Mandarin childhood learning: 15 Best Resources For Your Kids To Learn Mandarin Chinese

15 Best Resources For Your Kids To Learn Mandarin Chinese

It’s never too early to start learning Chinese.

But getting your child engaged in a stale textbook riddled with plain walls of text would be no easy feat.

And if you try this, you’ll probably find them asleep in a minute or two. 😅

While the Mandarin resources, creative tactics, and innovative strategies you utilized may have worked wonders for you, they may not produce the same results with your little ones.

Kids naturally don’t have a long attention span, so it’s best to keep them engaged and entertained to help them learn quickly and effectively (without them even realizing it).

One way to do this is to use a variety of resources.

Here’s a list of the best resources of different kinds that will help your children learn Mandarin Chinese in a fun and exciting way.

Best resources for your children to learn Mandarin Chinese

Mandarin For Kids Set 1: Readers Book Set with Online Audio

This eye-catching series was developed in collaboration with professional Mandarin Chinese teachers for children aged 3-8.

Mandarin For Kids consists of 10 different books with captivating and simple storylines that will keep your children engaged while they learn.

Because each book is filled with aesthetically pleasing illustrations and paired with an online audio recording, visual and auditory learners will thrive with this set of resources.

This high-quality audio ensures that your kids are exposed to the correct pronunciation and tone of Chinese characters, which ultimately builds the foundation for excellent speaking and listening skills.

Additionally, this series will help your kids learn about various simplified Chinese characters and their pinyin. You can also find the English translations included in a neat and handy vocabulary list to boost learning.

Mandarin For Kids covers a wide range of topics, such as family, colors, clothing, animals, numbers, and shapes. Because the stories are simple and easy to follow through, your child’s confidence in learning a new language is gradually fortified with each book they successfully conquer!

Without a doubt, it is a fantastic beginner series for children in preschool or kindergarten, allowing them to learn Chinese in an exciting and lighthearted way. Children below that age may still enjoy the audio and illustrations.

Bao Bao Learns Chinese

Most of us have probably grown up singing and dancing along to nursery rhymes. And let’s admit it—that was a truckload of fun.

Bao Bao Learns Chinese is another book for toddlers, babies, and preschoolers that helps ambitious young learners pick up this beautiful language through music and nursery rhymes.

On top of that, this bilingual and interactive book features a real mom singing sweet and lovely songs in a gentle voice with music accompaniment.

The book comes with simplified characters and English translations, colorful and lively illustrations, durable board book pages, and easy-to-use volume controls.

With a simple push of a button, a non-electronic audio recording proceeds to serenade your young ones with popular nursery rhymes performed in Chinese.

You won’t detect a trace of boredom with this fun and brilliant resource. Without a doubt, kids (and parents) love it!

Big Chinese Workbook for Little Hands

This handy little resource for kids aged 5+ will set the foundation for Chinese character writing and recognition.

Big Chinese Workbook is a fantastic workbook for vocabulary expansion, as it will cover commonly used characters and words surrounding topics such as colors, numbers, shapes, and dates.

In addition to that, it contains cute illustrations, simple exercises, and engaging activities with a decluttered and easy-to-follow layout.

Simplified characters are the focus, and you can scan the QR code provided on the cover to access soundtracks that cover the contents of the workbook, though this may not work on all devices.

In short, this workbook can serve as a supplementary resource in addition to other Chinese textbooks. Alternatively, your children can utilize it as the core material for self-study with, of course, some parental supervision and encouragement.

Little Fox Chinese

Little Fox Chinese is an online program that encourages learners of all ages to venture further in their language-learning journey.

And yes, parents are welcome to give it a go, too. 🤗

Learners can select from an array of learning materials, including songs, animated stories, and games. This website also scores extra brownie points as new content is released on a daily basis.

Their rich content is jampacked with dazzling and striking animations, and all stories are organized into different levels of learning with increasing complexity as learners progress into higher levels.

With this one-stop-center resource, your little ones will be able to refine their skills in multiple areas, including speaking and listening, as well as build on their knowledge surrounding vocabulary, tone, pronunciation, pinyin, and character recognition.

The content found on Little Fox Chinese is suitable for beginners through to advanced learners.

DinoLingo – Learn Chinese For Kids

DinoLingo is an online website that offers a series of learning materials to young learners, including animated Chinese lessons, games, songs, books, flashcards, audiobooks, and worksheets.

DinoLingo harnesses the power of beautiful and visually appealing animations to captivate your children, keeping them engaged in various topics presented in an age-appropriate way.

This platform utilizes the repetition technique to enhance learning, generating a rich and conducive environment for young children to learn how to speak Mandarin.

