What you’ll be able to do
The lessons are built around everyday situations, so what you learn is useful straight away, and you build a foundation in pronunciation and tones as you go.
Meet people
Greet people, introduce yourself, and talk about where you’re from, where you live and your family.
Eat, drink and shop
Order drinks, eat in a restaurant and go shopping.
Get around
Check into a hotel, ask at tourist information, find your way around town and take the train.
Learn the tones
Build a foundation in pronunciation, tones and the core structures of the language.
Who presents the course
Crystal presents the course, and Mark takes on the role of the learner. Crystal guides him through Mandarin, from pronunciation and tones to everyday conversations, and his questions are often the ones you’d ask too.
The idea is that you understand how Mandarin fits together, so you can build sentences of your own.
Inside every lesson
All 40 lessons follow the same shape, so you always know what to do next, and each video lesson takes around 20 minutes.
What’s included
Pay once and it’s yours for life, on every device you use.
- 40 full lessons Over 20 hours of audio.
- Video lessons With words and phrases on screen.
- Comprehensive lesson notes Grammar explanations, vocabulary and transcripts.
- Interactive quizzes Check your progress as you go.
- Downloads Take the audio and notes offline.
- Lifetime access One payment, no subscription.
Video
The video lesson
Crystal and Mark work through the dialogues and talk about the language, with tips on grammar and culture and the words and phrases on screen as you go.
Audio
The audio lesson
Download the same lesson to listen to on the go.
Notes
Lesson guide and transcript
Read the transcripts of the dialogues, with explanations of every grammar point.
Bonus
Bonus audio
Test your understanding with review, translation challenges and extra vocabulary.
The 40 lessons
The first 30 lessons build up to a trip to China, with a review every ten lessons. In the last 10 you follow Mark around China as he uses what he’s learned.
Part 1 · Lessons 1 to 10
Meeting people
Ask how someone is, introduce yourself, say where you’re from and where you live, talk about your family, count to 99 and find your way around town.
- 1Asking “how are you?” in Chinese
- 2Greetings and introductions
- 3Saying where you come from
- 4Talking about where you live
- 5Introducing your family in Mandarin
- 6More family members and counting from 0-99
- 7Buying things and places in the town
- 8Finding your way around the town in Chinese
- 9Talking about languages
- 10Review lesson
Part 2 · Lessons 11 to 20
Eating out and getting around
Order drinks and food, check into a hotel, talk about dates and time, go shopping, ask at the tourist office and take the train.
- 11Ordering drinks
- 12Visiting a restaurant
- 13More food and drinks
- 14Checking into a hotel
- 15Numbers, days, dates and time
- 16Going shopping
- 17Tourist information
- 18Getting around the town
- 19Taking the train in China
- 20Half way there!
Part 3 · Lessons 21 to 30
Everyday life
Talk about the weather and your health, make phone calls, deal with emergencies, make friends, talk about your job and what you like, and describe people.
- 21Talking about the weather in Chinese
- 22Body parts and illnesses
- 23A visit to the pharmacy
- 24Making phone calls and using the Internet in Chinese
- 25Dealing with emergencies in Chinese
- 26Making friends and talking about yourself in Chinese
- 27Talking about your job
- 28Talking about likes and dislikes
- 29Describing people in Chinese
- 30Course review
Part 4 · Lessons 31 to 40
A trip to China
Follow Mark on a trip to China as he uses his Mandarin with native speakers, from checking into his hotel to a day at the Great Wall.
- 31Huānyíng nǐ lái dào Zhōngguó (Welcome to China)
- 32Nín qù shìzhōngxīn nǎlǐ? (Where in the city centre are you going?)
- 33Zhè shì nín de fáng kǎ. (This is your room card.)
- 34Zhèr de bāozi hěn hǎochī! (The baozi here are delicious!)
- 35Nín xūyào shénme bāngzhù? (What can I help you with?)
- 36Zhèbiān qǐng, shìyījiān zài nà biān (This way, please: the fitting room is over there)
- 37Jīntiān tiānqì búcuò, wǒmen qù Chángchéng! (The weather’s lovely today: let’s go to the Great Wall!)
- 38Wǒ de péngyǒu shēngbìng le, tā hěn bù shūfu. (My friend is ill and really isn’t feeling well.)
- 39Nǐ xiǎng qù wǒ biǎomèi de shēngrì jùhuì ma? (Would you like to come to my cousin’s birthday party?)
- 40Huānyíng nǐ zàilái Zhōngguó! (Welcome back to China!)
From learners on the course
“谢谢Coffee Break Chinese team. I began listening to Coffee Break Chinese when lock-down started at the beginning of the pandemic. I was looking at many language learning podcasts, but the premise of learning Chinese along with one of the show's hosts made Coffee Break Chinese stand out. And I really did have many of the same questions that Mark asked during the course. When I completed the 30th lesson, I decided that learning Chinese wasn't going to be a "quarantine hobby." I met with a tutor and during our first class they were impressed with my strong foundation, claiming that I was already an upper-level beginner. After a break I returned to finish episodes 31-40, and I'm glad that I did. These last ten episodes were so much fun and great practice for my listening comprehension as Mark spoke with so many different Chinese speakers during his visit. Besides providing lots of vocabulary and grammatical concepts, most importantly Coffee Break Chinese has boosted my confidence in my ability to learn a language and made me less afraid of making mistakes. I think that goes back to listening to someone learn the language along with you. Mark makes the same mistakes you do, but models how to learn from them. I really enjoyed the course and I can't wait for season 2!”
“你好！我是Angela and I am thoroughly enjoying this course! I am a Novice learner of Chinese and have found this course to be very helpful and informative. I have been a member of the Coffee Break Language family for many years and I can't wait for a season 2 or masterclass of Chinese in the future. 我喜欢中文。谢谢，再见！”
Questions
Is this Mandarin or Cantonese?
Mandarin Chinese.
Do I need any Chinese to start?
No. Level 1 is for absolute beginners and starts from your very first words.
What’s the difference between the course and the free podcast?
You can find Coffee Break Chinese audio lessons on podcast apps. The course adds the video lessons, the lesson notes and the bonus audio, all made to help you make faster progress, and the course lessons never carry advertising.
When does the course start and finish?
You get all 40 lessons the moment you join, and you can keep using them for as long as you need.
Can I download the materials?
The videos stream online, and you can download the lesson guides and the audio to review on the go.
Can I try it before I buy?
Yes. Start with First Steps, our short free course, and you’ll see how the lessons work before you buy.
Not ready to buy? Start free
Try a few lessons in First Steps, our short free course, then carry on into Level 1 when you’re ready.
Coffee Break Chinese · Level 1
Start speaking Mandarin
All 40 lessons come with video, audio and full notes, so you can work through them at your own pace.
$269One payment, yours for life
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