Improve your Chinese language skills or simply read about fellow Mandarin students, their trails and tribulations. Find in our resources tips on Hanzi, vocabulary, grammar and culture and more. Scroll down for our latest blogs!
Chinese language recourses:
2021 HSK exam dates and times & other details
Here are the 2021 HSK exam times for if you’re looking to test your Chinese language skills, or need to obtain a HSK certificate for your visa, company, or university. The below dates are published by the official organization, Chinese Testing International Co., Ltd (CTI). But be aware, there is a disclaimer that these dates […]
New HSK levels for learning Chinese
Since 1992, HSK (汉语水平考试 Hànyǔ Shuǐpíng Kǎoshì, translated as the Chinese Proficiency Test) is the official standardized test for Mandarin — and it’s about to get its second big overhaul. The first revamp of HSK: From 1992, HSK had 11 levels. The levels were then simplified in 2010 and some contents removed, such as scientific […]
How our online Chinese courses inspire the offline courses (and vice versa)
In 2012, GoEast Mandarin started in Shanghai with a campus in Yangpu, and later one in the French Concession, and over the years we’ve grown to thousands of students and dozens of teachers. Since 2016 we’ve been fully dedicated to teaching online. With success! And now we see the interesting dynamic between teaching Chinese online […]
The best Reddit posts about learning Chinese
Reddit is such a great place, because besides wasting time at subreddits like r/Aww and r/Wholesomememes, it has extremely useful places, like r/Shanghai for our Shanghai-based Chinese students. And Reddit is a great place for learning Chinese as well. By far the best place for learning Chinese is r/ChineseLanguage (on Wednesday we post our Beyond […]
All about Pinyin, the Chinese alphabet
A common question about the ‘Chinese alphabet’ we get from students is: “I heard Chinese is a box-like ‘character language’, does it have an alphabet?” And yes, opposite to the English language, the Chinese language is an ideographic language. However, Chinese people have always been working on different methods to show how the characters are […]
Why you should learn Mandarin Chinese in Shanghai
Come learn the Chinese language in Shanghai. Aside of learning at our campuses in the former French Concession or Yangpu, there are plenty of other reasons. International city It’s jokingly said that Beijing makes foreigners more Chinese, while Shanghai makes Chinese people more foreign. While an international city may not appeal to you at initially […]
Learn Chinese online for free with these lessons from GoEast Mandarin
Learning Chinese isn’t as hard as you think it is, and there are plenty of free resources online too for learning Mandarin. Scroll down for videos and free Chinese language lesson materials about. For more Chinese language videos, you can always see our YouTube channel, GoEast Mandarin. If you want get free Chinese learning tips […]
Pronunciation of Pinyin, tones, initials, finals & accents in the Mandarin Chinese language
All you need to know to pronounce like a pro. Here’s GoEast Mandarin taking you through the Chinese language pronunciation: Pinyon, tones, initials, finals & accents, and even some tongue-twisters at the end. Scroll down for the video. Chinese language accents If you’ve been an English teacher in China, especially in mainland China, then you […]
Chinese greetings: How to say hello in Mandarin
It’s the start of a conversation, and as they say in some languages: a good start is half the work. Learn how to say these Chinese greetings. We list 11 Chinese greetings here, ranging from casual to formal. Chinese greeting #1: Hello there In Chinese: 你好Nǐ hǎo Formalness: 5/10 Commonness: 9/10 Undoubtedly the two most […]
Tips for Chinese beginner students with Mandarin Slang Guide
GoEast’s Emily appeared on a podcast episode of Mandarin Slang Guide, to talk about GoEast Mandarin and common problems faced by Chinese language learners (and how to fix them). Mandarin Slang Guide is a bi-weekly podcast hosted by Joshua Ogden-Davis, who is a Chinese learner himself! Previous episodes are about topics such as apps, how […]
Chinese vocabulary by topics
The Mandarin Chinese language has over 50,000 characters (although you don’t need to learn that many!) and there are probably over 300,000 Chinese words. But just like characters, you don’t need to learn that much vocabulary. To learn Chinese vocabulary, you can study the conventional HSK books, or follow special courses developed by GoEast, such […]
Chinese listening practice stories
Learn and improve your Chinese language with these short stories. They’re spoken in clear and slow Mandarin, with Hanzi, Pinyin, and English subtitles. Plus you get to learn a bit about Chinese culture as well! Scroll down based on Chinese language levels: Beginner Chinese Elementary Chinese Intermediate Chinese Advanced Chinese Beginner Chinese listening practice stories […]
