<p>I don't recommend you to use Duolingo. I've enumerated the reasons for it.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Pinyins are not put to the materials.</p>
</li>
<li><p>Information of Chinese which you can learn per unit lesson(/time) is too small.</p>
</li>
</ol>
<p>About the 1st reason, check the below image from Duolingo. You might feel frustrated when you encounter seeing Hanzi'es which you don't know corresponding pronunciations.</p>
<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/fuyEc.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/fuyEc.png" alt="enter image description here" /></a></p>
<p>And about the 2nd reason, Duolingo provides courses with very low information density per course. One can definitely master Chinese using Duolingo because one must repeat the same contents again and again and again. But for me, it is too time-wasting.</p>
<h3>The Alternative</h3>
<p>At least regarding grammars of Chinese, I can recommend you using <a href="https://resources.allsetlearning.com/chinese/grammar/Main_Page" rel="nofollow noreferrer">ChineseGrammarWiki</a></p>
<p>The below image is quoted from the page of CGW(ChineseGrammarWiki)</p>
<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/OSaWW.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/OSaWW.png" alt="enter image description here" /></a></p>
<p>By the way, I've written javascript codes which enable searching of terms(<a href="https://www.mdbg.net/chinese/dictionary?page=worddict&amp;wdrst=0&amp;wdqb=%E4%BB%96%E6%B2%A1%E6%9C%89%E5%B7%A5%E4%BD%9C%E5%90%97%EF%BC%9F" rel="nofollow noreferrer">this dict is used</a>),pronouncing a sentence. As you can see below, 3 buttons are available by my work. Moreover I've written a code which automatically generate sets of  re-ordering-terms problems of sentences which are used in CGW.</p>
<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/ZGWGk.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/ZGWGk.png" alt="enter image description here" /></a></p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-04-21T06:21:30.083Z
2023-04-21T09:25:32.793Z
2023-04-21T09:25:32.793Z
TG24
<p>I would reccomend Hello Chinese if you like Duolingo as an alternative.  It has the same concept as Duolingo but is made specifically for Chinese Mandarin.  It is more customizable,  between simplified or traditional, or only pinyin or no pinyin.</p>
<p>The main issue with duolingo is they make courses for dozens of languages, and they don't really alter the course across them.  This means it doesnmt really work with languages like Chinese that are very different from English.  So there will he more errors or awkward moments than you would expect.  Even a lot of what you do learn is written like English rather than Chinese, which isn't very conducive to learning Chinese.</p>
<p>Also, its totally optional but if you were interested in the basic paid version it has by far the best listening and speaking practice I have seen for beginners.  Note clearly the base app is completely free and fully unlocked to cover basic Chinese.</p>
<p>The Chinese grammar wiki another poster mentioned is an amazong resource to take advantage of, but it really isn't organized into lessons that build on each other.  It's more of a source to look up specific grammar points one at a time :)</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-05-09T02:17:18.937Z
2023-05-09T02:17:18.937Z
zagrycha
<p>I'm interested in learning Chinese, and I know right now next to nothing about it, besides some basic words and phrases. I know Duolingo is a very trusted language learning platform, but I'm not completely sure if it's the best to begin to learn Chinese, given how complicated it seems to be. If it isn't the most prominent, are there any other language learning platforms you can recommend? Thanks.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-04-26T18:20:19.093Z
Check out the resources page: https://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/1120/resources-for-learning-mandarin-chinese
This site may also help get you started: https://www.hackingchinese.com/
2ndQuantized
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-06-02T12:42:47.197Z
You can use it, but there's no good reason to. It's clearly built for Indo-European languages and suffer quite a bit. You should follow the advice offered by others already to use Chinese-specific tools and resources. DuoLingo is ten times better for French than for Chinese (and then I noly think it's okay for French).
Olle Linge
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-06-29T03:27:18.680Z
Whatever sites you go with, I suggest installing the "Perapera Chinese popup dictionary" (available on Chrome, probably on other browsers) or some similar browser extension. When enabled, hovering the cursor over a character will display the corresponding pinyin, classical and simplified forms, and English meanings.
Ray Butterworth
<learning>
Is Duolingo a good place to start if I am a complete beginner?
# Is Duolingo a good place to start if I am a complete beginner?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2023-04-21)