On top of that, game-based learning is employed, where kids are beckoned to embark on a fun language-learning adventure and earn enticing rewards on the way.

These rewards are attained by completing lessons, quizzes, and games that cover basic vocabulary in a diverse range of topics, including numbers, food, colors, body parts, family, animals, and clothes.

Through this platform, you’ll attain a supply of learning materials catering to children in preschool, elementary, primary, and middle school.

Subscribing to their plan will give you complete access to their comprehensive curriculum consisting of lesson plans, worksheets, quizzes, and even progress reports to expedite learning in the classroom or at home. The subscription plan costs $19.99/month or $119/year.

PandaTree

PandaTree is a resource hub that encourages kids to pick up Mandarin through stories, games, songs, and videos.

When you enter the website, you’ll be greeted with content meticulously designed and compiled by experienced Mandarin teachers for children aged 4-15.

While PandaTree is actually an online tutoring platform that provides paid one-on-one and small group lessons for young children, they also offer free learning content for kids keen on picking up the language.

After signing up, you’ll be given the flexibility to select your preferred schedule and pick a professional tutor with a profile that best suits your child’s learning needs.

These lessons are priced from $10 and up, but you’ll have access to learning materials, worksheets, and videos readily available on their website at no cost at all.

Through their array of resources, your children are guaranteed bountiful opportunities to practice and apply what they learn across a series of topics, including foods, festivals, animals, colors, and numbers.

In addition to building vocabulary, PandaTree’s learning content aims to refine your children’s speaking and listening skills.

Fun Chinese For Kids By Studycat

Sometimes, children can be more tech-savvy than adults, so why not put their interest in devices to good use?

Fun Chinese For Kids is a popular Mandarin Chinese app for children aged 3-8, and the app’s content is carefully designed and crafted by award-winning educators.

Ultimately, the goal is to teach children the Chinese language through a subset of delightful and exciting games while fostering their love for this beautiful language.

The app utilizes a mix of lively sound effects, attractive graphics, and native speaker recordings to augment your child’s learning and keep them engrossed in each lesson.

Your children can explore 11 different topics through 65 interactive lessons where they’ll get acquainted with 150 new Chinese words and phrases. For each thematic topic, your children will come across 5-8 games that enable them to pick up Chinese through play and fun.

You can toggle between simplified or traditional characters in this app and even change the default output language of the app to other options such as Japanese, Dutch, German, and Indonesian.

Unfortunately, the free version of the app will keep your hands tied due to its limited access. If you wish to unlock complete access across the app, you may opt for their monthly plan ($14.99/month) or their yearly plan ($59.99/year).

_Note: You may need to guide your children through some of the games. Sometimes, instructions are not provided, and at other times, the playthrough may be a little too complex for young kids. _

Kids Yay Learn Chinese

Kids Yay Learn Chinese is another game-based learning app intended for beginner learners aged 3-10.

This app guides your little ones towards building their knowledge on various aspects of the Chinese language, including character recognition, writing, vocabulary, pronunciation, tone, and contextual use of words and phrases.

Learning about the different tones is a critical part of mastering Mandarin Chinese. This app innovatively utilizes tongue twisters to help your children practice and learn in an entertaining and amusing way.

On top of that, the app’s handwriting lessons will teach your kids the correct stroke sequence and deepen their knowledge about the different building blocks of various Chinese characters, allowing them to refine their writing skills from an early age.

While the app generates a secure and ad-free learning environment for your children, the free version will only grant you access to several sample lessons.

The rest of the content sits behind a paywall, and an additional fee will be charged for each add-on lesson purchased.

Magikid Chinese

Magikid Chinese draws young ones into an immersive learning environment where they will encounter unique stories, thrilling games, and lively songs that work synergistically to keep them enthusiastically learning.

With over 90-days worth of bite-sized content, your children will be picking up more than 500 different Chinese characters. Through this visually appealing app, they will also expand their vocabulary and sharpen their listening and speaking skills.

Of course, to keep young kids engaged and focused, Magikid uses a diverse range of learning materials. This includes flashcards to improve their reading and character recognition skills, sing-along videos subtitled with Chinese lyrics and their pinyin, and thousands of games to keep things fun and lively.

Plus, they have a report card feature that serves as a valuable tool for teachers and parents to keep track of the child’s learning progress and pinpoint areas that require more practice.

This app is best suited for children aged 3-8. And while you can download it for free, you are required to pay a rather hefty fee to access a massive chunk of their content.

Skritter

If you’re searching for an app that caters to children (and adults) of all ages, here’s one that tops the list.

As much as speaking and listening skills are core pillars of mastering the Chinese language, writing is an equally important component that often doesn’t garner much attention or emphasis in curriculums for young learners.

