How to learn Mandarin Chinese from 0-fluency ? (Resources, Methods and Study Plans)

For the HSK books, you can visit the official publisher's online bookstore
Use the discount code "ZOE" to receive a 50% discount.

Download the Mandarin master plan on Discord:
Join our Discord community to exchange with other language learners!

00:00 Intro
02:22 What is HSK?
03:08 What is Hanzi?
03:28 What is Pinyin and how to learn?
05:38 What are radicals, and how to learn?
08:21 HSK 1 (main resources and plan)
11:02 HSK 2
12:04 HSK 3
13:30 HSK 4
16:02 HSK 5
17:49 HSK 6

Here is the list of the resources mentioned in the video :
Pre Hsk Resources:
⭐Pinyin and Tones training Apps📱:
ChineseSkill
LingoDeer
superChinese
HelloChinese

🔗Links:

⭐Radicals:
📱Apps:
Tofu learning
Anki
Memrise
Pleco dictionary
🔗Links:
📚 Books:
Radicals training books from Aliexpress, Taobao and Amazon
⭐HSK 1 Resources:

📱Apps (these apps can be used in all levels):
✅Superchinese
✅Supertest
✅Anki
✅Memrise
✅Quizlet
✅Lingo deer
✅Tofu learn
✅Ninchanese
✅Hello chinese
✅Chinese skill

📚Books (Across all levels):
✅HSK standard books

🔗Links:
Say ninhao-study chinese Hsk1 Course
Learn Chinese with melissa Hsk 1 Course
Mandarin corner Hsk 1 Vocab
Chinese Grammar Wiki (suitable for all levels)

📻Podcast:
✅ChinesePod - Beginner

⭐HSK 2 Resources:

🔗Links:
Mandarin corner
Real talk mandarin peipei Instagram
Chinese teacher lucia
Carly LetsSpeakXYZ
Chinese 0 to Hero

📻Podcast (Across all levels):
✅ChinesePod - Beginner

⭐HSK 3 Resources:

🔗Links:
Mandarin corner

🎶 Entertainment:
✅莫文蔚
✅王菲
✅陈奕迅
✅我是歌手
✅我们的歌

⭐HSK 4 Resources:

🔗Links:
Mandarin corner
April的草莓啊
曼食慢语 Amanda Tastes
Chef Wang 美食作家王刚
周六野 Zoey

📻Podcast:
✅ChinesePod - Intermediate
✅Chillchat (Learn Chinese and Chill)

🎶 Entertainment:
✅爸爸去哪儿
Dad Where Are We Going
✅大鱼海棠
✅中国奇谭
✅西游记之大圣归来
✅白蛇缘起
✅哪吒之魔童降世

⭐HSK 5 Resources:

🔗Links:
Mandarin corner
Tencent Video-Show
China HunanTV Official Channel 湖南卫视芒果TV官方频道

📻Podcast:
✅ChinesePod - Intermediate

🎶 Entertainment:
✅家有儿女 (Chinese "Growing Pains")
✅爱情公寓 (Chinese "Friends")
✅三十而已 ( "Nothing but Thirty")
✅腾讯视频 (Tencent Video)
✅腾讯视频 - 热播综艺
✅湖南卫视芒果TV官方频道

⭐HSK 6 Resources:

🔗Links:
Mandarin corner
CCTV纪录

📻Podcast:
✅ChinesePod - Advanced
✅Ximalaya

🎶 Entertainment:
✅Bite of China (舌尖上的中国)
✅"奇葩说" (Qipashuo)
✅"脱口秀大会" (Tuōkǒuxiù Dàhuì)

[zoe.languages]

Use my code "ZOE" to receive a 50% discount.

[BeiBanqiu]

as a native chinese, I can tell you we don't much care about your tones saying good or non as well as we also can understand what you say even without tones basically. I mean language as a tool for conversation, you just need to speak out and let your conversation object understand what you think, that's enough. It is important that you speak chinese fearlessly, then you get advanced.​

[chinese]

If 1.3 Billion people can do it, i can do it.

[savagelife]

Honestly... I Love watching Chinese dramas. I watch them every single day with subtitles of course. I'm 57 yrs old and have fallen in love with the Mandarin language, I think it's beautiful. I was told by my 11yr old granddaughter that I should just learn the language so I could do other things while listening to the shows instead of staring at the television to read subtitles. I think it will be fun to learn. Thank you for your help. 😊

[MedX]

I think that pinyin not only helps foreign learners to learn the pronunciation, but it also helps Chinese native speakers to type the hanzi using the keyboard whether on a smartphone or a computer.

[happypapaya]

the way you broke it down made learning Chinese seem so approachable and im really excited to start again!

