Announcing *3 NEW Levels and 3 NEW Books* in Our Chinese Character Reader Course!!

We are SO EXCITED to release 3 new books and 3 new levels in our Chinese Character Reader Course! "Zhang Ming's Story" continues with new adventures, packed with tons of useful vocabulary, grammar, and detailed academic insights into the language.

** Students who own the CHARACTER COURSE BUNDLE or the 6 COURSE BUNDLE have automatically received full access to these 3 new levels in the Character Reader Course FOR FREE! **

In this video our product manager Jason explains how this unique program for learning to read Chinese works, giving you an inside look at both the paperback books and the online course:

This unique course will help you make the big jump from memorizing characters to reading full sentences and stories, on your own, in Chinese!

(If you are new to studying Chinese, check out the first two units of our Chinese Character Course FOR FREE and see how much fun it is to learn to read and write Chinese characters with us! Start here with Lesson 1)

Based on 6 original fully-illustrated Chinese language comic books we’ve created just for this course, you'll step into the life of Zhang Ming, a typical Chinese office worker. Each lesson focuses on a few pages of the story, with fun animations and voice acting that bring the characters to life. 

Introducing Books 4, 5, and 6!

In the new books, Parts 4-6, Zhang Ming and his friends take a vacation in China for the holiday. These stories are PACKED with super useful and practical vocabulary and phrases.

One big difference between the new books and the first three in the series is that we introduce two new Chinese characters in each lesson to broaden your Chinese recognition.

It's not only important to keep building up your vocabulary - it's also a way for you to become more comfortable identifying new words as you read in Chinese, and seeing how the characters combine to form these words. 

Why a Chinese Character Reader Course?

Learning to read Chinese isn’t just about memorizing hundreds of individual Chinese characters. You have to combine those characters into words and complete sentences. And without enough context, reading Chinese can be extra challenging.  

Most resources teach you the characters, but leave you on your own to learn how to actually read.

With that in mind, we created our new Chinese Character Reader Course.  Through the comics - both the physical paperback copies and the online course - you’ll learn how to read words and complete sentences and get insights into the way Chinese is actually used in the real world, all through a fun and engaging story that will help keep you interested. 

The Chinese Character Reader Course is an essential step towards learning to read in Chinese.

How it Works

The Chinese Character Reader Course has both an offline and online component.  

It's a brand new approach that lets you both read, watch, and listen to the course, no matter where you are or what kind of studying you’re looking to do.  Studying with both the physical book and the online course is the most effective way to practice reading Chinese, though you can enjoy them separately as well. 

The characters found in the Reader course were based on the 600 most common characters taught in the first two Yoyo Chinese Character Courses. And in these 3 new books/levels, we introduce at least 2 new words in each lesson, so you continue to build your vocabulary as you read.

Whether you've been learning characters on your own, studying with our Chinese Character Courses, or just interested in getting started, this new Reader course will make sure you don't just end up with a huge list of memorized characters, still unable to read in Chinese.

Both the physical books and the online course feature breakdowns of the dialogue - including vocabulary, grammar, and cultural insights - to help you understand the language and get more out of the story. 

The Paperback Comics

Zhang Ming's story is a three-book series that is available in three separate colorful, glossy paperbacks on Amazon.com.  

The books feature a complete breakdown of the text, with translations, pinyin, clear explanations of vocabulary, and cultural insights from the story in the back.  They're not simply comic books in Chinese - these paperbacks are carefully thought-out learning resources for learning to read Chinese.  

In combination with the online course, these physical books give you the most effective (and enjoyable) learning experience.

You can purchase the books here.

The Online Course

The online Chinese Reader Course brings the three books of Zhang Ming's story to life, as a 6 level course on YoyoChinese.com, and the most recent addition to our ever-expanding Chinese Character program.

But, the online course is so much more than just the comic books in digital form.  Each lesson in the course covers a few pages at a time and uses animations and voice actors to turn the static comic into a lively ‘motion comic’. 

This way, not only can you read the story, you can watch and listen to it as well, ensuring you get as much learning out of the experience as possible. 

Slow Down the Audio on the Online Course

One thing we heard a TON from students is that it was hard to follow the native speakers who performed the voice overs in the video lessons.

We purposely instructed the voice actors to not slow down or change their natural pronunciation at all. It's really important to get exposure to this "real world" sound of spoken Mandarin.

But to help you out, we have a tool to let you listen to slow speed audio samples, in standard pronunciation, line-by-line: our dialogue replay feature. 

Check out this video demo with our Academic Manager Ashley to learn how this awesome feature works:

Lecture Notes & Links to Related Lessons

Each lesson comes complete with lecture notes, that have links to the relevant lessons in our Character courses that you can quickly reference.

This is super helpful when you come across characters you forgot (or haven't learned), or unusual grammar.  Be sure to check out the Lecture Notes!

Flashcards and Quizzes

Like our other courses, each lesson has a flashcard review as well as a 10-question quiz about the language and also the story content from that lesson to test your comprehension:

So, Which Should I Buy?

At this point you may be thinking, “Sounds great, but which one am I supposed to buy? The physical books, or the online course?”

Well, the answer is easy: Both! Or… either!

We designed the physical books and the online course to complement each other perfectly, allowing you to switch between reading the actual books you can see and feel in your hands - and learning online with audio, video, and review activities. We believe this is definitely best way to experience the Chinese Character Reader Course. 

That being said, both products were also designed to be enjoyed separately should you chose to only purchase one, and we’re confident you can enjoy them this way as well. 

Where to Buy the Books

Each physical book can be found for purchase directly on Amazon.

Try the Online Course for FREE  

Head to Lesson 1 now and try the first two units of the course for free.   After you experience the course for yourself, we're convinced you'll want to keep going and finish Zhang Ming's story:

We hope you love learning to read Chinese with this new course!  

If you went through the first 3 books in the series, let us know in the comments below! 加油 (jiā yóu)!