some more resources
I am going to again mention Mandarinspot.com because it is so useful, and free.
I use their Annotation Bookmarklet on my phone - it allows you to click words for definitions when on your phone browser. It is not an installed app, its just a bookmark you save. Then when on a chinese page you want to read, you click the Annotation Bookmarklet bookmark link, and then the tool works on the page and you can start clicking any chinese word for a translation.
It works on any web browser - any phone, any tablet, any computer. It’s free and its not a download. While I like Pleco Reader more for bookmarking pages/saving words/audio dictation, MandarinSpot’s free Annotation Bookmarklet is great for when I am on a device without Pleco and I don’t want to download something (Zhongwen Chrome Extension also can do click-definitions but requires me to use chrome AND download... and I prefer not to download things when possible).
I just tried the Annotation Bookmarklet on the computer, because I haven’t before. And not only does it still provide click-definitions, it also provides pinyin or zhuyin (you pick) above each word! Which is nice for checking I’m remembering word pronunciations correctly, or for learning the pinyin for new words. On the phone, at least last time I used it, it only showed pinyin when you clicked definitions (which is also fine for learning new words/double checking pronunciation).
The fact computer version gives full pinyin over everything just means way less steep of a learning curve for beginners who might want to break into reading!
MandarinSpot also has an on-its-website tool you can copy and paste text into for dictionary annotation with pinyin, if you prefer to copy and paste instead of use a bookmark: https://mandarinspot.com/annotate
Their copy-paste tool has a lot of options. (It’s show chinese only, where you click and it will show definition and pinyin for individual words, is how the mobile Annotation Bookmarklet works)
Mandarinspot also has a LINKS page to other resources (some nice and some out of date): https://mandarinspot.com/links
Notable is Chinese Reading Practice - a site with free reading material graded to various reading levels. It has some story and vocabulary notes, popup dictionary for all words, pinyin can be turned on and off, and english translation can be hidden or viewed next to the chinese. I’ve used this site before and it was great. http://chinesereadingpractice.com/
Also, Slow Chinese Podcast. A podcast spoken in slow chinese, aimed at learners. I’ve also used this before and it was nice. The current place it is hosted is a mirror site, as the original no longer works: https://kitchenknif.github.io/SlowChinese/menu/about.html
