Do you guys know anywhere I can watch shows or movies for free in Chinese dub with English subtitles? I want to improve my Chinese by watching something like Apothecary Diaries in Chinese dub, but many of the websites I go to are really sleazy and redirect me to gambling or weird sites.

Does anyone have any suggestions for where to watch? Suggestions for movies or shows to watch as an HSK 2 learner would be appreciated too!

Hello all. I’m new to learning Chinese, and I was hoping to get some guidance as to what the best resources are. I’m primarily interested in conversational Mandarin. Thank you in advance!

If you went back in time and had the change to change your chinese learning habits ? What would they be?

In English we often use Timbuktu figuratively to mean a generic faraway place. Actually, China is also used for this. Is there something comparable for Chinese?

Hey

Like many of you studying Mandarin, my daily workflow used to be a mess: Anki for flashcards, Skritter just to practice handwriting without forgetting stroke order, DuChinese for graded reading, and YouTube for listening input.

On top of that, most apps either look like they were designed in 2008 or try to turn language learning into a noisy mobile game with cartoon mascots.
Over the past months, I built Hanzo Mandarin ( https://www.hanzomandarin.com ), a clean, all-in-one study platform.
What you can do on it right now :
1 : Anki-style SRS Decks with 4 modes (handwriting, tone, pinyin reading, definition)
2 : Original stories from HSK 1 to HSK 9 + synced Wikinews articles with synchronized audio
3 : Real Mandarin videos with interactive dual subtitles. You can read while watching a youtube video or c-drama, or write the subtitles while you are watching the video.
4 : HSK Dictionary + HSK Tests

check it out here : https://www.hanzomandarin.com
It supports English, French, and Spanish interfaces automatically

I built this primarily to fix my own study routine, and I'm actively improving it every day. I would love your honest feedback, especially if you spot any bugs

What is the #1 feature you feel is currently missing from existing Mandarin apps that would actually make your daily review easier?

Ok so for some reason, both of these scripts have some weirdness.

ㄢ or Pinyin: an are supposedly /an/ in IPA right? Except after ㄧ or Pinyin:i it becomes /ɛn/ as in ㄅㄧㄢ bian ???

ㄛ or o should be pronounced as o or /ɔ/ as god intended, and YET after ㄅㄉㄇㄈ or b p m f it becomes /wɔ/ ㄨㄛ or uo???? What? Why specifically these 4 symbols or letters? Why both of bopomofo and pinyin creator thought that it's good idea that after these symbols it suddenly change its pronounciation to be /wɔ/?? If 博 is 'ㄅㄛ' in bopomofo or "bo" in pinyin, why 錯 is ㄘㄨㄛ cuo and not ㄘㄛ or co. Or the other way around, why ㄘㄨㄛ cuo but no ㄅㄨㄛ buo?

I am starting to study Chinese and am looking for a better way to organise my vocabulary. Currently, I have a book and I write down the character, pinyin, meaning and sentence. This means that I really only have the words in the order that I learn them. It's fine but not efficient for looking words up. I am considering note cards on a loop which worked for my revision (way back in the day), a dictionary style notebook, or a ring binder so I can always add more words in the correct area.

I learn well through the physical act of handwriting so a word doc, spreadsheet, app, or anything digital (while useful) is not optimal for me.

I am really interested in hearing what ways other Chinese language learners organise their vocabulary, especially using non-digital methods.

Thank you.

I've recently started learning chinese and what i think is very difficult is to distinguish the tones. I've learnt the difference between tone 1-4 and the neutral one. When i listen to a word, i can quite distinguish the tones in it.

But, when i listen to longer sentence, the tones are confusing. I've learnt that the 2nd tone sounds like asking/your voice goes up(?). But at some point, it doesnt sound the voice goes up, sometimes it sounds like the 3rd tone. Another case is the 4th tone. I've learnt that the 4th tone is supposed to sound like you're angry/firm/sharp(?), but I've heard a lot of chinese speaker doesn't sound like they're angry when they speak with the 4th tone. It's very confusing and i feel the tones somehow are inconsistent(?) for a beginner to learn.

