A new resource has been added to Free Language for learning Mandarin Chinese:

Chinese-Tools.com Website

I wanted to inform everyone about two updates at Free Language that relate to Mandarin Chinese:

MandarinTools.com Online Chinese Learning Tools
Zhongwen.com Chinese Characters and Culture

Here is a list of the podcasts on Free Language. I have bolded the ones for Mandarin Chinese.

Learn Arabic Podcasts
Learn Cantonese Podcasts
Learn English Podcasts
Learn French Podcasts
Learn German Podcasts
Learn Hindi Podcasts
Learn Italian Podcasts
Learn Japanese Podcasts
Learn Mandarin Chinese Podcasts
Learn Portuguese Podcasts
Learn Russian Podcasts
Learn Spanish Podcasts

Here is a list of the video podcasts, though not all languages have them yet:

Learn Arabic Video Podcasts
Learn Cantonese Video Podcasts
Learn English Video Podcasts
Learn French Video Podcasts
Learn German Video Podcasts
Learn Hindi Video Podcasts
Learn Italian Video Podcasts
Learn Japanese Video Podcasts
Learn Mandarin Chinese Video Podcasts
Learn Portuguese Video Podcasts
Learn Russian Video Podcasts
Learn Spanish Videos Podcasts

Free Language Version 2 was just released last night. It is built using Drupal 4.7.

I have bolded the Mandarin Chinese resources below.

There are 12 languages thus far at Free Language

• Learn Arabic
• Learn Cantonese
• Learn English
• Learn French
• Learn German
• Learn Hindi
• Learn Italian
• Learn Japanese
• Learn Mandarin Chinese
• Learn Portuguese
• Learn Russian
• Learn Spanish

For all the Drupalers out there, Free Language v2 is running Drupal 4.7 and following contributed modules were used to beef it out:

• aggregator2
• captcha
• emailpage
• google analytics
• insert_block
• pathauto (to the max)
• poormanscron
• simplenews
• sitemenu
• tagadelic

I tried to keep contrib mods to a minimum while still maximizing the site's functionality.

I am going to upgrade to Drupal 5 as soon as I can get some funds together to commission the upgrade of aggregator2 to Drupal 5. Or perhaps someone will decide to just do it!

Here is a link to the Mandarin Chinese Tags Page:

I have been steadily adding news feeds to Free Language today. A total of 10 feeds have already been added:

Radio Free Asia News in Cantonese
BBC World News in English
BBC Afrique News in French
Deutsche Welle News in German
Corriere della Sera Italy News in Italian
Deutsche Welle News in Chinese
Xinhuanet News in Chinese
BBC Brasil News in Portuguese
BBC News in Russian
BBC Mundo News in Spanish

The idea is that people will be exposed to the idea that they can read news to help learn a language once at a given level of comprehension.

I am learning Mandarin Chinese. I created a project for it over at Opal Myth.

Track my progress there if anyone is interested. I will also be pointing out good resources for learning Mandarin Chinese there.

"This Mandarin Chinese course is created for anyone who is interested in learning spoken Mandarin, the audio lessons are in Mp3 format and can be downloaded from this Website for free.

PDF transcripts and worksheets are available for a small fee.

These podcast lessons are suitable for beginners, they are progressive, so you can start from “zero” level and after completing the course, you will be able to speak fluent Mandarin Chinese on the familiar topics.

A very important feature of this course is that you can spend as much time on each lesson as you need, there is no time limit or other requirements, just download your lessons and study them at your own pace.

Every new lesson is built on the vocabulary and grammar of the previous lesson. You can spend about a week on each lesson.

There is a lot of review of the old vocabulary in the new lessons and all lessons are interconnected. The step-by-step approach in learning Mandarin Chinese is very important. By constantly repeating the key words and phrases you will remember them better.

So from now on you can take the Mandarin Chinese Lessons with you and study anytime, at any place, at your convenience. E.g. You can study in your car on the way to work or school. No need to sit in the classroom! Study whenever you want!"

Visit the site.

Time Magazine just released two articles pertaining to Mandarin Chinese:

Study Aids: Homework
Language Barriers

Though mildly interesting in a very general sort of way, neither one gives as much info about actually learning Chinese for free as Free Language's Mandarin Chinese section.

These days Mandarin Chinese is growing more and more popular as a second language for people all over the world. This is true mainly because of the evident booming Chinese economy and the current and future market that is growing at a breathtaking pace.

Here are some of the free resources I have come across:

Learn Mandarin Chinese Podcasts at Free Language

Chinese has four (or five - depending on how you look at it) tones. Here is a page that explains some basic information about the tones in Mandarin Chinese. Also, a link to a Mandarin tone exercise game.

Here is an Audio Tutorial of Survival Chinese

This site has free Chinese lessons.

A fabulous and free online Chinese dictionary.

An assortment of basic Mandarin lessons.

General info about the Chinese language and lots of links to other aspects of Chinese culture, art and more.

Wikipedia info on Mandarin Chinese.

Wikibook on Mandarin Chinese with lessons and information.

I had a synchronous encounter (thanks to a good friend) with someone here in Beijing who is working on a most astounding and incredibly useful project called adsotrans.

From adsotrans read me:

"To use this website simply copy Chinese text into the submission box and click "Adsotate". The text will be automatically annotated -- mouseover any word for a popup with pinyin and english. More control over annotation options and full webpage translation is possible through the advanced interface. If you're simply looking for freshly annotated Chinese texts to read, why not check out our sister site page, which is also open to the public. Students looking for study material should visit News in Chinese."

Indeed, this is a worthy, user-edited and -driven project that is quite impressive.

Their News in Chinese website is a great place for more advanced learners to experience their intuitive user translation interface for reading the latest RSS news feeds in Simplified Chinese from Xinhua. If you are very knowledgable about the Mandarin language, you can contribute greatly to the project with your expertise. Volunteer info is here.

And finally, here are a couple more links for learning Mandarin starting from the basics:

Sinosplice Chinese Language Study Resources

Sinosplice Chinese Study Book Reviews (Great help for choosing a text to use.)

Basic Chinese Phonetics with Pinyin Voice Recordings

Chinese Pronunciation Guide (Requires RealAudio)

There is obviously a lot more info out there, so I encourage you to search around. These links will give a good intro and link to a lot of other sites, but there is so much more out there.

In the words of Mao Zedong himself: "Study hard and make progress everyday." :)