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Back to Learning Chinese : Start From Scratch (零到一學中文)

Learner Reviews & Feedback for Learning Chinese : Start From Scratch (零到一學中文) by National Taiwan University

4.5
stars
491 ratings

About the Course

This is a six-week introductory course in Mandarin Chinese conversation. The course will be taught completely in Mandarin, however students are not expected to have any experience learning Chinese. This course’s main objective is to study practical conversation. By watching videos showing various kinds of situations, learners will recognize and understand vocabulary, pair everyday words together with grammar to form short phrases, and learn the correct way to express words used in day-to-day life....
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126 - 150 of 167 Reviews for Learning Chinese : Start From Scratch (零到一學中文)

By Raci S

May 16, 2021

Great

By Julian M D

Jan 26, 2024

非常好

By Irina F

Apr 11, 2020

The title is 'Start from Scratch', but the course is definitely not meant for the Beginners. It's a very good course for those trying to pass HSK because the tests are extremely difficult for the students at the beginning of their Chinese journey. I also don't think that it's a good idea for the instructor to speak Chinese at such great speed, the beauty of the tone language is lost, moreover, it's impossible to follow being at the A1 level. The vocabulary choice is really good, nevertheless, it's absolutely impossible to digest such huge portions if you really start from scratch. The course lacks printables and tasks to drill the vocabulary & grammar patterns. Since I'm a false beginner, the course was really useful for me, though I must admit I had a hard time doing tests. I would recommend it for reviewing what one has learnt before, nevertheless, I would never recommend it for the complete novices.

By Beekys T

Jun 5, 2021

Overall, I enjoyed the course very much. I learned a lot of useful phrases; however, I give it a 4 star instead of 5 because the videos often lagged or skipped especially with regard to the video quizzes near the end of each video. The quiz questions sometimes jumped and I could not see what video the questions referred to. Also, at the end of each video when the professor summarized the words and phrases learned, I could not repeat after her because there was little pause made between each phrase for user to repeat after the professor. Lastly, the English translations are good, but there were some spelling errors such as "respond" which was misspelled as "resbond" on several occasions. Otherwise, the lesson plans are useful and build upon each skill learned in previous videos. I will definitely enrol in more courses offered by this professor if available.

By Corissa J P

Aug 13, 2020

This is a great course, with a lot of good material covered. The only reason I dropped one star is because I think it would be really helpful to have some English translation, or at least solid definitions of words. I ended up using a lot of google translate because sometimes a word meaning is not explicitly clear from the context and it can get confusing. However I learned a lot and would absolutely recommend this course! The videos are great, and it really challenges your listening comprehension! Thank you so much :)

By Moeko R

Apr 18, 2020

I really enjoyed this course, but feel that it may be too difficult for people that have absolutely no prior knowledge to Chinese. As my native language is Japanese, this was a perfect starting level for me (because I can already read and understand many Chinese characters). Some of the explanations of characters were a little lacking, but I appreciated the repetition and also short quizzes throughout. I think the PaGamO external tool is so cool! I will definitely continue to use it even after finishing the course.

By A. K K P

Nov 5, 2020

I liked this course very much as the deadlines were flexible. In the lectures, English is not used as the language of instruction, so it helped me to learn translation by myself. The content of the course is very timely and covers every-day topics. However, I wish there were more content on family, months, dates etc. Thank you so much for this course. I am so happy that I can communicate in Chinese upto an extent. You have encouraged me to learn more!

By Artur D

Oct 3, 2020

Fantastic course. Well taught, with some fantastic (and playful) explanations and extra tools. Expect of course to be challenged, this course is not for the lazy ...

Four stars, rather than five, because the dialogue is too fast in places. I found I had to keep stopping and replaying videos clips (even at 75% playback speed).

By Emma R

Mar 1, 2023

A great course to start learning the basics of Mandarin Chinese, offering short pre-recorded lectures and interactive quizzes. It could be improved by offering more repetition of new vocabulary and characters, as some of these are covered quite quickly.

By Leah C

Aug 24, 2023

This is an excellent course for learning Mandarin. It moves very quickly, so it requires either significant dedication or prior knowledge of Mandarin. There are no speaking exercises, so the focus is primarily on listening and reading comprehension.

By Elias B

Jan 25, 2020

Fun videos, that try to convey meaning through context, rather than simple translation. I wish there was a bit more grammar to clarify the usage of some later vocabulary, but overall provides a solid foundation to continue learning Chinese.

By Doğa Y

May 26, 2022

It was nice but there wasnt english subtitles in some parts which made it harder to learn. I dont think ıt was for absulute beginers maybe for people that already know a bit of chinese and want to study so they dont forget it .

By Christopher W

Dec 31, 2019

Lots of dun and good teaching style. The interface was a little wonky. I had to refresh to move on between every section. The in-video quizzes the timing seemed a little off. All in all a good preparation for the next class.

By Laura M L

Apr 21, 2020

It's a good course, but not for beginners, since it doesn't provide any written material - what makes really hard for the students to take notes - nor the videos are clear enough to understand all word without a translator.

By Sherry A O

Mar 9, 2020

The course is well done. Lessons build upon each other. When the deadline for quizzes reached, if it is possible to provide the correct answers to the questions. I would take another course similar to this.

By AVI K

Nov 1, 2019

At times the quiz and review questionnaires get fiddled up. I think it has to be corrected with the inputs. otherwise, it has helped me a lot as a basic mandarin student. Thank you for this course.

By Jessica R Y

May 12, 2020

I love the idea of not using any other languange than Chinese. However, I think this course will be better for those who has some basic skills. This course will be fun for practices!

By Yodsawadee N

Apr 16, 2020

It would be nice if there were English subtitles during the conversation. Sometimes there are words in dialogue that teacher didn't teach but i wanna know,

By Jiemin

May 15, 2021

เหมาะสำหรับคนที่พอมีพื้นฐานมาบ้างแล้ว เพราะว่าตัวคอร์สไม่ได้เจาะลงรายละเอียดพื้นฐานขนาดนั้น ตัวเนื้อหาค่อนข้างไปไว อาจจะต้องทวนย้ำซ้ำๆ ถึงจะเข้าใจ

By Cristell D C

Sep 15, 2019

I really enjoy this course, although the quizzes were very hard, I can say that I have learned quite a lot.

I will recommend this course for sure.

By Phan H P H

Sep 6, 2020

A good Chinese course for beginners. Learners can speak daily conversations after finish the course.

Thank the teacher and team for the course.

By Luong N

Apr 15, 2022

Thanks so much for sharing this course, I wish you make more subtitles for each video and the vocabulary for foreign students.

By CAROL S D A

Sep 1, 2020

Muy buen curso aunque es necesario investigar por cuenta propia para poder comprender en su totalidad los temas planteados.

By Narasimha R

Jul 3, 2020

Very good course for beginners as well as people who want to improve listening and speaking skills, I enjoyed each class.

By John P

Mar 8, 2023

Subititles during the chinese conversation after we learn the characters would be very beneficial