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Top 10 Apps for Chinese Learning
in 2024
Learning Chinese can often seem like a difficult mountain to climb but at LingoClass we believe anyone can learn a language. Factors such as the approach to learning, teaching quality and practice opportunities can all greatly impact how quickly (and enjoyably) someone can improve their Chinese. Thankfully, there are TOP 10 beneficial Apps you can get in 2024, developed by people just like you who have had experience learning the language from scratch.
To help you on your language journey, LingoClass has compiled a list of the best Chinese learning Apps that make studying Mandarin much easier. Some are free and some come at a cost, but all are useful in improving different elements of Chinese language proficiency: Reading, writing, translation, pronunciation etc.
We hope you find the list useful, if you have any Apps you have found particularly helpful, please contact us and let us know.
10. Scripts
Price: Free for 5 minutes a day, unlimited access starts from £9.49 a month.
Speaking
Listening
Reading
Writing
"Scripts - Learn to write alphabets" is one of the best apps out there for learning to write Chinese, Japanese or Korean characters for several reasons. The first reason is it provides a lot of opportunities to practice; many other apps in this list cover writing but usually, as a formality when learning grammar or vocabulary. Scripts go in-depth on each character and encourage you to write it many times through a series of mini-games and tests.
The second reason for this app's effectiveness is the beautiful, minimalist design of the interface. The app is a pleasure to use, which can often be the differentiator as to whether people use it long-term. Finally, the app encourages regular practice of 5 minutes a day to gradually master the characters of your chosen language. Breaking the lessons into bitesize chunks and giving users regular opportunities for review helps to increase character retention and keep things fun.
While this app is one of the best out there for learning to write Chinese characters, it doesn't come cheap. You get 5 minutes every day for free but any more will cost you £9.49 a month, £29.49 a year or £159.99 for a lifetime subscription. We recommend trying it for 5 minutes a day and buying if you find it useful.
9. Trainchinese
Price: The base package is free, more advanced learning tools are £7.99-79.99 PER Item
Listening
Reading
Writing
TrainChinese stands out as a remarkable app, boasting a comprehensive dictionary meticulously crafted by bilingual experts based in Beijing. It's renowned for its effectiveness in teaching Chinese language structures and the nuanced usage of words. Imagine searching for "tree" in a typical Chinese dictionary, often yielding the character 木. However, with TrainChinese, you get a more practical result - 树 ("tree") takes precedence, followed by 一棵树 ("a tree"). This approach enhances learning by providing relevant vocabulary lists, example sentences, audio recordings, measure words, and dynamic character animations. The powerful flashcard system, complete with handwriting training, further solidifies your grasp of the language.
The app comes with several free character sets and then has a series of price packages to choose from. You can opt for £7.99/item.
8. Anki
Price: Free
Anki is one of the very very rare completely free flashcard apps that deserve the maximum stars. Since ages stable and unchanged. No ads, no pro mode, not every day a new useless feature or a brand new GUI, no rating begging, no hey did you know or anything annoying at all. It just works and works. Simple but effective. Make your flashcards or download the pre-made flashcards to build your vocabulary today!!!!
Listening
Reading
Writing
7. Tandem
Price: Free
Speaking
Listening
Reading
Writing
Chinese learning apps often focus on reading, writing and simple grammar. Listening is also relatively easy to cover using audio files, but how do you learn Chinese speaking and pronunciation using an app? This can be very difficult to do without a native speaker or teacher telling you whether you're using the language correctly. The answer? Tandem.
Tandem is a language exchange community app where learners of all backgrounds come together to practise speaking. Upon registering your account, you'll be asked your nationality, the languages you speak and those you wish to learn. Once you're set-up, there are thousands of Chinese speakers signed in to the app who can add you based on the languages you speak. The beauty of Tandem is that you can converse with real Chinese people without ever leaving your country.
