Hacking Chinese is a blog by Mandarin expert Olle Linge from Sweden who has studied for four years in Taiwan and teaches Chinese and English. Having a solid background in linguistics, he answers almost all questions related to successfully learning Mandarin Chinese. His main advice for language learners: “If you don’t take responsibility and think for yourself, it will take ages to reach a decent level, but if you become aware of how to learn and study efficiently, fluency is within reach.” Olle also organizes the “monthly extensive reading challenge“. The main goal here is not “intensive reading” but reading as much Chinese as you can below or at your current level.
This is a great blog by John Pasden, a Mandarin expert “who’s been around” for a long time. He has published a great series of graded readers for Mandarin learners. Check out his list of resources and inspiring podcasts. It’s a great starting point by someone who knows every obstacle on the way, but maybe a little too nerdy and old-school for some.
You’re learning but you feel a little stuck? Visit Steve Kaufmann’s blog for inspiration and tips. Steve is probably one of the most experienced language learners out there. He speaks Mandarin as well as 19 other languages.
Chinese Zero to Hero is not a blog, but a very useful website for Chinese learners. Lots of interesting resources for listening, reading and grammar and the Zero to Hero team keeps improving and expanding the website. I’ve grown very fond of the transcribed YouTube videos and their music database. You can even adjust the website’s settings to your personal taste (show / hide Pinyin, simplified / traditional characters etc.). Great work.
Looking for the best learning tools and apps for learning Mandarin? Or a quick overview of what’s out there? All Language Resources is all about reviewing learning resources for Mandarin Chinese and giving you their best recommendations. The author takes his time for testing and knows what he’s writing about.
This is the corporate blog from the Keats Chinese school in Kunming, China. Here you find anything from the latest HSK-updates to practical learning advice like the do’s and dont’s of self-studying Mandarin Chinese, but also relevant information about living in China. My personal favorite is their series about China’s major cities.
You may have heard about their Chinese dictionary add-on for Pleco. These guys are Hanzi experts who want to share their knowledge with the world. Want to ease your suffering studying Chinese characters? This is the place to look for new ideas and efficient study methods.
FluentU is more like a corporate blog which has a team of (freelance) writers blogging for them. They don’t always share the most practical advice, they do post a lot of relevant tips and ideas though. If you’re wondering what apps you might want to use and which Chinese movies to watch, this is the right place.
This is another corporate blog and similar to FluentU you’ll find a broad variety of topics here, not everything directly related to learning Mandarin, but interesting and engaging articles nonetheless. If you’re a fan of the Chineasy approach to character learning, you’ve come to the right place. What the blog lacks, is a categorization of content by topic, level, date etc.
This website as well is a lot broader than just focusing on mastering Mandarin. I included it because of its practical tips for foreigners interested in traveling or even living in China.
What’s your favorite Chinese learning blog? Please feel free to comment down below.
Graded Chinese readers
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