Learn the Chinese Accelerated Method. Chinese from scratch

Today we will talk about how to build a process independent learning Chinese and where to start online study Chinese. If you are looking for secret methods to learn Chinese in one day, this is NOT the place for you. In this article, I share my personal experience of self-study, which helps me communicate at a basic level while living in China. Obviously, this article will not be written in one day. As I gain new useful knowledge about self-study of the Chinese language, I will supplement the existing sections. Good luck in learning the beautiful and interesting Chinese language!

The content of the article "Online learning Chinese":

Why are you studying Chinese?

As in any business, before you start, you need to understand why are you doing this. Learning a foreign language can be exciting, or it can be unbearable torture. Decide what you need Chinese for and set specific goals. Without a clear understanding of what you want to get in the end, the process of learning any language can drag on for many years. And remember, language learning is state of mind. Get enjoyment of the process, then the results will not keep you waiting.

Polyglot program with Dmitry Petrov

You may know that the Culture channel has been shooting and publishing episodes of the Polyglot program for a long time. The essence of the project is that people with zero knowledge of a particular foreign language “sit down at a desk” and within 16 lessons receive basic knowledge of the language being studied. In the summer of 2016, it was mounted and presented Chinese online course.

Pros and cons of learning Chinese online with a Polyglot:

  • Dmitry Petrov, as a fluent speaker of several languages ​​and a teacher with many years of experience, works according to a well-established program.
  • No water. Only useful phrases and common expressions are studied.
  • Lessons are divided into topics, which helps the assimilation of the material.
  • Another 8 people are involved in the program, a feeling of group study is created.
  • Part of the lessons is taught by an invited native speaker from China. It is possible to be sure of the correct pronunciation.
  • Education is free
  • Hieroglyphs are practically not studied. There is only one lesson.
  • Most of the lessons are taught by Petrov himself. As a non-native Chinese speaker, he does not have a perfect pronunciation. It is necessary to check the pronunciation by third-party methods.

Highly recommend Polyglot to start. Of course, after 16 lessons, you will not learn how to speak fluently, let alone understand Chinese. Nevertheless, after completing half of the course, with the proper approach, you will be able to write small texts about yourself, you will be able to introduce yourself, talk about your family, ask for directions to the right place, etc. At first, in China, the knowledge gained here was really useful to me.

Petrov talks about many nuances of learning Chinese from scratch, gives analogies and associations. Most importantly, he presents the material in such a way that it is easier for us, Russian people, to understand it. After all, Chinese and Russian languages ​​have little in common, don't they?

You can independently check the methods of online learning Chinese from scratch using the Petrov method. Here is the first lesson in his series. At the end of the article you will find an archive with all course materials.

Textbook for learning Chinese from scratch Assimil Chinese

Compilation Assimil Chinese i recommended by foreigners currently living in China and learning Chinese on their own. I liked the manual very much, the training is built logically, step by step. Note, this manual in English. Assimil Chinese materials include:

  • Assimil Chinese With Ease Vol 1-2 (2005). These are two books where you learn the meaning and pronunciation of Chinese sounds and words sequentially, do written exercises, and learn Chinese dialogues.
  • Assimil Writing Chinese With Ease. This manual describes the technique of writing hieroglyphs.
  • audio. A selection of audio podcasts that complement the editions of Assimil Chinese With Ease Vol 1-2 (2005).

The essence of the method of learning Chinese on your own with the help of Assimil

In this manual, we start from the basics and go step by step into learning Chinese. What I like about this manual is that the study of the Chinese language goes in several directions at once. Studying running words and phrases, performance written exercises, listening audio podcasts from native Chinese speakers. If you wish, you can parse the textbook on hieroglyphs in parallel, then add writing to the listed skills. All audio podcasts are duplicated in textbooks in English and pinyin(Chinese character transliteration system, highlighted in the screenshot below).

