Pinyin

Pinyin Practice Games(by pinyinpractice)
Use this site to practice and test your pinyin skills (tones, initials, finals etc.) after you have learned basics.

Character Writing

        (Click here for Chinese typing steps)

1.FAQs: The Chinese Writing System (by Zhongwen.com)
From zhongwen.com home page, find FAQ. You will find many helpful info and answers to your questions.

2.Basics of Writing: Stroke Types (by Zhongwen.com)
From zhongwen.com home page, find Write Characters under Learning Chinese. You'll learn the basic strokes and their names shown in example characters.

4. 4. Stroke Order and Animation (by Dr. Tim Xie)
   Characters are listed according to sound (alphabetically ordered). You will be able to select a character by pinyin and take a quick look at its animated stroke order. Traditional and simplified forms are listed side by side.
   

5. 5.Stroke Animation (by eStroke, $29 with free trial option, 36MB)
   (Great tool! Highly recommended!)
   This program allows you to see the stroke order animation with adjustable speed. By typing in a character using MS IME or other Chinese word processing program you can do the following:
   

1. a.   View the stroke order, pinyin, English meaning, and words associated with the character.
   

2. b.   Adjust the bar to slow down or speed up the animation.
   

3. c.   Press Enter to repeat the animation.
   

4. d.   Hear the sound of the character and words/ phrases by clicking on the pinyin or the words phrases.
   

5. e.   Both traditional and simplified characters are available (by clicking on the simplified or traditional character version above the text box).
   

  For users of Integrated Chinese

1. 1.    Online Flashcards (by YellowBridge)
   Use this site for study or self-testing of vocabulary items in each lesson. Both Simplified and Traditional characters are available. There are Flashcards and Matching games. Try to use the Flashcards for best results.
   
   

2. 2.     Online Character Animation (by U of Southern California)
   Use this site for character writing practice. Characters are arranged by lessons. You can see the animation, radical and other info for each character. Both simplified and traditional characters are available.