BetterChinese.com was founded by educators from Columbia University and the U.N. in 1997 with a mission to develop the best materials and programs to teach the Chinese language and culture to non-native speakers.

We developed our materials that are Inquiry-Based and Story-Centered. Based on a classroom-proven pedagogy, Better Chinese developed a series of easy-to-use, fun and comprehensive materials to excite students about learning Chinese. Not only will they learn the language naturally, they will also have fun and develop a keen understanding of the Chinese culture.

There are four series with full multimedia curricula, including readers, storybooks, workbooks, audio CDs, animated CD-ROMs and additional classroom teaching aids.

• My First Chinese Words (Preschool to Lower Elementary)
• My First Chinese Reader (Elementary, Beginner to Intermediate)
• Discovering Chinese (Secondary School, Beginner to Intermediate, SAT II Readiness)
• Magical Tour of Chinese (Secondary School, Intermediate to Advanced, AP Readiness)

• Not Textbooks! Creative story books for teachers to integrate skits and play-acting into the lesson and engage both students and parents!
• Repetition: The spiral-up structure provides repetition of sentence patterns and vocabulary while remaining varied and interesting.
• Fun: All our books feature amusing pictures and funny situations to make learning Chinese fun!
• Child-centric approach: The step-by-step story structure and overlapping content allow children to apply the words they have learned to real-life situations.
• Complete teacher support: Our comprehensive Teacher's Guide provides detailed instructions on games, songs and rhymes, culture tips, etc., to create an interactive Chinese learning environment for students.

• Inquiry-based/story-centered: Lessons reflect ACTFL's5 C's: communication, comparison, connection, culture, and community.
• Spiral approach and review: Vocabulary and sentences build upon each other, and each lesson includes review exercises and reading challenges.
• Fun & interactive: Lessons are sentence driven and function oriented.
• Student-centric approach: Lessons are conversational and situation-based, preparing students for real-life communication and continuing language learning outside the classroom.
• Complete teacher support: My First Chinese Reader also provides detailed Teacher's Guides with culture tips, songs and rhymes, and games to help instructors engage students in multiple speech events and classroom activities.

• For young adults: Lessons builds student's understanding of Chinese language and culture with themes and subjects that are relevant to their daily lives.
• Culture context: Students will become acquainted with relevant Chinese cultural lessons such as Chinese idioms, origins of characters, and typing Chinese on computers.
• Comprehensive learning: 12 lessons per volume with 850+ characters, sentence patterns, and grammar and syntax lessons that build up students' language skills to SAT II Chinese level.
• Complete teacher support: A step-by-step Teacher's Guide for each volume.

• Story-Centered: The series follows three families the story of three families who visit China for the first time. The story-based episodes act as springboards for advanced learning.
• Culturally engaging: Both traditional and contemporary topics are covered through sections on popular sayings, idioms, literature excerpts, and modern China. Students will not only learn about Chinese traditions but also relevant modern customs of Chinese people.
• Comprehensive learning: 9 episodes per volume with 2,000+ high-frequency vocabulary, sentence patterns, and grammar and syntax to aid students in achieving AP Chinese level proficiency.