So you want to learn Chinese, probably Mandarin Chinese. Mandarin Chinese is after all the official language in mainland China and Taiwan as opposed to Cantonese which is still more widely spoken in overseas Chinese communities. Tons of Chinese teaching programs abound online, most of them useful to people who already have a good understanding of the basics of Mandarin Chinese. Still, it takes plenty of Google searches to find a good Chinese learning program, suitable for the beginner, intermediate or advanced student.

About 20 years ago when I was living in Hong Kong, I bought Reading & Writing Chinese, by William McNaughton, a very useful guide for learners attempting to acquire literacy in Chinese and probably still the bible when it comes to learning how to write Chinese characters. I painstakingly composed my very own Chinese flashcards, each card containing a character, its compounds and related phrases. All this was done by hand, no Personal Computers or software for learning Chinese in those days.

This helped me in memorizing the character and its meaning as well as the stroke order. Proper pronunciation would have to wait. Learning Cantonese which is the Chinese spoken in Hong Kong and Guangzhou did not really tickle my fancy, not to mention it being a lot harder to learn and completely different from Mandarin.

After about 1 year in Hong Kong I went to Taiwan which was still under martial law at that time. In the beginning I studied at several cram schools and later at the Taipei Language Center. It was in Taiwan that I finally got to learn how to speak Mandarin. It was not all studying Chinese though, those of you that have studied there will know what I mean.

The point being, for people interested in learning Chinese online, opportunities are plenty. Most of you have got a PC or a MAC or you would not be reading this. So do not worry, be happy, use that new technology. Especially for people with little or no knowledge of Mandarin. Chinese Learning Software is getting more and more popular. I personally think the free trial and guaranteed money back programs are a great deal in this Internet age.

Over the years, I have done a lot of research online and wasted money on some programs. If you are interested in an all-round, comprehensive program to learn Chinese online, give Rocket Chinese a try.