Furthermore, some children naturally don’t enjoy writing Chinese characters.

While the complexity of certain characters can get somewhat overwhelming, Skritter is an app with an anchored focus on helping users remember, recognize, memorize, and construct Chinese characters.

This app utilizes a technique known as spaced repetition, where previously learned characters are revised and reviewed at specific intervals over days, weeks, or even months.

Ultimately, this app can teach children to write characters with the correct stroke sequence. It possesses a unique feature that allows for on-screen handwriting practice. Plus, the pinyin, tone, and meaning of each character are provided to enhance learning.

Finally, the spaced repetition function will jog their memory and improve their recall abilities by encouraging them to review what they’ve previously studied.

Hopefully, the characters your children learn to read, write, and recognize with this app are more effectively retained in their long-term memory.

Chineasy

Chineasy is a fairly new Internet startup that has been steadily garnering popularity among Mandarin Chinese learners of all ages.

This Internet-sensation-to-be is a Chinese learning platform with its hands in different cookie jars, having released materials ranging from books and an app to video content on YouTube.

Visual learners will be well-pleased with the design and content, as its focus is harnessed onto learning Mandarin Chinese characters through the use of illustrations, graphics, and visual prompts.

While the app is a big hit among adult beginner learners, your kids don’t have to be left out. In fact, Chineasy has introduced a book designed specifically for children aged 6-8 to learn their first 100 Chinese characters.

This book forms an impressive foundation for children to pick up basic Chinese literacy and engages children throughout their learning journey with lively scenes, a wide range of topics, and a neat picture library.

Both the book and app are fantastic learning tools for young beginners, but you won’t want to miss out on the free learning content spread across their YouTube channel, either.

Your children can dive headfirst into well-animated videos that cover Hanyu pinyin, tone, pronunciation, speaking, and character recognition with this YouTube channel.

Ultimately, Chineasy is one of the best options to consider if you wish to learn Chinese together with your children.

Ximalaya FM

Ximalaya FM has claimed its title as one of China’s largest audio-sharing platforms, amassing a massive following from listeners and content contributors alike.

This platform was established as a common ground for aspiring and successful audio content creators to share their Chinese Mandarin pieces with audiences scattered across the globe.

As a site user, you have access to soundtracks, podcasts, audiobooks, and music covering a colossal range of topics and genres.

The good news is that there’s a vast amount of content curated specifically for kids, including songs, audiobooks, and stories presented in a lively, fun, and exciting way.

But do take note that older children who fall in the intermediate or advanced learner category are more likely to learn and benefit from this platform.

With the amount of free content readily accessible on the site, you and your young ones could be tuning in to different children’s songs and audiobooks daily and never run out of content to enjoy.

Hence, it’s a fantastic resource that could help your children improve their listening and speaking skills by leaps and bounds.

Nevertheless, the entire site is in simplified Mandarin Chinese, though some audio uploads may also have an English title.

Therefore, if you’re not familiar with reading Chinese characters, you could resort to using the full-page translation function provided by Google to navigate the site.

YouTube

YouTube is one of the best resources for learning Chinese, and the best part is that you don’t have to spend a single cent! 🤗

There are tons of YouTube channels that teach Mandarin Chinese. One of them is Little Fox Chinese – Stories & Songs for Learners.

With over 200,000 subscribers, this channel encourages young Mandarin Chinese learners to explore this rich language through educational and well-animated stories as well as catchy songs.

Another well-put-together YouTube channel is 简中 Little Chinese Learners [Simplified Chinese].

Upon landing on this channel, you’ll notice educational content delivered via songs, stories, and games. On top of that, your children can also solidify their learning by watching bite-sized tutorial videos conducted by experienced native teachers.

Finally, you may also wish to have your children try out the Ezy Mandarin YouTube channel.

Their videos cater to both adults and children, and the channel aims to help learners explore and learn the Chinese language through songs and music. Your little ones will have a ball of fun learning, singing, and dancing gleefully along to their library of catchy tunes!

These are just a few of the endless possibilities you can explore on YouTube. It is, after all, a massive hub for entertaining yet educational content!

Chinese TV Programs And Cartoons

Most children love watching shows and cartoons, which is why you can leverage that interest to help them learn a new language.

Shows and cartoons provide cultural context to the language, helping viewers enhance their language comprehension, natural fluency, and vocabulary as they learn.

Nonetheless, this learning method may be better suited for children with some form of foundation or knowledge of the Mandarin Chinese language, especially if no English subtitles are provided.

Of course, it’s crucial to ensure the TV programs and cartoons your children watch are kid-friendly.

