How to learn Mandarin Chinese on your own?(sharing methods, tools and resources for self-study)

Hello my friends! Here is the “full-package” video to learn Chinese by yourself!!!
In this video, Ruba and I will share with you all the useful self-teaching methods, tools and resources to learn Mandarin.
This video is longer than the usual videos, but it covers different parts of the skills and we try to give you more useful informaiton, you can jump to the part you are interested in:
00:00 Intro
00:12 Greeting
03:43 Memorize vocabulary
09:29 Learn grammar
11:53 Improve pronunciation
14:55 Practice listening
22:30 Use the dictionary
24:02 Last tip
This video is a kind of toolbox to give you more resources and methods, you can use them according to your needs at different levels.

If you are a beginner, here are some suggestions:
⭐️Use an introductory application like Super Chinese or Duolingo
⭐️Follow beginner lessons from Chinesepod or Chinese Class 101
⭐️Study in a Confucius Institute in your country (if you have the budget)

No matter how you try to start your Chinese learning journey, as I've said in all my videos, consistency is the key to learning a language! When you reach a certain level, you can mobilize other tools recommended in this video, the list of our recommendation will always being updated :

⭐️Vocabulary
Anki, Memrize, Quizlet
💻Ninchanese

⭐️Learn grammar
💻Allset Learn Chinese grammar Wiki
💻理查老师的中文直播课 -Richard Chinese Language
📻Chinese Pod 101

⭐️Improve pronunciation
📱Super Chinese

⭐️Practice listening
📻World Wide Radio
💻Mandarin Corner

⭐️Using a dictionary
📱Pleco
📱Hanbook

⭐️Photogaphy: Zoe
⭐️Editing: Zoe
⭐️Subtitles: Zoe

[kabondemakasanjobvu]

For me I studied Chinese hsk 1-4 in class but I realised i still didn’t achieve much in text book, then I went on an unorthodox route of learning which was watching vlogs of daily life and writing down words I don’t know, within a year my Chinese about hsk6 level even without doing the exam and I am proficient enough, it’s all about interest at the end of the day..

[mehmetkurtkaya]

Thank you Zoe and Ruba for this great video. I am 55 years old and four months ago started studying Russian and that is first time I started learning a new language on the internet by watching YouTube videos from Russian teachers, Anki, and at the beginning using Duolingo. I speak English and French in addition to my native Turkish which I had learned in school some 40 years ago, and then practiced English throughout my life. If I succeed in reaching Russian intermediate level hopefully in a two year period, then I am thinking on learning Chinese. I had started learning Chinese in 2013 when I had gotten books from Chinese exhibition in the Istanbul Book Fair, but gave up after a while as the signs seemed too difficult at the time, though today internet offers much better language learning methods and tools as I also see and use in Russian. Back then I had only print books, now the opportunities are much greater as you explained in the video. By the way I have an autographed copy of Tie Ning's book, I bought at that fair, Sonsuz Ne Kadar Uzun, was a great book! I like Chinese cuisine and culture.

[alexfield]

Congrats on 50K Zoe, you appear to be an over night success, but we know it's the amount of hours you put in behind the scenes that has helped you accomplish this. Your confidence seems to be increasing as you post more, keep it up ! Ps this was very helpful

[SightlessSenshi]

OMG, I am so excited to have found this. My name is Zoe, and I really want to learn Mandarin, so this is perfect. Only issue for me is that I am blind in both eyes, I use a screenreader to get online. So I hope the resources you suggest in this video will be useful and accessible for me. Can't wait to start learning Mandarin. Thanks for being awesome!

[KaMi-gzil]

I'm so lucky! It was just a week ago that I commented on one of your videos I just started learning Chinese and now this video! THANK YOU, Girls! This is incredibly helpful!

[stantomas]

I speak 16 languages at different levels. 14 are at the maintaining stage. I watch a video on youtube in each of those languages at least 5 minutes a week. 2 (Chinese and Hebrew) are at the learning stage. It means I learn vocabulary and do 10 lessons of Chinese or Hebrew a week. So I switch Chinese and Hebrew weeks. After reaching B2 in those two, I will classify them into the maintaining group. After that, I will have German and Dutch reactivation weeks. I plan to spend 6 months in China and perhaps in Israel. I guess I will take Arabic, Swahili, Japanese and Kazakh in the future. Those 4 will be my last languages:)

[mace]

I'm Lebanese and decided to start teaching myself Chinese recently - I love how rich the history and culture are and hearing everyday spoken Chinese is so charming somehow... I'd love to hear about the similarities between Chinese and Arab cultures.

