Learn Chinese Sites
Linese.com is China’s attempt at the online learning experience. Launched a couple of days ago it’s time for a review.
Linese.com Review
Well that’s what I thought before, but I learned from a comment on the Peking Duck that it’s actually a private backed venture so I am not going to waste much time on it. It would have been much more fun if it would have been a government sponsored site though.
Basically the site is bad, navigation doesn’t work, links are dead, registration module ends up nowhere (today it does again) and Chinglish is the choice of language. There may be useful content but my attention span is about 3 seconds so it doesn’t work for me.
Maybe I am too harsh but the fact that they send out press releases while the site is not up to par is definite a no no. Check it out for yourself here
So where can you go in case you want to master Chinese.
Good sources for learning Chinese
I suggest, but it’s up to you of course, to read my review of Chinesepod and Serge’s Melnyck Learn Chinese podcasts. If you like to read annotated articles from the China daily you may like to try out NewsinChinese. Another option is to check out a whole bunch of learn chinese websites. In case you only want to translate some words try Chinese dictionaries which has listed the best ones available.
July 19th, 2006 01:35
G-
Thanks for the comment on my site. Do you read Imagethief? He has a detailed review of linese, plus all around good content. http://news.imagethief.com/blogs/china
July 19th, 2006 01:50
Yes, I do, it’s a great site. In the case of Linese I felt his comments were a bit too mild though.
July 19th, 2006 10:32
Hi,
I agree that Linese.com is still not ready to be launched. A lot has yet to be done. Meanwhile, here are some useful tools to learn Chinese :
- Learn Chinese : Free Mandarin Chinese lessons. Each of the 15 units contain easy to understand dialogues, usage notes and a practice page.
- Chinese-English dictionary : An easy-to-use dictionary with over 34,000 entries. It can be searched by Chinese characters, Pinyin, or English. Audio pronunciation is available.
Good luck.
September 1st, 2006 09:06
And here’s also a Chinese phrase-finder you might find useful for finding alternative ways of expressing yourself.
Hope it helps!
November 22nd, 2006 09:01
thanks for the views they were of great help in further assistance.
March 2nd, 2007 10:07
I’ve seen that Linese site, and I have to say, that they have a long way to go before they produce content that compares with that of Chinesepod.
Chinesepod is head and shoulders above the rest of ‘em.
April 13th, 2010 23:47
I also looked at the Linese website and I was not particulary impressed. Some of the content is pretty good but not as good as you would think with private capital.
There are many places to learn Chinese and I don’t think that Linese.com is even really in the competition.