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How to learn Chinese from scratch on your own: a 30-day plan

Before you start

• 20 minutes a day, at the same time every day if you can: 5 minutes of review, 10 of new material and 5 of listening and repeating out loud.
• A notebook for writing characters by hand.
• Audio with good pronunciation: videos from a teacher, an app with audio or a dictionary with recordings. At first, repeating out loud matters more than reading.
• A way to review: paper flashcards, Anki or an app that keeps track for you.

Week 1 (days 1 to 7): pinyin and tones

Pinyin is the way Chinese is written with the Latin alphabet. It isn't read the way English is (q, x and c, for example, don't sound like they do in English), so this week is the foundation for everything else. Repeat every sound out loud.

Watch out with 你好: it's written nǐ hǎo but pronounced ní hǎo. When two third tones come together, the first one is said as a second tone. The same happens with 很好 (hěn hǎo, very good), which sounds like hén hǎo.

If the tones give you trouble, we have a full guide to the 4 Mandarin tones, with this and the other tone changes.

Week 2 (days 8 to 14): greetings, numbers and your first characters

Starting this week, you add about 5 new characters a day, with their pinyin and meaning, and write each one by hand three or four times.

The 30 characters of week 2

The pinyin in these lists is each character's tone on its own. Inside a word, some of them change: 不 becomes bú before a fourth tone (不是 bú shì), 一 changes depending on the syllable after it, and in 谢谢 or 对不起 the last syllable takes the neutral tone.

For numbers, and to write correctly from the start, see Chinese numbers and stroke order.

Week 3 (days 15 to 21): introducing yourself

With just a few structures, you can already have your first conversation:

Notice 吗 (ma): you add it to the end of a statement to turn it into a yes-or-no question. Practice each sentence by swapping in your own words: your name, your country, what you like.

The 30 characters of week 3

Week 4 (days 22 to 30): numbers, dates, shopping and time

The 30 characters of week 4

How to tell if it worked

On day 30, go through this list. If you can do most of it, the month worked:

• Read any pinyin syllable out loud, with its tone.
• Say hello, thank someone, apologize and say goodbye.
• Say your name, where you're from, your age and what you like, and ask someone else the same.
• Count to 100, say the date and the time, and ask how much something costs.
• Recognize the plan's 90 characters and write most of them from memory.

Mistakes that make people quit

• Trying to go too fast. Five characters a day with review are worth more than twenty you forget.
• Skipping the tones. Fixing them later is much harder.
• Only reading. If you don't repeat out loud, you won't be able to speak.
• Breaking your streak for more than a day. Missing one day is fine; miss three in a row and it's easy to give up.

After day 30

Keep the same pace and aim for the new HSK 1 vocabulary: 300 words that let you handle simple everyday situations. 88 of this plan's 90 characters already appear in those words (only 咖 and 啡 are missing). If you want to know what to expect in the longer run, see how long it takes to learn Chinese.

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Frequently asked questions

Can you learn Chinese on your own?

To get started, yes: with a plan, good-quality audio and consistency, you can learn pinyin, tones, basic phrases and your first characters. To hold fluent conversations, at some point you need to practice with people.

How much time a day should I study Chinese?

Between 15 and 30 minutes a day is enough to make progress. A little every day gets you further than a lot once a week.

What should I learn first, speaking or writing?

Pronunciation first: pinyin and tones during the first week. Characters come in from the second week, little by little and always with their pinyin.

What if I skip a day of the plan?

Pick it up where you left off, without trying to do two days in one. What matters is never missing more than one day in a row.

How many characters can I learn in 30 days?

With this plan, 90: about five new ones a day from the second week on, with daily review. The full list, with pinyin and meaning, is in this guide. 88 of those 90 characters appear in the words of the new HSK 1, so it's a good base for moving on to that vocabulary.

Why is 你好 pronounced “ní hǎo”?

Because when two third tones come together, the first one is pronounced as a second tone. In pinyin it's still written nǐ hǎo.

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