
This type of scaffolding is so powerful that you might be tempted to use it too much! The main point is that if you can look something up in a fraction of a second, you can suddenly deal with texts that would have been impossible without otherwise. I elaborated this point further in an article about reading Chinese texts on your phone, something you should definitely do if you haven’t tried it already. As David Moser points out in The new paperless revolution in Chinese reading, it’s something that has revolutionised Chinese reading. Pop-up dictionaries – This is by far the most important tool of all.

The main challenge for beginner and intermediate learners is that most texts are too difficult, so here are four ways you can scaffold your learning, meaning that you support your understanding in various ways to enable you to deal with content that is harder than you would otherwise be able to deal with. Naturally, there is no magic threshold where this starts working, but generally speaking, the more you understand, the better. This enables you to pick up the things you didn’t already know without too much extra effort.
#Grade hackers for free free
The 10 best free listening resource collections for learning Chineseįor reading to be truly enjoyable and effective as a learning tool, you need to understand almost everything you read. If you’re after listening resources instead, check out this article: If you know of a good one I haven’t mentioned here, please leave a comment below!
#Grade hackers for free update
Please note that these are the best resources I know of, and that I will update this article with better resources if I can find them. If you have some money to invest into your learning, get hold of a few graded readers ( such as Mandarin Companion, that I reviewed here), preferably with audio so they can double as listening practice. Naturally, creating good reading content, especially for beginners and intermediate learners, is not easy, so the best resources will inevitably cost money. Some of the resources listed here have premium content you need to pay for, but my evaluation for the purpose of this post is based solely on the freely available content. They have been separated into three levels: beginner, intermediate and advanced (please click the links for discussions about each level and for general advice about learning Chinese on that level). Here’s an overview of the best reading resources. The 10 best free Chinese reading resources for beginner, intermediate and advanced learners

You need extensive reading!Īn introduction to extensive reading for Chinese learners You need to solidify and become more familiar with what you have already studied. You need to read characters and words over and over in different, meaningful contexts. What you ought to do in addition to that, and in much larger quantities, is to read texts that are at or below your current level. The total amount of text you see in Chinese is extremely limited, and this is a problem. Advancing in your main textbook is one example of this. The most common mistake is spending all reading time on intensive reading, meaning that you read relatively difficult texts and try to understand everything. Students don’t read enough, however, and when they do, many go about it the wrong way.

Tune in to the Hacking Chinese Podcast to listen to the related episode:Īvailable on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcast, Overcast, Spotify and many other platforms! Without enough input, you’re not going to perform well in other areas of the language, and lots of reading and listening will help you develop a feel for how the language is used. Reading and listening are the most important aspects of learning Chinese. I will also through in some free resources for advanced learners so that nobody feels left out! It’s difficult to find free Chinese reading resources for beginner and intermediate students, but in this article, I will share the best I know about after having spent years collecting resources.
