Mandarin Chinese learning resources + guide

James Herbsaint

sourced from https://0bin.net/paste/WU2Dbogu#r3-9xwpooF4xVEgpN8a+CK1L5i4eeyUgjN30Rb+ysHx and minimally edited for formatting

(introduction)

contact info: neongenesist@gmail.com (I won't answer this)
twitter @oldking420
ฅ(ﾐ꒡⋏꒡ﾐ)∫ʕ¯ᴥ¯oʔ (ง`_´)ง
#+begin_example 意思

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Structure and Goals: In my experience many people have a sort of general impression that actually learning Mandarin is a task vastly more difficult than say, Spanish, or German. and I think its important to know that I think that's absolutely not true, but I do think Mandarin Chinese requires a different approach. For a variety of linguistic n phonetic reasons it is not really feasible to expect to attain the foundations needed to begin to work towards real fluency by casually picking up some characters and phrases through apps like duolingo or skritter. Because Mandarin is a tonal language the phonemic elements used vary significantly from English (on the pinyin chart a total of 56) which are inflected tonally. this means to seriously learn Mandarin you need to first learn these foundations. So the first and most important goal you have should be to assess what your own personal goals are in terms of what level of language ability you want to achieve and how much time you're going to spend and when. This doesn't mean you have to have an absolutely set study plan at all times for X hours a week but rather that you have a vision of your short n longer-term goals (500 characters? a few basic words? conversational fluency and the HSK?) The reason I emphasize this so much is because it is most significant during the beginning of your studies if you're new to Mandarin. A more piecemeal general approach to reading shit online, watching movies, etc comes later. but imo with serious attention to your foundations you really can make serious and significant progress towards practical fluency way faster than you imagine.
Study Material Selection: It is absolutely essential that you use a variety of tools, texts, and materials in your study! You can't just study characters and do worksheets from one single textbook. Specifically I cannot overemphasize the importance of LISTENING and SPEAKING practice. You gotta listen to stuff, listen to as much as you can, ideally almost as much as you study written materials, because you need to train your ear to parse tones and meaning at the speed people actually speak and compare your own to them. textual fluency alone will not translate to speaking ability or comprehension skills but being able to actually listen, comprehend, and accurately speak mandarin (even if just a few phrases) WILL support your writing/reading ability. There are lots of ways to practice listening such as textbook audio CD/QR code files, pinyin chart tables, tone recordings, spoken lessons and more that will be listed below. The question of how to get good speaking practice is a bit more difficult, but still not impossible! At the most basic level you should speak aloud as you study and attempt to copy/repeat/memorize sentences and passages from audio/video speakers but there are also methods to practice speaking with real chinese speakers: video/audio-call tutor practice services are offered by many universities and priv companies for a lot less than you would think (esp if they are based in China.) Depending on where you live you might have access to a Confucius Institute, China Institute, or student university group. You can also also join other practice groups in various Mandarin learning communities online like the chinese language stackexchange, the chinese grammar wiki forums, twitter, even uhh 4chan has a group on int i think. reddit is probably good for this too i guess, if you're gay lol
"Desire." You have to have a reason to want to study Chinese if you actually wanna stick with it in the long term. this is obvious of course, but more specifically you have to have some motivating content to 'CONSUME' to keep you at it, basically anything is fine–political news, literature, history, chinese cosplay pornography, biaoqing memes, wuxia movies, mao, whatever. find something or ideally multiple somethings and stick with it.

LINKS & REFERENCES

INTRO MATERIALS & FUNDAMENTALS

the following materials consist of the 100% required fundamental basics needed to begin seriously learning Mandarin Chinese–none of these are "optional." For people with zero previous Mandarin learning language experience the way to approach these materials may seem unclear so I am going to present a short example of what an intro study plan MIGHT look like for you (basically this is how I started off.)

learning pinyin phonetic chart, learning 4 basic tones, practicing the chart until extremely familiar and confident with your ability to articulate the basic phonemic elements. Applying tonal inflection to reading of the chart until familiar. (this should be a stage of serious dedication! or at least be more rigorous with yourself here, if you don't get this part right nothing else will work later! spend like 2 weeks on this or more even, until you're totally comfortable with it)
learning basic 40 or so radicals and their meanings, beginning character learning from small list of top 100 most used characters (3-5 a day, additive, reviewing previous day each new day)
reviewing radicals + characters + adding more to your list and beginning to study basic grammar and sentence construction
short term goal: know 300-500 characters, can sound the 4 tones, know 40 or so radicals, can write short sentence: this point is absolutely achievable within 3-4 months of beginning Mandrin learning depending on your dedication. (if it takes longer thats fine too.) if you can complete this plan or a plan generally similar to it you will have the foundation to go forward and learn as much or as little as you want.

if this is still not clear to you or you are interested in a more in-depth study plan/would like to offer your own suggestion please email or message me (contact info at the top!)

