I’ve tried several different apps and teaching materials for practicing reading Mandarin and this is my favorite. The content is well organized and varied, using a variety of sentence structures and contexts. The interface/UX for reading and listening is great. It’s easy to look up words, play the audio at different speeds, and toggle the pinyin on and off. This is the core functionality and it is great. I sometimes use the word review feature and like that it can show the word in a sentence.
I finished HelloChinese, which is an amazing app, but only takes you so far. You end up reviewing the same sentences over and over. They do have a premium version where you learn advanced content, but it’s in podcast form, which is inefficient compared to Du Chinese’s story reading/listening format. And don’t even think about using Duolingo to learn Chinese - it’s even worse.
I love how with Du Chinese, not only do you have access to TONS of beginner through advanced vocabulary being used in all kinds of different contexts, and not only does the app give you all individual word translations along with the full sentence translations, it also has a similar vocabulary review feature to HelloChinese (which is one of the best parts of that app). I highly recommend Du Chinese.
This is an excellent app. It’s simple and has improved over time. The ability to see the characters, combined with pinyin, as well as hear audio along with text is very useful. It is also helpful to be able to easily hide and show the pinyin and save words to study later.
I’m a heritage speaker who’s been bringing my Chinese literacy up to speaking level using this app in concert with a set of HSK sentence cards in Anki. The app features are well thought out and the content is interesting, though it would be very helpful to be able to segment saved words based on difficulty level and/or frequency. I’m currently comfortable with HSK 4 characters and working through HSK 5, and I anticipate that within a year or so I will be looking for more advanced stories than are currently available. Despite these two wish-list items, a wonderful app overall! It makes it easy and fun to practice when I have a spare moment.
I love the options available with this app. I absolutely love it as a beginner. You can work through material at different levels with different audio speeds. You can also use the listening mode and it is really easy to look up words. This reading app is super slick. I wish I had something like this when I was studying Spanish.
After studying Chinese intensely in college, I lost most of it from years of disuse. I started using Duolingo and that helped, but the level was too basic. I heard about this app and tried it out, and I am SO impressed! It works really smoothly and intuitively, and there are a lot great lessons with interesting content helpfully divided into different levels. I like to close my eyes the first time I play through a lesson and see how much I grasp just from the audio, then read through it aloud at my own pace with transliteration turned off. I *love* that you can turn off transliteration but still instantly access info about any word by clicking on it. It's wonderful that the program offers a choice of simplified or traditional characters, though I wish you could see the alternate version of each character when clicking on it. But that is the only tiny quibble I can think of. My favorite language app to date, sets a standard to which others should aspire.
Would appreciate more advanced or at least upper intermediate short stories. I find short stories more engaging than other content, but most of them are lower level. The human chair was very amusing and just the right amount of creepy😝
Having configurable word lists could be helpful rather than one blanket category for all saved.
Second best Chinese learning app to the Pleco dictionary. Anyone who is learning Chinese MUST learn to read and this app will absolutely bridge that for you. Pronunciation is excellent, you can collect vocabulary like you collect Pokémon, and there are a multitude of reading proficiency levels you can pursue.
There is even a search function for stories by topic or word. Remember reading proficiency is linked to speaking proficiency and speed. The more you read the faster you will read and the faster you will speak the language. Therefore this app is instrumental. New content is added all the time too so the fun never ends!
I have been reading leveled readers and found it frustrating because they either rely too heavily on pinyin or I have to look up too many words. With this app, I can read easily at my current level, learn new words here and there from higher levels, stretch myself and read just above my current level, save new words for additional study, and turn the pinyin off and on. The stories and dialogues are interesting even at the lower levels. (The million cats story was a little disturbing. LOL). I also like that I can here the story being read. So I can get clarification on any new words as I read. Excellent app! A great addition to my studies and formal learning. My native speaking teacher was impressed and asked about it for her English speaking husband to practice also. Thank you!
This app is great for learners looking for extra practice, review, or to fill gaps in their vocabulary. It's perfectly simple: you read articles and gradually build a flashcard deck from words you encounter when reading. It doesn't have the structured lessons I've encountered in other apps, which always felt cumbersome and slow. This app has the flexibility for you to focus on what you need to learn, and exposes you to the language in a natural way.
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blehhrrggl
YanWanFu
epesatreu
sassysockss
Verre
SwellGuy88
loyal2afew
ktspence
etawang
