Learn Chinese Online - Beginner Lessons

Beginner Lesson - Chinese Podcast - Survival Chinese - Going to the market I

David wakes up at 7am on a saturday morning. For him that's a really big deal because on weekends he just normally sleeps until whenever he feels like. So what is making him to wake up so early? You can't guess? He wants to go to the market to buy the freshest 蔬菜 vegetables he can get! Last time he went to the market too late and there was nothing left. But now he won't allow that to happen again. He will make sure that he is the first one choosing those delicious chinese vegetables. Tune in to this lesson and learn some useful vocabulary and grammar related to going to the market.

If you want to consolidate what you have learned, why not try the exercises for this lesson? Please Chinese test to try the exercises now.

Beginner Lesson - Chinese Podcast - Survival Chinese - What's the price?

Alice walks around the Beijing market and finds the perfect unique oriental painting. She really loves the painting and back home she thinks it could be worth a lot more. But it all depends on how much it costs. So she decides to ask how much the painting cost. Luckily before coming to China she was smart enough to learn some basic chinese. And one of the things she learned was how to ask “how much?” in chinese. So after filling her lungs with air and excitement and after pointing at what she wanted, she asks “多少钱？”. The shop owner with a big smile on her face replies: 一千快(1000 yuan). Alice thinking it was cheap but knowing that in China you can bargain said 太贵, too expensive！ Can you make it cheaper? 能不能便宜一点儿？ The shop owner said 八百块. This made Alice very happy not only because she managed to say something in Chinese but also because she managed to buy a unique painting for a paltry 800yuan. If you want to know whether Alice really got a good bargain and what other words she could have used to get a cheaper price, please tune in to this podcast with Teresa Wu.

If you listened to this podcast then try our chinese test to see whether you really did understand our lesson!

Beginner Lesson - Bin - Numbers 4

Now you know how to write chinese characters from 1 to 10. What about 1 to 100?

Beginner Lesson - Bin - Numbers 2

In the last lesson you learned the different types of chinese stroke. The strokes are the building blocks of all chinese characters. Let's tune in to this lesson with Teresa and find out how to write the chinese characters from one to ten using these basic strokes.

Beginner Lesson - Chinese Podcast - Survival Chinese - First day of school

The sentence order in Chinese is quite the same as in English, but Chinese verbs are very regular in form. This means that they do not change according to person, number or tense.

In this lesson, Alice (as a teacher) meets her new student - Zhaomin. Zhaomin never been to school before and doesn't have a clue what it is all about. Also his parents did not really bother telling him much about it. Otherwise he would have not brought this strange item to his first day in school. Are you curious? If you want to know please tune in to this lesson!

What you will learn in this lesson:
- Action verbs
- Indirect object
- Question word
- Naming

If you want to consolidate what you have learned, why not try the exercises for this lesson? Please Chinese test to try the exercises now.

Beginner Lesson - Chinese Podcast - Business Chinese - Introducing yourself to others

Chinese put a great deal of care to treat people with respect in the way they address each other. So as a rule of thumb it is rare that anyone will call you by your first name.

In this lesson, Weili and Xiaoguang meet for the first time, therefore they need to introduce to each other. Because they do not know each other they take a great deal of care in using the right words so that they treat each other in a respectuful way. Obviously once they become well acquainted they treat themselves in a more informal way, as you would expect friends to...

What is in this lesson:
- Introducing yourself to others
- Verb "to be"
- Simple ways to ask a question
If you want to consolidate what you have learned, why not try the exercises for this lesson? Please Chinese test to try the exercises now.

Beginner Lesson - Learn Pinyin and Tones - Meet the team

So you just seen our videos and you love our website? Learn more about the people who are behind it...

Beginner Lesson - Learn Pinyin and Tones - Tour for the web

In this video we introduce to you the special features available in our website. Learn also more about our interactive learning center.

Beginner Lesson - Bin - Past, Present and Future

Conjugating verbs in chinese is quite simple because chinese verbs do not change. For example the same verb 去(to go) can be used in "I went to the supermarket yesterday", "I am going to the supermarket now" or "I will go to the supermarket tomorrow". Although the verb doesn't change you still need to use additional characters to indicate the tense. Hence why you need to tune in to our lesson on past, present and future. Learn from Sarah what words you can use.

Beginner Lesson - Bin - Colors

Do you know what is 白色? Or 绿色? Do you know how to say the sky is blue in chinese? That will be quite a rare event if you are in China so you better learn what to say from Teresa when that day arrives ;-)