FAQ


Is this site really free?
Who should use this site?
Is learning Chinese difficult?
Why do you use video to teach Chinese?
What are "tones"?
Does Chinese have an alphabet?
Are Chinese characters pictures?
What are "radicals"?
Should I learn Chinese characters?



Is this site really free?

Yes, all of our dialogues, keywords, key sentences, PDFs and Cultural Understanding articles are available for free download to any registered user and offer a great beginning to your Chinese studies.  If you'd like to make the most of your time you can also gain access to our Understanding videos where our language experts guide you through each lesson, or your own individual tutor, with affordable membership options.  

Who should use this site?

Anyone interested in Chinese or in China and Chinese culture.  Our lessons are fitting for those already studying Chinese in school, those going to China on business or travel, and those interested in studying the language on their own.  Since we're online, you get to study whenever you have time.  And since you can download our content, wherever you go, your lessons go with you.  

Is learning Chinese difficult?

As in all things, with applied effort and interest learning Chinese can be an enjoyable and rewarding experience.  For those who would really like to learn Chinese, we make it interesting and useful so that learning is easier.  Our videos focus on realistic, useful situations so that you're armed with language that you will be able to use right off the bat.  

Why do you use video to teach Chinese?

Studies have proven that immersion is the easiest and quickest way to learn a language.  For those who are not able to invest either financially or time-wise to make a trip to China to study, our videos provide the closest "immersion" study experience possible.  Our videos are professionally made and present realistic and useful situations.  No longer restricted to "book-learning", we put you IN the situation.

What are "tones"?

Chinese is a "tonal" language.  What this means is that one sound ("phoneme") is pronounced in different pitches or "tones" to produce different meanings.  Mandarin Chinese, the standard form of Chinese promoted throughout mainland China and Taiwan, has four tones.  For more information on tones please see our related page here.  

Does Chinese have an alphabet?

No, Chinese does not have an alphabet.  Chinese is made up of characters.  Each character represents one syllable and carries meaning.  Words can be made up of one, two, three and occasionally even four or more characters.  

The sounds of Chinese can be written with letters of the Western alphabet (this is "romanized" Chinese).  The most common system today is that of pinyin, which was developed by Chinese scholars in the second half of the 20th century.  It is the standard system of romanization used today in the PRC and the system taught to the vast majority of both native Chinese and foreign Mandarin students.  We have more information on pinyin here.  

Are Chinese characters pictures?

The simple answer is no.  Chinese characters have undergone a long period of transition, the earliest stages of which we have very little evidence.  The earliest forms of Chinese we know of are already quite advanced.  Some characters are obviously representations of physical objects.  Other characters, however, are not so obviously related to a concrete object. 

What are "radicals"?

Radicals are the building blocks of characters.  Sometimes characters are formed of only one radical:  the earliest character for "sun", ÈÕ, is one example.  Sometimes characters are made of more than one radical, however.  For example, the character for "bright", Ã÷, is made up of two radicals:  "sun", ÈÕ, and "moon", ÔÂ.  The sun and moon, the two brightest objects in the sky:  bright.  

There are a large number of radicals in Chinese.  They are important aspects in constructing a character and talking about words.  For one example of their importance in speech, instead of "spelling" a word like you would in the West, in Chinese it's frequent for one to talk about how it's written by describing the radicals that it's composed of.  

Should I learn Chinese characters?

Learning Chinese characters is a very fruitful and rewarding exercise.  At first it is time consuming, but as your language improves the time you spent at the beginning learning each character will more than pay off.  For a number of reasons, it is very difficult to advance to a very high level of Chinese without learning characters.  Also, without knowing characters you are, effectively, illiterate.  Traffic signs, bus station signs, menus, maps, etc. are all meaningless.  

That said, there are those who, for a variety of reasons, choose not to study characters.  It is a decision that everyone needs to make for themselves.  The one point of advice we give is that if you really want to learn Chinese, do not fall into that trap of thinking that "at first I'll learn how to speak and then I'll learn characters later."  Everyone we know who has done this has never learned to read.  If you want to read, then learn your characters from the beginning.  We guarantee it will pay off later.