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A "short list" of the best Chinese study resources available to help those new to online/electronic resources to get off the ground.

DictionariesOnline Reading Assistant (instant pinyin and definition while you browse)

• Adsotrans
  
• New, Improved and Awesome Adsotrans
  
• Popup Chinese Translator extension for Firefox
  
• popjisyo.com
  
• Rikai.com

Online Dictionaries

• 
  
  • YellowBridge Chinese English Dictionary
    
  • ChinesePod Dictionary (sentences w/ recordings)
    
  • Dict.cn Dictionary, English/Chinese searchable dictionary with many example sentences in English and Chinese.
    
  • Xiaoma Cidian is a dictionary searchable by English, Character and Pinyin, and also has links to other helpful word lists. [S]
    
  • MDBG Dictionary is an all-around dictionary
    
  • Guoyu Dictionary, commercial-level traditional Chinese-based dictionary maintained by Taiwan Department of Education, with large number of word entries and detailed definitions.
    
  • Classical Chinese Dictionary (A) [T]
    
  • Specialized Chinese Dictionaries [S]
    
  • Zhongwen.com, good radical/stem derivation diagrams fro exploring the relationship between characters (in traditional character)
  
  Online Dictionaries that support screen (mouse) character writing
  
  • nciku.com - a new tool based on UniHan
    
  • A Java tool from Chinese-Tools.com
  
  Offline (instant pinyin and definition for offline text reading)
  
  • Dimsum (provides pop-up definition for both websites and offline texts; uses Java, should run on PC/Mac/and more)
    
  • PlecoDict (Palm/PocketPC; US$99.95 for version with John deFrancis's excellent ABC dictionary, allows for a instant definition while reading on your PDA - works the best with TealDoc on Palm; excellent full-featured flashcard system). See discussion.
    
  • Wakan Free mouse-over pop-up dictionary for all windows applications.
    
  • Wenlin, US$199, with academic discounts possible; PC/Mac; includes the ABC dictionary; provides mouse-over pinyin and definitions and unique features such as one-click searches for all characters containing a component or all phrases containing a character. (G) [S,T]
    
  • NJStar (mainly a word processor, but version 5.0 also has a teaching mode which provides pop-up definitions and automated vocabulary list generator; demo version is fully functional, but need to pay for registration for all features, including the full dictionary)
    
  • HanConv: converts between Chinese characters to pinyin and romanized Cantonese, and convert between Simplified and Traditional Chinese characters
    
  • Puku: converts between Chinese character to pinyin on Microsoft Pocket PC. Freeware made by a non-profit Putonghua advocate group.
    
  • Powerword: The most commonly used pop-up translator software in China. More geared towards native Chinese speakers learning English but is perhaps the most efficient Chinese-English mouse-over translator combined with a user-created CEDICT dictionary add-on found here.
    
    
  • For more on electronic dictionaries, see this discussion and this.
    
  • For more on mouse-over/pop-up dictionaries, see this discussion.
    
  • PABLO (Windows): Freeware Chinese-English dictionary, with handwriting recognition, stroke animations and great search features.
  
  Test Preparation
  
  • Popup Chinese - sample HSK test exercises at three levels of difficulty (beginner, intermediate, advanced).
    
    
    Tones[list]
    
  • SpeakGoodChinese (program for training tone pronunciation, see discussion)
    
  • Start from Pinyin: Alphabet of Pinyin (with .wav audio)
    
  • Mandarin Chinese Pronunciation Guide (no audio)
    
  • Pinyin Practice (
    
  • Romanization Explained
    
  • Pinyin Wiki
    
  • More here...
  
  Grammar
  • ChinesePod (grammar guide, or podcasts with grammar points).
• Chinese Usage Dictionary.

Listening Material

• Popup Chinese - free podcast lessons, HSK tests and annotated texts and transcripts with mouseover popups. Focus on standard Beijing dialect.
  
• Chinese as a Second Language Podcasts.
  
• Podcast with free transcripts from Nankai University.
  
• Chinese Voices, collection of short, engaging mini-essays with accompanying audio for intermediate students.
  
• CCTV Travel in Chinese (teaches you Chinese with a travel theme; transcript available on website). See this discussion.
  
• CCTV's "Economics Half Hour" 《经济半小时》: videos (click on the little icon after the titles) and transcripts of many shows are available on the site. A little like a more commercialized version of "60 Minutes." The show covers many subjects, not just the economy, despite its name.
  
• ChinesePod.com
  
• China Radio International beginning Chinese listening materials (with pinyin and English transcripts). See discussion.
  
• Chinese subtitles/script for Chinese movies (for movies that you may have downloaded from lib.verycd.com). See discussion.
  
• Online audio lessons (I)
  
• Chinese Radio Online
  
• Chinese Television Online
  
• Radio Free Asia
  
• ChinesePod (learning community & podcasts)
  
• More listening resources: see this discussion.

Reading Material

• Chinese Text Sampler (texts graded by difficulty level) (linked through anonymouse.org due to site being blocked by the Great Firewall)
  
• NewsInChinese.com
  
• Collection of writings by famous modern authors such as Lu Xun, Su Tong, and Wang Xiaobo

Flashcards/Vocabulary

• Software
  • jMemorize, Supermemo-like flashcard system that keeps track of your study history
    
  • MyChineseFlashCards: nice open-source Chinese flashcard program (Mac, PC, Linux)
    
  • See PlecoDict above
    
  • Zhongwen Development Tool, java-based cross platform (Windows, Mac, Linux). Open Source.
    
  • PINGRID (Windows): Freeware vocabulary training game. Based on spaced repetitions and 100% geared towards Chinese vocabulary.
• Specific Flashcards
  • Integrated Chinese Level 1, with about 1154 words (simplified characters)
    
  • David & Helen
    
  • New Practical Chinese Reader
    
  • Most frequently used character list
    
  • Hanyu Shuipin Kaoshi (HSK; Chinese Achievement Test) vocabulary list
    -> Mnemosyne/Anki format, TSV format, Supermemo format, KVoctrain/Parley format
    
  • Lists of most frequently used words phrases in literature and news
    
  • 250 Most Common Idioms
    
  • List of common Chinese names and translation of foreign names
    
  • FlashcardExchange
    
  • YellowBridge Flashcards

Study Tools

• Hanyu College: Animated dialogues, karaoke, radio, and advanced readings (B,I,A) [S]
  
• DimSum: offline reading tool with annotation, dictionary (I,A) [S,T]
  
• University of Oxford Multi-Media Language Course (B,I)
  
• Read Mandarin - Learn to Read Chinese : Very useful website created by Daniel for learning characters (B, +pronunciation audio files) [S]

Converters

• Simplified to Traditional
  
• Traditional to Simplified

Language Partners

• Find a Chinese chat partner with QQ (a popular instant message program in China). See discussion.
  
• Meet Language Partners Online
  
• LangEx
  
• Sharedtalk.com

Games

• Chinese Memory Card Game
  
• Chinese Squabble
  
• http://pirate.shu.ed...guage_games.htm
  
• http://qi-journal.co...inConcentration
  
• http://www.flyordie.com/games-cn.html
  
• http://trc.ucdavis.e...ob/gamelist.htm
  
• http://www.shareup.c...load-47158.html (PC only)

Other

• Mandarin Slang (Wikipedia)
  
• Mandarin-Cantonese Term Converter
  
• Hanzismatter exposes the misuse of Chinese characters
  
• Signese exposes characters in action