Learn Chinese with Online Courses (2024)

Depending on your goals and learning style, you can find lots of different ways to learn by yourself online. There are online lessons with exercises and sites that teach Chinese through videos, as well as mobile apps for practicing vocabulary, grammar, and writing. You can certainly learn a lot of the basics this way. For speaking practice, you’ll need a conversation partner. Speaking Chinese with a tutor can help you master pronunciation, grammar, and real-life Mandarin and Cantonese Chinese expressions.

The time it takes to learn Chinese online can depend on many things, like how much time you have to study each day and how different Chinese is from your own native language. In the case of native Chinese speakers, Chinese can be quite a challenge. Per the U.S. State Department’s Foreign Service Institute, it would take a native Chinese speaker almost two years of intensive training — about 2,200 classroom hours — to reach a near-native level of fluency. However, this is based on the experience of people training to be diplomats. If you just want to learn enough to hold basic conversations or travel confidently in a Chinese-speaking country, you may take a lot less time to reach your goals. A 1-on-1 tutor can speed up the learning process, since your lessons are completely focused on your needs. With a personal tutor, you can also get steady Chinese conversation practice.

Globally, most new Chinese language media — like blogs, newspapers, magazines, and books — are written in simplified characters. Their design makes it easier to learn written Chinese. Today, Mainland China, Singapore, and Malaysia all use the simplified characters. On the other hand, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Macau still use the traditional characters. You’ll also see the traditional characters in “Chinatowns” throughout the world. For most learners, the simplified characters are the way to go. Still, if you want to speak Chinese in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, or an older “Chinatown” district, you should learn the traditional characters. As you learn one set of Chinese characters, you’ll probably start to recognize and understand many of the same characters from the other set. A Cantonese or Mandarin Chinese tutor can show you how to convert words from one set of characters to the other.