Beginner help

Pick one of the recent Newbie level lessons and work through it. Any lesson, they're all at the same level, there's no sequence. Get a feel for how our lessons work, using all of their features. Don't forget to look at the Lesson Comments left by your classmates. Pick one of the recent Elementary level lessons, and work through it. Elementary is likely to be a good level for you, but that's just a guess. Then select lessons from anywhere in those lesson levels, according to what subjects appeal to you. Generally the more recent lessons are produced a little better than old ones. In the lessons section, look under the Extras tab and explore a bit of what's there for fun and interest. Don't forget to try out the ChinesePod Dictionary, it's great fun to use, and it links back to lessons containing the words you look up. Join the Forum, introduce yourself there, browse through the forum for gems of shared knowledge, and use it to ask any questions about study or discuss your personal highs and lows. Others will chime in with more specific tips. If you have a more specific question about what you want to do, say something more to keep our chatter on track for your needs. Welcome to the CPod community!

Hi Breza: Welcome to Chinesepod! You'll find here a community full of really cool people who an all help you in your journey to learn Chinese. AuntieSue was absolutely right. Start at the Newbie level, search subject that you have a strong interest in, because the more interested you are in the subject matter, the easier it is to learn it. If you find the Newbie level too easy (being that you have already gone through the BBC lessons), go on to Elementary. Use all facets of the lessons, don't limit yourself to just listening to podcasts, have the extras open when you listen so you can follow along in the dialogue and follow look up your new words while your listening. Look for patterns in the sentences, this will help tremendously with Grammer. Like AuntieSue said, the Cpod community can alot with tips and advice. Feel free to ask me anything you want I'll always be happy to help as I'm sure all othere dedicated Cpod members will too! Good luck in your studies and again, welcome! 欢迎你！

Welcome to ChinesePod! Auntie Sue and Xiaohu have already given some great tips. Here's my top three: 1. Pick lessons that interest you - don't start from the beginning and work forward. The lessons have no order, so just look for things you'll enjoy learning. For you, I'd recommend sticking mainly to Newbie and Elementary, but don't be scared to try something harder. 2. Be an active member of the ChinesePod community. That way, any quaestions and quesries you have about anything can be answered in no time. Also, you can help other CPodders with any problems they have, which can be a nice challenge. 3. Enjoy it! ChinesePod is by far the funnest way I have ever found to learn a language. Every lesson has some sort of hilarity in it! That's what I love about ChinesePod. :)

Thanks for the help, and just wondering, is it useful to learn the traditional or simplified Chinese alphabet, or just Pinyin?