First, this is a fantastic app and I’m excited that I can read so much interesting content at my level. I am a heritage speaker and always dreaded reading Chinese growing up. I was so happy that I could read the Three Kingdoms Romance since they made an easy abridged version. The level, the translation, the hidden pinyin, and the read-aloud options all made for a really enjoyable reading experience.
Some recommendations:
1. There is so much content though and it is hard to find things (unless I save them). I wish they had a section where it was just all Chinese literature since those are so important for understanding and connecting to Chinese culture.
2. Include the title, chapter, and author of the novels in Chinese. I see that I’m reading “The Three Kingdoms 1: The Beauty Trap” but I don’t know how to say that in Chinese.
3. Add the other classic novels please! The Three Kingdoms Romance is one of four great Chinese novels, but where are the other three?
Anyways, thank you for putting this app together!
I grew up speaking Mandarin, but was basically illiterate. In just 13 months of using this app, I’ve learned over 2,000 characters, easily read at HSK level 5, and can even make nuanced cultural and historical references, all thanks to Du Chinese. My relatives are nothing short of blown away.
They have the best user interface bar none, with dictionary definitions and sentence translations available at the touch of a button. Their articles are also actually interesting, informative, and relevant. There is no easier or better way to learn how to read (or should I say du?) Chinese.
Du Chinese was recommended by my Chinese teacher and I’m so glad he did because I’ve been getting a lot out of it. I like listening to the stories first and writing down my summary of the story and then going back and reading out loud to myself. My in-class reading out loud has noticeably improved since I started reading more using Du Chinese.
It’s really helpful for me play sections of the narration while I’m reading to compare my cadence, emphasis and pronunciation to the narrator’s. The help with pronunciation and cadence has been an unexpected boon, I really thought Du Chinese would mostly just benefit my listening and reading comprehension.
Highly recommend!! Also the iPhone app is very nice to use.
Each Chinese character is linked to the Pleco Chinese Dictionary which includes how to write the Chinese Character with the correct stroke order. Du Chinese has many stories to learn from and some short lessons. You may setup flash cards and practice learning that way as well as reading the text. The app will read the text for you and highlight each character as it read the characters. You may download the lessons to listen to them while you do something else.
I find it most beneficial when I let the app read it once and then I go back and read it myself highlighting the words as I go to learn the Chinese characters. I can turn on and off the English Translation as will as the pinyin so I can read the text without the hints.
This is a very well designed app. With good support. When I contact their support team I find they are most helpful and responsive to suggested text I would like to study in Chinese. I highly recommend this app to help you learn Chinese.
I have been studying Traditional Mandarin forever and always looking for new apps in order to improve my skills.
So years ago, I went through this fabulous app and instantly fell in love with it!
This year I made the decision of purchasing a lifetime subscription and can’t be happier!!!🤓🤩🙏🏻
Reading is one of the keys in order to acquire a new language and if you want to take it to a higher level.
This app focus on this -I would say - almost a 100%.
It helps to connect audio, reading / sentences sequences, and Chinese characters , so you can practice memorizing as well.
The fact you can also read aloud these short stories is a fantastic way to feel confident with Mandarin.
It’s amazing how many words you can learn by reading these short stories!
Please, give a try! You won’t regret!🙌🏻🌟🤩It’s SO easy to keep up with Mandarin this way!🫶🏻🥰
Thank you Peter and his wonderful team for your patience and kindness!🙌🏻🤩
Leah Grullón M.
Absolutely love the app, I’ve been using it for free since late July after doing Duolingo for a month or so, then bought the subscription a month ago on Black Friday and had my usage graph skyrocket. XD I’ve read 564 stories from newbie through upper intermediate (and 1 advanced, which I fought my way through but was admittedly out of my league). Sometimes the word count seems a bit off (really? I haven’t seen that word before in this app?), but that’s not a big deal.
So, great app, have been learning a lot, now with subscription also great for listening practice. Strongly recommend turning pinyin off right from the start (in any app that will let you; in Du you can tap on a word to see it along with the translation, which is great).
I thought there was no way to change fonts, but you can choose from 4… at the bottom right of a story, by clicking on the three horizontal bars. This really should be an option in settings, imo.
Overall, 5/5, subscribe as soon as you’re able to, but even the free version is great.
This app has certainly been my favorite app for practice Chinese reading. I paid for a one year subscription and did not regret it a bit. The lessons are very well curated, ranging from a variety of topics from business to languages to chinese folk stories and much more. They are interesting, informative and very geared towards building a diverse vocab for learners. The UI is very easy to use: you can save new words, view the pinyin, look up new words while going through the lesson. The integrated flash card feature is also a great plus.
Overall a very well designed app for Chinese learners!
I owe all of my Chinese progress to this app. I was demoralized by slow progress from lessons & flash cards, but being suddenly able to read real stories gave me a major speed & confidence boost. I went from reading at HSK1 level to HSK4 in a month. I barely have to think about grammar anymore, and seeing vocabulary used in natural context has made speaking almost second nature. Not to mention this is so much more fun and rewarding than anything else out there!
The user experience is absolutely amazing too. You can listen along as you read - jump back, look up words, or add them to your flash cards with one tap. Translations even take into account the context within the sentence for words with multiple meanings. Flashcards use the same spaced repetition as Anki, but so much better since the vocab is customized to your own learning experience. Absolutely worth the subscription, best money I ever spent.
<If a developer is reading this:> I would love the ability to filter & study flash cards by HSK level. I often encounter more advanced words while reading that I want to save for later, but continue studying the words at my current level.
I was forcing myself to trudge through flash cards every day, thinking that was the only way to learn new vocabulary. I did this for months, not enjoying a moment of it, feeling so demoralized when I still couldn’t understand others or express my thoughts at all.
That changed so quickly with this app though. After just 2 weeks and I’ve already tripled my vocabulary. I barely have to think about grammar anymore, or how to properly use new words. Speaking comes naturally, and for the first time I’m reading real Chinese stories with complete ease.
The problem with rote memorizing vocabulary is - you need to see new words in a wide variety of contexts in order to use them naturally (and without pausing to think). I’m easily learning 100 characters a week, and feeling comfortable working them into conversation, just by reading a few stories each night. Not to mention it feels so much more rewarding and motivating.
The user experience is absolutely amazing too. If you don’t want to read you can listen instead - with one tap jump back, look up words, or add them to your flash cards. They use the same spaced repetition as Anki, but so much better since the vocab is customized to your own learning experience. Absolutely worth the subscription, best money I ever spent.
This app has so much potential but severely lacks fluidity. You can’t just click next while inside a lesson to go to the next in the series. You have to back out to the top level and then go into the next. This is even worse when you star a lesson as you’ll only see that one lesson in your favorites and no way to get to the rest of the series. I’m still in my trial phase, and I’m kinda thinking this will be a deal breaker for me. I would gladly pay for this app because it does have a lot of powerful tools, but it’s too much of a hassle to use. I feel claustrophobic trying to navigate and find my lessons.
carrie8899
none of yo buisness
Rebekahscross
jdbdrwho
estafada por rtve
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linhdan13
AlexLearningChinese
MrShibbles