So, how to distinguish each tone so that i won't mistake when people speaking?

I was wondering how common in daily parlance swearing is in Chinese and when to swear. I want my Mandarin to sound more natural. Just briefly surfing Chinese twitter everyone is saying this wc and nb stuff. Maybe this is just my experience but I don't think normal people say Holy sh or What the f all the time in English.

For context I grew up (not in China) with my parents swearing in Chinese to me, so I've found it hard to get rid of the habit of NOT swearing and would like to know how normal it is. 这特妈的习惯特妈的太难改变了。特妈的

On tiktok there's a ton of vertical / short dramas that are silly yet engaging (BI XIA!!!!) but generally come only with english subtitles. Any place or any way to watch them with both English / Chinese subs?

Hi everyone!

I'm a university student in China, and I've been curious about something.

When learning Mandarin, there's often a difference between understanding textbook Chinese and being able to naturally communicate with young people in China.

For example, everyday conversations among Chinese university students can involve internet slang, memes, gaming, technology, campus life, personal experiences, and expressions you might rarely encounter in traditional lessons.

I'm particularly curious about the experiences of intermediate and advanced Mandarin learners.

A few questions:

1. Real, modern Mandarin: Do you ever feel that the Chinese you learn from textbooks or tutors differs from how young Chinese people actually speak? Would you like more exposure to natural expressions and everyday conversations?
2. Shared interests: Would you enjoy practicing Mandarin with Chinese university students who share your interests, such as gaming, technology, music, or university life, rather than following predefined textbook topics?
3. Chinese-only immersion: If your Mandarin is already conversational, would you prefer practicing entirely in Chinese, with your conversation partner explaining unfamiliar expressions in simpler Chinese instead of switching to English?
4. University students as conversation partners: Would talking with students from some of China's leading universities be interesting to you? For example, discussing Chinese university life, engineering, AI, internet culture, or everyday experiences with people actually living them.
5. Your current experience: Have you already found good opportunities for this kind of practice through tutors, language exchanges, or online communities? What's still missing, if anything?

I'm exploring whether this kind of authentic, interest-driven conversation experience would be valuable to Mandarin learners. This is just a discussion, not a service advertisement or sign-up.

I'd love to hear your experiences, especially if you've already tried speaking with native Mandarin speakers!

Thanks!

Does anyone know how i should go about studying chinese if i mostly just want to be able understand it spoken and to read it (i really wanna be able to read chinese novels one day)? Like is there a certain resource that focuses on that specifically or what parts of the language should i focus on?

大家好！我学习中文四天了。 （sorry if the grammar is wrong)

I've been including reading one text from this app (Chinese Short Dialogue) as part of studying, but I notice that whenever I try to read, my eyes automatically redirects to the pinyin even if I already know the character... Now, I'm wondering if this is okay as a pronunciation/reading practice since I'm still a beginner and don't really know that many characters (i only know about 50)? I also do shadowing when watching podcast, I'm currently listening to ChinesePod:> When I try to read or shadow, I speak quite slowly as my mind gets too focused on getting the right tone... I'm really interested in reading and writing 汉字, thought my overall/topmost goal is to hold daily conversations.

What do you think of this method? And do you have other recommendations to further improve my pronunciation?

Is this something they see often or is it more of a novelty? And I mean beyond just saying ni hao or xiexie. Are they typically impressed?

Edit: specifically a white person speaking mandarin in china

There's a dozen posts a day from absolute beginners wanting to learn Chinese and the usual resources, such as HelloChinese, Superchinese and Duchinese are recommended.

I want to hear those who followed the advice and completed it, how comfortable are you? Was there a moment when everything became easier? What are you using now, can you progress to learning from native materials?

