Chinese Language Resources

Resources for Chinese characters

This interactive website provides information about characters including radicals, pinyin, and high and medium frequency example words. There are also phonetic lists with components that provide information about pronunciation. This is a good resource for beginning students.

Use this website to print off several styles of sheets to practice Chinese character writing. Sheets can also be saved to Google drive. It's especially useful in conjunction with sites like LINE Dictionary that provide stroke information about characters.

This is a paid service that allows learners to practice writing and recognizing Chinese characters. Skritter includes instructions for writing characters, definitions, and character decomposition, all with the ability to save characters to flashcards and study using spaced repetition. A free demo and 7-day free trial are available.

Resources for grammar

This site contains useful resources for beginning, intermediate, and advanced Chinese learners: reading and listening practice, as well as comprehensive drills in grammar and vocabulary. The site's especially useful for learning new vocabulary and expressions in the context of the reading materials. Texts are accompanied by audio, vocabulary list, sentence patterns, grammar, and sometimes exercises.

This extensive wiki organizes articles about Chinese grammar by level and then by word, phrase, or idea. Articles give lengthy explanations and Chinese example sentences with English translations and have both internal and external links for further reading. Advanced grammar is still under construction, so this resource is best for beginning, intermediate, and early advanced Chinese learners.

Resources for vocabulary

Clavis Sinica

Clavis Sinica is Chinese language software that's installed on all computers in the computer lab. It creates clickable characters in any Chinese text. Users can click on characters to both save them to a list of characters to review via flashcards and get more information about the character in an interactive dictionary. Students can then study characters using the same radical, compounds using the character, or characters with shared roots. Clavis Sinica also offers paid iOS and Android apps.

Many of the other resources listed on this page are also useful for learning Chinese vocabulary.

Check out the vocabulary resources on our general resources page for suggestions for learning foreign language vocabulary. They support Chinese character entry.

Resources for pronunciation and conversation

ChinesePod offers thousands of audio lessons and videos for Chinese learners at all levels, from beginners to advanced students, as well as other Chinese-learning materials. Lessons are interactive and teach students, especially at the beginning level, about common phrases and topics of conversation. Lessons feature transcripts in Chinese characters, pinyin, and English translation and vocabulary tools. For login information, email Beth Platte or stop by her office (Hauser Library 38).

Chatting with a native speaker can be a great way to improve your conversational skills. Check out the language exchange options on the general resources page for suggestions on how to meet native speakers. These are especially good resource for Chinese learners who are native English speakers, as there are many native Madarin speakers who are looking English language partners.

Resources for writing

Check out Lang-8 on the general resources page for help with Chinese composition! This site is especially useful for Chinese learners, as there are many native Madarin speakers on the site to give feedback on writing.