A few children’s shows and programs you may wish have your young ones try out include Big Ear Tutu (大耳朵图图), Pororo The Little Penguin (小企鹅啵乐乐), and Boonie Bears (熊出没).

Nonetheless, it may be best for TV programs and cartoons to serve as supplementary learning tools rather than the core learning material for your kids to pick up Mandarin Chinese.

Tuttle Chinese for Kids Flash Cards

Tuttle Chinese for Kids is a great candidate to consider if you’re looking for a fun introductory resource to spice up your child’s language learning journey.

The package consists of 64 flashcards, an audio CD, and a learning guide, all meticulously designed and crafted for children aged 6-14.

The 64 flashcards carry content spread across various topics, such as animals, food, numbers, and colors. On top of that, each word is illustrated and paired with its English translation and Hanyu pinyin.

The CD included in the package contains audio recordings delivered by native speakers. This ensures your children are picking up the right tone and pronunciation for the different words they learn.

Of course, compared to having an online version of the audio recordings, many people may consider the CD an obsolete inconvenience.

Kids are never too young to learn a new language

And when it comes to learning Chinese, it never hurts to let your creativity and curiosity run wild.

Let your children test the waters with different types of resources (as long as they’re kid-friendly).

In due time, your children are bound to find something that sparks their interest and keeps them entertained while they learn this beautiful language.

Know of any Chinese Mandarin resources for kids that your young ones have tried and enjoyed?

Let me know in the comments below, especially if it isn’t on this list. I would love to hear from you!

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Chinese for Kids: 18 Fun Ways to Teach Chinese to Young Learners

By Em Casalena
Last updated:

September 9, 2022

Children have a knack for grasping concepts quickly—and this is especially true with languages.  

By using handy apps, fun games and other learning tools, we can absolutely teach children about the Chinese language.

The 18 resources below will help kids learn Chinese and get them enthusiastic and engaged!  

Contents

• Apps and Digital Games
• • 1. Fun Chinese
  • 2. FluentU
  • 3. LinguPinguin
  • 4. Dinosaur Chinese
• Educational Videos and Television Programs
• • 5. “Ni Hao Kai-lan”
  • 6. “Busy Beavers: Chinese”
  • 7. “Little Fox Chinese”
  • 8. “Twinkle Trails: Chinese Lanterns”
• Chinese Flashcards
• • 9. Tuttle Chinese for Kids Flashcards
  • 10. Chinese Mandarin Pinyin Flashcards 
  • 11. YellowBridge Chinese Flashcards
  • 12. DigMandarin Chinese Flashcards
• Children’s Books
• • 13. “My First Mandarin Words with Gordon & Li Li”
  • 14. “Big Chinese Workbook for Little Hands”
  • 15. “I Found It!”
  • 16. “Celebrating Chinese New Year”
• Hands-on Activities
• • 17. Rosetta Stone’s Chopstick Game
  • 18. Chinese Culture Day
• Why Should We Teach Kids Mandarin Chinese?

Download:
This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you
can take anywhere.
Click here to get a copy. (Download)

Apps and Digital Games

Apps are a great way to facilitate “lessons” for kids without having to do the work of designing the lessons yourself. Just download and install these apps on your smartphone or tablet, and let your child explore! 

1. Fun Chinese

iOS | Android

This all-in-one app uses challenging but fun games to teach children how to read, speak and spell in Mandarin. With over thirty different games to choose from, your child is sure to get addicted to learning Chinese.  

What’s great about this app is the lessons are organized. By the time your child finishes the last lesson, they will have picked up 150 Chinese words and expressions!

2. FluentU

iOS | Android

Kids love learning with videos—and FluentU is a website and mobile app that teaches Chinese through interesting media clips from songs, cartoons, movies and more. 

All of the clips are five minutes long at most, and they have interactive features, like subtitles that link to a video dictionary for each word:

Kids might also enjoy taking the personalized quizzes, which include audio snippets and speaking exercises.  

3. LinguPinguin

iOS

Not only is this app free, but it’s also specifically designed for preschoolers. Cute and colorful cartoons and graphics are used to teach kids how to speak and listen in Mandarin.

This app has nine different topics including animals, transportation, food and more! The skilled animation and graphics make this app appeal to even adult learners.

4. Dinosaur Chinese

iOS | Android

Learning Chinese characters is often one of the most difficult parts of Chinese for kids, but this app turns it into an entertaining game.

Packed with fun animations and different settings, it incorporates more than 200 Chinese characters as well as basic vocabulary, and these get to stick because they come up over and over as your child keeps playing. 

Educational Videos and Television Programs

We’re no strangers to educational television. “Sesame Street” and “Dora the Explorer” are just two examples of children’s media that are popular choices for teaching kids language skills, among other life lessons.

