Chinese for HSK 1

Peking University has a 6 week HSK 1 course on Coursera that starts December 26th. It can be audited for free.

How I (unofficially) cleared HSK 1 within 20 days learning mandarin (resource + tips sharing)

Disclaimer : I did not want to boast by making this post. I realize HSK 1 is the very basic of the chinese language and passing it means almost NOTHING. Here, I just want to share how I learn and what resource(s) I use.

Background : I am Indonesian, My mother tongue is Bahasa Indonesia. Ten years ago, I had Chinese tuition for one year and then stopped because things seem so difficult. I never revised mandarin, so I forgot everything except maybe 你好

This is how I learn:

1. At the first few days, I drilled myself in pinyin table. A pinyin table by yoyochinese.com is quite clear. The demonstrator uses english words so readers can easily relate how to pronounce things.
2. Next, I use LingoDeer app and learn the very basic words such as "How are you" and stuff. I never force myself to remember the characters, but I have to pronounce them well..The good thing about it is, they demonstrate how to pronounce everything. The app is free for the first 4 lessons.
3. I decided I did not want to pay, so I searched for other resources on the net but nothing seemed to be good....until I remember about Coursera.org. For those of you who didn't know, It's a website where you can learn courses from many universities. You can get a certification (after finishing a course), but you have to pay. If you don't want to pay any money, you may enjoy all the lessons and videos as long as you enroll to the course.
4. I enrolled to this course by Shanghai Jiao Tong University. When I read about it, this university accepts students who are interested in learning mandarin by taking non-degree language program. When you enroll, you can watch 2 lecture videos each week (all taught by a professor), new words+pronounciation, quizzes, even per-chapter workbook if you are interested in mastering the writing. You may even ask in the forums as well.
   In my opinion, the professor here explains at slow pace thoroughly, and you get to understand the grammar and structure as well. SJTU provides 4 beginner level and 4 intermediate level courses. By the end of eight courses, you can test yourself in HSK 3 (they claimed)
5. After I reached a certain lesson, I decided to learn writing as well. So I printed out the workbook and practice the writing myself. Therefore, my writing is way behind my conversation and pinyin.
6. As I am aiming to test myself in HSK 1, I also enrolled in this course that specializes to prepare students to reach HSK 1. I assume this course was for those who already had the basics because videos and lessons aren't that explanative. The videos also seemed old for some reason. Here, they gave a thick pdf textbook of vocabs and conversation. I didn't really watch their videos as I only read their textbook.
7. The most important thing is, I study every day. I might not have enough time on some days, so I would only rewatch some older episode's conversation so I don't forget. Sometimes it's only 10 minutes in a day but it's needed so my brain doesn't forget them. If I don't have time to open my laptop, coursera is also available as an app in android and ios. I always downloaded all the materials when I have wifi at home. I watch the videos on my phone even when I had no internet connection.

That's my tips. I hope the resources is useful for you who were looking for some free and good ones. I hope for the best for your chinese lesson.

People in the thread have already mentioned some great tips for learning Chinese ie: anki and r/chineselanguage but I have one more suggestion.

Go to Coursera. You can audit this class from Peking University for free! It’s far more in depth than anything you can get from duolingo or other apps since it’s a real college class. Highly recommend it.

While I can't offer lessons myself, Coursera has a really good introduction course to Chinese HSK 1 from Peking University. It can be accessed for free under certain conditions [if you're currently a student, for example], but if not, I think it's worth paying for.

Chinese can be a pretty daunting language to learn at first, so feel free to reach out if you have any questions :)

https://www.coursera.org/learn/hsk-1

This will teach you all the basics and by the end of it, you'll know your first 150 characters.

Welcome to the most exciting and complex learning experience of your life! ;)

Sure! https://www.coursera.org/learn/hsk-1

There are lots of different places that offer HSK 1-3 such as Coursera, Youtube, HSK Reading, Apps such as ChineseSkill or HelloChinese, etc.

There is a set of MOOCS offered by Peking University on Coursera: The first course covers HSK 1 and the subsequent courses offered by that University goes up to HSK 3. Unfortunately, it doesn't really go into pinyin it looks like, but there are many resources for pinyin around the web, here are some links:

An Introduction and Overview of Pinyin

A Youtube Series by ChineseFor.us

Yoyo Chinese's Interactive Pinyin Chart

Mandarin Companion is an awesome resource. They're not free, but at $8 USD for an ebook are very affordable. The whole series is really fantastic. https://mandarincompanion.com/products/in-search-of-hua-ma/ for example uses only 150 characters. As you get started, a very reasonable goal in the first several months of learning would be to be able to read that.

https://www.amazon.com/Fluent-Forever-Learn-Language-Forget-ebook/dp/B00IBZ405W is a book that really shaped how I approach learning - focus on pronunciation and learning key nouns and verbs, make your own flashcards, and don't worry to much about grammar - instead worry about conveying meaning, and let the grammar fill itself in.

I know they're not free, but they were so essential to me that I have to recommend them.

Now for free stuff:

- Coursera has some good courses: https://www.coursera.org/learn/hsk-1? for example.

- http://www.hellochinese.cc/ is a really nice Chinese specific app.

Really though the best advice I can give is to set a specific, achievable goal for yourself, and then work toward that goal. For example "I want to be able to read In Search of Huama out loud" or "I want to be able to order my meal in Mandarin at at a Chinese restaurant".