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Learner Reviews & Feedback for Chinese for Beginners by Peking University

4.8
stars
19,007 ratings

About the Course

Immerse yourself in the captivating world of Chinese culture and language with our ABC Chinese course for beginners. This comprehensive course provides an introduction to Mandarin phonetics and essential daily expressions, enabling learners to achieve a fundamental understanding and confidently engage in basic conversations. Our carefully crafted curriculum covers practical topics and real-life situations, ranging from exchanging personal information and discussing daily schedules to conversing about food, prices, city life, weather, and hobbies. The diverse selection of reading materials and interactive activities ensures a rich and stimulating learning experience, piquing learners' interests throughout the course. No need to worry about learning Chinese characters – this course focuses on speaking skills, making it accessible and enjoyable. Elevate your learning with a thrilling bonus feature: virtually travel to China and hone your speaking skills with our immersive game, playable on a VR headset or desktop. Embark on a scavenger hunt, talk to vendors, encounter fellow travelers, and explore a traditional market, all while applying your Chinese skills in a real-world environment....

Top reviews

SS

Sep 16, 2016

Thanks for this course. I like it and this language really so necessary for me and my job. My company in New Zealand - ESKA Ltd (www.eskaltd.co.nz, eskaltd.com) and we are work with aliens from China.

SA

Jun 16, 2020

Awesome experience it was a comprehensive and informative course. I learnt alot. Thank you coursera for providing us such a nice and global platform to enhance skills and knowlegde by sitting at home.

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126 - 150 of 5,314 Reviews for Chinese for Beginners

By Anna R

Jan 19, 2021

Highly recommended. The format of the lessons is well structured and enjoyable. The teacher is excellent. The emphasis and attention on pronunciation is one of the most valuable feature of the course. I started learning basic Chinese some years ago, but then I drop out and could not find enough motivation to go back on track. Till I came across this course.. It helped me to refresh some basic vocabulary and grammar, and motivated me to learn more.

By Tinyakova E A

Jul 26, 2021

The course "Chinese for beginners" is excellently compiled! The words introduced give the possibility to expand communication. I enjoyed the phonetic of the instructor. Still there is a culture background in the course! I appreciate especially the intelligent tone of the course. Million of thanks! At the end the gradual transition to hyerogliphers. Fine. Before the course I did already Chinese learning. This course has polished my knowledge.

By Lydia P

Oct 10, 2021

I really enjoy the course. I learn easily and pleasantly so much. Instructor made this a great exprerience. She presents the courses with care and experience. She sure made me wanna enroll to all of her courses. Her course was engaging, full of knowledge in language and information about China. I thought it would be hard to learn the language but with this course I managed to talk about many topics. I would highly recommend you this course.

By Amanda B

Jul 7, 2016

Excellent beginners course in Mandarin. The teacher introduces new words using pinyin in each 3-4 minute lesson and the content is reviewed in a quiz. The content is limited to reading and pronouncing pinyin words, which is perfectly acceptable to me since I'm supplementing this course with other in person classes. I love the 4 minute classes 4 times per week, since I never felt like I'm so far behind the deadlines that I can't catch up.

By Dorottya F

Feb 7, 2017

This course is very useful for people who just started to learn Chinese. It is well-paced, every week has 4-5 sections with a 3 minute video in the beginning that introduces new words and or grammar point. The topics are useful and the vocabulary and grammar that we learn are at HSK 1 level. The quizzes are short and the deadlines motivate you and help you keep track. I also really liked our professors voice and the way she spoke Chinese.

By VIANA A

Jul 19, 2022

Creo es un muy buen curso, dinámico desde los videos, el comienzo fue difícil para mí, las letras, pero a medida que avanzas , entiendes y escuchas, y cada vez se hace menos difícil, puede ser rápido de terminar, aun así creo que es mejor con tiempo moderado y logras asimilar y retomar las materias, repasar. Me gustó mucho, lo terminé , y lo comprendí, eso es lo mejor la fonetica en este idoma. Y una excelente profesora. Gracias.

By Mario S G

Apr 3, 2022

I think the course is good to become familiar with the sounds, and to learn basic vocabulary and expressions. Perhaps at the end is somehow overwhelming, but if you understand that this is an elementary course, it is okay. Quizzes are easy, and the extra material is helpful. Another good thing is that the videos are not very long, and that makes the path of the course smooth. I recommend the course as first contact with Chinese language.

By Althea O

Feb 2, 2016

I really enjoyed this course. The presenter was lovely. She was easy to follow and very clear in her speaking. She taught me how to speak sentences and questions. And she presented me with a lot of new vocabulary which I know I will have to sit down and learn. It is a great refresher course if you have tried to learn Chinese before. There is nothing threatening about it. I hope a follow-up course will be created. I will definitely do it.

By Manjari R

Sep 14, 2015

A wonderfull introduction for beginners in Chinese. This was my first Chinese lesson ever, and i really enjoyed it : easy to understand. The teacher speaks very slowly and repeats each word/sentence 2 times, so we have time to train our ears to the "chinese speaking music". :-)

This course focuses on oral chinese only (speaking and understanding), but you can go further and use other online ressources to learn reading/writing chinese too.

By Dustin D

Jan 10, 2021

A good course for the basics of speaking and understanding chinese. Recommended for every person that is curious about the language and want to have some understanding before going into more extensive courses.

Buen curso para aprender lo basico del idioma. Se lo recomiendo a cualquiera persona que tenga un interes en aprender el idioma y le gustaria tener por lo menos una idea del idioma antes de comenzar con curso mas extenso.