There are actually quite a few helpful Chinese videos on YouTube for kids, as well as television shows, that you can use to teach young learners about the Chinese language and culture.

Even when you’ve had your fill of the ones we suggest below, they’ll lead you to many more that are sure to be great additions to your Mandarin Chinese learning routine! Here are a few to get you started.

5.

“Ni Hao Kai-lan”

This show is often hailed as the Chinese counterpart of “Dora the Explorer,” and that’s pretty accurate. “Ni Hao Kai-lan” uses similar interactive methods to teach kids Chinese words, such as posing questions and waiting for the child watching to answer.

This television show also boasts some pretty cool facts about Chinese history and culture, as well as life lessons.

6. “Busy Beavers: Chinese”

Be “edutained” with Busy Beavers’ animated videos and language clips. The video we’re highlighting is a full-length episode and can be watched all at once or divided into individual lessons. At 56 minutes long, you’ll learn some of the basics of the Chinese language like colors and basic phrases like “My name is…”

Kids and adults alike will appreciate how the topics are divided, as well as the pronunciation examples!

7. “Little Fox Chinese”

Little Fox Chinese is one of the best free resources out there for Chinese animated videos for young learners (some adults who are beginners practice with these too!).

You and your child can watch on either their YouTube channel or website.  They have stories, songs and games that introduce simple words, and there are even video series that you can follow in order. 

8. “Twinkle Trails: Chinese Lanterns”

The videos from Little Lives follow the learning adventures of Ms. Twinkle and her class as they discover the world around them (typically in song form).

This particular episode of the popular YouTube learning series focuses on teaching children how to count in Mandarin. Narrated in English, kids can hear the numbers in Chinese and see the corresponding character.

Chinese Flashcards

Flashcards have been a useful tool for teaching children just about everything for many, many years. You can get physical or digital flashcards, or even make your own with index cards!

To use flashcards, we recommend starting simple. Put together five or six easy basic words such as 你好(nǐ hǎo) — hello, 不 (bù) — no or 是 (shì) — yes. Give your child time to look them over, sound them out, etc. Make sure they can grasp tones a bit.

Then begin showing them the flashcards one at a time to see if they can associate the characters with the Chinese verbiage and English translations. Give him or her a minute or two between cards so they don’t get too frustrated or overwhelmed.

9.

Tuttle Chinese for Kids Flashcards

Kids like physical flashcards with bright illustrations, which is why Tuttle’s Flash Cards Kit is pretty effective for helping kids remember essential words. It features 64 Chinese words like “milk” and “shirt,” with an illustration at the front along with the main information about the word. At the back, you’ll find the stroke order and example sentences.

It also comes with downloadable audio so your child can also hear how the words are pronounced.

10. Chinese Mandarin Pinyin Flashcards 

Aside from words, you can actually also use flashcards to teach kids pinyin and pronunciation. These Chinese pinyin flash cards are handy for both kids and adult learners. It covers 57 Pinyin elements in total, with pronunciation details and example words as well as downloadable audio.  

The cards are also very durable since they’re made of tear-resistant paper, so kids can play around with them!  

11. YellowBridge Chinese Flashcards

If you’re not interested in being so creative, YellowBridge has some awesome digital flashcards specifically geared towards teaching children and adults the basics of 拼音 (pīn yīn) — Chinese romanization and 汉字 (hàn zì) — Chinese characters. You can also customize lessons using this resource as well.

12. DigMandarin Chinese Flashcards

Another website with digital flashcards for kids would be DigMandarin. It has sixteen flashcard sets for kids that focus on important vocabulary, with topics like food, school, family and numbers. The flashcards are all Quizlet-based, so aside from reviewing the cards directly, you can have your child try out a matching game too for each deck.  

Children’s Books

There are actually a lot of Chinese learning books that are geared towards kids as young as four years old (and even for babies, with some extra features). Bilingual storybooks can help kids get interested in the language, along with coloring books and workbooks. We’ve added our top picks here:

13. “My First Mandarin Words with Gordon & Li Li”

This bilingual book features two pandas—one from New York and the other from China. The story is all about them trying to talk to each other, despite speaking two different languages. It’s ideal for younger kids and toddlers, and each Chinese word mentioned includes the pinyin and pronunciation.

The book’s also appealing visually, with large, sturdy pages and colorful illustrations all around.

14. “Big Chinese Workbook for Little Hands”

This workbook series is meant to get kids started with handwriting characters!

It gives a gentle introduction by teaching how to make basic strokes first, and each page has activities like matching characters with their pictures, tracing the lines in characters and even coloring in strokes. To top it off, there are clear drawings per page so it’s easy to associate the characters with what they mean.

