Study Materials
TutorMandarin offers extra study materials in the form of What’s On articles, Chinese Videos from Youtube, and Flashcards. These are all complementary or auxiliary study materials outside our general education system.
While not structured of our structured education system, they offer content that is still plays and interesting and useful role in the language learning journey. Moreover, this content is updated much more frequently, on a every other day basis. Users are encouraged to enjoy this fresh frequent content in-between their regularly scheduled tutoring sessions and have it continue to spark their love of learning.
Flashcards
For each vocabulary word in our courses, topics, What’s On, and Chinese Videos there will be linked flashcards. These flashcards can also be found in different packs in the ‘Study Materials’ section under ‘Flashcards.’
New users that have not taken any classes yet get access to the full stack of Beginner 1 flashcards, the first lesson of each subsequent course level flashcards, the flashcards for What’s on articles, and the flashcards for videos.
What’s On
There’s a lot to be said for learning a language in a systematic way. In fact, that’s how we design all our curriculums, levels, evaluations, etc. However, achieving a greater level of fluency often involves delving off onto the side roads of language learning. It involves understanding some cultural tidbits. It involves learning some history. It involves keeping up the latest news about China, Taiwan, and beyond. It involves keeping up with what’s going on with Chinese internet communities.
What’s on is a grab bag of short articles related to China and Chinese language learning. Articles are written in mostly English but will include Chinese vocabulary words and their linked flashcards.
What’s on currently is published on under eight topic categories.
- Phrases
- Language Learning
- Survival Skills
- News
- Understanding China
- Funny
- Conversations
- Grammar
There are currently eight topics to choose from with content being posted 3 times per week on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday.
What’s on is published up to 3 times per week.
There are no official classes with What’s On articles. Each article is typically too short and is not made with our more stringent education system. They are supplemental material.
If you choose a free-talk class and ask the teacher to discuss the What’s On content, the teacher will not necessarily be familiar with the content. Granted, they have access to it and can link it through the mobile whiteboard in the classroom.
Our tutors will not necessarily be familiar with frequent What’s On content.
Chinese videos
There’s a lot to be said for learning a language in a systematic way. In fact, that’s how we design all our curricula, levels, evaluations, etc. However, learning a language involves a great deal of time spent listening to the language and just getting used to it -- hearing it in context with emphasis, accents, and local use. Achieving a greater level of fluency often involves delving off onto the side roads of language learning through authentic language videos.
Chinese videos is a curated list of educational Chinese content videos and real world Chinese language videos for all our users to enjoy. Each video comes with an English description, Chinese vocabulary words, and the linked flashcards.
Chinese Videos is currently is published on under five topic categories.
- Language Learning
- News
- Understanding China
- Funny
- Music
Chinese videos are published as many as 3 times per week.
There are no official classes with Chinese video. Each video comes from a third party source and falls outside our organized education system. Simply put, they are supplemental material.
If you choose a free-talk class and ask the tutor to discuss a Chinese video, the tutor will not necessarily be familiar with the content. Granted, they have access to it and can link it through the mobile whiteboard in the classroom.
A tutor is not required to be familiar with frequent Chinese video content.