Learn Chinese · China for free · Changsha

Learn a little Chinese before you arrive

Four short pages for absolute beginners. No app, no course, no sign-up — just characters, pinyin and sentences you can actually try on day one. Last checked: 2026-11.

Reading these pages in your own language

The instructions are in English, but every Chinese line is given in characters + pinyin + a plain-English meaning. Pinyin is a pronunciation alphabet, not a translation — so the phrases work the same way whatever language you read. The home page is available in 53 languages; use the language button at the bottom right of any page.

Four places to start

01 · 10 min readPinyin & the four tones: a beginner's first eveningHow to read a Chinese phrase out loud well enough to try it — the four tones, tone marks, and the three sounds that trip beginners up.Open the page → 02 · 8 min readTen Chinese phrases that get you through day oneTen copy-and-say lines with characters, pinyin and the moment to use each one — from 'I don't understand' to 'not spicy, please'.Open the page → 03 · 8 min readOrdering food in Changsha: chilli, prices and pointingThe chilli scale, six lines that work in a small local restaurant, and how to handle allergies, the bill and leftovers.Open the page → 04 · 12 min readYour first conversation with a Chinese hostA short, realistic dialogue for the moment you arrive — plus three rescue lines for when you get lost mid-sentence.Open the page →

Why bother, when you can use a translation app?

Because the best part of staying in someone's home is the small talk: being offered tea, being told the food is very spicy, being asked where you are from. A phone solves practical problems, but it puts a screen between you and the person. Ten lines you can say yourself do more for an evening than a perfect translation.

The four-week path is the longer version of this: it goes from tones and pinyin to doing one real thing yourself in Chinese.

What these pages are not

This is not a course, a school or a qualification, and nothing here is a promise about what a host will teach you. The host replies in English and Mandarin, as the common questions page says. These pages are simply the words we wish every guest had on the first evening. Mandarin Chinese only; local Changsha dialect is a separate, optional treat.

Spotted a wrong tone or an unnatural line? Please tell us — these pages are maintained by a person, not a machine translation.

Ask about a stay· Chinese phrases on the home page· Common questions· Search this site