15. “I Found It!”

“I Found It!” is a Chinese-English storybook that’s very appealing to kids because it has gorgeous, full-scale illustrations on each page. For each scene in the book, kids are given a short list of objects in English, Chinese and pinyin, and they have to look for these objects in the illustration.

You can choose either the Simplified or Traditional Chinese version, and there’s a free audio of the book online:

16.

“Celebrating Chinese New Year”

To teach your kid about Chinese culture, you can’t go wrong with this informative yet fun book! It delves into the legends and traditions behind the Chinese New Year, from why red is considered a lucky color to stories about the zodiac animals.

As a bonus, there are fun activities towards the end of the book, like chopstick games and instructions for cooking dumplings.

Hands-on Activities

When all else fails, make it into a game! Hands-on activities are a stellar way to get a group of children excited about making something with their own two hands while teaching them something else at the same time.

17.

Rosetta Stone’s Chopstick Game

This is a creative hanzi + pinyin + English chopstick game. It’s a great project that combines Chinese culture, games and translating words.

All you need to set up this project is a pen, paper, scissors, a bowl and chopsticks. It doesn’t get simpler than this!

18. Chinese Culture Day

You could also host a Chinese culture day for your children where you cook Chinese food, watch some “Ni Hao Kai-lan” and do some Chinese-style crafts together.

Even though you’re not actively teaching your children pinyin or hanzi, you’re still introducing them to Chinese culture in a way they can understand.

Why Should We Teach Kids Mandarin Chinese?

• It’s fun. Kids love to learn, but it has to be facilitated in a way that makes it click with them. Chinese culture is challenging, new and cool to kids. Why not teach them all about it?

• Mandarin Chinese is usually only offered at the high school level. However, learning a bit about the language at a younger age can only improve fluency in the long run!

• It could broaden their occupational and financial future as a bilingual adult. A bilingual or multilingual adult has a good chance of making more money in certain fields. By teaching a child a new language, you’re setting them up for a brighter future. And since Chinese is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world, you’re broadening their horizons even more.

• Learning a new language opens doors for kids to learn more about cultural diversity. Hate is a learned thing, not something children are born with. When you open doors and show how diverse and cool the world is, you’re playing your part in raising tolerant, open-minded children for the future. Teaching children about Chinese culture and a bit of Mandarin is one great way to do this.

Are you ready to teach Chinese to your children?

We can promise that with a little bit of planning and some fun hands-on activities and resources, your kids will definitely have a great time learning more about 中文 (zhōng wén) — Chinese!

Download:
This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you
can take anywhere.
Click here to get a copy. (Download)

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10 Best Language Schools in Beijing in 2023 (from $34)

Sprachcaffe Beijing

7 reviews

“Learn Mandarin in Beijing”

“Amazing people”

Our new language school in Beijing stands out above all for its unique location right on the grounds of the Imperial Palace. The Chinese and European language school is located in a charming red building right in the Imperial Ancestral Temple in the “Palace of Workers’ Culture” in the building “Wen Hua Gong” (Mandarin Palace). Enclosed is this area of ​​impressive Forbidden City beauty with centuries-old trees and lovingly landscaped garden landscapes.
The classically modern classrooms of our language school in Beijing offer a maximum of 8 participants per course with enough space to learn Chinese effectively.
Due to the location of our language school in Beijing in a large park, you can always go outside or read in one of the pavilions. To relax and dine, the Wen Hua Gong school building also has a stylishly furnished cafe and restaurant. Complimentary tea and coffee are offered in the school lobby.
Our language school equipment at a glance:
12 modern classrooms
Computer corner with Internet access (extra charge)
Common room for study and recreation
School canteen (meals from 12:00 to 13:30)

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Culture Yard

Culture Yard is an award-winning online language school and culture center. Established in 2009 as a community for serious language learners, Culture Yard offers Chinese classes from the beginner level to HSK 6.
We use a fresh approach to teaching that spreads a love of and excitement for the language and culture. Our online courses allow students from all over the world to study Chinese and fall in love with the language.

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Hutong School Beijing

8 reviews

“Very educational but housing not great.”