By Daniel D

Mar 2, 2021

I really enjoyed completing this course. The teacher is very charming and explains the material very well. This was my first language course in Chinese and it was a very pleasant experience. Chinese will be the seventh language for me to learn and this course ignited my curiosity to explore and study it further and deeper, especially its calligraphy. It is a very tough path for an European but I am very motivated. Thank you!

By Ms. C P

Apr 21, 2020

I love this course because I'll be trying to learn Chinese by my-self. For the first time, it quite difficult for me because I didn't learn Chinese before but after that, it will be better and I like it so much.

I would like to say thank you for the teacher on this course very much, she is a good teacher. She's explained to an easy way to understand and feel funny to learn.

I feel wonderful and very happy to get this course.

By EGLEE W

Jan 28, 2021

It is a very interesting class because it push the student to add more vocabulary on the student own account. Once we can express our daily routine, likeness and dislikes, we are good to start, we just have to add some Chinese movies to watch daily so we don't lose what we have learned and review our notes daily. It will be nice to be able to continue with the next level of this Chinese classes. Lǎoshī, xièxiè. 再见

Zàijiàn

By Tina D

Aug 27, 2020

Short Lectures and a quick test after each one really helped me to learn. If you're devoted, the course can be actually finished in way shorter time. Offers real knowledge on beginner's Chinese. Focuses more on the spoken than the written word, in order to make it easier for those that don't know how to read the Chinese alphabet, or are intimidated by it. In general, that was a great course, totally recommended! Xiexie!

By Muneeb A

Dec 13, 2022

This course was meant for the learners who haven't had any prior knowledge of Chinese language , and honestly, i enjoyed it. Chinese for the beginners is essential for building up the foundation of Chinese language such as Pinyin and basic vocubulary words which will let you have really simple conversation. I will recommend all newbies to get started from here and build your way all the way to advanced material. 加油加油。

By Naylea E A M

Mar 22, 2016

I absolutely loved the course, it was tough at the beginning but the teacher gives you examples and makes observations on the pronounciations and repeatedly reminds you how to pronounce the words. So that really helps your ear to open to the different sounds and vowels, and you get better with every assignment. Also the extra exercises helps you to get a better understanding of the Chinese culture, weather, food, etc.

By Arn R

Oct 5, 2021

I loved the approach of the instructor, in which she introduced the Chinese language from its most basic nuances (vowels/intonations) to its usage in actual conversation. The choice of topics in which each nuances were introduced was also A+, the laying out of information was gradual and not in-your-face. Overall, I enjoyed learning from Ms. Xiaoyu Liu. I will definitely be enrolling in the course's continuation.

By Jorfran H P C

Jul 20, 2016

I loved this course , so good, now I have the basic notions to start a conversation in Chinese. Thanks to the creators of this course for giving me the opportunity to do it, I recommend it so muchi./Me encantó este curso, muy bueno, ahora ya tengo las nociones básica para entablar una conversación en chino. Gracias a los creadores de este curso por darme la oportunidad de poder realizarlo, lo recomiendo bastante.

By RiCha r S

Jan 16, 2017

This course was dynamic and amazing. I found myself returning to the interface after class was completed to see if there was a second class to continue progress. I felt depleted to find there is no other course to continue the learning in this area. Thank so much. I really got a great deal out of this course and pray I can revisit it to practice off an on, while I am taking other Coursera courses for TESOL.

By Joerg W

Jan 23, 2017

The course "Chinese for Beginners" is a good introduction for the "fresh meat" of those striving to learn the Chinese Language and has got all it takes to get you immersed into the language. You just have to find your individual method of staying in it. I will also do the Chinese character for Beginners course, which seems promising. As already mentioned, it all depends on your effort, time and motivation!

By Melissa

Jul 9, 2018

Realmente es lo básico, por lo cual es importante dedicar tiempo a practicar y estudiar para aprender el vocabulario ya que es de uso cotidiano. Muchos dirán que es muy básico pero ya qusieran escuchar una conversación sencilla y entender. Recomiendo memorizar y practicar diario para no olvidar ya que es un vocabulario totalmente diferente al nuestro. ¡Ánimo, Sí se puede aprender muy bien en éste curso!

By Deleted A

Apr 28, 2020

Language sounds, vocabulary, and grammar are the first steps in the language learning process, and this course focus right in these aspects in a very effective way. After taking some courses on Mandarin Chinese, I am pretty sure this is the most friendly and best choice for somebody that has never studied this language - or need / wish to improve ground concepts in pronunciation vocabulary and grammar.

By Jira H

Apr 19, 2020

According to the current situation in the world, Chinese is gradually intervened into our life, so It is recommended to take this, for its lessons allow you to grab many useful and essential terms or idioms with regards to the Chinese language. The course and instruction is not that tricky, but it grants the learners for getting involved into the environment of the daily Chinese, which is very handful.

By Caleb A

Jun 4, 2020

Great beginner course! I think focusing on pinyin to start is a good idea, I feel like adding characters right away would have been too confusing. It's not super intensive, so even a really busy person should be able to squeeze in their work during the week. Overall, I definitely recommend it! Even if you forget lessons quickly, you'll come away with some basic phrases and how to pronounce pinyin.

By fiza i

Jul 8, 2022

hello i'm fiza i have craze of learning other languages for meet different culture. Meet other cultural people bring joy and excitements in my life. coursera is one of the best platform at which everyone can learn that how to approach our goals without go anywhere. Miss xiaoliu is very excellent instructor. she guided me very well about basic Chinese. I hope she will always do betterfor learners.