Assimil developers emphasize that the best method for self-learning Chinese from scratch will be to deal with the order 30 minutes every day, from time to time returning to the material covered, repeating it. It is also recommended to download audio materials to the player or phone and, if possible, listen to them and repeat them as often as possible. Thereby improving your speaking Chinese skills. More than 100 audio podcasts. All necessary materials can be downloaded from

Useful phrases in Chinese

As far as possible, I will fill the article with common phrases in Chinese that may be useful to you, both when traveling in China, and just for familiarization. All audio files are read by a Chinese woman, so you can be sure of the correct pronunciation. However, it is worth remembering that there are many dialects in China and in different regions of the country the same phrases can sound different. You can download phrases and numbers in Chinese at. About Chinese characters is described in

Useful phrases for traveling in China

Hello. - 你 好 (nǐ hǎ o)

How are you? - 你好吗？ (nǐ hǎ o ma？)

Goodbye. - 再 见 (zai jian)

What is your name? - 您 贵 姓 (nín guì xìng)

You have.. - 有 没 有 (yǒ u mei yǒ u)

I would like.. - 我 要 (wǒ yao)

What is the price? - 多 少 钱 (duō shǎ o qián)

It's too expensive. - 太 贵 了 (tài guile)

Big. - 大 (da)

Small. - 小 (xiǎ o)

Today. - 今天 (jīntiān)

Tomorrow. - 明天 (míngtiān)

Yesterday. - 昨天 (zuótiān)

I do not need it. - 不 要 (bú yao)

Agree or true. - 对 (duì)

Disagree or incorrect. - 不 对 (bú duì)

Yes. - 是 (shì)

No. - 不 是 (bú shì)

Thank you. - 谢 谢 (xie xiè)

My pleasure. - 不 用 谢 (bú yòng xiè)

Where is.. - 在 哪 里 (zai nǎ li)

Toilet. - 厕 所 (cè suǒ)

How long in time.. - 多 久 (duō jiǔ)

Here. - 这 里 (zhè lǐ)

There. - 那 里 (na li)

Go straight. - 前 (qian)

Turn left. - 左 (zuǒ)

Turn right. - 右 (you)

Stop. - 停 (ting)

I don't understand. - 我 听 不 懂 (wǒ tīng bù dǒ ng)

Numbers

30 (etc. by meaning)

Days of the week

Monday. - 星期一 (xīngqī yī)

Tuesday. - 星期二 (xīngqī èr)

Wednesday. - 星期三 (xīngqī sān)

Thursday. - 星期四 (xīngqī sì)

Friday. - 星期五 (xīngqī wǔ)

Saturday. - 星期六 (xīngqī liù)

Resurrection. - 星期天 (xīngqī tiān)

How do you say I love you in Chinese?

People often ask how to say I love you in Chinese. Very simple. To say I love you in Chinese, just say the following:

I love you. - 我 爱 你 ( wǒ ài nǐ )

Chinese language hieroglyphs. Starting materials

Learning characters turned out to be much more difficult and rather boring than learning spoken Chinese. Every day I try to learn 1-2 hieroglyphs in order to understand Chinese writing at least at a basic level. As for me, colloquial speech is much more important, nevertheless, knowing what is written on store signs and being able to explain in writing what you want is also not superfluous knowledge. In addition, hieroglyphs are great brain training. So, how did they advise me to learn Chinese through hieroglyphs and what materials do I use to study hieroglyphs?

It is probably logical to start studying hieroglyphs from this table. in front of you 214 most popular hieroglyphic keys. Having studied them, even with a complete lack of knowledge of hieroglyphs, it will be possible to understand in general terms the meaning of what is written in Chinese. Not all of the hieroglyphic keys are used independently, so it is better to concentrate on spelling and meaning. It is not necessary to know how they are read. Keys can be memorized in parallel with the study of colloquial Chinese.

It is important to immediately remember the order of writing hieroglyphic keys. They are written from left to right, top to bottom. Later, when studying Chinese characters, it will be much easier for you. To the right of the main images of the keys, you can sometimes see an alternative spelling. This is also worth remembering. This is what the table of hieroglyphic keys looks like, and you can download it from the link in:

Chinese language hieroglyphs. Assimil Tutorial

The study of hieroglyphs by Assimil Writing Chinese With Ease includes the study 800 most common elements of Chinese characters. Step by step, you will study the elements and set aside the meaning of certain hieroglyphs in your head. This book is recommended after passing the first two. In my opinion, if you have experience of independent study of a foreign language, you can study the materials at the same time. Depends on your abilities, mood and time. The textbook explains the basic rules for the structure of hieroglyphs, maintaining a balance of size and other components.

Other Resources for Self-Study Chinese

Below I will talk about materials on self-study of the Chinese language from scratch, which people advised, but which I myself have not yet did not use. At this stage, I have enough materials for independent online learning of Chinese from scratch, I have not yet reached the rest. It is likely that some of them will be very useful.