“Hutong School in Beijing”

Hutong School was founded in 2005 and offers a wide range of Chinese language teaching services in Beijing and Shanghai. Our school in Beijing offers a wide range of Chinese lessons to suit your needs.
Whether you want to get by with a few basic phrases and buy groceries, talk to a taxi driver and chat with your neighbor, or reach a full professional job level and pass the HSK 6 test, we’ve got it for you!
Hutong School’s unique method of teaching Chinese separates spoken Chinese from character recognition and has been proven to speed up the learning process. With us, students progress faster in spoken Chinese, while laying the foundation for memorizing characters, understanding the logic of constructing Chinese characters.
You can take the course:
– Anytime: weekdays, weekends, evenings and lunchtimes
– Wherever you want: at our school in Beijing or at your home/office
– To prepare for HSK
– No matter what level you are
– in a group or individually
– And take part in many of our free cultural events!
Our dedicated team of highly qualified educators have received intensive training and are regularly assessed. Each member of our teaching team is distinguished by their:
– Passion for sharing knowledge about Chinese language and culture
– Excellent interpersonal skills
– TCSL Diploma (Teaching Chinese as a Second Language)
– Minimum 2 years teaching experience

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Beijing International Chinese College

2 reviews

“A fun experience with very effective ways of learning. ”

“I am taught by teachers who know how to teach and take care of my progress to a great experience.”

Our school has 3 campuses with more than 30 classrooms, equipped with exceptional facilities and resources to support your study of Chinese Mandarin Language in Beijing.
Our teachers are all very experienced, 80% of them have a Master degree in teaching Chinese to foreigners.
After the classes, you can benefit from the gym near the campus.
Since 1995, more than 90,000 students from more than 160 countries and regions have studied Chinese language, experienced Chinese culture and taken the HSK examination at our college. At the same time, we have cumulatively undertaken more than 200 major programs commissioned by the Chinese and Beijing governments, and 8,000 foreign government officials, embassy officials and foreign media reporters from nearly 170 countries in Asia, Europe, Africa, Oceania and the Americas have taken part in the training and study.

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$332

LTL Mandarin School

5 reviews

“All-embracing”

“Large school to learn Chinese with foreign management”

LTL Mandarin School is a Chinese language school headquartered in Beijing and Shanghai offering 1 on 1 and small group Chinese classes for people who are as passionate about Chinese culture as they are about Chinese.
We believe that when you study in China, you can also immerse yourself in Chinese culture, which will give you a deeper understanding of the Chinese language. Most of our students choose to stay with one of our local Chinese family networks so they can practice their Mandarin conversation and learn first hand about life in a modern Chinese family. There are additional elective classes in Chinese cooking, calligraphy and more. All LTL students will also have the opportunity to join our organized evening or weekend trips to local restaurants, the Peking Opera, the Great Wall of China, or other sites of cultural interest.
Whether you’re new to learning Chinese or want to try something different from your current routine, LTL Mandarin School offers a wide variety of Chinese language programs – from full immersion homestay and Chinese classes to winter programs and hiking weekends.

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$407

Mandarin House Beijing

1 review

“My experience was amazing and I learned a lot, was lucky enough to meet many new lifelong friends as well.”

Mandarin House Beijing Chinese School is located in the city center. We offer high quality Chinese language courses and a professional learning environment. At Mandarin House Chinese School in Beijing, we arrange accommodation for our international students, as well as organize many cultural activities and excursions so that our students can experience not only the Chinese language course, but also the historical city of Beijing.

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$300

Learn Chinese & Live in Your Teacher’s Home in Beijing with Home Language International

Learn Chinese & live in your private teacher’s home around Beijing with Home Language International!
Home Language International (HLI) is a family-run business offering language courses in more than 20 languages ​​in over 30 countries worldwide, including Chinese lessons at an experienced private teacher’s home in China. More than 5,000 students take advantage of our services every year. Ian Josephs, Danielle Josephs, their 5 adult children and an expert team of dedicated staff all put in very long hours for HLI.
You stay in an experienced teacher’s family home, have one-to-one Chinese lessons and then continue to use the language during the rest of your stay in Beijing. Because you are the only student, you are guaranteed individual attention. The lessons are completely designed for you, so the teacher will focus exactly on what you need. Mealtime conversation, television and social contacts are all in Chinese.
All of our teachers in China have a university degree (or equivalent) and/or a recognized teaching certificate. All teachers have been visited by one of our local organizers. Their qualifications have been checked and their homes throughly inspected. During your stay in Beijing, a local organizer will monitor your progress and make sure your experience is both happy and successful.
Home Language International (HLI) is accredited by the Accreditation Body for Language Services (ABLS), Association of Language Travel Organizations (ALTO), and UNOSEL.

$1.491

starting
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$1.491

That’s Mandarin Chinese Language School Beijing Campus

33 reviews

“I take private online classes and they are pedagogical, structured and fun!”

“Excellent curriculum and excellent teachers”

That’s Mandarin Center is one of the oldest Chinese language and technology schools in China. With a unique approach to language learning and our own teaching methods; We strive to be not only the most experienced, but also the best Chinese language school!
We focus on providing our students with the highest quality service and the best teaching experience; Whether they are learning Chinese online with our innovative online language learning system NihaoCafe or at one of our Chinese language schools in China.
Founded in Beijing in 2005, That’s Mandarin has been going strong ever since. We now have schools in Beijing, Shanghai, Suzhou, Hangzhou, Melbourne and Milan, and we plan to open more schools in other cities soon.

