Better YOUR Mandarin with OurMandarin.com in 10 easy to follow steps! (The following is a suggested step-by-step procedure for you to learn Mandarin using our site. Our teachers and students have come up with this process after examining their own individual progressive study methods, so please keep in mind that this is only a suggested procedure, and you can study however best suits your needs.)

Step 1: Find a Podcast

Do a search for an interesting lesson, or go through the course levels one by one. Click on the topic to listen to the mp3 file, or download it for easy access whenever you want.

Step 2: Study the Vocabulary

In each lesson, there are tangents you can follow to help you better understand the lesson. If you click on the "Vocabulary" tab, you’ll be able to examine the main vocabulary words. Practice them to get a good handle on them. You can listen to each word individually to practice speaking. If there are any words that you think you might need continued reminding of, save them in “My Vocabulary”

Step 3: Study the Dialogue

After you’ve looked over the vocabulary, you can click on the “dialogue” link to follow the lesson visually. Here you will see the words spoken in the dialogue, in Chinese characters. If you want, you can use your mouse to navigate over the characters to see the pinyin (Chinese pronunciation) and English translation. You can listen to the dialogue at the same time, click on the play button, or listen to it from where you’ve downloaded the audio program.
The dialogue is also available for print in PDF format, which includes pinyin and English translation

Step 4: Expand your Understanding

Click on “Expansion” to, you got it, expand your understanding of the lesson. Here, you’ll find other related vocabulary, and you’ll also be able to check out frequently made mistakes regarding the lesson’s grammar, vocabulary, and/or syntax.

Step 5: Study the Characters

Chinese words are pretty…pretty intriguing! Under the “character writing” tab, you’ll be able to see step-by-step how the vocabulary words are written. The formation of Chinese characters follows strict rules: brush strokes are from right to left and written from top to bottom. Well, most of them…don’t worry. By following the flash program, you’ll see how each character is written, and you can practice anytime, anywhere. We’ve even got a printable page of writing squares for you to practice your characters (click on the link under the grid); remember, stay between the lines!

Step 6 Try the Exercises

Under the “exercises” tab, you’ll be able to practice what we’ve preached! After each lesson, you can reinforce what you’ve learned by going through the few exercises we’ve formulated. They’ll assist in gauging your understanding and help you decide whether or not you should review the lesson again.

Step 7: Rank it!

Basically, we’d like you to rate the lesson based on its usefulness and helpfulness to you. By doing this, you’ll help the OurMandarin.com develop, grow, and improve.

Step 8: Say Something!

Want to talk to others about the lesson? Was there something you didn’t understand? Stand up (or stay sitting) and say something! Use the “discussion” tab to chat with other students and our teachers. Here you can bring up more discussion points or ask for more expansion on ones that are already noted. One of OurMandarin.com’s teachers will be monitoring the forums periodically and will answer any questions you may have.

Step 9: Listen Again

We know you’re busy, and probably have a lot on your mind. That being said, you’ll probably want to review the lessons you’ve learned periodically to keep them fresh. Once a week, you should go back and listen to the dialogue section of the podcast of the last lesson you learned. If you have no problem understanding it and remembering all of its tangents, then you know you’ve got it down. If not, you might want to quickly go over the entire audio lesson again.

Step 10: Practice Makes Perfect!

The exercises after each lesson are always there for you to challenge yourself. If you think you’ve got everything down, or even if you think that maybe you’ve forgotten some things, go over the exercises again to check. Who knows, maybe you’ll even surprise yourself with everything you’ve remembered (or forgotten!)!