[rnmivpg]

As an International Chinese teacher myself, I really am impressed of how you've put all these together! There are so many tips you mentioned that I highly agree and have been advised my students to do so. I have my students and my friends who are learning Mandarin or Chinese culture watch the animes, TV series and TV shows you list already haha. Guess we share the same preference. Good insights for me too, as I could get some ideas for helping my students and structuring my lessons better.

[amalinaosman]

Who else thinks they wish this video existed when they first learned Chinese?

I've been studying Chinese for quite some time but completely neglected the writing practice part. I hope it's not too late to start practicing writing Hanzi. Thank you so much for compiling all these resources. I definitely will come back to this video again in the future.

[johnmongver]

I've started learning Chinese ten years ago and I'm so happy that you mentioned the same sources I used at that time. 爱情公寓 was the first series I watched without English subtitles and 奇葩说 really improved my listening since they really talk fast. They also use a lot of advanced grammar and chengyu.

[RitaChinese]

Wow this is such a comprehensive guideline for beginner Mandarin learners! Great job, Zoe!

Just one thing that I really wanna point out - learning Mandarin tones and pronunciation by the romanized system Pinyin is definitely a longer process than the first one or two weeks. Actually there are quite a lot of challenging sounds that may take a while for learners to get the hang of, let alone the fact of Chinese being a tonal language. Forming good habits and training their ears and mouth muscles for Mandarin is crucial for anyone who has a long-term learning goal.

Looking forward to seeing more videos on your channel👏

[ProfilElecronic-doss]

I agree that MOTIVATION, CONSISTENCY & DISCIPLINE can make the difference between an easy and a difficult learning experience.

[brvinno]

Zoe, I have no words to describe how great this video is!!!! I've been learning Mandarin for a while, I'm really close to HSK4 in terms of vocabulary and grammar, but I'm lacking in terms of writing and speaking. I'm always afraid of messing up the tones. I think I'll take a few weeks and just go back to pinyin and radicals in a more structured way.
Thanks!! Greetings from Brazil!

[wgdppot]

Thank you for being the best teacher a student could ever hope for.

[salmamohamed]

I love how you give specific methods and a lot of resources and for free you made it easy I love this thanks a lot

[Sparkyparky]

Thank you Zoe. Lots of excellent and practical advice about learning Chinese. One of the best reviews of resources I have seen on You Tube.

[e-genieclimatique]

In brief:
The video is a comprehensive guide on how to learn Mandarin Chinese effectively, focusing on various resources and strategies that can be used at different levels of proficiency.
Here's a summary:

1. **Beginner Level (HSK1-2):** The video suggests starting with the HSK1-2 vocabulary list and using apps like Anki for flashcards. It also recommends using Du Chinese and The Chairman's Bao for reading practice, and HelloChinese for grammar and speaking practice.

2. **Intermediate Level (HSK3-4):** At this level, the video suggests using ChinesePod and MandarinBean for listening practice. These platforms offer podcasts discussing interesting topics about everyday life in China. For grammar, the video recommends focusing more on sentence structure and grammar rules.

3. **Upper Intermediate Level (HSK5):** The video recommends watching Chinese TV series and advanced news, as well as listening to advanced podcasts. It suggests shows like "Growing Pains" and "Friends" in Chinese, and a series called "Nothing But Thirty" for insights into Chinese society and youth life. It also recommends continuing to practice writing and vocabulary building.

4. **Advanced Level (HSK6):** At this level, immersion is key. The video suggests exploring Chinese content consumed by native speakers. It recommends a documentary about Chinese food called "A Bite of China", a debate show called "Qipashuo", and a talk show called "Tuōkǒuxiù Dàhuì". It also suggests using World Wide Radio to listen to various Chinese radio stations.

The video emphasizes that learning Mandarin can be challenging, but with passion, discipline, and consistency, one can achieve remarkable results. It also provides a link to a Discord group where learners can access a PDF of the study plan and a full list of resources.

[Omama]

I was searching for tips to learn mandarin, and guess what? My favorite girl maked a video about that!
I'm so glad! Thanks zoe❤️❤️❤️

[imaneyacoubi]

Thank you so much for this! I want to learn Chinese but I was so overwhelmed by the amount of resources and didn't know where to start, this video came at the right time!

[dunghanhho]

This video is very resourceful ! Thank you for taking the time to put everything together. Really appreciate it :) Looking forward to more videos entailing practical tips like this on your channel :)

[jolarful]

I loved your video, thank you for having such a guide for us begginers to learn chinese! I've been looking for this kind of videos for so long, but this is the best one so far. Now I know how to start now 😃