📚 The Best Chinese Learning Material

大家好✋

Learning a new language can be an exciting journey, but for many Chinese learners, including myself, the quest for the right study materials can be overwhelming.

I remember spending countless hours each week searching for the best resources, hoping to find something that would make my learning experience more enjoyable and effective.

It dawned on me that if only I knew where to look, I could save time and focus on studying rather than searching endlessly.

The problem is not the lack of resources; it's the abundance of them – good and bad – making it challenging to sift through. This struggle has consequences, from wasted time to learning from materials that don't reflect real-life situations.

The solution? Knowing where to find the best materials results in time saved, enhanced learning, sounding more natural, and quicker improvement.

What makes for good Chinese learning material?

The best learning materials can make or break your Chinese learning journey. Many learners give up not because they lack motivation, but because they use materials that are boring and ineffective.

The challenge lies in identifying what constitutes the best material. After years of trial and error, I've found that the best materials share several key traits:

1. Authentic:

   The material should come from real-life situations, providing an accurate reflection of how people speak in everyday contexts. The opposite of this is textbooks or apps that focus on overly formal or outdated vocabulary and speech.

2. Practical:

   The topics covered should be relevant to daily life, avoiding overly obscure or theoretical content that may not have immediate application.

   Remember, you learn what you apply. So it makes sense to learn everyday and commonly used phrases because you have more opportunities to apply them, build your confidence, and then move on to more niche topics.

3. Interesting:

   If the material is not interesting to you, it becomes challenging to stay engaged and motivated. This is probably one of the most important factors.

   Here’s a tip: having the right mindset plays a key role in this too. When you learn with the goal of application, what you learn inherently becomes interesting, because you are excited to apply what you learn in conversations in real life.

4. Subtitles present:

   With the amount of free online learning material we have with subtitles, I would avoid anything without subtitles until you move into intermediate territory. It makes the learning experience so much easier.

   You can easily look up new words, read along while listening/watching, practice your comprehension and pronunciation with shadowing, and consolidate your memory.

What’s the best type of learning material?

While the best material can come in various formats (video, audio, text), my personal favorite is video content, particularly street interviews.

Video combines visual and auditory elements, and the ability to read subtitles enhances memory retention. Street interviews meet all the criteria – they feature real people, discuss practical topics, are inherently interesting, and come with subtitles.

But what about beginners? Street interviews may seem daunting at first, but they are surprisingly effective for learners at all levels, especially with subtitles.

They offer a glimpse into real conversations, exposing learners to authentic language usage and cultural nuances. It's like learning to swim by jumping into the water – except with languages you can’t drown.

I explain how to create a system to automate finding the best material like street interviews in the Copy Paste Speaking Course.

Where can you find material?

Now that we've identified the best type of material, the next question is where to find it. Personally, I love learning from YouTube. It’s basically a free university if you know where to look.

To look for content like street interviews you can search for “街头采访” or you can simply search “street interview Chinese”.

Many channels feature street interviews in Chinese. These provide unscripted, authentic interactions with real people.

One of my favorites is Easy Chinese. They have a wide variety of interviews covering everyday topics that you will encounter regularly as a beginner. As a bonus, they include pinyin, English, and Chinese captions.

Another great channel is Mandarin Corner for more intermediate learners.

I’ve created a list of the best channels and resources that you can access in the Copy Paste Speaking Course.

Practical Tips

In the vast sea of online resources, finding the right study material for learning Chinese can be a daunting task. The best materials that helped me learn fluent Chinese have these 4 things in common:

1. Authentic

2. Practical

3. Interesting

4. Subtitles present

Videos, particularly offer a unique blend of real-life interactions, practical topics, and engaging content, making them an ideal choice for beginners and intermediate learners alike, and are readily available on YouTube.

To access my personal list of the best resources plus a system to automate this entire process so you can save more time finding material and spend more time actually learning, check out the Copy Paste Speaking Course.

If you’re looking for personalized help, I am helping a few more students this month with personalized feedback. Message me at danyopang@gmail.com if you’re interested.

循序渐进，

Danyo

PS Here are some ways I can help you level up your Chinese:

1. Copy Paste Speaking Course: The exact system I used to learn to get conversational, improve my listening and pronunciation and speak Chinese like native speakers

2. Language Learner OS: This is a digital system to help organize your language studies, track vocabulary, build connections, stay productive, and learn faster! 

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