Best Mobile Apps to Learn Mandarin Chinese

What is the best app to learn Chinese?Here are the 5 best mobile apps to help you learn Mandarin Chinese for free.

1. Duolingo: Everybody’s Favorite Language App

Let’s get this one out of the way first. If you’re at all interested in learning languages, you’ve probably already used Duolingo. It’s one of the best language-learning apps available with courses for over 30 languages, including Mandarin Chinese. Work through different levels to build up from your first words to semi-complex sentences. As you learn, you gain points and compete against your friends for the best scores every week.

2. Hello Chinese: Designed Specifically for Chinese

Hello Chinese might be the best app to get started learning Mandarin Chinese. Like many of the apps on this list, you work up through different levels, building on your knowledge and improving your understanding of the language as you go. Hello Chinese starts with an explanation of how to read pinyin—the written form of Mandarin that uses letters instead of Chinese characters.

3. Lingo Deer: Learn to Read and Write

Lingo Deer is an excellent option if you want to learn how to speak, read, and write in Chinese. This well-structured app uses minimal English to get you thinking in Mandarin Chinese as soon as possible. Practice writing Chinese characters, expand your vocabulary from beginner to conversational, and listen to native speakers in slow motion to help perfect your pronunciation.

4. Memrise : Translate Objects Using Your Camera

Once upon a time, Memrise was a flashcard-based app, but these days you can use it to follow a gamified learning syllabus instead. One of the great parts about Memrise is that it periodically encourages you to review what you’ve already learned, helping shift those words to your long-term memory. Memrise is packed with clips of native speakers so you can improve your listening skills while learning how to pronounce words and phrases clearly.

5. Skritter Chinese: Learn to Write Chinese Characters

Learning to read and write Chinese characters is incredibly important in your journey. First of all, the same characters are used across Mandarin and Cantonese, so knowing them boosts the number of people you can communicate with. Second, reading or writing Chinese is extra useful if you meet anybody with a regional dialect that you can’t understand.

Resource from: https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/best-apps-learn-mandarin-chinese/

Discussion:

  1. Have you ever used any language learning apps? If so, how was your experience?
  2. With the development of ChatGPT, do you think AI will eventually replace language teachers in the future?

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Career Chinese: Bridging the Gaps for Success Copyright © by Xiaojun Wang; Jin Liu; Ping Yu; and Yuanyuan Huang is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.