Chinese learning tools

Lately I’ve been studying Mandarin Chinese and I wanted to share the useful utilities I have found.

If you have any other great tools or websites that you use, please do let me know!


  • chinesepod.com—a top resource for learning by listening; free and paid services available

  • jMemorize—Java flashcards; you can load up a simple text CSV file and have it quiz you on the front, the back or a bit of both.  It remembers which cards you struggle with and tests you on those more frequently

  • DimSum—one tool to rule them all; dictionary, reading assistant and (most important for me) a simple way to type pinyin, including the tones

  • Chinese-English dictionary—there are plenty of online dictionaries, but I’ve found this to be very straightforward; some entries have audio recordings to go along with them


I am currently studying Hanyu Jiaocheng (汉语教程) book one part one, and the Chinese Express Talk Chinese books.

I’ve created simple CSV spreadsheets of all the new words and sample sentences from these books, which I’m making available for download here.


In their basic form the above files are not much use for jMemorize, but if you run:
$ sed ’s/,//’ file.csv > anotherfile.csv

you will get a CSV file that can be imported into jMemorize.  At a later date (when I have all of the words/chapters) I will upload basic jml files as well as the CSVs.