Introduction

Chinese is a group of language varieties that form the Sinitic branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages, spoken by the ethnic Han Chinese majority and many minority ethnic groups in Greater China. About 1.3 billion people (or approximately 16% of the world’s population) speak a variety of Chinese as their first language. Chinese is one of the oldest languages in the world. Chinese has been spoken for many a millennia and although it is unclear when the language originated, the earliest piece of evidence surrounding it dates back to 1600 BC.

As is clear from old texts found by archeologists, the Chinese language has undergone many changes since it was first spoken, however it is still a very similar language at heart. What’s interesting about Chinese is that it actually isn’t one language. It consists of hundreds of different dialects, one of the most commonly known ones being mandarin. It is the most widely spoken language in the entire world, with over a billion people being proficient speakers. Chinese is a very commonly spoken language in the world and there are many a few people that wish to learn it because of this very reason.

It is by no means easy to learn and is believed by many to be the hardest language to learn of all. Luckily there are lessons that can help you learn it without any complications.

1. Multibhashi:

The Bangalore-based educational platforms offer a wide range of language learning opportunities at your convenience where all are where the choice is yours. The platform is exclusively online. You can get a classroom-like atmosphere from here with lively interaction from the language expert and your classmates. The classes are of two types, Group webinar class and to one class. The duration of the courses is 30 min per class. The minimum number of classes that you can take is 30 classes. It can be increased according to your preference.  You can take the group class provided by Multibhashi or, if you prefer learning alone then you can take one class also. The fee structure of both classes is different. The timings of the classes are also flexible and is up to you to decide. Plus point here in Multibhashi is that you can take a free demo class before deciding where to join. The result will be satisfactory! 

2. Udemy

Udemy has a very wide variety of Chinese courses available for selection on their website. There are 854 lessons that can be chosen to learn Chinese from at any time. These lessons focus on a multitude of different things.

They have a wide enough variety of lessons to make you completely fluent in the language, as there are lessons for beginners, intermediates, and advanced speakers of the tongue.

This means that you can take lessons meant for every skill level step by step and fulfill your goal of learning Chinese. A large number of their courses will be focusing on teaching you about conversational Chinese.

3. Coursera

Coursera has a large enough quantity of lessons on their site to keep everyone satisfied, regardless of their skill levels or age.

They have 560 total lessons available to choose from and each of these lessons will be different from each other one way or another. First off are their beginner courses, these are the ones found most commonly on the site.

Most of their beginner courses will help you build a foundation. These ABC courses will help you learn simple phrases that are used in everyday situations so that you can comfortably initiate a conversation with any person in Chinese.

4. edX

There are a few over 175 Chinese courses available to choose from on edX. These lessons, like the ones on other sites, will be covering different topics, while the ones that feature similar topics will have their own unique ways of teaching them.

They have lessons on Mandarin Chinese and the other different dialects commonly spoken in the country of China.

5. Future Learn

There aren’t exactly loads to choose from when it comes to the Chinese lessons on Future Learn. They have 14 lessons, which isn’t exactly a lot.

However, that is nothing to worry about since the few courses that they do feature are more than enough to get you started with the language. A large majority of the few courses that they do feature are for complete beginners.

Each lesson focuses on something completely different. The ones based on pronunciation will obviously be teaching you about everything you need to say specific words in a certain way so that the people you are speaking to can understand you perfectly.

6. Preply

Preply is a platform where students and teachers from all over the world can come together in order to help each other out. Teachers that are experts on certain topics can help students that need help with said topics.

In the case of the Chinese language, there are more than enough different teachers available on the site who are more than qualified to tutor you.

There are tutors of every sort, whether straightforward and simple or energetic and fun, it is your choice what type of teacher you wish to study from.

7. SkillShare

Skill Share feature only a couple short of 125 courses on their site that can help you learn Chinese. Although it may feel like this is a little less as compared to some of the other sites on the list, their courses have enough variety to teach you anything Chinese-related.

There are specific lessons tailored to be perfectly suited for people of specific levels. There are lessons meant for people that have absolutely no prior language of the Chinese language, people that are proficient speakers, and everyone else in between.

Some of their courses will take on a straightforward approach while others will try to make your learning experience more fun rather than serious.

8. Learn Direct

Learn Direct are another United Kingdom-based website on this list. They focus on providing students such as yourself with everything that they would need in order to grow in their respective fields.

They have a variety of different courses available for every topic, including the Chinese language. From beginner to advanced they have lessons for everybody, and in this case, most of these lessons have been provided by the same source.

9. Mondly

Mondly is another platform that allows people such as yourself from all over the world to learn any language they wish from the variety that Mondly features.

As you can see from the title, their courses are completely free of cost, and another good thing about them is that they are quite effective and easy to work with.

They try to provide the people of the world with an easy alternative to taking classes with a tutor in person or going to an academy.

10. Busuu

Busuu is a platform that provides over 1000 lessons that you can take in order to learn a specific language. They have 12 different languages available for selection and you can choose any of the ones that you wish to learn.

Their lessons are designed by language experts that have made them be both effective and easy to work with, meaning that while you will be able to learn anything that you want to learn, you’ll also be able to do it with significant ease.

When it comes to their Chinese course, they have just over 60 different units, each unit obviously focusing on different things like introduction and grammar, etc.