What's On the Web
www.chinese-course.com (note the hypen...omitting it will take
you to an entirely different--and pointless shell "directory--site, and that would be a shame) is not the best
starting point from which to learn Chinese. It is not a Rosetta, Berlitz, Pimsleur or "Teach Yourself in 30 Days"
type of site that will take you from clueless to clue by starting at Point A and progressing at your own pace through
a series of preplanned lessons. What it is, however, is a powerful set of index cards--that tried-and-true standby
of students everywhere--of Chinese characters in both traditional and simplified forms, replete with definition,
pronunciation (the feature that requires premium membership after 3 days), and mini-movies depicting stroke order--
that will prove indispensible to your studies no matter what you are using as your primary text or method.
The valuable highlights of this site include the aforementioned
depiction of both simplified and traditional characters (no matter which camp you adhere to, familiarity with both is
a plus), a search function allowing the site to serve as a dictionary with audio pronunciation help, and
customization that lets you create different sets of "cards"/word groups for different study purposes (e.g.,
according to topic, a set for each chapter of your primary text, words learned in different contexts, particularly
troublesome words, etc.). You can go through your word lists in everything-at-a-glance fashion with each card
displaying everything pertaining to that character, or you can choose from among three types of randomized
multiple-choice practice tests: 1) those with English questions requiring you to recall the Chinese character
enough to pick from among a set of Chinese characters, 2) those with questions showing the Chinese character and
requiring you to pick from among English translations, and 3) audio-based questions (available to premium members)
that let you test your listening comprehension.
The biggest drawback of the site is its lack of an orienting homepage.
To get any sense of the site's purpose and capabilities you must register and log-in. This is unfortunate as many
users are reluctant to sign-up first and have their questions answered later. The good news is that the site has the
standard privacy policy where it will not pimp out or otherwise compromise the information you give. The three-day
everything free trial period is a nice glimpse into what premium membership gets you; alas, that it lasts only
three days and that it is the audio feature that defines the premium membership are facts that you are left to
piece together via an email you are sent some time after registering. Again, it would be nice to be able to get a
good sense of the site itself from the site itself (instead of having to rely on reviews like this one) prior to
signing up for anything.
Other areas of the site which could be improved upon include making the
stroke-order mini-movies (which this reviewer found often did not load and play, for some reason perhaps specific to
my computer?) more accessible for a greater variety of browsers, and including handwritten samples and movies (at
present the characters are all as they would appear in printed/electronic form; it would be nice to have visual
reinforcement for those wishing to read and write handwritten characters).
The site as it presently stands, however, provides an invaluable tool
to any student of Chinese and is worth checking out.