Free Online Animated Video Lessons Make It Easier to Learn Chinese Remotely

Hong Kong, Hong Kong S.A.R., August 16, 2020 –(PR.com)– The second Chinese online course was just released, featuring 19 animated video lessons which are completely free without any opt-in requirements. These lessons are produced by April Zhang, a long time Chinese teacher. These video lessons demonstrate how to read and write individual characters, which are subsequently used in many words and expressions.

Learning how to read and write Chinese has always been difficult for non-Chinese speakers. Most beginner students get overwhelmed by the vast number of new characters presented in their textbooks. It will be a long time before they can read and write anything substantial, if they do not quit first. Fortunately, April has found a way to change this hazardous learning path. She authored six textbooks, the Chinese Reading and Writing series, teaching only 320 characters. Most importantly, students start reading and writing simple stories from book one. She is now transforming this series into online courses. The first one was completed early this year.

April started to produce video lessons in December 2019. “Students are spending too much time learning characters they do not know how to use.” April said, “I’d like to show them a different and more efficient way to learn Chinese.” The first course teaches 70 characters and 150 words and expressions. The second one teaches 50 characters and 166 words words and expressions. Also, how sentences are deconstructed, how to grasp the exact meaning of a character, and many grammar points are explained.

However, that’s not enough. “The most important factor in learning how to read and write Chinese is to actually read and write as much Chinese text as possible.” April said, “This is something students must do by themselves. Nobody can do it for them, as an old Chinese saying says, teachers show you the door; you must enter by yourself.” Students must complete all the exercises in the book in order to have a good grasp. Once it is done, they can take a quiz to check their progress.

When she was working on the first video, April had no idea that a COVID pandemic was going to force many students to learn remotely. Now it seems that these lessons can not come at a more appropriate time. Watch these lessons here.