I've been studying Mandarin for a while. Here is a collection of useful (and free) resources that i found. Hopefully, it will help some people with learning Chinese. Some of this can be used for learning Cantonese and Japanese also.
BACKGROUND:
http://www.chinese-outpost.com/language/ If you're a beginner, read all of this. I found it most helpful when i started.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_character The history and development of chinese characters in the world - Hanzi, Hanja, Kanji.
TOOLS:
http://www.yellowbridge.com/ A really useful and versatile dictionary. Lets you search by criteria such as radicals, strokes and components. Gives you complete information about characters.
http://www.tigernt.com/cedict.shtml CEDICT, or "chinese-english dictionary" which has an extensive database, can look up english/pinyin/characters and has japanese version as well.
http://dltool.sourceforge.net/ Offline dictionary program that lets you copy any text on your computer and translate it to english/chinese. Uses CEDICT and Microfoft.NET and doesn't need to be installed.
http://www.chinese-forums.com/showthread.php?t=8158 Firefox plugin that lets you translate any characters on Chinese websites by highlighting them (uses adsotrans.com dictionary).
LEARNING MATERIALS:
http://www.chinese-tools.com/learn/chinese Basic/intermediate lessons with audio recordings and writing.
http://www.minmm.com/minc/classes.php Basic/Intermediate lessons with characters, pinyin and audio. Not for absolute beginners.
http://www.chinesepod.com/podcast/ Audio lessons in mp3 format, kinda like Pimsleur. It's either beginner or hyper advanced.
http://www.newsinchinese.com/ News in Chinese, with a reeeeally helpful pop-up dictionary to help you read.
http://www.wku.edu/~yuanh/AudioChinese/ Has a few audio/reading lessons divided by topics.
http://learn_chinese.ckungfu.com/beginner/index.htm "One sentence a day" and "Online lessons" will be useful for intermediate learner.
http://orientaler.com/en/china/wenxue/index.php Uber advanced reading/audio lessons taken from actual study books and children's books. I think it should have a pop-up dictionary, but it doesn't work for me.
Good luck.
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More resources can be found on this portal website. Some are very useful, others are dead links.
If you're hardcore, you might wanna look into taking an HSK exam. It's a Mandarin Chinese language proficiency test.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanyu_Shuiping_Kaoshi (about HSK test)
http://www.hsk.org.cn/english/Default.aspx (official HSK website)
BACKGROUND:
http://www.chinese-outpost.com/language/ If you're a beginner, read all of this. I found it most helpful when i started.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_character The history and development of chinese characters in the world - Hanzi, Hanja, Kanji.
TOOLS:
http://www.yellowbridge.com/ A really useful and versatile dictionary. Lets you search by criteria such as radicals, strokes and components. Gives you complete information about characters.
http://www.tigernt.com/cedict.shtml CEDICT, or "chinese-english dictionary" which has an extensive database, can look up english/pinyin/characters and has japanese version as well.
http://dltool.sourceforge.net/ Offline dictionary program that lets you copy any text on your computer and translate it to english/chinese. Uses CEDICT and Microfoft.NET and doesn't need to be installed.
http://www.chinese-forums.com/showthread.php?t=8158 Firefox plugin that lets you translate any characters on Chinese websites by highlighting them (uses adsotrans.com dictionary).
LEARNING MATERIALS:
http://www.chinese-tools.com/learn/chinese Basic/intermediate lessons with audio recordings and writing.
http://www.minmm.com/minc/classes.php Basic/Intermediate lessons with characters, pinyin and audio. Not for absolute beginners.
http://www.chinesepod.com/podcast/ Audio lessons in mp3 format, kinda like Pimsleur. It's either beginner or hyper advanced.
http://www.newsinchinese.com/ News in Chinese, with a reeeeally helpful pop-up dictionary to help you read.
http://www.wku.edu/~yuanh/AudioChinese/ Has a few audio/reading lessons divided by topics.
http://learn_chinese.ckungfu.com/beginner/index.htm "One sentence a day" and "Online lessons" will be useful for intermediate learner.
http://orientaler.com/en/china/wenxue/index.php Uber advanced reading/audio lessons taken from actual study books and children's books. I think it should have a pop-up dictionary, but it doesn't work for me.
Good luck.
-----------------------------------------------
More resources can be found on this portal website. Some are very useful, others are dead links.
If you're hardcore, you might wanna look into taking an HSK exam. It's a Mandarin Chinese language proficiency test.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanyu_Shuiping_Kaoshi (about HSK test)
http://www.hsk.org.cn/english/Default.aspx (official HSK website)
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