Four reasons not to learn Mandarin Chinese
Let us dispel some reasons not to learn Mandarin Chinese language. 1 — Don’t need to learn new stuff Perfectly valid reason! If someone’s life’s good enough, why bother! But, for many Mandarin learners, Mandarin has been incredibly meaningful; not just in that it opens many doors, but also in that it shows them that […]
About your Chinese language learning journey
GoEast Mandarin is a Chinese school online and in Shanghai. This is our explanation by our Chinese language consultant Lynn (季玲 Jì Líng), who helps you get started with your Chinese learning journey at GoEast Mandarin. This video is taken from Shanghai’s Yangpu campus, the school that is also used for online teaching. Here are […]
Why we love HSK for learning the Chinese language
At GoEast Mandarin, most of our Chinese classes are taught at the official system for Mandarin: HSK (汉语水平考试 Hànyǔ Shuǐpíng Kǎoshì, translated as the Chinese Proficiency Test. For offline we often use the HSK books, and our own online courses are loosely based on the HSK system, and equally prepare you for the HSK tests. […]
How to develop Chinese language fluency
During our years of being Chinese teachers, many Mandarin learners have asked us the same question: “I learn really hard. I use flashcards, dictionaries. Every day I recite 20 words, I came to China, my vocabulary is 1000, 2000, or even 5000 words by now, but why do I still talk like a baby? Why […]
Everything about the Chinese language
The Chinese language is the most spoken language in the world, with 1.3 billion native speakers. It’s also one of the six official languages of the United Nations. At GoEast Mandarin, our colleagues also have first-hand experience of speaking Chinese in the Netherlands, Canada, the USA, and Chile. How many languages are spoken in China? […]
Pronunciation of the Chinese language
Correct pronunciation is one of the hardest parts of the Chinese language. There are not just the tones, but some of these sounds you need to pronounce are absent in many Western languages, so you’ll have to train your mouth and tongue on how to speak them. How to pronounce the Chinese tones Here are […]
How to speak the Chinese language
Hello new Mandarin learner! Welcome to the first lesson in Chinese language learning. Chinese language is often seen as one of the most difficult languages to speak, but to learn Chinese may be less difficult than you think it is. What? I already know how to speak these Chinese words!? Can you guess the meaning […]
Chinese words and phrases per HSK level
Once you learn how to speak the Chinese language, you’ll discover there’s so much joy in progressing your language ability and being able to discuss new topics and speak out new Mandarin phrases. So to motivate you to learn onwards, here’s a list of phrases, words and grammar you can achieve in the Chinese language. […]
Chinese short stories with Pinyin PDF
We believe in language immersion, and that you will learn the Chinese language much faster, even subconsciously, if you expose yourself to the Chinese language, either by living in China, listening to Chinese music, or reading Chinese. And you don’t want to be learning from textbooks all the time! So here we have home-drawn and […]
All about Chinese characters
Hanzi, or Chinese characters, are easier to learn with the right study material and learning tips. Aside from learning them with GoEast’s Hanzi course, that is… Scroll down for the history, how to memorize and write Chinese characters, and finally, Chinese characters that look like their meaning. How many Chinese characters are there? Here’s a […]
Best YouTube channels for learning Mandarin Chinese language
YouTube is an amazing place for Mandarin learners, because it’s full of free videos explaining vocabulary or the grammar of Chinese language. If you add the HSK level (E.g. “HSK3 vocabulary“) you’re sure to find a video with a list of Mandarin words you need to rehearse. And you can also search for a specific […]
How long does it take to learn Mandarin Chinese?
“I want to learn the Chinese language and be fluent in a year, do you think it’s possible?” It’s a hopeful question that we often get from beginning Mandarin students. And because the last thing we want to do is dampen someone’s enthusiasm, we say yes, of course, it’s possible to reach fluency in the […]
Chinese Story Contest winners
Let us introduce you these three fantastic stories that have won the Chinese Story contest, held by Du Chinese & GoEast. Congrats to Evan, 汪如诗 & Leigh — and thank you for the over 40 submissions we received. Read aloud by Chinese poet Qin Sanshu 秦三澍Qin Sanshu is the author of the poetry collection A […]
Chinese language resources per category:
