So if you’re bored with apps and flashcards…
You can’t find interesting content at your level…
You feel isolated learning Chinese…
And despite months, maybe even years of effort, you still struggle to read a single sentence without pinyin…
Then I’ve created the perfect interactive solution for you.
It’s based on my proven RealTime Mandarin Method, built from over 23 years experience of learning and teaching Chinese.
“RealTime Mandarin’s methods, including listening, focused, current vocabulary, and speaking, have helped me break through. I think RealTime Mandarin has really found the next frontier in learning Chinese.”
So I know it will help take you from a frustrated beginner to confidently reading, speaking, and listening to Chinese in as little as 20 minutes a day.
You’ll learn vocab and grammar in the context of real, relevant news stories with my interactive system.
Meaning you’re not just reading and memorising, you’ll see exactly how characters are written and how they are pronounced by native speakers.
And you can practise speaking and get feedback directly from me and my native Chinese speaking team.
And unlike apps or classes it’s always up to date and rooted in real news stories.
Which means you’re always informed about what’s going on in China and you don’t come off as a clueless “laowai”.
Plus, you’ll be in a community of learners just like you to keep you motivated and accountable.
Being part of this community of learners like you, you’ll no longer feel alone in your learning.
You’ll get confident in reading, recognising characters, listening, and speaking Chinese.
And what’s more you’ll have a system which sets you up for learning for life: helping you make time to learn, and keep you motivated.
You’ll make progress in just 12 weeks with my three-step RealTime Mandarin Method.
We kick things off on Sunday 3 May.
And the deadline to join is midnight Saturday 2 May.
So if you miss this you’ll have to wait at least 3 months to start finally getting confident in Chinese.
Click below to grab your spot before the deadline.
Here’s why I’m doing this…
Hi, I’m Andrew Methven, the founder of RealTime Mandarin.
I went from not speaking a word of Chinese to fluency after spending the last 23 years learning it.
I learned the hard way in the real world living in China and Taiwan, working in and with Chinese companies.
You’ll make progress in just 12 weeks with my three-step RealTime Mandarin Method.
Sent to 56 friends, it grew into something I never expected.
Now in 2026 it reaches 13,000 China watchers and Mandarin enthusiasts every week, including many of the world’s top China experts, academics, and journalists.
My paid membership has helped 1,800+ intermediate and advanced learners move beyond textbooks to get more confident and fluent in Chinese through real news.
To begin with I just focussed on creating content for advanced learners: addressing their need for real news-based content that’s actually interesting and relevant.
As the membership grew, my students asked for more.
They asked for news-based intermediate content.
So I created my Intermediate Podcast.
They wanted to hear real conversations between native speakers about the news.
So I created my Conversations Podcast.
And over the last year, my inbox has been filled with the same request:
“Please create news-based content for beginners!”
So I built it.
And to make sure it was designed to suit beginner needs, while still using my real news-based method, I ran a 6-week pilot program for 8 beginner students in November 2025.
All 8 students had similar stories.
They’d spent months, sometimes years, feeling stuck using apps, flashcards, YouTube channels, and classes.
And they wanted to read and listen to interesting Mandarin content, and speak about it in Chinese confidently.
Because no resource teaches reading, speaking, and listening together based on real news as it’s happening.
None of these resources work.
And they are all missing what beginners really need.
Which is the structure, feedback, community, and accountability to keep you motivated.
That’s what my RealTime Mandarin Method does.
It’s a proven system that’s helped 1,800+ executives, journalists, thinktankers and Mandarin enthusiasts achieve their fluency goals over the last 5 years.
“A wonderful platform for people like me who want to keep their Mandarin current and refreshed, while staying informed about what ’s happening in China”
— Madelyn Ross, President Emeritus · US-China Education Trust
I took that pilot experience and developed it into a fully interactive course for beginners.
My expert team of Mandarin instructors and linguists at RealTime Mandarin worked closely with me to create this program.
They have decades of combined language learning experience, and 20,000+ hours of Mandarin teaching experience between them (I’ll introduce you to the team below).
The result is my brand new beginner system.
Introducing:
This is a fully interactive 12-week news-based Mandarin course, built for beginners who are serious about making real progress.
Throughout this program you’ll belong to a community of learners just like you to keep you motivated and accountable.
I’ll share with you 350+ high-frequency characters and 60 core grammar structures through real Chinese news stories, not dry textbook dialogues.
You’ll see how characters are written and get a chance to practise writing them.
You’ll hear native speakers saying everything.
You can record yourself speaking.
And because this is an interactive program, you can even submit your writing and speaking for direct feedback from me and my team of native speakers.
Plus, unlike apps, flashcards, and graded readers which teach Chinese in a vacuum, every character, word, and grammar structure you learn is anchored in a real and recent story happening in China.
And because you get lifetime access to everything, you can take it at your own pace and revisit any lesson any time.
So you’ll be informed, up to date, and able to have real conversations in Chinese about things going on in the real world.
Interactive Mandarin for Beginners is built around my proven RealTime Mandarin Method, which I’ve developed over 23 years of learning Chinese, and 5 years of building the world’s only Mandarin learning platform teaching through real news as it’s happening.
Plus it’s already helped over 1,800 learners get confident in Chinese.
“The best and most efficient way I’ve found to maintain my Chinese, and learn new idiomatic language. Because it’s drawn from Chinese media reports and online language, it’s also an excellent resource for keeping up with current events in China”
— Jeremy Goldkorn, Editor, The China Week
What’s Inside Interactive Mandarin for Beginners
Join a Community of Learners Like You
I know what it’s like learning Chinese on your own.
Feeling isolated and having no one to talk to or give feedback from.
So I’ve built a community to help solve this.
You’ll never feel isolated during this program.
Because from Day 1 you’ll be part of an engaged community of learners like you.
Inside the community you can introduce yourself, connect with other students, share wins, ask questions, discuss your challenges.
And you’ll be supported by me and my team of native speakers, answering questions, giving feedback, and guiding you through the program.
Being part of this community will keep you motivated and accountable.
So you never feel stuck or lost.
Consume Real News-based Stories
When you join, you get a fully interactive, real-life news-based lesson every week for 12 weeks.
This is proper news.
Not the filtered, sanitised stuff you get in graded readers, textbooks, and HSK materials.
And I hand-picked these stories because I know what learners really want.
So you can not only get motivated and inspired by engaging content at your level, you’ll also become better informed about what people in China are talking about right now, and the key trends happening in China today.
These interactive lessons are structured around my three-step RealTime Mandarin Method:
Step 1. Immerse
Think of it as being thrown in the deep-end, but with a life jacket.
Immersed but safe.
You start with the news story. First in English, so you understand the full context.
Then you’re immersed in the Chinese article and native audio.
You get pinyin above every character, a rollover dictionary for each word, and a full translation of the article.
So you can read and listen at the same time, at your own pace, never out of your depth.
Step 2. Integrate
In the RealTime Mandarin Method you learn speaking, listening, reading, and writing together.
Because learning all the skills in one go is the most effective way to do it.
And it’ll make it easier to remember and use what you learn.
You get character explanations, stroke order animations, and practice sheets for writing.
At the same time you learn vocabulary and grammar in the context of a news story, and to listen native audio as you read.
And not only that, you can record yourself speaking and listen back.
So you can practise and compare it to the native speaker.
Every lesson is available in simplified and traditional Chinese.
And you get ready-made word list integrations for all the top apps:
Pleco, Anki, Skritter, Hack Chinese, and Laoshi.
Step 3. Interact
This is a fully interactive program, so you’ll never feel lost or isolated.
You’ll get feedback from me and native speakers while learning alongside a community of learners like you.
In addition to the news stories, you’ll also listen to dialogues between two native speakers (male and female voices) using the week’s vocabulary and grammar in a different context.
So you get used to seeing vocab and characters in different settings.
There’s text, audio, pinyin, rollover dictionary, and record-and-playback for each dialogue.
Which means you’re not just reading, you can record yourself and even submit it to me and my team to get direct feedback on your pronunciation.
Then to help reinforce your learning, you can take a quick-fire test to check what you’ve learned and what you need to work on.
I also give you short writing exercises at the end of every lesson and you can send them to my team and they’ll give you feedback.
Learn Your Foundations
You will also access 4 self-paced foundational trainings.
These trainings teach you the best practices I’ve learned the hard way through my 23+ years of learning Mandarin.
So you don’t make the same mistakes I did.
I’ve taken them all and put them into a simple system so you know exactly where to start.
Here’s what you get:
The Context Learning Compass
How to use context to learn Mandarin effectively. I explain how to use “chunking” and “mimicking” as the most effective way to learn to read, speak, and understand Chinese.
The Habit Builder
How to build a learning habit and set up your own daily study routine and learning environment. And how to stay on track even when life gets in the way.