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$761

Mandarirn Zone School

Founded in 2008, Mandarirn Zone School is Chinese language schools in Beijing. We specializes in teaching Chinese Mandarin to foreign students and provide a variety of Chinese courses and programs for adults and children.
Communicative Teaching Method
– We focus on improving students’ ability to communicate in Chinese.
– With a high emphasis placed on a more communicative method, teachers will create, through active teacher-student communication, an enjoyable and learning-focused environment to expand what the students′ have learned during class.
– By practicing with maximum opportunity to speak Chinese, students′ ability to communicate in Chinese greatly improved.
Our Chinese Language Teachers
– Our teachers have profound theoretical knowledge, more than 6-10+ years teaching experiences.
– Teachers are passionate about teaching Chinese as a Second Language.
– Teachers are able to speak good English.
Our Chinese Class
– Short term and long term learning.
– 1-on-1 and Small Group Chinese classes.
– Our class size is very small compared to other schools.
We have very friendly teachers and staff members who will take good care of you while you’re in Beijing.

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$34

Beijing Hongzhou Learning Co., Ltd.

Established in 1965, CIPG Training Center is a national-level cadre education and training institution directly under the China Foreign Languages ​​Bureau.It bears the important responsibility of the international translation talent training and the continuing education of professional and technical talents in the translation industry and the external publicity industry. It specializes in high-end applied education and cross-language intercultural comprehensive services in three areas of translation, external propaganda and foreign language. Since 2012, it has been taken on the important task of building a high-end applied translation talent training base in the country, and has been hailed as the highest hall of the post-institutional education of the translation profession.

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$ 794

What could the West adopt a

,

education system Michael Murphy for more than four years, who for more than four years in China universities, on the pages of Telegraph shared his thoughts about the Chinese system education, commenting on a BBC film on the subject.

You may have seen the BBC documentary about the experimental sessions at Bohunt Private School in Liphook, Hampshire, in the south of England.

Five teachers (four women and a man) conducted classes like in a real Chinese school (according to the Chinese timetable and in the Chinese style of teaching). The experiment involved 50 British schoolchildren of the 9th grade for four weeks.

Classes started at 7 am and usually lasted until 12 noon. The morning routine, part of the daily routine, included specific facial exercises to relieve stress and fatigue. In addition, the Chinese math teacher gave everyone a Chinese ring puzzle to solve.

They studied regular school subjects, as well as an introduction to Mandarin Chinese, just like in a regular Chinese class.

The experiment showed the contrast between the traditional Chinese teaching style and that of most teachers in Britain.

Here are some of my comments on this (mostly on the first part of the BBC documentary).

First. Interestingly, the British are forced to closely study the Chinese experience of education in order to somehow improve their own educational system.

It is well known that Chinese students outperform their Western peers in some areas, especially in science and mathematics. These are areas such as technology, science, engineering, computer science and other activities that require more linear thinking rather than creativity and critical thinking.

Second. The documentary itself seemed to me personally partially implausible. More like staged.

The students behaved unusually rudely in front of the cameras, which is uncharacteristic for the British in general, and even more so for schoolchildren.

Third. If this documentary shows what Bohunt really is, it must be a very bad school. I would never let my child visit such a place.

However, maybe things aren’t so bad at this school. And the impression is created because the BBC seeks to speak out either against the government or against the education system in England.

Fourth. Shown in this film is the so-called. The “truth” about Chinese students is, of course, “idealized” to a certain extent. I have been teaching in China for four years now and I have had the opportunity to visit many schools myself as part of a recruitment campaign for foreign teachers.

I have worked in many places where things were not going as well as I would like, and where foreign teachers were not yet used with due efficiency. I have taught over 2000 students, trained 300 Chinese English teachers, given over 2100 lessons/lectures at all levels from elementary school to MBA candidates at Zhengzhou University.

I had to expel students from the class for their behavior, to come into conflict with their parents. But if I keep my judgment objective, I should note that in general, Chinese students show themselves in the classroom to be calmer and more disciplined than their Western peers. This behavior is rooted in the very nature of the Chinese people.

My personal opinion is that the West can learn a lot from China.

I think it is worth paying attention to the following advantages of Chinese education:
1. More hours at school.
2. Competitiveness. For China, this is very important, because. students will have to look for work in a highly competitive labor market.
3. Higher demands on students and higher expectations.
4. More lecture classes at school. It’s great preparation for college.