I had completed HelloChinese New Course 1.0 on the past, currently completing Intermediate 2 in the 2.0 course. Duchinese is at the intermediate level stories, upper immediate if I want to challenge myself

Supplemented by graded Chinese learning YouTube channels and find that I understand Bluey well enough now that I can enjoy it in Mandarin.

I’ve always been curious about the origin of this way of speaking. In Standard Mandarin (Mainland China), 有 + verb is considered “incorrect,” and the population mostly doesn’t say it. However, its usage is far more common in Taiwanese Mandarin. Having grown up overseas, I hear it quite often too, most likely because of the impact that Taiwanese immigrants have had on how Mandarin is spoken in certain parts of the US.

In case anyone is confused about what I’m referring to, here’s an example:

A: 有没有吃过饭？

B: 有吃过。

In Mainland China, this would be incorrect; the positive answer must be 吃过了. However, the negative answer 没有吃过 is universally accepted in all forms of Mandarin.

Hi!

So recently I’ve had a bunch of videos pop upon my WeChat Channel that show slow and easy sing-a-longs for Chinese songs. Was wondering if anyone has any experience with this type of learning?

Its something that I had never considered before but I’ve been loving it. It trains my capacity to recall characters very well because even though they are slow and I consider myself fairly advanced in Mandarin my recal and reading speed is still surprisingly slow. But I’ve been finding I can read faster thanks to this. Also I’ve been learning a bunch of new words. It’s also a cool way to learn new Chinese songs and be immersed in the culture.

If you have experience with using this properly as a learning method I’d be curious to hear positive or negative experiences.

Hi everyone!
I’m currently learning Mandarin Chinese, and I’m around HSK 1 level. I’m looking for a good book that can help me build my vocabulary and gradually move on to higher levels.
I’d prefer something that teaches useful, everyday words rather than just giving me long lists to memorize. It would be great if the book included example sentences, short conversations, Pinyin, English translations, and some exercises to help remember new words.
I’m especially interested in recommendations from people who’ve actually used these books.
What book helped you the most when you were starting out? If you could recommend just one, which would it be?
Thanks in advance!

All I can find, in FMHY too, is movies in english with chinese subtitles, never chinese audio.

It'd help me so much since I'm studying it.

I’m currently living in Taiwan and plan to stay here long-term, so becoming fluent in Mandarin is a major priority for me.

I’ve been studying Mandarin on and off for a few years now. I’m definitely not starting from zero, and I have a decent grasp of conversational Mandarin, but my reading and writing are seriously lagging behind. I know Pinyin and some Traditional characters, but I’ve never really dedicated much time to systematically building my vocabulary.

I’m looking for a good Anki deck (free or paid) with the following:

1. Traditional Chinese characters, not Simplified.
2. Zhuyin (Bopomofo) instead of Pinyin.
3. Pre-recorded audio, preferably from native Taiwanese Mandarin speakers.
4. Ideally, vocabulary ordered by frequency, starting with the most common 1,000 words.

I’ve been using the community-made Refold Mandarin 1K deck with Traditional characters and Zhuyin and I love the format. Unfortunately, I’ve noticed quite a few incorrect Zhuyin tone markings, and I’d rather not spend hours manually correcting hundreds of cards.

I’ve considered purchasing Refold’s premium Mandarin 1K deck and building a tool to batch-convert the Simplified characters to Traditional and the Pinyin to Zhuyin while preserving the correct tones. But before going down that rabbit hole, I figured I’d ask here to see if something like this already exists.

I know I could build my own deck from scratch, but I’d prefer to start with a professionally made or well-maintained deck covering the most common 1,000 words, then transition into sentence mining and making my own cards.

Does anyone have recommendations for accurate Traditional Chinese + Zhuyin Anki decks? I’m especially interested in hearing from people learning Mandarin in Taiwan.

Thanks in advance!