The Tones Tune-up
Learn and practice the essential rules for how tones change. Plus, I’ll teach you the ten most common tone combinations that trip up every beginner.
The Character Foundation
How radicals, character components, and key character types work. And how to remember and recognise characters without being overwhelmed.
Who will benefit from Interactive Mandarin for Beginners?
This fully interactive course is for you if you are a beginner Mandarin learner who is serious about finally making real progress.
It’s for you if you describe your level as “beginner” or somewhere between HSK 1 and HSK 3.
And you’ve been learning Chinese for a few months, or a few years, you know between 100 and 350 characters, but feel stuck at the same level.
It will help you find engaging content at your level.
Being part of the community will help you get motivated, stay consistent, and keep you accountable so you never feel isolated.
And it will help you read, listen to, and speak Chinese more confidently.
Who you’ll be learning from
Interactive Mandarin For Beginners is created and delivered by myself and the RealTime Mandarin team.
We’ve been working together creating intermediate and advanced content for over 5 years:
Andrew Methven — Founder, RealTime Mandarin
23 years learning Chinese, lived in China and Taiwan, worked in and with Chinese companies for two decades.
Founder of RealTime Mandarin, read weekly by 13,000+ China watchers and Mandarin enthusiasts, and the world’s only platform teaching Chinese through the news as it’s happening.
Zoe Qian — Editor, RealTime Mandarin
Professional conference interpreter for over 5 years working across Chinese, English, and German in high-stakes environments.
A native Mandarin speaker who has lived in China, Singapore, the UK, the US, and now Germany, she understands the learner’s journey from the inside out. Zoe contributes to the weekly RealTime Mandarin Advanced Podcast.
Frank Zhao — Chinese Language Instructor
Frank is native Chinese, based in Hebei. He’s a full-time Chinese language teacher with more than 13,000 hours of online teaching. He specialises in conversational Chinese, reading and writing for learners of all levels.
Frank is the creator of the RealTime Mandarin Intermediate Podcast, and hosts RealTime Mandarin weekly advanced speaking sessions.
Snow Xia — Chinese Language Instructor
Snow holds an MA in Education, 8,000+ teaching hours, and 6+ years of Chinese curriculum development. She specialises in creating customised learning resources.
Snow is the creator of the RealTime Mandarin Conversations Podcast and YouTube channel, and she hosts RealTime Mandarin weekly advanced speaking sessions.
What students are saying
Interactive Mandarin for Beginners is the best (and only) beginner system that teaches you characters, reading, listening, and speaking together through real Chinese news.
But don’t just take my word for it.
Here’s what students who joined my pilot program in November 2025 said about their experience:
“I gained a real inner confidence”
I came into the program lacking confidence in my ability to speak it and read. With Andrew and the other participants, not only did my Putonghua improve, but I also gained real inner confidence. I finally let go of the false idea that my Mandarin was disjointed. For that, thank you to Andrew and all the participants. If you’re considering joining, go for it, you’ll see progress quickly.
“I’m learning with current stories”
Andrew’s structured approach – and, above all, the way he links character learning to current stories and social events in China – makes it easier and helps you gain a better understanding of both the language and Chinese society. If you’re interested in really immersing yourself in the language and culture and want to develop a regular study routine, I highly recommend it.
“Well-thought out and motivating”
The concept of getting exposure to the language, learning through press articles is efficient. The course is well-thought out and motivating. Of course, there are no magic methods, and all depends on the learner him/herself, but the conditions for progressing are very good. I would definitely recommend the course to beginner learners.
“I now know where to start”
What impressed me was most was sharing how information is structured in speech and news articles, and also Andrew’s willingness to provide grammar tips on key characters and strategies for easily confused characters. This program helped me know what to learn first.
What Next: Join a Community of Learners Like You
Think about how long you’ve already been trying to learn Chinese.
Months, a year, maybe several.
Dabbling with apps, flashcards, and YouTube videos.
Maybe you’ve taken classes, paid for tutors, bought textbooks, and you’re still stuck and isolated.
What would it be worth to break through?
Interactive Mandarin for Beginners will finally help you make that breakthrough giving you the confidence to read, understand and speak Chinese.
It’s a proven system delivered within a community of learners like you.
With current and hand-picked content which will finally get you motivated so you start making real progress.
In just 12 weeks you’ll build a solid foundation with a method that keeps working long after the course ends.
You’ll finally start to understand, read, and speak real Chinese confidently.
So if you’re ready to finally stop dabbling and build the foundation you need to get fluent in Chinese…
And you’re serious about finally making real progress.