How to learn Chinese fast - my best way

Get your free guide - The 10 Biggest Mistakes Beginners in Chinese Make and How You Can Avoid Them bit.ly/1QrHjBp
Beginner's courses: FSI Mandarin, Pimsleur, Assimil, Teach Yourself
My course: fluentinmandari...
Lingoes dictionary software: www.lingoes.net/
Dictionaries for Lingoes: www.lingoes.net...
Dimsum: www.mandarintoo...
Wenlin: www.wenlin.com/
Pleco: www.pleco.com/
Arch Chinese: www.archchinese...
Sogou Pinyin: pinyin.sogou.com/
Anki: ankisrs.net/
Chinesepod Pinyin chart: chinesepod.com/...
Jukuu: www.jukuu.com/
1) What resources do you need to study Chinese?
2) How should you start to learn?
3) How can you progress?

[@soknarith5722]

This video much more better than most videos on you tube nowadays. Most of them they just create the videos base on the sponsor or tell us to buy their course.

[@sullyflynn8746]

Thank you for not saying "um", "ah", "like", or "you know." Just proves you're also fluent in English! Thanks for the video.

[@FluentinMandarinDotCom]

+Sully Flynn yeah, I don't like to waste people's time by not knowing what I'm saying! Glad you appreciate it!

[@Fluentinmandarin]

+Sully Flynn yeah, I don't like to waste people's time by not knowing what I'm saying! Glad you appreciate it!

[@anarki777]

But native English speakers do say um, ah, you know, etc... all the time.

[@syazwanibrahim1716]

usually Americans

[@anarki777]

It's just something you say to fill a pause in speech when you're thinking about your next words.

[@alwync3253]

I recommend Skritter for remembering 汉字 (chinese characters) for the following reasons. (1) It has a good selection of pre-made vocabulary decks. (2) It forces you to write out the entire character on the app (as opposed to merely asking you whether you remember a particular word), thereby forcing you to recall all the strokes involved in writing the characters. It also corrects you if you get the stroke order wrong. (3) Like Anki, they also utilise the spaced repetition technique to determine which flashcards to show you. (4) It integrates with Pleco, the dictionary app, which means you can look up words on Pleco very quickly. (5) It gives you example sentences. (6) It is able to read out the words and sentences.

[@MandarinBuilding]

Wonderful video! Have been teaching Mandarin for years now and always include learning methods. Lots of stuff online is unhelpful or just wrong, but I would say that everything here is super helpful, well done.

[@anoushka490]

super helpful, good on you for taking the time to spread your tips and experience. much much appreciated

[@jessicawang847]

Love ur voice and british accent >.

[@sauce8277]

Fantastic. I love how honestly true this video is.

[@FluentinMandarinDotCom]

Thanks James!

[@TheRosa63]

I like pleco too it is really helping me. I am just a beginner so I have tons of apps on my tablet to learn words and pronounciation and characters too. games to learn too, flash cards etc.

[@boredgrass]

Some mediaplayer for windows, android and ios and allmost every video editing software have slow motion function with retention of pitch. By means of applying those to screencasts and video downloads of too fast spoken samples, one can transform "real world spoken language" into learning material.

[@philoki]

I love the tips and the fast speaking pace of this video! Very helpful

[@janacauliflower9182]

A BIG THANK YOU to MR. Parker. YOU are great teacher! I'm SO happy and excited that I found your videos. God bless you! :)

[@BungsViet]

some very good ideas/tips in here. Not just for Chinese but language learning in general

[@FluentinMandarinDotCom]

+BungsViet Thanks! Glad you like it!

[@tomieblu]

Thank you! I recently decided I wanted to learn Mandarin but was a bit clueless where to start. Your video was very helpful!

[@FluentinMandarinDotCom]

+tomieblu glad you like the video!

[@Masry492]

I've been researching into teaching yourself to understand Chinese and discovered a fantastic resource at Magic mandarin blueprint (google it if you are interested)

[@ivangrujic4744]

There are several factors in teaching yourself to speak Mandarin easily . A resource I found that succeeds in merging these is the Magic Mandarin Blueprint (look for it on google) definately the no.1 remedy that I've found. Check out the incredible info .

