With the increase in the number of Chinese students all over the world, the teaching of Chinese as a foreign language as an independent subject has formed its own subject system. Teaching Chinese as a foreign language is a specialized subject or a complex applied subject, which determines the need for research on teaching Chinese as a foreign language in accordance with these characteristics. The research objects of teaching Chinese as a foreign language are mainly to study the principles and methods of teaching Chinese as a second language, discover the laws of teaching Chinese as a second language, and use these principles and laws to guide specific teaching practice. The purpose of the study is to identify the main problems that students face when learning the Chinese language and to determine ways to solve them. The material of the study was scientific literature, web pages, official documents of the official websites of Chinese universities. The study uses experimental research work carried out on the basis of the Department of Foreign Languages and Translation of the Ural Federal University named after the first President of Russia B. N. Yeltsin, and students of the School of Foreign Languages “Language for Success” studying Chinese as a second foreign language with a total of 124 people. When working with the material, the following tasks were set: to conduct a comparative analysis of scientific literature on the problems of learning and teaching Chinese, to analyze the content of educational materials in the field of theoretical and practical aspects of teaching Chinese as a foreign language in universities and schools. Results and discussion. This article discusses the current problems of teaching Chinese as a foreign language, the difficulties faced by teachers and students in the process of teaching and studying phonetics, grammar and bilingual translation. For people with Russian cultural background who are learning Chinese, it is important to know how to learn Chinese effectively. After long-term research and practice, the difficulties of teaching pronunciation in teaching Chinese as a foreign language have been identified. In the course of the study, the analysis was made of the difficulties of teaching on the part of the teacher, as well as the difficulties of learning Chinese on the part of students, recommendations were made to make it easier for students to master the Chinese language. Conclusion. As a teacher or researcher in the field of teaching Chinese as a foreign language, a person must understand the disciplinary features and focus of teaching Chinese as a foreign language, understand the goals and objectives of teaching Chinese as a foreign language, and improve their own theoretical knowledge. knowledge in relevant disciplines. Teaching Chinese as a foreign language is mainly aimed at developing the language skills of students, and the focus of teaching is on teaching skills. In teaching Chinese as a foreign language, a large share is always occupied by teaching students language skills. Teaching language knowledge is also a preparation for improving language abilities. The purpose of learning language knowledge is practice and application. Therefore, the focus of research on teaching Chinese as a foreign language is how to combine the theory of language knowledge with practice so that students can quickly master the ability to use Chinese for language communication.