Ever thought about learning Mandarin Chinese? Here are 9 reasons to learn Chinese and the best resources to learn the language. If you’ve been looking for some reasons to learn Chinese and you’re not sure where to start, this ones for you.

My Story

Chinese was the first non-European language I learnt back in 2009. I started on a bit of a whim. As you do.

When I was picking the first courses for my degree, they’d just opened up a brand new beginner course for Mandarin Chinese. I dropped the German I had planned in order to start Chinese alongside Italian. (I did do German later on)

It was a lot of fun and really opened my eyes to languages with less familiarity. Just two years later, I found myself visiting China and dusting off what I’d learnt to get me around the country.

I was surprised!

My basic Chinese stopped us from getting sold the wrong train ticket. No one wants to end up in a small village instead of Xi’an, where the Terracotta Warriors are.

It also meant that I could avoid being conned into paying more for the bus to the Great Wall.

Learning a language saves money and avoids you ending up in a small village in the middle of nowhere? I’m in.

Resources

Why Chinese Is Easy – This intro guide by Benny Lewis from Fluent in 3 Months will set you right when it comes to grammar and he gritty bits that could be cause for concern – not so with this guide! Here’s my review of the French version to give you an idea of what to expect.

ChineseClass101 – One of my favourite audio series for multiple languages, the Chinese version is one of the originals and just awash with lessons for all levels of Chinese. Each lesson isn’t just audio – you’ve got a mixture of PDFs, video support lessons, and even tuition with the premium versions.

Glossika – What’s great about Glossika for Chinese learners is that they have a great variety of Chinese languages beyond Mandarin. If you’re curious to learn more, you get access to all languages when you sign up so you can go beyond Mandarin. Woop! Check out my post about how to use Glossika here.

italki – Being an Asian company, italki has a great selection of Chinese teachers.

Chineasy – If you like your language learning to look good as well as slip into your brain easily then Chineasy is a must. The beautifully designed Chinese character images will help you get to grips with those early characters. Perfect for avoiding early overwhelm with something that could easily become overwhelming fast!

FluentU – FluentU is a great tool to get used to real audio through video and quizzes and exercises related to what you watch. Check out my review here to learn more.

Live Lingua – Live Lingua has plenty of free stuff to help get you started with Mandarin.

Ohio State University – If you like a bit of course structure with your language learning, this free content from Ohio State University will do just that.

9 Reasons to Learn Chinese