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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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4626 - 4650 of 5,314 Reviews for Chinese for Beginners

By Renier

Nov 11, 2022

Great course! Personally, the things that I would love more are:

1. Longer time to ask the presenter the questions - she responds maybe too quickly after saying, "Now, you ask me."

2. A few more questions in the assignments.

But I am nitpicking, as the course and the presenter are excellent. It covers the things that one can use in everyday life.

By Amarpreet K

Sep 7, 2015

Ni Hao,

I liked the course, good course content though the first week which includes the tones was tough as it is hard to memorize the same. But as English phrase says, "try try till you succeed"or keeping trying till you succeed.So we have to keep trying the tones till we succeed.

Would like to thank the Professor for the video lectures.

XieXie

By Nicholas B

Jul 7, 2020

This was a nice, low-pressure course to introduce you to Chinese. The instructor had a very calm disposition, and did a good job making the course approachable (xie xie, laoshi). I wish there were optional hanzi (Chinese written characters) throughout the course, not just at the very end. Also a little variety in quiz style would be nice.

By Libbie K

Sep 2, 2023

The teacher did a fantastic job of demystifying it and imparting the fundamentals of Chinese. The quiz was straightforward, simple, and easy. I was able to acquire every response I needed only from the video. But I found watching the videos to be quite dull. Although it was quite informative, there were times when I started to nod asleep.

By Lisa M

Sep 28, 2020

Professor Liu did a great job! I think dialogue is introduced too quickly and it would be nice that she explains at the beginning of the course the trick to learning and understanding beginners Mandarin is associating action word/verb with general fuctions "Tian" is used to describe time. Otherwise, its a great course, I liked it a lot!

By Kayla H

Oct 13, 2016

This is a great intro course to Chinese! I would like to see the characters were written above the words as you learn to simply become familiar with some of the common characters. I am grateful for the access this course provides for those traveling to China to respectfully communicate and show interested in the Chinese culture.

By Jan C B

Feb 5, 2018

I completed a free app on my phone, ChineseSkill, which was just the best thing I've ever done. Could do this course with my eyes closed and did all 7 weeks in about 3 days (total of 5 hours I think). Now I'm going back to that app cause it just amazes me how much more content they have. I recommend that app to everyone here!

By Fiorela

Jun 23, 2021

Es el primer curso que acabo y me ha gustado mucho. Su inglés es entendible, los temas son lo básico y necesario para iniciar el idioma. Lo único desfavorable es la pronunciación por parte del alumnado ya que no se puede estar seguro de si se está pronunciando bien las palabras o no. Por todo lo demás un curso excelente.

By Kinsey B

Oct 20, 2015

Overall this course is really helpful when it comes to grammar and sentence structuring. You get experience with a lot of vocabulary as well. I gave the course four stars because Chinese characters aren't taught or covered at all, just pinyin. Which is fine, but it would be nice to have those briefly introduced as well.

By Kelvin T

Oct 7, 2022

Its very basic fundamental of chinese language. Great for beginner or learners who is really keen of learning the language. I believe once you able to complate the course, you are able to at least communicate with Chinese people easily. But practise makes perfect. Must always practise especially on the pronunciations.

By Firya A F

Aug 13, 2020

this course is definitely help me to understand chinese better, the tacher is quite good at english and good at explaining things. Also, her is not rushed at speaking words so we can try to mimic her. Definitely need to learn more to remember and fluent at chinese but this course is a great first step :). Thank you.

By Mariam E

Apr 4, 2020

Very helpful beginners course. it starts from scratch with the Chinese sound system and basic greetings, etc. all the way up to talking about the weather, your hobbies, illnesses, etc.

The course uses only Pinyin and no characters are introduced at all except for the last reading notes at the end of the course.

By Connor D

Mar 17, 2022

Good breakdown to the topics and then followed up with relevant information to complete the assignments. I feel maybe a review of the past 4 weeks would be beneficial. As the more repetitive it is to see, it certainly builds more confidence and easier retain. Other than that, I am pleased I joined this course.

By Ricardo S

Jan 31, 2016

This is a very good introduction to Chinese, but would help to people that doesn´t have any person to practice match with some people online that would like to chat or talk with the students of the course.

It will be nice, to include some part of the phonetic of the words to understand how is a better speaking.

By Daniel M

May 2, 2020

Very happy to have taken this course. I have learnt so many Chinese words and expressions in just a few weeks! In order to get a 5 out of 5 score, I would suggest teaching in more detail some of the structures and vocabulary used in the lessons, as sometimes missing this information made learning difficult.

By André V

Nov 5, 2019

Great learning experience and easy to grasp considering the way ideas and learning was disposed. Full score is not given as some images in the quizzes were misleading often difficult to understand the correct answer (e.g.: Quiz on different types of sickness). Overall still pretty interesting and fun!

By ensieh s

Apr 13, 2022

Thank you very much for giving me a chance to learn chinese by your side. Every thing was very well including leaning from a nice teacher.

The only thing that I wanted to add, is if the listening parts (after teaching) were added to all the sessions of the course it would be more helpfull.

Xie xie.

By Allan B

Oct 13, 2020

Na minha opinião poderia ser com escrita chinesa e não usar o pinyin. Também poderia ter uma atualização no sentido de a professora não ter que ficar andando para sair da frente da projeção. Áudio muito bom, qualidade da gravação boa também e o conteúdo foi bem interessante e ótimo para iniciar

By Julia Y

Mar 31, 2018

Great explanations of rules for spelling and basic history of the Chinese writing system also. Could use some information on sentence structure and grammar with each vocabulary piece. Otherwise, really good for beginners or those more experienced who want to revisit the Chinese language.

By Oreofe O

Feb 6, 2017

This course was really helpful in understanding the basics of Mandarin and gave me a little more insight into the Chinese culture and mode of thinking. Chinese no longer looks like an impossible language to understand. Love it! Would love to have a few more printable notes, though.

By Lauren L

May 23, 2021

Liu Lao Shi was very thorough in making sure that you got the right pronunciation and clarified what each part of the sentences meant. Super helpful in understanding how sentences are formed. Took off one star bc I wish that I could see the Chinese character alongside the pinyin!

By Nora A

Jun 23, 2020

This course is excellent. It gives thorough introduction into language without going into too much unnecessary details. Highly recommended for anyone who wants to start learning Chinese from scratch. Much better if you would provide some lecture note. Other than that, it's good.

By AGABA A

Aug 10, 2017

Xiexie Laoshi

It has been great attending your classes. You are such an amazing teacher.

I learnt a lot from your classes. Especially weather expression, transport, hobbies and many things that used to give me trouble. I hope to take more of your classes.

Zai Jian .

By Sigrun J J E

Mar 9, 2017

This course was good to get the basics and fast forward if you already have some beginners knowledge with the language. Could be more challenging during the quizzes, maybe also more emphasize on writing the words. I can read Chinese more easy than I can write it