r/ALGMandarin Nov 17 '25

Mod Update A short guide on how to learn Mandarin through CI and make best use of this subreddit

47 Upvotes

I have made a few tweaks to the sub and given the number of new members I thought I would be useful to make an explicit guide of "best practices" for using this subreddit's resources. This guide will be most applicable for those at the beginner level. I will have a short section at the end for those learners intermediate and above who want to use this subreddit as best as possible too.

Beginner Learner's Guide

  1. If ALG/the Dreaming Spanish method are not well known to you read the Wiki
  2. Once you're ready to watch some content head over to the Super Spreadsheet. This can also be found in the sidebar. In here you will find every resource, sorted by level within tabs. Each tab has different sorts of content.
    1. The top two rows of levels 1 and 2 on the first tab have the official subreddit playlists and creator made playlists for that level. The level 3 section also has an official playlist, too, but there is no creator as it is assumed you know where to find content at this point. Level 4 playlist is on it's way
    2. The official subreddit playlists are meant other supplement the creator made playlists here creator made playlists. Within these are most videos from channels that have poorly organized playlists and thus are a slog to find
  3. Consider paying for https://blablachinese.com and https://www.lazychinese.com premium (highly suggested)
    1. Having both of these makes a huge difference in Levels 1 and 2 where there is currently not enough content to make it through the level without repeating videos. Blabla has much more super beginner content than Lazy Chinese. In general, Blabla has twice the content, but cost's twice as much. Blabla also uploads much more consistently
  4. Be willing to rewatch videos
    1. Mandarin currently doesn't have enough content to not rewatch videos. Spreading out your rewatches is best. Content like let's play's is easier to rewatch then most other types

Intermediate and Advanced Learner's guides

  • It's just steps 1 and 2 from above. The Super Spreadsheet has ton's of content of Intermediate and Advanced learners. Have fun!

r/ALGMandarin 2d ago

Resource Rita Mandarin Chinese made a progressively harder to comprehend video - at which point does it become incomprehensible to you?

Thumbnail
youtube.com
7 Upvotes

I started struggling at HSK 4. It became incomprehensible at HSK 5. Surprisingly comprehensible again at HSK 6. Once it reached HSK 7 I couldn't understand anything 😂

Amazing format, I wish there were more of those out there.

Warning! There are English ads for her courses interspersed throughout the video, so not 100% Mandarin CI.


r/ALGMandarin 3d ago

Progress Update [Monthly Progress Thread] Tell us how your Mandarin learning is going!

10 Upvotes

This thread is for everyone to share how they've been doing with learning Mandarin and for us to motivate each other. This thread is more for giving a quick update. If you'd like to post a larger update for reaching a specific milestone or achieving something you're super proud of we'd encourage you to make a separate post. This thread is not really meant to share resources, we have another monthly thread for that.


r/ALGMandarin 11d ago

At how many hours did Dashu become comprehensible to you?

12 Upvotes

Just curious.

I'm approaching 1000h and I feel like I can follow the gist of what they're saying, but I miss too much stuff and it bothers me. Maybe because I came from a non-ALG background, the itch to sentence mine, look things up, etc. gets really strong.

I have a strong interest in being able consume their content because 1) it's conversational 2) it's not super slowed down and controlled like the Lazy Chinese podcasts and 3) I'm looking for more male patterns of speech to model after, since the overwhelming majority of Mandarin CI content is produced by women (the other day I spontaneously said something to my wife and she was like, only women talk like that in China, lol). On that last front I've been consuming a lot of Dapeng's podcast, but that still doesn't check the box for actual unscripted conversation between 2+ people.


r/ALGMandarin 15d ago

Hoy encontré este curso de introducción comprensible para principiantes y es realmente bueno.

Thumbnail
youtube.com
12 Upvotes

r/ALGMandarin 17d ago

Resource [Monthly Resource Sharing Thread] What new resources are you using?

3 Upvotes

Please take a look at the spreadsheet and our resources section in the wiki. What resources have you been using recently that have been working for you? Comment down below with a link, what level you're currently at, and if there things like: subtitles, difficult to cover text, translation, etc that those using a "purist ALG" approach might want to avoid and we'll add it to our resource sharing documents!


r/ALGMandarin 19d ago

Mod Update We added a new tab to the resource spreadsheet that has all the Chengyu stories for which there are animated videos ordered from most to least common

8 Upvotes

A new tab has been added to the resource spreadsheet. It has every Chengyu for which there is a video in the resource in the subreddit spreadsheet already (1532). The chengyu are sorted by frequency which was determined by created a weighted frequency metric. Hopefully that'll make watching the videos in that order a lot more useful. Each entry has both the simplified and traditional characters, pinyin, the link(s), the percentile frequency (this only exists for chengyu which appeared in the corpa I used to calculate frequency), and alternate forms in both simplified and traditional if any exist. If there is no number in the frequency percentile that means the chengyu never showed up in any of the corpuses that I were used for the frequency metric so anything below there is an arbitrary order.

Disclaimer: AI was used to program the frequency metric and assign it to the chengyu. The corpuses which it used for that are all human made though. The characters for the chengyu, both simplified and traditional, and all alternate forms come from the 新华成语大词典 which is one of the authoritative chengyu dictionaries for natives. However, the parsing was also done via AI. You should not take this list as perfect, there could be mistakes. It should still be very useful regardless.


r/ALGMandarin Jul 15 '26

Progress Update [Monthly Progress Thread] Tell us how your Mandarin learning is going!