[TheRandman]

I watch tons of these videos and have been self studying Mandarin for two years. The amazement never ceases at all the great resources out there. I learned a great deal from this, thank you so much!

[emilyr]

i studied chinese in school for a long time and got absolutley nowhere, but this past year ive found in self studying italian that doing it by myself has been so beneficial and actually made things worth doing. i hope to give chinese another shot soon and test out self study so this is an invalluable resource to

[matthiasvanderaa]

Some additions for me would be:

clubhouse: you can either listen to it in the background or actively participate in the conversation.

Language buddy: you probably mentioned it in the video, but I want to stress that in many places there will be Chinese natives that are open to language exchanges. I went online and searched for language exchange in the Netherlands and was able to start a weekly practice session with a Taiwanese native which really took me to the next level. Another plus side you might make some new friends

[SunaAoimori]

As an ANKI learner who speaks Japanese fluently becsause of it, i can hundred percent recommend this video, most videos on youtube are people showing off a bit of their speaking but this video is legit

[thedarpolyglot]

The Chinese grammar wiki is an absolute goldmine 😍😍

[zwqqkmq]

I’m currently studying Japanese, but Chinese is definitely next on my list. This video will be very helpful once I start!

[christianaj]

Good tips. The more I look at the evidence, the less sure I am that there is a one size fits all approach to learning a language. I started learning Chinese 3 years ago and have self-studied it in the U.K. mostly, apart from visiting China for 3 weeks back in the summer of 2019. I am now at a relatively high level, I am watching a TV series that has been popular recently in China called 开端 (English name: Reset) and can understand at least 95% with only Chinese subtitles. I've done this virtually just by studying textbooks, checking new words on the pleco dictionary app when I encounter them (I have never memorised vocabulary before, normally just checking them once is enough), and chatting with Chinese people, while of course watching Chinese TV series from time to time. The thing that stumps me is that I've tried these methods with other languages (supposedly much easier languages for English people to learn, like French and Spanish), but it feels like it takes forever to make any progress. To this day I still can't figure out why - with Chinese it was always so easy, but with other languages it just feels like it takes forever to build a foundation and the languages feel much less logical than Chinese does to me. Has anyone had any similar experiences?

[lostuniverso]

what i do to practice writing, vocab, listening, pronunciation etc…, is that instead of printing scripts, i usually write them! that way, i will have different works on the same topics and all. and it’s quite cool! can get a bit overwhelming sometimes though

[meddena]

I just started learning Chinese and am completely at loss. I speak Croatian, French, English and German fluently and Spanish, Italian and Czech at an intermediate level, but Chinese is so different from all of these that I'm confused in regards to what to start with. This video is very helpful, and I'm about to watch your entire channel. Thanks for filming this and I admire your language aptitude!

[aysun]

Sis my Chinese friend sent some words with similarities in Turkish and Chinese, I had to send it here :D

Chinese - Turkish - English
炎(yan) - yan/yanmak - inflammation/burning
油(you) - yağ - oil
馒头(mantou) - mantı - dumpling
水 (shuǐ) - su - water
铜 (tong) - tunç - copper
烤 (kao) - kavur/kavurmak - roasting/cooking
剁 (duo) - doğra/doğramak - chopping
抵/抵抗 (di/dikang) - diren/direnmek - resisting
冻(don) - don/donmak - freezing
听(ting) - dinle - hearing

Some are loanwords for sure that I knew of like su, but really interesting still.

[alk]

finding teachers/tutors on italki has improved my progress sooo much. for self study, i also really like glossika. i'm going to look into all the resources mentioned in this video - thank you for making that so easy with the timestamps and the list!!!

[SK-huix]

Chinese is a very charismatic language. I'm learning Japanese right now. I'm following you👏🇹🇷お疲れ様でした

[sibelozbek]

I have just started to learn Chinese. I came across your channel thank you so much for this video!! I can start my learning journey with those resources. Thank you!!🤗🤗