我们来学汉语！Begginer resources for leaning mandarin

Table of contents

1. Pinyin
2. Tones
3. The Chinese keyboard
4. HSK 1
5. Reading resources
6. Music resources
7. Video resources
8. Tiktok resources

Introduction

• The past two months I have been steadily learning mandaring and studying for the upcoming HSK1 exam. The process has been slow but here are all the resources I am using.

Learn Pinyin

• The very first thing we need to do is to learn the Pinyin. Which is the most common romanization system for Standard Mandarin Chinese. Essentially it will allow you to see 的 and understand it is pronounced de. For resources, I would simply recommend that you google pinyin for beginners on YouTube. This will not only give you the proper pronunciation and be able to identify some of the more unique sounds

Learn tones

• LEARN THE DANG TONES!!! If you are unfamiliar, mandarin is a tonal language. Meaning that the tone you use to pronounce the character can change its meaning. A classic beginners mistake is to learn the vocabulary but ignore the tones(I did this), which will result in you having to relearn the vocabulary again(What I am currently doing).Tones may not sound important as you begin, however, as you progress and learn more it will become incredibly important. For example, tones is what will allow you to differentiate between 十(shi) and 是(shi)

• A good beginners resource the YouTube video found HERE

Download the keyboard

• I would highly recommend downloading the simplified Chinese pinyin keyboard on you computer and phone. This is a predictive keyboard and it will transform your keyboard and allow you to type in characters
• Here is actually a really cool video about how China solved the hard engineering problem of fitting characters into a keyboard

HSK 1

• If you are confused about where to start, you should start with HSK 1. Which is the first 150 characters and grammar you are recommended to learn and can be tested on. Depending on your country of origin you can go take the official Chinese proficiency exam, the first level of the exam being HSK1
• HERE is a cute little HSK 1 study vlog. I must admit my study sessions are not this soothing

Reading based Resources

• Chinese grammar wiki : This site should be your best friend. If you have any problem or are confused about a character, simply type the character followed by Chinese grammar wiki. for example if you are confused about the character 在, type 在 Chinese grammar wiki into your chosen search engine and click the first link

• Reddit : r/ChineseLanguage is a subreddit that gives links to all the best beginner resources. It also has a discord group, which is an added bonus.

Music resources

• One of the best ways to learn about pronunciation is to listen to music, as I am a fan of pop and rap here are my favourite artists to listen to:

• Lexie Liu is currently my favourite pop artist to listen to. Her music is very high-energy and has a electric pop vibe to it.

• Masiwei : is a rap artist and produces music very much representing classic western rap music. The beats are fresh and his latest album goes sooooooooo hard

• Rap of China : in 2020 the show rap of China was released and overnight China's underground rap scene become main stream. Lot of very good and unique artists from that show can be found on YouTube

Video Resources

爸爸当家 ：a reality tv that shows families touring and exploring China. I like this show because it has built in sub titles. Also, it is very easy to understand what all the children say with only understanding the HSK 1 vocabulary

Fang Fang's happy life : a YouTube show about 2 food vloggers that go around north eastern China eating a bunch of tasty food. I just like food vloggers in general so I might be a little bias but this channel is very good.

TikTok resources

havu2904 : A Street interviewer, what makes this a very useful resource is that there are both English and mandarin subtitles. Also, people are always introducing themselves which will give you lots of review about introducing yourself. I like to watch this right before I go to bed.

Conclusion

• Thank you for taking the time out of your day to read this blog post of mine. If you have any questions or concerns please comment below or reach out to me on Twitter.