I am new to learning Chinese language. Where do I start?
If you just want to learn some basic Chinese words and expressions, you can start with
Survival Chinese first.
If you are interested in learning real Chinese spoken by the locals, you can take a look at
Day Day Up program.
If you are interested in various language points (grammar, etc.), please take a look at our
Crazy Grammar program.
What is Mandarin Chinese?
Mandarin refers to Standard Chinese, and is also called Putonghua, Guoyu, or Hanyu. Syllables could consist of an initial consonant, a vowel, a final, and a tone. There are four tones in the Pinyin system in Mandarin. The Chinese grammar is relatively simple compared to some other languages (most words have only one grammatical form). If you learn about the most frequently used 1,000 Chinese characters, you can cover 90% of the usage.