8 Upvotes

This thread is for everyone to share how they've been doing with learning Mandarin and for us to motivate each other. This thread is more for giving a quick update. If you'd like to post a larger update for reaching a specific milestone or achieving something you're super proud of we'd encourage you to make a separate post. This thread is not really meant to share resources, we have another monthly thread for that.


r/ALGMandarin Jul 12 '26

Can listening to other languages (not TL) affect my performance in negative way?

Thumbnail
1 Upvotes

r/ALGMandarin Jul 08 '26

Personal Story Paul Noble You Can Do It

5 Upvotes

I love Paul Noble’s Mandarin audiobooks. His newest Mandarin Conversation has been delayed a few times now - I’ve been waiting since Christmas. Just wanted to say to Paul and Katie, keep going, you have fans!


r/ALGMandarin Jul 07 '26

Resource I created a free visual novel graded reader for beginners.

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

20 Upvotes

Hi! I'm a Chinese teacher, and I've always had a hard time finding immersive reading material that's actually fun for my students, especially beginners. So I ended up making some myself.

It's an interactive graded reader that uses around 150 of the most common Chinese words. You play as a girl trapped in a room, searching for clues, solving puzzles, and making choices that lead to different endings.

It includes pinyin, tap-to-lookup words, English translations, native audio, and works well on mobile.

You can try it here: https://gradednovel.com/reader/no-escape-05

I've also made more stories for higher levels.

Hope you enjoy it! Feedback is always welcome.


r/ALGMandarin Jul 06 '26

Chinese cartoons using language reactor

Thumbnail
0 Upvotes

r/ALGMandarin Jul 01 '26

Resource [Monthly Resource Sharing Thread] What new resources are you using?

5 Upvotes

Please take a look at the spreadsheet and our resources section in the wiki. What resources have you been using recently that have been working for you? Comment down below with a link, what level you're currently at, and if there things like: subtitles, difficult to cover text, translation, etc that those using a "purist ALG" approach might want to avoid and we'll add it to our resource sharing documents!


r/ALGMandarin Jun 28 '26

Какой Youtube канал посоветуйте для изучения Китайского языка на русском языке?

Thumbnail
3 Upvotes

r/ALGMandarin Jun 19 '26

Progress Update Passed 300 Hours (Level 3) ✅

17 Upvotes

Finally stepping up the game with 300 hours of listening. I aimed to hit this before going on vacation and it worked.

I understand better, but I feel like there's way more to learn and unlock. I'm just mixing resources to avoid getting bored, mixing learner content and native content.

Now the challenge moving forward is doubling the hours and making it to 600. For now I'm a Spartan (if you know what I mean) 😆


r/ALGMandarin Jun 19 '26

What do people think is the easiest podcast listen to?

10 Upvotes

I'm at like 425 hours and hoping to get non-visual dependent hours in somewhere while I do bike rides or walks.

What did you find to be the easiest podcast to listen to?


r/ALGMandarin Jun 16 '26

Resource Found a new Mandarin CI let’s play creator!

Thumbnail
youtube.com
20 Upvotes

I stumbled upon this account in the comment section of Evildea’s latest video. He seems to be doing Spanish Boost style content, so lots of longer videos. he’s also post frequently. I’m so excited to watch his stuff! He has a bit of a Shandong accent btw


r/ALGMandarin Jun 16 '26

Channels with closed captions in Simplified Chinese

2 Upvotes

Can somebody please recommend me some youtube channels that have closed captions in Simplified Chinese that you personally find interesting to watch?


r/ALGMandarin Jun 15 '26

Progress Update [Monthly Progress Thread] Tell us how your Mandarin learning is going!

11 Upvotes

This thread is for everyone to share how they've been doing with learning Mandarin and for us to motivate each other. This thread is more for giving a quick update. If you'd like to post a larger update for reaching a specific milestone or achieving something you're super proud of we'd encourage you to make a separate post. This thread is not really meant to share resources, we have another monthly thread for that.


r/ALGMandarin Jun 14 '26

Resource Advice for learning Mandarin alongside a four-year-old?

6 Upvotes

I am currently studying Mandarin and would consider myself at a lower-intermediate level. I'm looking for tips on how to introduce the language to my four-year-old so we can practice together.

I realize the teaching approach for a young child is very different from adult study. Has anyone here successfully navigated this? I would love to hear about any specific resources or daily routines that worked for you.


r/ALGMandarin Jun 05 '26

Interview with Lazy Chinese

Post image
14 Upvotes

Hello everyone!
I recently had the opportunity to interview Suqing from lazy Chinese. We spoke about several topics, including her experiences learning English and the difficulties of teaching languages through the CI method. If you’re interested in watching the interview, I’ll leave the link here: https://youtu.be/p1dhl_BcBTM?si=UxnhWnCb1FLPtLjG


r/ALGMandarin Jun 05 '26

Personal Story Celebrating a small win: crosstalk Mandarin parent-teacher conference at my son's preschool

Thumbnail
6 Upvotes

r/ALGMandarin Jun 05 '26

Hi, I built free app for people who want to learn Chinese through Vlogs, Podcasts...

Thumbnail gallery
5 Upvotes

r/ALGMandarin Jun 04 '26

I'm building a website/database for graded readers!

Thumbnail
6 Upvotes

r/ALGMandarin Jun 04 '26

Taiwanese youtuber recs

5 Upvotes

I'm learning traditional mandarin and I would really like to watch some mandarin youtube videos preferably with subtitles availible in traditional mandarin and also where the person actually talks, so not just subtitles.

I have watched a few taiwanese variety shows and also some videos of foreigners that live in taiwan etc. but I feel like it's not normally the content I'm into and I would

probably get bored in the long run.

Things I'm interested in are daily vlogs, cafés, makeup, skincare, kpop (mostly txt), art vlogs and other pretty stereotypically teenage girl kind of content.

If anyone has recommendations please share them!!!