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Mandarin resources (free) Beginner.

HSK 1 LIST

Simplified and Traditional (with pinyin), exercises and sentences examples Link

TONES

*Tone explanation (but with words with more than 1 syllable, which is great because the hard part is when a word has 2 o more syllables) Link

More tones! Link

*Youtube vid explaining tones and exceptions (like tone modification and the half 3 and 4 tones) Link Link2  (edit 1)

** Tone pairs youtube vid by Yoyo Chinese (Individual tones 0:00-8:30 // Tone pairs 8:30-27) Link (edit 10)

Tone pairs chart + Exercises from said chart (edit 9)

Tone pairs + audio for all the tone combinations  Link (Edit 11)

*Exercises: (edit 7)

which tones do you hear (tone pairs)

another which tones do you hear (single syllab or tone pairs) 

match pinyin + tone to the sound

match the sound to the pinyin + tone

differenciate between tones

tone speaking practice (listen and repeat recording yourself)

PINYIN

Pinyin introduction (follow the “Pronunciation Index”) Link (edit 10)

Pinyin chart from Yoyo chinese Link (edit 9)

*Pinyin and tones self quiz (i love this one) Link

*Course: Phonetics with Chinese Characteristics (edit 8)

Youtube (in english) Link

Youtube (in spanish) Link 

Exercises: (edit 7) 

Pinyin spelling

READING, TEXT + AUDIO 

Text with characters, pinyin, english translations and audio Link

Characters with pinyin and audio. Traditional and simplified option. If you click on a word the meaning of it pops up, but not the whole sentence Link

Dialogues with characters, pinyin, translations (in Spanish) and audio Link

Spanish web with different topics and sentences. it has games to practice too Link (edit 4)

Youtube reading for kids. Link1 Link2  (edit 2) (If you  cant find any audiobooks with text, there’s probably someone reading a book of it on youtube) 

Du Chinese (App) Link

Beelingua (App)

Chinese little fox: You might think oh this is a web for kids but listen there are tons of stories, with little cartoon videos easy to follow, and with extra resources to review the vocab and listening, give it a go. (edit 13)

SENTENCES

Chengyu list (edit 8)

125 lessons with different sentences. It has characters, audio, pinying and different exercises to test them in each lesson.  Link

Diferent dialogues (directions, weather, introductions, shopping) with audio characters, pinyin and english Link (edit 1)

* Podcast: 2/3 sentences, broken down by topic and by words Link (edit 2) [I use this one when im in the street and i repeat what they say trying to memorise it]

WEB COURSE (edit 5)

From ”ChineseClass101″. Those have characters with the option simplified/traditional, pinyin and english translation. It also comes sometimes with a brief cultural insight and grammar lesson, all with audio and class trasncription. Really useful because besides the audio class, you have a vocab list with the audio option played 0.5x slower

Getting Started

Absolute Beginner Season 1

Level 1 Chinese

FLASHCARDS

Anki, HSK 1 vocab Link

Anki, HSK 1 grammar Link

*TOFU learn ( Web / App) this is like a flashcard app but with the option to quiz yourself (with 6 choices to answer instead of the usual 2) and the exciting part: it can quiz you on the writing too! It has many deck choices too. Big fav of mine (edit 12)

DICTIONARY (edit 6)

Character dictionaries:

Line dict = Pinyin, with audio, english definition, sample sentences and animated stroke order. Also a daily “Today’s expresion/quote” addittion which is cool.

Chinesepod = simplified and traditional, english translation, sample sentences 

Sentence dictionaries:

Chinese yabla = breaks the sentence into words, each one with pinyin and english translation.

EXTENSIONS 

*Language Learning with Youtube, Chrome extension. Allows 2 sets of subtitles (example: vid of Idol Producer)  (edit 9)

*Zhongwen: Chinese-English Dictionary by: Christian Schiller. Allows you to hoover over the hanzi and shows the pinyin and meaning. Chrome extension, Firefox extension (edit 4)

BOOKS (edit 4)

(Not free, sadly) For grammar and some course book i would recomend

HSK 1

New Practical Chinese Reader 1 Textbook/Workbook

OTHER (random interesting stuff that I don’t know where to put them)

Learn Chinese with Poems, free course (edit 9)

Learn Chinese with Songs, free course (edit 9)

**Frecuency list –> Most common characters and words in: books, movies, components and by HSK. Simplified and traditional options. (Sound, definition, animated stroke order, sentence examples w audio, and writting practice. Very interesting and complete.) (edit 9)

Media input (Videos and Audios with transcriptions and timestamps you can get back to. First click on the character shows pinyin, second click shows meaning.) (edit 9)

Youtube Channel: Learn Chinese with Movies, series and animation (edit 12)

What are your favourite songs and shows to inmerse yourself in mandarin? Please tell me!

My favourite links have a (*)

I might get back to this post and add more useful links when i find more (each time i edit this post i add a little “edit 1 / 2 / 3…”). [This post looks better on the original post/blog, since the linked webs are highlighted and easier to see, and also is more up to date]

Last edited: 30 / January / 2021 = Edit 13

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Chinese Playlists I found on youtube that I actually enjoy

This one

Also this one

Here’s another

Why not one more

Oh! would you look at that

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Haven't been studying like I'm supposed to, kinda disappointed in myself

On the brighter side, I've been looking for authentic Chinese recipes and I plan on making a few dishes soon, hope they come out well!