GRAMMAR

this is seriously the greatest site ever. grammar section is divided into a vast breakdown based on level so everything is here. it might be a bit confusing at first but chinese grammar is vastly easier than English, French, Spanish or basically almost any language with tense conjugation. https://resources.allsetlearning.com/chinese/grammar/

WRITING

(why you need to write–you can't get away with just typing everything sorry) basic into to handwriting chinese characters https://www.archchinese.com/chinese_handwriting_practice.html stroke order general rules https://www.archchinese.com/chinese_stroke_order_rules.html basic strokes used in writing https://www.archchinese.com/chinese_character_strokes.html stroke order dictionary https://www.yellowbridge.com/chinese/character-stroke-order.php?word=%E5%9C%8B create hanzi grids for handwriting practice https://www.hanzigrids.com/

DICTIONARY

https://dict.naver.com/linedict/zhendict/#/cnen/home

TEXTBOOKS:

No links here, sorry, this is mostly a breakdown of some of the major textbooks used in Mandarin pedagogy and my personal experience with the ones I've used. I may add a mediafire pdf link later if I end up finding scans of the books listed here but you are highly encouraged to purchase a physical copy. you're almost certainly going to want to own the physical item at some point, to write in or to do worksheets out of. also many chinese language textbooks come with audio CDs or QR codes for web downloads of mp3 audio passages. which you really should listen to.

BEGINNER/INTO:

Integrated Chinese: Simplified Characters Textbook, Level 1, Part 1

–the integrated chinese series is definitely the most taught Mandarin textbook series in the English speaking world. It is particularly good for its emphasis on fundamentals and clear explanatory tone. This series goes all the way up in terms of difficulty so you can buy multiple books in the series.
Princeton Language Program: Modern Chinese v 1-3

Chinese Primer: Character Text (Pinyin) –published by Princeton's academic press, the Modern Chinese language program is an updated intro-to-intermediate and beyond textbook series. slightly more academic than Integrated Chinese, I used several books from this series during my first year of classroom studies. The primer is the single volume introduction whereas the 3 volume primer is an expanded full intro course package.
A Course in Contemporary Chinese (6-volume series)

–this textbook series is published by the Mandarin Training Center at Taiwan Normal University and is the premier Mandarin teaching text used for English language speakers in Taiwan. The The volumes are sold individually so its not necessary to buy all 6. I have never personally used these textbooks but from a pedagogical standpoint they are highly regarded by many Chinese language teaching professionals so they at least can't be shitty.
Easy Steps to Chinese series

–eight book intro step-by-step series with corresponding eight workbooks. Published by BLCU (Beijing Languages and Cultures University) for the purpose of teaching Mandarin to English speaking foreign students. BLCU is primarily focused on Mandarin pedagogy so although I haven't used the beginner books in this series I am fairly certain they are of high quality based on the later ones that I have used

INTERMEDIATE/ADVANCED

新的中文/A New China

–also published by Princeton, this is a great bridge textbook for students advancing to the intermediate level. content is all topical to contemporary mainland Chinese society and comes with plenty of audio files.
Boya Chinese

–beginner to intermediate and advanced textbook series published by Peking University's Mandarin language department for English speaking learners of Chinese. this series is quite high quality and comes with a really huge quantity of audio files, self-drilling worksheets, grammar notes, etc. But I wouldn't recommend it at the beginner level because the English language explanations can be translated a bit funny sometimes. good range of culturally and politically interesting study topics
Hanyu Kouyu Intermediate Spoken China Vol I and II

–another PKU Press publication, the Hanyu Kouyu series emphasizes spoken communication and listening and also comes with plenty of audio files. (very good to pair with another book more focused on writing/reading such as the Boya Chinese books)
Developing Chinese (发展汉语) Series

