Learning a language is difficult. Learning Chinese is especially so because the four tones of pronunciation of words and different characters for each word that is very complex. Fortunately, there are a lot of free resources online that can help you learn Chinese and monitor your progress on the road. Here are some that I personally found most useful, and we hope to help you too.
Nciku.com: This has to be my absolute favorite of China’s resources ever. This is a free online dictionary, with a twist. You can search for words by Chinese characters, English words, pronunciations Pinyin, or leveraging the characters. That’s right, you can draw the character on screen with the mouse, and the site will be up to the closest matches. This drawing function that allows you quickly find words, if you do not know the pinyin pronunciation, something that would otherwise be very difficult if not impossible. In addition, this site offers daily tutorials, forums, quizzes, simulated conversations, and more. Thank nciku.com to make my life easier.
The Chinese character test: This test, which provides Clavis Sinica is also a great resource to keep track of how they are progressing. This multiple choice test will determine what level are in-beginner, intermediate or advanced, and also provides an estimate of how many characters you know. You can custom tailor the test every time, the choice of how many test questions to include. The more questions that are in the test, the more accurate your estimates will be. Bookmark this page and return occasionally to see what progress he has made.
Zhongwen.com: For other online dictionary full Zhongwen.com visit. This is searchable by character or pinyin or definition. What I like about this dictionary is that it includes the roots of words, and also gives a list of compound words that contain every character you want. There is also a live chat feature where you can connect with other students, however, can only use pinyin in the chat feature. For more advanced students, there is a small library of famous readings provided on the site, including such classics as Mao’s words, the Analects, and the art of war. These links are completely written-you can click on any word in the text and the definition of the word appear in an adjacent panel. Very useful!
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