[@sunghyunkim2394]

I am studying law in the US. As a Korean, I want to learn Chinese in English because I want to study Chinese Law someday. I believe your shared information will be very helpful.

[@lakshmy44]

Thanks a lot

[@FluentinMandarinDotCom]

+Amritalekshmy Sudhir You're welcome!

[@ruben2574]

Did you ever try doing an audio book series? Nice videos btw !

[@FluentinMandarinDotCom]

Audio books? No, I haven't tried that..

[@xJJStaRx]

Thanks for the video !

[@khanhlinh9193]

Thank you so much

[@Seabasshunting]

Awesome tips mate!

[@xtarsy]

Thanks for the tips. A few other great sites are italki.com to find chat partners or professional teachers,memrise.com for learning vocabulary and sentences and fluentu.com to practice listening skills and pronunciation with videos and interactive subtitles. Keep up the great work Chris. ; )

[@holmesjack9339]

I think they are great learning techniques and tips.Well, plus, Chinese dictionary called 现代汉语词典 will be extremely helpful once you are familar with PinYin and you are able to read and speak Some Chinese Characters and words. Or you might buy an electronic dictionary ( i m using CASIO at present）.

[@Goodmorningroosterlive]

all the things i don't want to hear, but are true and essential...

[@FluentinMandarinDotCom]

+GoodMorningRooster glad you have found my videos helpful!

[@estevansanz5478]

I've been researching into speaking Mandarin online and found a great website at Magic mandarin blueprint (google it if you're interested)

[@rukayyaisamuhammad3914]

I've been researching into how to speak Mandarin easily and discovered a fantastic resource at Magic Mandarin Blueprint (google it if you are interested)

[@mitch150]

Very eloquent, loved your video, excellent advice and thank you for providing all the links. I do have a question however, I am currently learning Russian, been studying for about a month now and Ive also been very interested in learning Mandarin at the same time. How would you recommend going about learning 2 new languages at the same time?.. I dont like to make excuses but I do have 2 jobs and go to college full time, so i dont have a whole lot of time but ive had enough to put 10-25 minutes a day studying Russian via Dualingo. Its been pretty effective I think but again, would you recommend going at 2 very different languages at the same time? Or would focusing on one at a time be more efficient and effective for becoming fluent in both over time?.. I do understand it is not an overnight process but I am motivated purely out of personal interest.

[@FluentinMandarinDotCom]

+Mitchell Stallard Russian and mandarin are both very challenging languages, so it could be difficult to pick them both up at the same time. I would recommend that you put the majority of your available time into one, and a smaller amount into the other. If you split it 50/50 you risk diluting your efforts too much and not really progressing with either

[@mitch150]

Fluent in Mandarin.com Thank you for your response with advice, I do appreciate it and i agree.

[@wanderingdoc5075]

Anything wrong with just using Bopomofo/Zhuyin to type Chinese? Quicker than typing out Pinyin and you don't need software to do it.

[@EntropyVX]

I've had several stabs at learning Mandarin always ending in failure. The main problem is lack of native speakers to talk to and a TOTAL lack of confidence in talking. I tried to order "2 pieces of fish" at a chinese restaurant and they had no idea what I was trying to say :) There is a good site called verbling but it is mainly European languages. I think what I need is some good skype partners that can be patient while I struggle with pronunciation. :)

[@EntropyVX]

***** Thanks, I will try italki.com For some reason even on a site like that I lack confidence. I'm going through all your videos and will look into your intro course. Cheers.

[@hahaeric9672]

Bob Bobby i am a native speaker, you can talk to me

[@mitch150]

+Chris Parker (Fluent in Mandarin) Thank you for recommending italki.com been studying my butt off with Russian language, with no native speakers to talk to. Also wanting to try learning mandarin, thank you so much for this.

[@MuhammadKhalid-jw1gd]

How to remember tones of every chinese word?

