Interactive Mandarin for Beginners

So I know it will help take you from a frustrated beginner to confidently reading, speaking, and listening to Chinese in as little as 20 minutes a day.

You'll learn vocab and grammar in the context of real, relevant news stories with my interactive system.

Meaning you’re not just reading and memorising, you’ll see exactly how characters are written and how they are pronounced by native speakers.

And you can practise speaking and get feedback directly from me and my native Chinese speaking team.

And unlike apps or classes it’s always up to date and rooted in real news stories.

Which means you’re always informed about what’s going on in China and you don’t come off as a clueless “laowai”.

Plus, you’ll be in a community of learners just like you to keep you motivated and accountable.

So by the time you’ve gone through this program you'll feel much more confident in reading, recognising characters, listening, and speaking Chinese.

And what’s more you’ll have a system which sets you up for learning for life: helping you make time to learn, and keep you motivated.

We kick things off on Sunday 3 May.

And the deadline to join is midnight Saturday 2 May.

So if you miss this you'll have to wait at least 3 months to start finally getting confident in Chinese.

Click below to grab your spot before the deadline.

I started a weekly Mandarin learning newsletter in February 2021.

It was a passion project to keep my language skills from getting rusty during COVID.

Sent to 56 friends, it grew into something I never expected.

Now in 2026 it reaches 13,000 China watchers and Mandarin enthusiasts every week, including many of the world’s top China experts, academics, and journalists.

My paid membership has helped 1,800+ intermediate and advanced learners move beyond textbooks to get more confident and fluent in Chinese through real news.

And over the last year, my inbox has been filled with the same request:

“Please create news-based content for beginners!”

I always avoided doing it but I didn’t think it was possible to create engaging beginner content using my news-based approach.

But after getting so many people asking for it, I thought I’d give it a try.

So I ran a 6-week pilot program for 8 beginner students in November 2025, focused on reading and Chinese characters.

All 8 students had similar stories.

They’d spent months, sometimes years, feeling stuck using apps, flashcards, YouTube channels, and classes.

And they wanted more than just learning Chinese characters. They wanted to read and listen to interesting Mandarin content, and speak about it in Chinese confidently.

Because no resource teaches reading, speaking, and listening together based on real news as it’s happening.

Apps keep you showing up every day. But after months of streaks and points, you still can't read a real Chinese sentence.

Textbooks give you structure and a place to start. But the Chinese you find in them bears little resemblance to how Chinese people actually speak.

YouTube and online classes are good for pronunciation practice. But without feedback, accountability, and interesting content at your level, you get stuck.

None of these resources work.

And they are all missing what beginners really need.

Which is the structure, feedback, community, and accountability to keep you motivated.

So I combined the experience of that pilot with my RealTime Mandarin Method.

Which is my proven system that’s helped 1,800+ executives, journalists, thinktankers and Mandarin enthusiasts achieve their fluency goals over the last 5 years.

This is a fully interactive 12-week news-based Mandarin course, built for beginners who are serious about making real progress.

Throughout this program I’ll share with you 350+ high-frequency characters and 60 core grammar structures through real Chinese news stories, not dry textbook dialogues.

You'll see how characters are written and get a chance to practise writing them.

You'll hear native speakers saying everything.

You can record yourself speaking.

And because this is an interactive program, you can even submit your writing and speaking for direct feedback from me and my team of native speakers.

The best bit: you’ll join a community of learners just like you to keep you motivated and accountable.

Plus, unlike apps, flashcards, and graded readers which teach Chinese in a vacuum, every character, word, and grammar structure you learn is anchored in a real and recent story happening in China.

And because you get lifetime access to everything, you can take it at your own pace and revisit any lesson any time.

So you’ll be informed, up to date, and able to have real conversations in Chinese about things going on in the real world.

Interactive Mandarin for Beginners is built around my proven RealTime Mandarin Method, which I’ve developed over 23 years of learning Chinese, and 5 years of building the world’s only Mandarin learning platform teaching through real news as it’s happening.

Plus it’s already helped over 1,800 learners get confident in Chinese.

When you join, you get a fully interactive, real-life news-based lesson every week for 12 weeks.

This is proper news.

Not the filtered, sanitised stuff you get in graded readers, textbooks, and HSK materials.

And I hand-picked these stories because I know what learners really want.

So you can not only get motivated and inspired by engaging content at your level, you’ll also become better informed about what people in China are talking about right now, and the key trends happening in China today.

These interactive lessons are structured around my three-step RealTime Mandarin Method:

In the RealTime Mandarin Method you learn speaking, listening, reading, and writing together.

Because learning all the skills in one go is the most effective way to do it.

And it’ll make it easier to remember and use what you learn.

You get character explanations, stroke order animations, and practice sheets for writing.

At the same time you learn vocabulary and grammar in the context of a news story, and to listen native audio as you read.

And not only that, you can record yourself speaking and listen back.

So you can practise and compare it to the native speaker.

Every lesson is available in simplified and traditional Chinese.

And you get ready-made word list integrations for all the top apps:

Pleco, Anki, Skritter, Hack Chinese, and Laoshi.

This is a fully interactive program, so you’ll never feel lost or isolated.

You’ll get feedback from me and native speakers while learning alongside a community of learners like you.