I'm interested in learning Chinese, and I know right now next to nothing about it, besides some basic words and phrases. I know Duolingo is a very trusted language learning platform, but I'm not completely sure if it's the best to begin to learn Chinese, given how complicated it seems to be. If it isn't the most prominent, are there any other language learning platforms you can recommend? Thanks.

**Tags:** learning

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Check out the resources page: https://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/1120/resources-for-learning-mandarin-chinese This site may also help get you started: https://www.hackingchinese.com/  
> **username_2**: You can use it, but there's no good reason to. It's clearly built for Indo-European languages and suffer quite a bit. You should follow the advice offered by others already to use Chinese-specific tools and resources. DuoLingo is ten times better for French than for Chinese (and then I noly think it's okay for French).  
> **username_3**: Whatever sites you go with, I suggest installing the "Perapera Chinese popup dictionary" (available on Chrome, probably on other browsers) or some similar browser extension. When enabled, hovering the cursor over a character will display the corresponding pinyin, classical and simplified forms, and English meanings.  

---

## 2 answers

### Answer by username_4 on 2023-04-21. Score: 3 | Accepted answer

I don't recommend you to use Duolingo. I've enumerated the reasons for it.

1. Pinyins are not put to the materials.
2. Information of Chinese which you can learn per unit lesson(/time) is too small.

About the 1st reason, check the below image from Duolingo. You might feel frustrated when you encounter seeing Hanzi'es which you don't know corresponding pronunciations.

[![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/fuyEc.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/fuyEc.png)

And about the 2nd reason, Duolingo provides courses with very low information density per course. One can definitely master Chinese using Duolingo because one must repeat the same contents again and again and again. But for me, it is too time-wasting.

### The Alternative

At least regarding grammars of Chinese, I can recommend you using [ChineseGrammarWiki](https://resources.allsetlearning.com/chinese/grammar/Main_Page)

The below image is quoted from the page of CGW(ChineseGrammarWiki)

[![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/OSaWW.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/OSaWW.png)

By the way, I've written javascript codes which enable searching of terms([this dict is used](https://www.mdbg.net/chinese/dictionary?page=worddict&wdrst=0&wdqb=%E4%BB%96%E6%B2%A1%E6%9C%89%E5%B7%A5%E4%BD%9C%E5%90%97%EF%BC%9F)),pronouncing a sentence. As you can see below, 3 buttons are available by my work. Moreover I've written a code which automatically generate sets of re-ordering-terms problems of sentences which are used in CGW.

[![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/ZGWGk.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/ZGWGk.png)


---

### Answer by username_5 on 2023-05-09. Score: 1

I would reccomend Hello Chinese if you like Duolingo as an alternative. It has the same concept as Duolingo but is made specifically for Chinese Mandarin. It is more customizable, between simplified or traditional, or only pinyin or no pinyin.

The main issue with duolingo is they make courses for dozens of languages, and they don't really alter the course across them. This means it doesnmt really work with languages like Chinese that are very different from English. So there will he more errors or awkward moments than you would expect. Even a lot of what you do learn is written like English rather than Chinese, which isn't very conducive to learning Chinese.

Also, its totally optional but if you were interested in the basic paid version it has by far the best listening and speaking practice I have seen for beginners. Note clearly the base app is completely free and fully unlocked to cover basic Chinese.

The Chinese grammar wiki another poster mentioned is an amazong resource to take advantage of, but it really isn't organized into lessons that build on each other. It's more of a source to look up specific grammar points one at a time :)


---

