About
Learn Chinese Online Hub teaches standard Mandarin to English speakers in ten minute pieces. It is part of a small network of language sites built by one studio, all sharing the same idea: short written lessons, no video, no account to read the free part, and an explanation of why rather than a list to memorise.
Who writes it
The lessons are written by an English speaker, who learned Mandarin as an adult. That is the relevant qualification and also the relevant limitation. An adult learner remembers which things were confusing and why, which is what these lessons are built around. An adult learner also gets things wrong in ways a native speaker would not.
Native review is not finished yet. Every character, tone mark and translation on this site is checked by a script for internal consistency, but a script cannot tell you that a sentence is correct and still sounds odd. A native Mandarin speaker is reviewing the material, and this page will name them when it is done. Until then, treat the lessons as careful but unverified, and please tell us if something reads wrong.
Which Chinese this is
Standard Mandarin, 普通话, written in simplified characters. That is the language of mainland China and Singapore, the one taught in schools, and the one behind almost all Chinese media. Traditional characters appear on the character pages as a reference so you recognise them in Taiwan and Hong Kong, but they are not taught here.
Cantonese is a separate language, not a dialect of this one, with six tones and its own grammar and vocabulary. Nothing on this site will help you speak it, and saying otherwise would be dishonest.
Where northern and southern usage differ, the northern form is written and the southern one is noted. Both are standard, and 哪儿 and 哪里 will each get you to the same place.
How the material is checked
A script runs over every lesson before it is published. It splits each line of pinyin into syllables, confirms every syllable is real, checks the tone mark sits on the vowel the rule requires, and compares the number of syllables to the number of characters. It also checks stroke counts against the stroke data and confirms every quiz answer is among its own options. That catches typing errors and structural mistakes. It cannot catch a sentence that is grammatical and unnatural, which is what native review is for.
The panda
Diandian, 点点, meaning a little bit. Every site in the network has the same speech bubble character with one detail borrowed from its language. Here the bubble is a panda, the mark above the head is a third tone, and the tail is a brush stroke ending in a hook, the way a vertical stroke ends in handwriting. The name is two third tones in a row, so it is actually said diándiǎn, which is the first tone change rule the course teaches on day one.
Who runs it
Learn Chinese Online Hub is a trading name of Lunar Interactive Arts Ltd. Questions to hello@learnchineseonlinehub.com.