A guided course
Start here
You do not need to understand HSK terminology, install anything, or know a single character to begin. This page is the whole orientation — five minutes, then you start learning.
What Mandarin, pinyin, tones and characters are
Mandarin is the standard form of spoken Chinese. Pinyin is its romanisation: the same sounds written in Latin letters, like “nǐ hǎo”. It is a reading aid and a typing tool — not a separate language.
Mandarin is a tone language: the pitch pattern of a syllable is part of the word. “mā”, “má”, “mǎ” and “mà” are four different words. There are four main tones plus a light neutral one, and the Foundations lessons train your ear and mouth for each.
Chinese writing uses characters (汉字). Each character is a unit of meaning and sound — 你 is “you”, 好 is “good”. You will learn to recognise characters first, type them with pinyin early, and handwrite the important ones gradually. Recognising, typing and handwriting are separate skills, and this course treats them that way.
How the lessons work
Every lesson follows the same small pattern: a real situation, an example you can hear, a short explanation, supported practice, an independent attempt, and a recap with a next step.
- Listen — tap any Chinese text to hear it spoken.
- Reveal — tap a word to see its pinyin and meaning; the lesson fades support as you go, never hides it.
- Review — the trainer remembers which words you miss and brings them back at the right time.
Typing Chinese
You type Chinese with a pinyin input method (IME): type “nihao”, choose 你好 from the candidate list. Any phone or computer already has one built in — on phones add “Chinese, Simplified (Pinyin)” to your keyboards; on Windows and macOS add the Chinese (Simplified) input source. Lessons tell you when typing is expected; you never need to handwrite to make progress.
Choose a starting point
If you are starting fresh, begin at the Foundations and follow the route in order. If you already speak some Chinese — for example you speak it at home but read little — the starting check points you somewhere more useful than lesson one.
Take the starting check →Sessions, not promises
Pick a session length that fits your day: 10, 20 or 30 minutes. These are study structures, not speed claims — how fast you reach a level depends on you, your background and your consistency. Short, regular sessions win.