Learning Chinese from the Comfort of Your Computer

It seems that the demand to learn Mandarin Chinese has grown just as quickly than China's economy over the past few years.  Now, thanks to the Internet, it's easier than ever to take Chinese classes or connect with native Chinese speakers. 

While some aspiring Chinese speakers might have the luxury of a Chinese teacher or friend, new websites make learning Chinese accessible to anyone who can log onto the Internet.

At the same time, learning a new language can be pretty daunting, and with so many choices available, it's hard to know where to start.  How much do you need to invest, in terms of time and money, in order to learn communication basics, or converse with confidence?

The answers to these questions will naturally depend on your personal goals, but for starters, the following websites offer several free or inexpensive options that provide a strong basis for learning a new language.  While their approaches may differ, they all offer ways to help you improve your Chinese skills, whether you're just learning, or nearly fluent.

Chinesepod: Over 300,000 users receive daily updates from this language tool, which has lesson plans on many topics for many different levels of Chinese speakers.  Each podcast is about 10 minutes long, with levels ranging from Newbie to Advanced, challenging students of all levels.  With over 1,000 different lessons to choose from, it's easy to tailor your lessons to your interests.

In addition to the podcasts, which also have vocabulary lessons and language exercises, Chinesepod also has message boards where people can chat and ask questions to more experienced Chinese speakers.

While the Newbie podcasts are free, other content can cost between about $9.00 and $30.00 per month.  Those with an extra $200 per month can even have the added benefit of a daily personal tutorial, where a native Chinese speaker calls them and talks in Chinese for about ten minute each day.

Italki.com: I hadn't even been on the Shanghai-based italki.com for more than five minutes when I had multiple requests from three different Chinese students who wanted to chat.  The enthusiastic learners make it easy to meet native Chinese speakers, and users with Skype can also video chat or talk directly to their new language friends.   

As of April 20% of italki's users were in mainland China, versus about 7% in the U.S, and smaller percentages were from other countries worldwide, like India, Egypt, Morocco, Brazil, and Algeria.

Since italki.com isn’t just limited to Chinese and English speakers, you could easily find language partners who could help you learn virtually any language, like Spanish, Arabic, Hindi, or even unique languages like Yucatec Maya, Yoruba, Hmong, and Akan Twi.   

Gigachinese.com is another Chinese learning tool, offering tutorials and practice with native Chinese speakers.  Much of it is geared to businesspeople who would like to converse with their contacts overseas. 

Over 10,000 have registered for their courses over the past two years, and while this offers useful tools for those working in China, a casual learner might prefer a course that’s free of charge.

Livemocha.com is very similar to italki.com in concept, but provides more structured lessons plans.  The Seattle-based site connects different speakers from all over the world, and offers basic introductory courses in a number of languages. 

While the lessons might challenge more advanced language learners, they provide a great way for beginners to practice speaking, listening, reading, and typing.  It offers users a good balance of structured lessons and interaction with overseas Internet users.