This app is probably best suited for intermediate learners who wish to put the vocabulary they have learned to the test in real-life conversations. Once connections have been made, you often add the other person on WeChat or WhatsApp so all conversations are free. In our opinion, this is the best App on the market to help you improve your Chinese speaking outside of teacher led lessons.
6. DuoLingo
Price: Free & premium versions
Speaking
Listening
Reading
Writing
Duolingo is a favourite for language learners everywhere. It's earned the title of 'editor's choice' on the app store and for good reason. The app lets you set your language goals, and your desired learning speed (minutes per day) and assesses your current level. It has good resources for listening, reading and writing and the interface is clear and easy to use. Like ChineseSkill, Duolingo tests your learning at regular intervals to make sure you retain everything as well as possible.
DuoLingo claims to allow you to learn any language you want for free but we would recommend using it as a supplementary tool alongside real-life teacher and peer interaction. This way students have an opportunity to ask questions and practise what they learn.
The app is completely free, although they do have a plus version you can buy if you wish. This version comes with offline learning and removes all ads, which in all honestly can be quite annoying.
5. Quizlet
Price: Free with a premium version available from £1.67 a month
Speaking
Listening
Reading
Writing
Quizlet is another useful flashcard app, often used as a learning and testing tool by Chinese teachers around the world. These teachers may build entire lessons or homework assignments on Quizlet and send the links to their students so they can study outside of class. However, anyone using the app also has access to these same lessons. For example, if you open the app and search "learn Chinese grammar", you will find many high-quality teaching materials, often with mini-tests set up to assess how well you have learned and retained the material.
The one problem with Quizlet for learning Chinese is that you have to be able to distinguish the good lessons from the bad. However, since Quizlet is an international app, some of the lessons may teach you Chinese using other languages such as French or German. This can be incredibly helpful if one of these is your native tongue so we recommend finding a high-quality lesson provider that matches your level and learning style and following their content.
4. Chineasy Cards
Price: First 8 characters are free, others begin at £1.79 per month
Speaking
Listening
Reading
Writing
Chineasy Cards was developed by the famous Taiwanese entrepreneur ShaoLan. She designed the Chineasy system to help her children learn how to read and write Chinese characters. The system works by associating each character with a relevant image to help you remember it. For example, the logo above is the character 火 (huo), meaning fire. As you can see, the character is drawn in such a way that makes it look like fire, thus helping you to learn the meaning.
Chineasy was originally a book (which we would also recommend) and later rolled out as an app following the book's success. It was well-designed by combining regular lessons and mini quizzes to make sure you review and retain the learned information. As users follow the path, they unlock new characters and vocabularies.
Your first 8 characters are free to learn, which is enough to give you a flavour of the app. After this unlimited subscriptions cost £1.79 per month or £17.49 per year. This is definitely on the cheaper side of the apps on this list and definitely one to consider.
Top3
3. Du Chinese
Price: 2 week trial, after which prices start from £8.99 a month.
Listening
Reading
Writing
Du Chinese is the ultimate app for helping you practically read Chinese. The app provides lessons on how to read certain characters but goes a step further in providing real stories and articles for users to read in Chinese. Tapping the sentence you wish to understand can easily be checked against their English translations.
One of the best features of this app is that it allows you to save words or lessons you find particularly troublesome. This way you can build a list of characters to test yourself on and improve your weaknesses. The app contains a wealth of learning resources to keep you busy for months if not years. These are broken down into 6 difficulty levels from newbie all the way to master, so regardless of your current level, there will undoubtedly be something of use to you.
Pricing is a little confusing but a two-week free trial is available for the lower-level lessons, after this a one-month unlimited subscription will cost you £8.99, 6 months will cost you £42.99 and you can get 12 months for £83.99. Testing the app is therefore a lot easier if you are a lower level but higher level students may feel a little left out. If you are wondering whether this is a good one to download, many of our intermediate students do use this app and it comes highly recommended. Perhaps try a one month subscription and see how you get on!
Top 2
2. ChineseSkill
Price: The level 1 course is free, but more advanced learning tools are £27.49 for a year's subscription.
