Recommended Media

This page is still under construction, but here's a list of resources I've compiled so far that will help you improve your Chinese and help you get a better understanding of Chinese culture. If you know of other great resources, reach out to me and I'll add them here!

Dictionaries

  • Pleco. Everyone probably already knows about Pleco, but not as many people have taken a look at the paid bundles that offer additional dictionaries, OCR, document readers, and more. The bundles are worth every single penny if you're serious about Chinese.

Podcasts

  • Romance of the Three Kingdoms Podcast. "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" is one of China's greatest classical novels, and John Zhu not only is a great story teller, but he also adds much-needed context and history blurbs to help get a better understanding of the story. Cannot recommend enough.

TV/Movies

People's tastes in TV and movies are too varied for me to give specific suggestions here, but here are some ways that you can find media to watch:

  • Graded Watching. They went through and compiled a list of shows based on difficulty level.

Browser Extensions/Add-ons

  • Zhongwen Chinese Popup Dictionary. You hover your mouse over a Chinese word, and an English definition popus up. (You probably already know about this resource, but I didn't hear about it until I was a senior, and I still cringe when thinking of the amount of time this app would have saved me.)
  • Language Learning With Netflix. This allows you to watch Netflix movies and shows with two sets of subtitles, and it also adds several other features that make learning languages through Netflix much easier.