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haven't done chinese in a few weeks and now I've forgotten everything 😭😭

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cross fashion: chinese hanfu combined with xiyu fashion (Central Asian States, Arab States and India on the Silk Road in the Tang Dynasty)

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Been doing more Chinese and I'm getting a little discouraged, doing listening lessons and it's getting really hard because I already can't hear very well and people speak so fast. I can barely understand English when it's spoken to me sometimes because of an auditory processing disorder, I hope my reading skills will become good enough to read books and read subtitles in places I struggle to hear. I have no option to turn off the listening portions as far as I know but it's a tonal language so it's very important that I know how the words sound together, plus learning listening all over again at the beginning when I could've done it all at once like I'm doing now would be a pain

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Word of the day:

九重葛 jiǔ chóng gé / bougainvillea

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Finally decided to buy a 3-month subscription for the Chinese app I've been using and I'm so excited to be learning again

I forget spoken languages and textbook are not the same and hearing how actual Chinese is spoken is a bit more difficult than I expected

Planning on finding some C-dramas to watch though to get used to the sounds of the language, any recommendations would be appreciated <3 (Netflix US preferably)

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When people get a little too gung-ho about-

wait. cancel post. gung-ho cannot be English. where did that phrase come from? China?

ok, yes. gōnghé, which is…an abbreviation for “industrial cooperative”? Like it was just a term for a worker-run organization? A specific U.S. marine stationed in China interpreted it as a motivational slogan about teamwork, and as a commander he got his whole battalion using it, and other U.S. marines found those guys so exhausting that it migrated into English slang with the meaning “overly enthusiastic”.

That’s…wild. What was I talking about?

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enchanted by the flowers, held by no masters

“is that” the line from the one li bai poem that plays in my head every day before work? yes it is

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Pine's Ridiculously Long List of Free Japanese Study Materials

First Month Edition

All my current study materials, because sharing found resources is caring. These are not JLPT-specific and are for pre-beginners to beginners like me. I can't believe I have been studying for a month. Comparison is truly the thief of joy. I am a slow learner, but that's okay. Find a community because it truly does make a difference. Shoutout to Seitokai's Nihongo Discord, and to @tokidokitokyo whose post let me know about it and is just overall a great person too.

Main study material: Marugoto Online A1 Self-Study Kastudoo and Rikai with downloaded PDF and Wordbook (my original post about it)

Supplemental references:

A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar (The only NOT free resource in this list, sorry! The e-book sold on Amazon does not have good reviews as it's a scanned copy of the book, rather than a properly formatted e-book. A free alternative to this is JapBase which also contains Intermediate and Advanced content.)

Marugoto Plus which accompanies the Marugoto courses and includes videos, audio files, etc.

Apps: Anki, Renshuu

Anki decks:

Tatsumoto's Kana (Recognizing and Writing)

Tatsumoto's AnkiDrone Sentence Pack V7

Official KanjiDamage Deck (from the creator of KanjiDamage, crude language warning for both the deck and the site)

Marugoto A1 Rikai Katsudoo 2021

Dictionaries:

Rikaitan browser extension (installed JMDict English V4, JMExtra, 日本語文法辞典(全集), and Kanjium)

Takoboto app (with offline access)

Other resources:

Sukiruma for practice writing sheets

Reader Ttsu for reading Japanese materials on a browser (used in conjunction with Rikaitan, since I couldn't find an e-book reader that I can install a Japanese dictionary in)

Sousakuba for downloadable genkouyoushi without watermarks

Youtube:

Favorites marked with a ⭐️.

Comprehensible Input for what it says on the tin, in bite-size formats

Daily Japanese with Naoko for vlogs with Japanese subtitles

Dogen for the funny videos that you can learn from and/or relate to

Game Gengo because Japanese learning through games, and has JLPT geared content if you're looking for it

Gino Kei who has shorts teaching Japanese in a not so serious way

Hiro - Food in Japan for cooking videos, not in Japanese, but these make me crave for Japanese food anyway so that counts

⭐️ Japan Eat for Japanese food commentary in English and also makes me hungry. So, yeah, not in 日本語 but it's delicious so that also counts

Japanese Koro mostly for kana reading practice which actually helps you get short serotonin boosts for when you do actually get to read the words correctly

Japanese Quest which plays games in Japanese

⭐️ Japarrot! for fun, animated comprehensible input videos

Let's ask Shogo for culture content

⭐️⭐️⭐️ Matcha Samurai for delightfully unhinged culture content, debunking Japanese misconceptions one video at a time

Namba Tsuyoshi for no narration Japanese walk with me style vlogs, very chill and relaxing

⭐️ NihongoDekita with Sayaka for fun, short grammar content

ShekMatz Japan has videos/playlists where she teaches Japanese in Tagalog, so if you can't understand Tagalog, you'd better skip it

Sora The Troll because why not

⭐️ Takashii from Japan is honestly one of my favorites, even before I started learning Japanese. His interviews are just really good!

Taro's Sewing because my toxic trait is thinking I can sew the cool things they post. Also comes with short Japanese commentary on screen

Tokyo Lens counts as uh, immersion even if it's not in Japanese, but it's in Japan so that counts? Yeah, let's go with that

もしもしようすけ for Japan vlogs/walk with me with Japanese and English subtitles

Yomii Japan Piano if you like piano and the occasional trolling

Japanese Calligrapher Takumi because my other toxic trait is thinking I can write this beautifully

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I posted to the wrong account again oops

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when the clock is at :45 it’s like. oh i have a whole quarter of the hour left i have so much time this is great and then it hits :47 and you’re like it’s basically :50 which is basically the top of the hour and all my time is wasted forever and ever

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finally hit the paywall on the hellochinese app but since I actually enjoy it and I actually feel like I'm learning something, I guess it's time to buy the subscription

I'm gonna practice the lessons I already learned for a few days first to cement them in my head before advancing so I get the full usage of premium 😎

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texture studies 🌸♥️

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— Rebecca Solnit, Hope in the Dark