A Chinese course where you are the star

Marvin and Coleen in a Chinese Tea House

What do YOU want to talk about?

Everyone agrees that the best way to learn a language is by focusing on the most useful vocabulary first. The problem is that “most useful” is different for every learner. ChineseMe is a systematic, integrated Chinese course focusing on YOU: your person, your life, and your interests. Depending on your objectives, you learn the right vocabulary to prepare for business, work, study, travel — or just to surprise your Chinese spouse by saying a few words in his or her language.

ChineseMe focuses on YOUR needs

Throughout the course, you learn specific vocabulary directly based on your personal ambition and interests.

The first sentence you will practice is “My name is …”, with your own Chinese name.

ChineseMe integrates all aspects of the language

ChineseMe integrates vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation to allow you to sound and express yourself like a native. Pronunciation is so important that we try to help you aim at perfection right from the beginning. You will soon be able to impress native speakers even with the most basic sentences.

Students work on pronunciation in three steps. First, they listen and repeat the sounds. Then, they read from the pinyin pronunciation. Finally, they read from Chinese characters. In this way, students are trained not to rely too much on pinyin, and there is less risk that they suffer from a bias from their native language when reading pinyin for the first time.

ChineseMe guides you to the most effective way of studying

Chinese characters can seem daunting — but as long as you go approach them in the right way, they actually make it easier to learn the language. ChineseMe focuses only on high-frequency characters, and takes advantage of their etymology, structure and artistic beauty as memory aids. The course systematically combines all characters you have learnt into as many new words as possible. This maximizes the number of words you know without learning too many new characters.

Develop a genuine feel for the language

Chinese grammar is just as exotic as the characters. But it can be surprisingly easy to master — as long as we use tools and concepts that help develop an intuitive feel for the language. ChineseMe uses grammatical terms and concepts adapted specifically to Chinese, together with sentence patterns that help internalize grammatical structures and improve oral comprehension.

All patterns come with translations to idiomatic English so that you will know how to use them in the right way. In those cases where we think it will help you understand the structure of a pattern better, we also provide a literal translation in capital letters to show the function of each Chinese word.

Learn how to interact and make friends with Chinese people

When you learn a language, cultural context can be just as important as grammar and vocabulary. This is especially true for Chinese, as the cultural differences with the West are large. In this course you will learn not just language skills but also how to behave appropriately, make friends and adapt to Chinese society.

Number symbolism is very important in China. There are both “lucky” and “unlucky” numbers. The most famous example is 四 sì “four”, which sounds similar to another character meaning “to die”. As a consequence, many Chinese buildings lack all floors ending in this dreaded number: 4, 14, 24 and so on.

Choose the components and exercises YOU want

Every learner has his or her own preferences: some people focus on pronunciation and vocabulary, others want to master grammar; some people love our character calligraphy exercises, others prefer learning about culture and character history. ChineseMe has something for everyone; you choose which parts to study and when.

A completely modular course

The course is divided into Seasons. Every Season has about a dozen Episodes. These Episodes contain grammar and vocabulary that are so common that they are useful regardless of your interests. In addition, there are many interest-based Episodes with lots of vocabulary tailored to your preferences which provide an opportunity to review and reinforce the grammar you have already mastered.

After completing Season 1, you will know enough vocabulary to have a simple conversation and tell people a bit about yourself in Chinese. You will have mastered 26 sentence patterns, have a solid understanding of Chinese pronunciation and tones and know how to write 88 characters with beautiful strokes in the correct order. You will also have a Chinese name and know which zodiac animal you belong to.

In Season 1, you will learn the basics of Mandarin Chinese. In Season 2, you will know enough vocabulary to start following the story of Marvin, a foreigner who arrives in China and do his best to learn Chinese.

Every Lesson introduces a limited number of new elements, while making sure that the knowledge previously learnt is constantly reused.

Lesson 3 only introduces five new characters.

If you’re excited about learning Chinese, give it a try! You can go through the first Episodes and download a free PDF version of the course on our website: www.chinese-me.com

I’m creating the world’s most effective course in Mandarin Chinese. Have a look and help me improve it! ChineseMe

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Twitter: @ChineseMeHQ

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