First of all, here is just a general question for you if you want to learn Chinese for free. How good are free things, usually? You know the answer… Not good at all. There are many possible reasons for a Chinese language course to be offered for free including a genuine intention to give away something highly valuable. However, most of the time, a Chinese lesson that is given away for free doesn't really measure up to the paid ones. That is why Chinese courses that claim to allow you to learn Chinese for free are usually not very valuable.

Also, another big problem with learning Chinese for free is that all those free Chinese learning materials often lack multimedia-based training materials. This might not be a big problem for other areas of learning, but it when comes to learning Chinese or learning Mandarin, you're missing a huge chunk of education if you don't hear it spoken or see natives interact with one another.

And most likely, you wouldn't receive the "whole package" if you were chasing after what would let you learn Chinese for free, because learning Chinese takes tons of effort and commitment, and the entire learning will definitely demand some form of investment.

With that being said, it is actually a neat idea to obtain some resources to learn Chinese for free when you're just beginning to learn the language so that you see a bigger picture of you learning Chinese, but I have yet to encounter someone who did learn Chinese from scratch until she achieves a reasonable proficiency level, all relying on free resources to learn Chinese.

The truth is, if you're committed to learning Chinese or learning Mandarin, you should take a serious Chinese language course and seek out some really good Chinese learning programs.

So next time when you feel like hunting for resources to learn Chinese for free, recall what you just read.

It has been estimated that there are about thirty million people learning the Chinese language around the world, and many of those people are learning the language on the internet.

A very simple way to learn Chinese online is to communicate with a native Chinese speaker who happens to be learning your language. You can accomplish this by using instant messaging software programs such as the MSN messenger, Yahoo messenger, and so on. You can also talk with them directly by taking advantage of the IP telephony technology such as Skype.

The only issue is, how can you locate these Chinese to be your Chinese teachers? It's actually quite simple. You see, there are many so-called language exchange communities out there where you can find "language partners" according to your needs. Just search on any of the major search engines with the keyword "language exchange" and you're bound to discover your very first language partner for learning Chinese.

You may also learn Chinese online with podcasts that can be found at many websites these days. Simply Google keywords related to "podcast" and you'll find a great number of podcasts for your learning purposes. If you want more up-to-date information, you can also tune into online radio stations in Chinese to listen to the news or music in Chinese. If you have a faster internet connection, you can also watch Chinese TV online using many free software applications.

Because of the contribution of many language enthusiasts, there are more and more carefully crafted Chinese lessons online which you can freely download to learn Chinese for free at your own pace from the comfort of your own couch.

Just perform another simple search online for Chinese courses and you'll be able to find tons and tons of them that you can take advantage of. This is literally the most direct way to learn Chinese online.

Do you write blogs regulary? If the answer is yes, then join the Chinese blogging community. Scatter some Chinese words in your blogs. The truth is, the type of language used in blogs is the most original and genuine Chinese language that you can ever come across. Interact with the Chinese bloggers and befriend them. Who knows, they might be happy to teach you the language and become your Chinese teachers somehow.

The above are merely a few ideas of how you can learn Chinese online, but really, the sky is the limit. There are many opportunities online to find great Chinese learning matgerials. Just keep searching and have fun while you're doing it.

Please, no more "Haohao Xuexi, Tiantian Xiangshang" or "Wei Renmin Fuwu" (both expressions are outdated 1960s slogans); Please, no more Chinese teachers who speak Mandarin in thick accents of their dialect groups; Please, no more Hanyu Pinyin drills that lead to nowhere without learning Chinese characters; Please, no more Chinese schools or Chinese lessons that only teach you to read or listen but not communicate; Please, no more arguments about whether traditional Chinese characters are superior/inferior than Standard Chinese characters…

We want more real Chinese, and the best way to learn Chinese; We want to know the real differences among Standard Mandarin, Cantonese, Shanghainese (Wu) and a thousand other dialects; We want to know how to speak Chinese just as the native speakers do, in the same way, with the same tonality; We want to know what words and phrases they use in their daily life. We want to know the type of slangs they use to joke with one another; We want to know the internet language they use in online communities.

We want more Chinese learning resources so that we can learn Chinese for free; We want to learn Chinese everywhere and not just learn Chinese in China; We want to learn Chinese calligraphy, music, food, poems… apart from the language; We want to learn from real life Chinese sources and we want to learn Chinese online… Forums, online Radio, webcasts, current events, newspapers, children stories, jokes…

We're here to help you learn Chinese - real Chinese language.