Great app...
Great audio quality, and keeps your brain active.
Lazy Support?
Why can't you at least update this to IPhone 5? I used to really like this app and considering the price paid for it I thought the developers should at least update it to support newer devices...
Yes, it's really great...
I found this app to be very, very good. I hope this review does help in a decision for others to purchase (or not) this app. This app is quite frankly the best one I have found... so far, and meets it's intended target purpose. To give you a limited vocabulary and phrase list, making this limited words and phrase list "yours" (hearing and speaking up to normal speeds) and leave you wanting to learn more.
I read with interest Jaime Shuminski's well written piece a few reviews back (from Nov. of 2011). Jaime's review has glowing things to say about this app, all of which I agree wholeheartedly with. I do disagree however with Jaime's assessment of the differences in the tonal quality (or lack thereof) in the male playback of the pronunciations. If one listens to native speakers (both in country or in language tutorials), female chinese speakers simply DO enunciate more clearly the tonal inflections of Mandarin (which is so very important as Jaime points out).
This app addresses proper tonal listening and speaking techniques very cleverly in three ways. The first is when you are going down the word practice list or during the games, then you replay your desired word or phrase, the app alternates between the female and male speaker each replay. You can do it as many times as you want during word practice or even during some games without being penalized (unless it is one of the timed games). I found this to be very useful. Then there is the "slow down" feature (a small turtle icon). It reduces the playback speed of a word or phrase, but does not alter the pitch of the voice so it still sounds natural. This slowdown feature reveals the tones the untrained western ear will probably miss most of the time at native speaker spoken speeds. A nice touch. Then of course the pinyin spelling of all vocabulary is presented with each game or lesson objective, which shows the proper tones of words for you.
The speakers in this app are clearly native speakers so I don't think Jaime's negative critique on this one aspect of the otherwise glowing review was telling the whole picture. Clearly Jaime's ear correctly discerned the tonal differences of the spoken word between the genders. Kudos for that observation. Most would not notice. But it is what it is when listening to "real" Chinese.
My only complaint? Like all the others, the short list of lesson categories. But that is told up front before purchase. (to Eurotalk's credit, they do point out in it's description of the app that the list is short, focusing on a "less is more" aspect to increase ability in speed of use). So I guess that my real complaint is not with this app AT ALL. It's just that there is no more lessons to buy to add to the already excellent feature set. This is the only "wish list" I have. More "category modules".
The price of admission was well worth it and I'll pay more for "encores" to add to the nine categories (275 words and phrases) already there. I appreciate the continued "bug fixes" (of which I have never encountered, it appears very stable) and the little enhancement tweaks still continuing with this app. But I and others would really like to see more lessons than anything else. Eurotalk's uTalk Chinese (Mandarin) has hooked my kids and I enjoy using this with them.
I read with interest Jaime Shuminski's well written piece a few reviews back (from Nov. of 2011). Jaime's review has glowing things to say about this app, all of which I agree wholeheartedly with. I do disagree however with Jaime's assessment of the differences in the tonal quality (or lack thereof) in the male playback of the pronunciations. If one listens to native speakers (both in country or in language tutorials), female chinese speakers simply DO enunciate more clearly the tonal inflections of Mandarin (which is so very important as Jaime points out).
This app addresses proper tonal listening and speaking techniques very cleverly in three ways. The first is when you are going down the word practice list or during the games, then you replay your desired word or phrase, the app alternates between the female and male speaker each replay. You can do it as many times as you want during word practice or even during some games without being penalized (unless it is one of the timed games). I found this to be very useful. Then there is the "slow down" feature (a small turtle icon). It reduces the playback speed of a word or phrase, but does not alter the pitch of the voice so it still sounds natural. This slowdown feature reveals the tones the untrained western ear will probably miss most of the time at native speaker spoken speeds. A nice touch. Then of course the pinyin spelling of all vocabulary is presented with each game or lesson objective, which shows the proper tones of words for you.
The speakers in this app are clearly native speakers so I don't think Jaime's negative critique on this one aspect of the otherwise glowing review was telling the whole picture. Clearly Jaime's ear correctly discerned the tonal differences of the spoken word between the genders. Kudos for that observation. Most would not notice. But it is what it is when listening to "real" Chinese.
My only complaint? Like all the others, the short list of lesson categories. But that is told up front before purchase. (to Eurotalk's credit, they do point out in it's description of the app that the list is short, focusing on a "less is more" aspect to increase ability in speed of use). So I guess that my real complaint is not with this app AT ALL. It's just that there is no more lessons to buy to add to the already excellent feature set. This is the only "wish list" I have. More "category modules".
The price of admission was well worth it and I'll pay more for "encores" to add to the nine categories (275 words and phrases) already there. I appreciate the continued "bug fixes" (of which I have never encountered, it appears very stable) and the little enhancement tweaks still continuing with this app. But I and others would really like to see more lessons than anything else. Eurotalk's uTalk Chinese (Mandarin) has hooked my kids and I enjoy using this with them.
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Excellant
Excellent app for learning Chinese. However NEEDS MORE WORDS PLEASE!!!! Or some type of upgrade/add-on.
Great App
I purchased this app for my kids as a basic introduction into Mandarin Chinese. They love it and enjoy it! It's also great for adults who want to learn Chinese.
Ueurope
It freezes quite often. Not enough content for the price.
Amazing App! Worth every penny.
Update: February 2012
Still waiting for new words and categories... I love this app, but please add more.
