What can you do if you want to learn Mandarin but don’t want to spend loads of money to attend Chinese courses or visit China for an extensive period? Learn Chinese low-budget style. Here’s how!
Video and online lessons
You need a teacher to study a new language. There are many teachers out there online posting video lessons for foreigners. Mandarin Corner, Yoyo Chinese and ChinesePod for example, to name three popular channels. Search a little longer and you’ll find plenty of other Chinese online teachers and language schools operating from China who create authentic content free of charge. And not just classic teaching, but also specially edited street interviews and real life communication which are extremely useful.
There’s no shortage of beginner lessons too. Yoyo Chinese created a series that starts with the basics where each video builds on the next one.
You’ll also find an increasing number of Mandarin speaking laowai vloggers like Thomas阿福, 口语老炮儿马思瑞Chris, Fulinfang拂菻坊 or 莫彩曦Hailey on YouTube. Although it can be intimidating to see a fellow foreigner speaking Mandarin so fluently, it has the power to inspire as well. The CCTV show 外国人在中国 introduces many longtime laowai from different cultures and backgrounds and is worth checking out. It’s not a must, but it’s also no shame to have a role model. If someone from your own cultural background has mastered Mandarin, there’s no reason why you can’t, right?
In some cases, you might still prefer to learn Chinese online with a real teacher to practice real-life communication. Keats Chinese school is a good place to find qualified teachers. Although Keats is located in Kunming, Yunnan, China, they offer 1-on-1 online Chinese classes pretty much 24/7, so that time difference is no issue. This is perfect for people who wish to continue improving their Chinese while living outside of China.
Online communities
Learning a new language like Chinese is no good on your own. You can find several Mandarin learning groups on Facebook and corporate sites that share content for learners. Members of learning groups do not always post the most relevant content, but in general you will find like-minded people and more experienced learners to ask for advice. Advice is much needed when you’re doing low budget learning, since most of the time you’ll have to sort out what’s best for you(r learning) on your own. Instagram can be a fun place to check for Chinese content as well.
Quora answers many questions about learning Chinese and keeps you updated on new learning tools and tips and ideas how to study effectively. You do see some double content and not all answers are as relevant and correct as you would want them to be.
Chinese forums is a forum dedicated to all questions related to learning Mandarin. Many forum members are longtime learners and China nerds (in a positive way!). Over the years, lots of topics have been covered. If you have a specific question, you might get or find an expert answer here.
Apps
There are plenty of good apps available for learning Mandarin and it’s impossible to cover them all. The English-Chinese dictionary app Pleco (or alternatively Hanping) is arguably the most essential learning tool – with lots of add-ons. Anki and Memrise are popular apps for flashcard learning. DuoLingo, LingoDeer and HelloChinese help you learn new vocabulary. That’s just to name a few. If you want to get more detailed information, this website provides an up-to-date list of apps. I noted elsewhere that language apps won’t solve all your problems, but they sure can be entertaining and support your learning in a meaningful way.
Make friends online and offline
Learning a new language like Mandarin is a lot more fun and worthwhile with native speakers to practice and communicate with. WeChat is the most popular social app in Mainland China with over 1 billion monthly active users. It is the preferred tool for communication – even in many professional settings. The app does come with some privacy issues (as does Facebook) not unlike Douyin – the “Chinese TikTok” – which is something you have to consider. When it comes to making Chinese friends though, WeChat can be a big help to connect to Chinese speakers and immerse yourself online. You can switch the interface to English and the inbuilt translation tool will translate Chinese accordingly.
More directly focused on language learning is the app HelloTalk. It’s a platform and online community which allows you to socialize online – by texting, speaking, camera sharing and drawing – with native speakers. You can actually save your chats and interactions to study them later. Quite useful.
The same approach can be used offline – more locally. Check your local university, Confucius institute and other language schools for language exchange programs for example. Get to know one member of your local Chinese community and you’re likely to be introduced to more Chinese expats. With some luck you’ll find a tandem partner to buddy up with.
Chinese music, movies and series
If you like music, you should try listening some songs in your target language. Find out what Chinese music you like and create your own playlist to get that Chinese language input you need. It’s not always easy to find “appropriate input” that you enjoy and understand to some degree, but in my opinion any daily input is better than none. I’m not sure if listening to Chinese music does a lot to improve your mastery of the four tones, but it certainly helps to get a better feeling for the language and acquire new vocabulary.
In this post, I discuss a number of Chinese movie classics that I greatly recommend. Other options are:
- iyf.tv (lots of choice, mostly no English subtitles for Chinese though)
- tv.cctv.com/live (watch live Mainland Chinese television, all CCTV channels)
- imdb.com (the movie database)
- Wikipedia (an extensive list)
- Netflix (I don’t use it myself, too afraid to get addicted)
- YouTube (Some older movies can be found here, like “To live” and other classics)
Popup dictionary for your web browser
Install this add-on for when you’re surfing the Chinese web. It’s an extremely useful translation tool – even for those who aren’t actually studying Mandarin.
Blogs
Apart from all other channels, the blogosphere is a great space for tips, inspiration and experience sharing when it comes to language learning.
Share your goals
What are your reasons to learn Chinese? Which level do you want to achieve? Which language skills are most important to you? Let others know about your Mandarin learning goals. I see some fellow bloggers preparing for HSK tests and sharing their progress on a regular basis. That’s a great way to stay focused, reflect on what you’re doing and let your readers and friends support you. This seems like a lot of extra effort, but to be open about your learning routines and keeping track of your progress are actually rewarding and can get the best out of other people too. There’s no perfect approach, what counts is your daily effort and support from whoever is willing to offer it.
The “pitfalls” of low budget learning
As we’ve seen you can find plenty of free and instantly accessible resources online – almost to the point that you get swamped by them and feel kind of lost or even paralyzed. This overabundance of materials forces you to take a more structured approach and to limit your time you spend on each. Although I recommend online communities, spending too much time on Facebook and other social media is distractive rather than effective. Before you know it the time you planned for studying is gone.
It is in self-limitation that a master first shows himself.
Goethe
This means – and this is easier said than done – that you have to confine yourself to the essentials. You have to be your own doctor in a way and prescribe your daily cocktail of learning materials. Combine YouTube video lessons and app learning for example. To some extent, you’ll have to create your own curriculum. Do ask others for advice. Experiment with different things and stick with those that work best for you.
He who considers too much will perform little.
Schiller
That all being said, there is no ideal strategy to master Mandarin. You have to find your own way and – maybe equally important – determine the budget for your Chinese learning success. How much are you willing to invest in your Chinese language skills? What are your learning options with this budget? Although you certainly should consider the low-budget options, you also might want to invest a certain sum to achieve your goals. Either in apps and tools or in real Chinese lessons and language programs (or indeed both!).
What do you think of “low-budget learning” for Mandarin Chinese? How far can low-budget options get you? Please feel free to share your thoughts and experiences in the comments below.
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