Learn Chinese Free With Busuu - and the alternatives or additions

I tried out a new (to me) language learning website, Busuu, for Chinese. Chinese for speakers of English.

Where is Chinese useful? In China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, your local Chinese restaurant and supermarket.





You can choose which sort of language you want to learn. I chose conversation and reading newspapers. The course started with conversation.

Straight in with hello. What is your name.

Most of the options are only two choice, or three, which I prefer to websites, such as Duolingo, offering you four choices which I find time consuming, confusing and depressing.

My husband, who is a statistitican, and knows about surveys and multiple choice questions, told me that four is the standard number, because with only two choice you can guess. Yes, but it does mean that if you have no idea, you only make one mistake instead of three before the system lets you move on and come back to it again later.

Is there anything I dislike about Busuu. Any disadvantage? It does repeatedly ask you to upgrade.

Useful Websites

Here are the options I have looked at (in alphabetical order):
busuu.com
https://www.busuu.com/dashboard

Chineasy
I have the book and the flashcards.


Good for learning individual signs and how they link together.
No whole sentences, except the book ends with a short story,

duolingo.com
I have finished the German and started Spanish, Hebrew and Esperanto.

facebook polyglots page
https://www.facebook.com/groups/polygotcommunity/

mango

hellochinese
http://www.hellochinese.cc/
https://www.facebook.com/HelloChineseApp
Helloenglish


memrise.com
Lets you record your memory aids for each letter or word or phrase and lets you see if anybody else has shared a memory aid.

Lingua.ly
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lingua.ly

About the Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker