What are /r/learnmandarin's favorite Products & Services?

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I think it depends on your goals. I always recommend people study with goals firmly fixed in mind. How do you want to use Chinese in the future? The way you answer that question will profoundly effect how you should approach your study.

There are loads of good free resources out there. Amazon has plenty of good textbooks too.

I would say flash cards are essential for retaining what you learn for a long time if you're not in China (or some type of full immersion). Without flash cards using proper Space Repetition I wouldn't have retained nearly as much because I don't actually USE my Mandarin nearly as often as I would like.

Having said that I don't use the type of cards you've linked (single word). All my cards are complete sentences. Learning individual words doesn't let you practice grammar/structure which is nearly as important as vocab itself. Learning full sentences gives you both and will ensure you start speaking correctly by default. You can even use the exact same sentence just replacing the noun or verb which really tests your listening/reading. (Note: Never write your own sentences though, take them from native speakers, phrase books, dictionary examples etc).

Anki (PC client is free, the iPhone client costs money) is my personal favorite for flash cards. I setup mine with three sides (something you obviously can't do with physical flash cards). - Chinese Characters (+pinyin if wanted/needed) - Chinese Audio - English

Then I study these "directions". Characters -> English (tests reading), Audio -> English (tests listening), English -> Audio + Characters (tests speaking). For the audio there are Anki plugins that will generate it for you so if I can't get real audio, the generated audio is better than nothing. Making a deck that's relevant for you is also really worth the effort.

新世纪汉英大词典 is amazing. Lots of clear definitions, examples, and parts of speech shown. It's what I use whenever Pleco and other online dictionaries have conflicting meanings.

I highly recommend the ABC Chinese-English dictionary!

Although actually that's an abridgement of my you-could-kill-somebody hardcover of a dictionary, this one.

Interesting! I did not know about Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi before. Definitely gonna look into this.

My goal is to have a nice, solid foundation in the language so that I can have conversations with native speakers. I'd like to be able to watch movies in Chinese and understand 80-90% of it. Russian is my secondary language and I am fluent and was born into a Russian speaking household, but even with that I don't understand every single word in Russian movies, so let me know if 80-90% comprehension is unrealistic.

For reading, I would like to be able to read a book in Mandarin like Harry Potter, for example, or a newspaper, and follow along without having to look up every other word.

Are you familiar with the Pimsleur program I cited? You're saying that once I hit level three (btw, "hit" as in just started or "hit" as in completed?) I should try visiting China?

Any further advise for learning simplified Hanzi? Do they use simplified or traditional for universities there?

Thanks@!

I use this app (Chinese Skill)

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.chineseskill

I had zero prior knowledge of reading Chinese. This app is really easy and fun to use. In less than a week I can recognise people words, several verbs, colors, food, numbers, days of the week etc. Really cool!

I share your background. I've used Beginner Chinese app and HSK Locker app to be helpful in building my vocabulary. Already knowing how to speak it and the grammatical structure (since we speak it), getting to know the words and expanding on the basic words you already know, its helpful.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.shex.beginnerchinese&hl=en

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.shex.hsklocker&hl=en

Another app that you might want to try out are the 'Beginner Chinese' and 'HSK Locker' apps. The former is if you are a beginner and wants to start from scratch whereas HSK Locker is more advance and a vocabulary practice tool for HSK exam.

Both takes the flashcard and quiz approach and both works offline and, as per your preference, 'does not require you paying anything'. :-)

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.shex.beginnerchinese&hl=en

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.shex.hsklocker&hl=en

There's some pinyin in this beginner app. Kaitlyn in Chinaland is a cute easy game. It's available on Google play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=kic.godline

And on other platforms: https://indiegamestand.com/free-games/2325/kaitlyn-in-chinaland/

Hey cute! I made an app too. high five! Google play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=kic.godline

And on other platforms: https://indiegamestand.com/free-games/2325/kaitlyn-in-chinaland/