In addition to the news stories, you’ll also listen to dialogues between two native speakers (male and female voices) using the week's vocabulary and grammar in a different context.

So you get used to seeing vocab and characters in different settings.

There’s text, audio, pinyin, rollover dictionary, and record-and-playback for each dialogue.

Which means you’re not just reading, you can record yourself and even submit it to me and my team to get direct feedback on your pronunciation.

Then to help reinforce your learning, you can take a quick-fire test to check what you’ve learned and what you need to work on.

I also give you short writing exercises at the end of every lesson and you can send them to my team and they’ll give you feedback.

I know a big problem of learning Chinese is feeling isolated and having no one to talk to or give feedback from.

So I’ve built a community to help solve this.

You'll never feel isolated during this program.

Because from Day 1 you’ll be part of an engaged community of learners like you.

Inside the community you can introduce yourself, connect with other students, share wins, ask questions, discuss your challenges.

And me and my team of native speakers will be there every day answering questions.

Being part of this community will keep you motivated and accountable so you never feel stuck or lost.

You will also access 4 self-paced foundational trainings.

These trainings teach you the best practices I've learned the hard way through my 23+ years of learning Mandarin.

So you don’t make the same mistakes I did.

I’ve taken them all and put them into a simple system so you know exactly where to start.

Here's what you get:

The Context Learning Compass

How to use context to learn Mandarin effectively. I explain how to use “chunking” and “mimicking” as the most effective way to learn to read, speak, and understand Chinese.

The Habit Builder

How to build a learning habit and set up your own daily study routine and learning environment. And how to stay on track even when life gets in the way.

The Tones Tune-up

Learn and practice the essential rules for how tones change. Plus, I’ll teach you the ten most common tone combinations that trip up every beginner.

The Character Foundation

How radicals, character components, and key character types work. And how to remember and recognise characters without being overwhelmed.

This fully interactive course is for you if you are a beginner Mandarin learner who is serious about finally making real progress.

It's for you if you describe your level as "beginner" or somewhere between HSK 1 and HSK 3.

And you’ve been learning Chinese for a few months, or a few years, you know between 100 and 350 characters, but feel stuck at the same level.

It will help you find engaging content at your level.

Being part of the community will help you get motivated, stay consistent, and keep you accountable so you never feel isolated.

And it will help you read, listen to, and speak Chinese more confidently.

Think about how long you've already been trying to learn Chinese.

Months, a year, maybe several. Dabbling with apps, flashcards, and YouTube videos.

Maybe you've taken classes, paid for tutors, bought textbooks, and you're still stuck and isolated.

What would it be worth to break through?

Interactive Mandarin for Beginners will finally help you make that breakthrough giving you the confidence to read, understand and speak Chinese.

It’s a proven system delivered within a community of learners like you.

With current and hand-picked content which will finally get you motivated so you start making real progress.

In just 12 weeks you'll build a solid foundation with a method that keeps working long after the course ends.

You’ll finally start to understand, read, and speak real Chinese confidently.

So if you're ready to finally stop dabbling and build the foundation you need to get fluent in Chinese…

And you're serious about finally making real progress.

Claim your spot now for a one-off investment of just $497.

Complete the form below to invest and get started today!

I'm so confident this interactive course will work for you that I'm happy to put it in writing.

By the end of 12 weeks, if you show up and do the work:

You will feel more confident reading, listening to, and discussing Chinese news in Mandarin.

You will stop feeling lost with a clear method, a proven system, and the foundations to keep learning after the course ends.

You will stop feeling alone because you’ll be part of a community of learners like you, and you’ll be supported by me and native speaker instructors providing feedback.

And if at any point during the 12 weeks you feel the course isn't right for you, just let me know and I'll refund you in full. No questions asked.

That's how confident I am that this works.

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What is Interactive Mandarin for Beginners?
Interactive Mandarin for Beginners is a 12-week interactive news-based Mandarin course for beginners. It uses my three-step RealTime Method teaching you characters, vocabulary, grammar, listening and speaking practice. Self-paced trainings run alongside the weekly lessons. And you’ll join a community of learners like you to keep you accountable and motivated. Everything is in one place, in simplified and traditional Chinese.
Is this right for me?
Interactive Mandarin for Beginners is for you if you’re at beginner level — roughly HSK1-3, or 100-350 characters. Even if you feel totally lost right now, the weekly immersion, structured training, and community support will help you access content that currently feels out of reach. If you're unsure whether it's right for you, just drop me an email before you join.
How is this different from apps and other courses?
Apps teach you Chinese in isolation and give you no feedback. Textbooks give you dialogues no one actually uses. A weekly tutor gives you one hour and no structure around it. This fully interactive course gives you all four skills together, built around real news that's engaging and relevant, with native audio for everything, direct feedback on your speaking and writing, and a community to keep you accountable. That’s worth more than any of them.
Can I go at my own pace?
The weekly lessons are self-paced within each week. If you miss a day, you can catch up whenever it works for you. And because you get lifetime access to all course materials, you can revisit anything after the 12 weeks end.
Is there a guarantee?
Yes. My RealTime Guarantee means that if at any point during the 12 weeks you feel the course isn't right for you, just let me know and I'll refund you in full. No questions asked.

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