Speshnev's Phonetic Course and Textbook Conversational Chinese Speech 301

On the plus side, both textbooks in Russian. But how to study Chinese at the rate of Speshnev is a mystery to me. Dry presentation, two audio podcasts for an hour and a half, where obviously not a native speaker pulls sounds ... in general, I was not impressed.

  • A Practical Chinese Grammar for Foreigners Beijing Language and Cultural University Press
  • HSK Exam Grammar 《 HSK应试语法》 The Peking University Press
  • Road to Success 《成功之路》 Beijing Language and Cultural University Press

Applications for independent online learning of Chinese

Haven't gotten to the apps yet. One guy from New Zealand currently living in Chengdu recommended the app Pleco. Judging by the description, the application can be useful for staging speech and working out running expressions. There are also functions for self-writing this or that hieroglyph, after which the application shows the meaning of the hieroglyph. Useful thing.

Website busuu.com recommended many times to my friends for online learning of a particular language. At the moment, in the arsenal of the developers of the site busuu.com 12 languages ​​studied. The learning process itself is not without disadvantages, but there are obvious advantages. One of the main ones is a large coverage of the target audience and the opportunity to receive corrections of written exercises directly from the Chinese, as well as communicate with them via video communication for free.

Link to download materials for self-study Chinese

That's all for today. I hope you found something useful for yourself and it will help you start learning Chinese on your own.

List of files to download:

  • All episodes of the video course "Polyglot" with Dmitry Petrov
  • Assimil Chinese manual and audio podcasts
  • Table of hieroglyphic keys
  • Numbers and common phrases in Chinese

How do you learn Chinese and what success have you had? Tell in the comments!!!

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Is it possible to go by myself Chinese course for beginners

Modern technologies offer distance learning, various audio lessons that are easy to find on the Internet, a lot of literature on this topic. But when you study Chinese on your own from scratch, you need to be prepared for possible difficulties.

A tutor will help you learn a language much more effectively than video courses

  • The greatest difficulty lies in memorizing hieroglyphs. In total, there are more than 70,000 of them, the most frequently used are “only” 3,000. In order for Chinese lessons for beginners from scratch not to go unnoticed, you need to constantly replenish your vocabulary and stock of hieroglyphic meanings. Cards with images of these “letters” and a direct translation can help with this. By placing such pictures in front of your eyes, you can quickly remember many things.
  • You may also encounter the problem of selecting textbooks: not all of them are adapted for beginners. In Chinese courses from scratch, it is important to understand that it belongs to a completely different linguistic group, so even those who have previously studied English or German will not have an advantage.

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It will help in the phonetics of the Chinese language. Here you can download a special table with the pronunciation of all sounds. Description in English.
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When the basics are taken, it is time to smooth the corners, that is, to polish your knowledge of the language. This will help to communicate with native speakers.

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What is the most common name in China?

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Hello. Today I want to discuss a topic that I think will be interesting for those who teach or are just thinking about learning Chinese. The question of where to start learning Chinese is, I think, of concern to many, so I decided to draw up a small action plan that should be guided at the initial stage of learning.

First - study materials or books

My first book was "Introductory Chinese Course" Done by Huang Shuying, which I bought from an online store. Naturally, before buying, I downloaded its electronic version from the Internet, but, to be honest, I quickly changed my mind and decided to still purchase its paper version. Firstly, I like paper books more, and secondly, I noticed that it is easier for me to remember and assimilate material that was obtained from a regular book than from an electronic one.

Second, get familiar with the pronunciation.

Fourth - communication or feedback

In order to understand in which direction you are moving, you need conversational practice, without which it is impossible to learn Chinese. Having learned a couple of words and expressions in English, we can be sure that if we pronounce them somewhere in an English-speaking country, in most cases we will understand. With Chinese it's the other way around. We can never be sure we have learned a certain Chinese word correctly until we pronounce it and get feedback from a native speaker.

Naturally, not each of us has the opportunity to go to China or Taiwan and learn the language there, but with the help of the Internet, we can easily solve this issue. There are a lot of sites on the net that provide an opportunity to find people who are interested in a language exchange. That is, you can quite easily find a person online who would teach you Chinese for free in exchange for your Russian. One of the most popular sites that provides this feature is italki.com.

P.S. Before you start learning, ask yourself the question: “Why or why do I want to learn Chinese?”.

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