Speaking
Listening
Reading
Writing
ChineseSkill has been around for years now and is a favourite for many Chinese learners. Aside from having the cutest logo out of all the apps on this list, ChineseSkill offers several great features. Firstly, the entire level 1 course is free of charge, making it a good place to start for beginners. Their level 1 has weeks' worth of short lessons to get learners up to speed with basic reading, writing, listening and pronunciation. They have mini-tests at set intervals to make sure students review and use the lessons they have already completed. If you are a beginner and plan to start lessons with a teacher at some point in the future, ChineseSkill can be a good tool to prepare for lessons and let you know what to expect.
Once users complete the level 1 course, they have the option to purchase a subscription, giving them access to the full range of resources ChineseSkill has to offer. These range from HSK1 to HSK6 level lessons (if you are unfamiliar with your current level, you can use our HSK level quiz to find out). The resources range from writing practice to full-on conversational immersion and are a great resource to be used alongside professional tuition to boost your language skills. The immersion feature is also particularly useful if you're studying in the UK and have little chance to interact with native Chinese speakers outside of your lessons.
2.5 Improving Chinese Listening, Speaking and Reading Skills
OK so this isn't the catchiest name for an app but ChineseSkill also have a sister app dedicated more to speaking and listening skills. The main benefit of this version is that it lets you practise speaking by recording your voice and comparing it to that of a native Chinese speaker. Many phrases are covered and it offers a good way to self-study Chinese speaking, something which is generally very difficult to do. At the moment this app is only available on iOS devices so Android users will have to find an alternative app.
1. Pleco
Price: Free
Speaking
Listening
Reading
Writing
Pleco is hands down one of the most useful Apps for learning Chinese ever created. It is essentially a Chinese-to-English dictionary that allows you to convert words and short phrases from one language to the other. If you ever visit China you will use it A LOT, as will many of the locals.
Pleco not only translates English words into Chinese for you, it allows you to search in both Chinese characters and pinyin so you can understand the meaning of books, street signs and even Chinese speech. Furthermore, Pleco has an option to play an audio file of the correct pronunciation in Chinese and the text display can be customised to show each tone in a colour of your preference. For example, you can set all first tones to pink and all second tones to green, making it easier to distinguish the correct tones to use at a glance.
Whether you have just discovered an interest in learning Chinese or are nearing fluency, Pleco is an App you should have in your repertoire. The best thing about it? It's free and works offline. If you don't already have this on your phone or tablet, download it now by clicking the link above.
Top 1
Bonus!
YouTube!
OK, we said top 10 and YouTube is not strictly a Chinese learning app but we couldn't leave it off the list as it's genuinely one of the most useful learning tools out there for Chinese study. YouTube has many users dedicated to teaching useful Chinese phrases, exploring Chinese culture and even just discussing the highs and lows of studying this amazing language. We have listed some of our favourite channels below for you to explore but we would also recommend trying to find your own as everyone learns differently and is interested in different content.
Everyday Chinese- The most authentic Chinese delivered by native speakers. Daily conversations like ordering food in a restaurant, buying things in a market, chatting with our friends, communicating at work etc. Everyday Chinese will show you the most practical daily expressions to let you speak Chinese like a native.
Mandarin Corner - This channel is a great resource for most things Chinese. It has a wealth of audio and written material, covers HSK exams and caters for all levels from basic words down to in-depth discussions and advanced conversational skills.
Dr. Izzy Sealey- Izzy is a medical doctor based in London and an enthusiastic Chinese learner. Check out her video "How to Learn Chinese Faster and Smarter" will be extremely helpful on your learning journey. Lzzy loves sharing her perspectives as a non-native speaker, and they do resonate with you!
Learn Chinese Now - This channel is run by a Chinese learner from the UK living in Taiwan. His style is logical and easy to follow and his videos are often amusing. This channel is suitable for beginners with basic concepts covered in short videos.
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