–published by BLCU (Beijing Language and Cultures University) specifically for the purpose of teaching English language foreign students Mandarin Chinese, the BLCU Developing Chinese series is quite extensive and goes from the beginner to advanced level with a variety of specific workbooks focused on single topics such as writing, reading, listening, etc, as well as more general books. BLCU is high quality stuff IMO.
Tonghua Fairy Tales

intermediate-basic level reading primer of folk tales and children's stories. culturally interesting and good reading practice
SK Mishra Elementary/Intermediate/Advanced reading series covers short simple stories up to translations of Journey to the West and more.
HSK word lists + practice tests

(you should do this constantly if you ever plan to take the HSK, HSK word bank lists are almost always highly useful characters and can help you fill in any gaps in vocab you may have unknowingly developed over your studies)
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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
https://gloss.dliflc.edu
not sure where else to put this link but this site offers a vast selection of over 880+ reading passages with paired audio at a variety of language learner difficulty levels, from beginner to advanced. if you are absolutely totally new to Mandarin this site won't have much to offer you but if you're more intermediate to advanced level this is a really incredible resource and they have similar lessons for many other languages
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ADVANCED:

MORE HSK (4)/5/6 PRACTICE TEST
GO ONLINE WATCH MOVIE, READ SOCIAL MEDIA POST, LISTEN TO PODCAST OR RADIO
NO MORE TEXTBOOK FOR U REALLY UNLESS U FEEL LIKE USING EM THEN SURE
LISTEN TO NEWS STUFF, BECOME A 汉语 GOD
more lessons from gloss.dliflc.edu

TRUE DEMON ENDING: YUEN REN CHAO MODE
learn Gwoyeu Romatzyh romanization
study Yuen Ren Chao's Grammar of Spoken Chinese
become incredibly powerful being the only person to have done this in like the last 25 yrs

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES, BONUS CONTENT, FUN STUFF

apps?

yall want apps? oh we GOT apps. Actually even though there are a huge amount of Mandarin learning apps out there I think the vast majority of them are basically useless or only marginally helpful. if you end up downloading one of those chinese handwriting finger apps and its helpful for you then I'm glad but I have never found much value in them. there is however one app that is absolutely ESSENTIAL: PLECO. this is seriously probably the best app ever made for anything. Pleco functions as your dual language chinese–english dictionary, can scan and translate text with your camera, lets you save new characters to custom flashcard folders and also allows you to export these lists to your PC. it also lets you hand draw-in characters you can write but dont know how to read, allows you to sort words by their constituent radical elements, and more. Also definitely the only app I can say I have EVER paid for a full version of, which grants a massively increased rare words dictionary, classical chinese definitions and dictionary, cantonese readings, and more. a (pleco)stomus is a type of fish ><(((*>

flashcards?

anki is a really good program for language learning flashcards but for a very specific but significant reason I personally prefer to use quizlet specifically for Chinese which is why I'm going to recommend it over Anki: when you write flashcard word lists on quizlet there is an auto-detect definition fill for Mandarin chinese specifically which saves a tremendous amount of time since you don't have to switch language keyboards and write the chinese characters out for each card. This may not seem significant if you are a beginner but by the time you reach the level of 3000+ characters known writing a 200 character list faster is a big deal. also quizlet lets you share your lists with other people so if you want to download public study lists you can (or download mine, message me and I'll gladly hand em over.) but if that time saving difference or shared lists function doesn't matter to you then Anki is just as good.

fun stuff??

canonical mandarin language corpus
–http://corpus.zhonghuayuwen.org/

Chinese Text Project
–https://ctext.org/
open-access digital library of historical Chinese texts. 30k+ titles, 5 billion characters or more, the single largest pre-modern Chinese database!!

a basic chinese web dictionary
–https://www.mdbg.net/chinese/dictionary

on learning literary/classical chinese
–http://home.uchicago.edu/~jcarlsen/academics/essays/litchin.html

tharsen's own chinese language learning resources (some of these links are old and broken but this guy has SO MUCH SHIT. his site is weird so u need to navigate to the links section from the main page, there is no unique URL For the resources tab)
–http://tharsen.net/

–wikipedia list of mandarin chinese bad words
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandarin_Chinese_profanity

chinese anime girl hell
https://www.bilibili.com/