Corner
This channel helps to provide authentic Chinese content that helps users with hearing and understanding Chinese, and it also has subtitles for beginners.
- Yoyo Chinese
This channel Features authentic step by step video lessons for beginners to intermediate learners of Chinese.
- Chinese Class 101
This YouTube channel offers a vast array of language learning lessons, in videos where native speakers may have proper conversations or any form. This channel focuses on grammar and vocabulary.
4. Chinese Reading Resources
You can Improve your reading and understanding Chinese skills using these Chinese reading resources, they’ll sure be helpful in your journey. They are:
- The Chairman’s Bao
This helpful resource Offers Chinese learners with news articles written in Chinese simplest form, specially for learners. Reading this piece of writing and engaging in other fun activities that come with this e-book, can help learners develop their Chinese reading abilities.
- Du Chinese
This ebook provides learners with reading materials all written in simple Chinese, it comes with an integrated Chinese dictionary that helps learners translate from Chinese to English.
- Readibu
It features an array of Chinese texts with instant translations.
Effective Strategies for Learning Chinese Online
1. Master the Tones
Speaking Chinese fluently has a lot to do with your pronunciations and tone. The pitch of your voice can change the meaning of the words you speak in Chinese. Always remember that.
It is important you focus on listening to native speakers and mimicking their tones during the course of your learning, use tone practice apps like Tone Trainer, record yourself and compare with native pronunciations and practice regularly.
2. Embrace Character Learning
No doubt learning to read Chinese is a lot tougher than learning to speak Chinese, one major problem beginners face is character identification. During the course of learning Chinese learn to identify Chinese characters by starting with the most common radicals and build up, use mnemonics and storytelling to remember character meanings, practice writing characters regularly, either digitally or on paper and so on.
3. Immerse Yourself in Chinese Media
It is important to always surround yourself with Chinese language contents. You can do this by watching Chinese movies and TV shows with subtitles, listening to Chinese music and trying to understand the lyrics or follow Chinese social media accounts and news sites so you can actively engage in something Chinese related everyday.
4. Develop a Consistent Study Routine
Whilst learning Chinese or is important to do it consistently, like the saying practice makes perfect. If you want to be fluent with Chinese you’ll need to practice consistently. You can do this by setting a dedicated time for Chinese study every day, set realistic short or long term goals and track your progress.
Final Thoughts
Learning Chinese online is one very amazing opportunity you need to take hold of, as it is flexible and easily accessible ot is a way to master one of the worlds most global language. By the means of using digital resources, consistent practice and good learning strategies you sure can make progress with your Chinese learning. Always remember that learning Chinese is a journey that will take time, requires patience, dedication and consistency if you fall pick yourself back up and continue, I’m certain you’ll be an expert Chinese speaker in no time. 加油！(Jiāyóu! – Keep going!)