[@ExiHyp]

Thanks for the vid, great job! One thing, however: where is the link to the most common 3xxx Chinese characters? I can't find it.

[@FluentinMandarinDotCom]

+ExiHyp It's here: www.zein.se/patrick/3000char.html

[@ExiHyp]

Fluent in Mandarin.com thanks

[@rj2086]

Excellent explanation! Thanks a lot :-)

[@FluentinMandarinDotCom]

+Riccardo Jan Mettke you're welcome!

[@InXCtinC]

Hey what do you think of Living Language? I just bought the package off amazon which came with 3 books and 9 cds. So far, I think its great. what is your opinion on this course and which books would would recommend me to study?

[@FluentinMandarinDotCom]

+InXCtinC Living language is a pretty good course from what I can remember. The most important thing is finding the books and learning resources that are most suited to you / that you like best

[@elenakolomina3336]

Hello! What podcasts in Chinese would you recommend? What do you usually listen to? I listen to 美国之音, but I don't like the format, not too many new words, but too long.

[@locrock]

+Elena Kolomina For instructional podcasts, I really like Popup Chinese. They cover a lot of really random vocab and slang that you're not going to find in a coursebook. Even their beginner dialogues are full speed and very native, so a bit daunting at first, but in the long run I've found this has helped my listening a lot. You have to be a bit careful because they often teach Beijing Mandarin and pretend it's standard but even with this I've found them really useful.

[@OliverAntosch]

Hi Chris, what do you think of our resource www.antosch-and-lin.com/chinese/ Been working on it for many years.

[@t-virus3663]

why pleco wants access to my media,pictures or other files/

[@FluentinMandarinDotCom]

I'm not sure

[@ubizmo]

ANY app that creates files on your device, as Pleco does, needs permission to access your file system. For example, Pleco creates files to store your flashcard choices. It can't do this unless you give it permission to access your file system, which includes media, etc.

[@girrrl974]

Pleco can translate text inside pictures

[@annymus4502]

Why do we even need to write the characters in their stroke order? I mean, we can write an a with the “o” first and then the “line thing”, or the other way around... it’s strange but it doesn’t affect the meaning at all, does it?

[@anonymous1177]

I disagree with you when it comes to translating stuff early in your learning career. You will most likely end up using textbook phrases and/or get stuck because you don't know the syntactic rules yet. Unless you have a native speaker at hand, this is outright bad. I would always advise to focus on listening and reading first, just doing translations from Chinese to your native language and have a native speaker check your translation. That's a point you totally missed - you need a tandem partner sooner or later or you will fail because you never use the language.

[@user-vn2fz6jc3q]

...

[@narsplace]

you say Anki wrong. it is more like Unki.

[@davestang5454]

I agree with almost al of this advice.I don't agree with Pinyin.Pinyin is a TERRIBLE pronunciation guide for the Chinese language. It matches up poorly with spoken English. There has to be a phonetically better system than Pinyin.

[@BungsViet]

+Dave Stang you could learn to use IPA

[@sdushdiu]

+Dave Stang Pinyin was NEVER intended to be a phonetic interpretation of the characters for Westerners! SO your basic assumptions are all incorrect. Are the consonants and vowels pronounced as in English? NO! Is it simply one more layer of work necessary to understand Mandarin? Yes! Pinyin was NEVER intended to accommodate English speakers, but rather to transition Mandarin into a Romanized character version. So yes, you do need Pinyin as well as characters to function in China. And no, Pinyin is NOT a phonetic system for Westerners! So, you get to learn the Chinese pronunciations for Pinyin - as well as signs used in China.

[@alex73217]

English doesn't pronounce letters the same everytime, so in that regard pinyin ks already a step better. Also, you pronounce letters different in every language, pronouncing a word in my native language German is completely different than saying the same letter combination in English. So for most languages you have to learn how to pronounce the letters of that language. The same is right for pinyin, spend a few hours studying/practicing all the pinyin and it will be fine and you know how to pronounce pinyin (pinyin pronunciation makes more sense than English)