Learn through music
Public-domain Chinese songs — folk tunes, children's songs, and classics — with the lyrics laid out line by line: characters, pinyin, and a natural English translation. Sing along, and pull the vocabulary straight into your deck.
Every song here is old enough to be in the public domain, so the full lyrics are free to print, study, and sing.
18th-century Jiangsu folk song
Probably the best-known Chinese melody in the world, and a gentle first song: the vocabulary is everyday and the lines are short. It sings the reluctance to pick a flower so lovely you would rather leave it on the branch.
Sing alongTraditional children's song
Every child in China learns this one, and it is a near-perfect beginner text: five short lines, a handful of measure words, and a melody you already know. Two tigers, each missing a different part — the little joke is in the last line.
Sing alongLyrics by Li Shutong, c. 1915
A century old and still sung at graduations and goodbyes. The language is literary — this is a step up from the folk songs — but the images are plain and worth the reach: a roadside pavilion, willows in the evening wind, friends scattering to the corners of the earth.
Sing along