Learning the Chinese language is always difficult, so it’s important that you have the best tools possible to work with. Yes, others have time for classes after work or a language partner on the weekend. But if you are like many expats in China, you probably don’t have the time. Working in China usually means that, unfortunately, there is not time for much else. Because you live here, you know that getting around without knowing Chinese is certainly doable, yet frustrating on a daily basis. You may have even gotten to a shocking point where you suddenly realize that your Chinese should be leaps and bounds from its actual state and you want to do something about it. Don’t panic: by starting with the best language resources like online dictionaries, lessons, and pod casts, etc., you can choose to do a bit a day, and it will definitely help you.

Photo: hudong

Without Chinese classes, there are several simple sites online where you can get some daily conversation topics and vocabulary. The first is NCIKU. The nice thing about this site is the conversation feature. This feature is very nice if you already know the topic or situation for which you need the sentence structure and vocabulary. They also have a nice dictionary feature for you to look up characters; it provides you with several examples as well, and an audible function so you learn the correct pronunciation.

One of the most useful dictionaries, MDBG will provide excellent translations and give you many results as well as the appropriate pinyin, characters, audible feature, and a “did you mean” function. The nice thing about this dictionary is that you can study by radicals as well meaning that you can see all the words that contain the character for 口, for example.

For those of you with an extra ten minutes at lunch, try online Chinese Flashcards. The effort here is minimal and you will be surprised at how much you actually learn in such a short period. Just pick your level and you are off!

Why not try an audio Chinese lesson during your commute to work? Chinesepod is a great way to get a Chinese conversation a day right in your MP3 player. You can actually learn something instead of bemoaning the morning subway ride. You can even start with a free trial. The nice thing about Chinese pod is there are a lot of realistic conversations and you aren’t discussing how Da Wei bought Mr. Wong a Chinese-Russian dictionary for his birthday!

Even if you only have a few minutes a day, 10 minutes over your lunch hour, etc, these sites can help you get better faster than you think. You don't have to be one of “those” people who year after year has only functional Chinese with a vocabulary akin to a Chinese toddler. You too can improve! Now that you have this new found motivation, happy Chinese learning!

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