Update: April 12, 2010
Please add more words and phrases. The learning method behind this app is amazing, and there were plenty of words to start with...but I've learned everything included in the app up to this point and am hungry for more. Please add a many more words and phrases asap. Thanks!!
Original Review:
This is an amazing app to learn mandarin. I own 5 of the other top 5 apps and unlike many of the other apps, this one is makes leaning even more fun. Many of the other apps are great, but flashcards can only take you so far. This app creates a game out of learning, and is very interactive. It also keeps my attention, and doesn't get boring.
I hope the developer continues to add even more words and phrases. There's plenty to learn in the app, but even more categories and perhaps different difficulty levels would make this a 5+ star app. Please keep expanding this app!
Still waiting for new words and categories... I love this app, but please add more.
Update: April 12, 2010
Please add more words and phrases. The learning method behind this app is amazing, and there were plenty of words to start with...but I've learned everything included in the app up to this point and am hungry for more. Please add a many more words and phrases asap. Thanks!!
Original Review:
This is an amazing app to learn mandarin. I own 5 of the other top 5 apps and unlike many of the other apps, this one is makes leaning even more fun. Many of the other apps are great, but flashcards can only take you so far. This app creates a game out of learning, and is very interactive. It also keeps my attention, and doesn't get boring.
I hope the developer continues to add even more words and phrases. There's plenty to learn in the app, but even more categories and perhaps different difficulty levels would make this a 5+ star app. Please keep expanding this app!
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Great starter app!
Love the games, wish there were more modules. :)
Hooked after I opened the first lesson.
Great language program, interactive games, and terrific sound. Vocabulary is limited, but presents enough words and phrases to accommodate the casual traveler. Words and phrases are presented by two different voices, male and female. Added feature is the ability to record one's own voice right on the iPad and hear the play back.
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Can Cause Confusion...
The good:
-The audio is very good quality. When they say HD, they mean it.
-The games are good for memorizing vocabulary.
The bad:
-There are variations in tone when the male and female voice say some of the vocabulary. Since Mandarin is highly tonal, this can cause some serious confusion! Because of this problem, I'm left wondering what the correct tone is.
-It would be nice if the games weren't as similar.
-There isn't enough vocabulary to be worth the $9.99 price.
So is this app worth it? I'd recommend it if the tone problems were fixed and more vocab was added.
-The audio is very good quality. When they say HD, they mean it.
-The games are good for memorizing vocabulary.
The bad:
-There are variations in tone when the male and female voice say some of the vocabulary. Since Mandarin is highly tonal, this can cause some serious confusion! Because of this problem, I'm left wondering what the correct tone is.
-It would be nice if the games weren't as similar.
-There isn't enough vocabulary to be worth the $9.99 price.
So is this app worth it? I'd recommend it if the tone problems were fixed and more vocab was added.
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For beginners, useful/pretty and expensive/limited vocab
To learn a few basic things this app is great and easy to use. The words and phrases are spoken on demand by two different people, which is easier to learn I find. There are some simple and fun games and the app is very pretty!
The price is a bit too high, given the number of words and phrases that this app has. Numbers for example only go to 20! within the 9 categories seen in the picture, there are 40 foods, only 30 sentences, counties etc.... not really much.
Quick suggestion for the developers: sentences are spoken very fast, it would be great to have an option to hear it slower or in chunks to be able to repeat it.
Also an explanation would be great to learn more words or to put fractions of sentences together ("Have you got a pen"...and ready sentences don't help as I cannot substitute "pen" with another vocable from the list, as in the Chinese sentence "shangdian zai nar" I don't know which word is "pen"! - so more helpful would be "how much is ..." " I am looking for ..." etc)
The price is a bit too high, given the number of words and phrases that this app has. Numbers for example only go to 20! within the 9 categories seen in the picture, there are 40 foods, only 30 sentences, counties etc.... not really much.
Quick suggestion for the developers: sentences are spoken very fast, it would be great to have an option to hear it slower or in chunks to be able to repeat it.
Also an explanation would be great to learn more words or to put fractions of sentences together ("Have you got a pen"...and ready sentences don't help as I cannot substitute "pen" with another vocable from the list, as in the Chinese sentence "shangdian zai nar" I don't know which word is "pen"! - so more helpful would be "how much is ..." " I am looking for ..." etc)
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Basic Chinese
It's basic Chinese color number food introduction, I stayed in china and wanted to learn basic situation based Chinese am disappointed , vocabulary is 275 words , think it's pricy for what it offers.
Great app
First 5 mins my 3yr old son picked up phone and began speaking Chinese with this app! I'm very impressed by it's simplicity and audio clarity. I spent hordes of money on apps for translate and this is the best if you want to learn the basics, have quality sound with words spoken at a moderate pace (both male and female voices), and have pinyin transliteration.
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Excellent for beginners
I knew two words in mandarin before using this app. It is very helpful for complete beginners attempting to learn some mandarin before an overseas trip! I highly recommend it to anyone looking to learn some basic, useful words and phrases.
Makes you want to learn
This is the best Mandarin for beginners Ap I've tried. The short sections and simple games allow you to jump straight in and it's really easy to pick up when ever you've got a few free seconds. I usually find studying Chinese a bit of a chore but I found myself going back to the guessing games again and again. Hope that when I've learned the basics they bring out a higher level with the same approach.
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Nice but limited
This application is actually fun to use and keeps your attention. However, it is has several limitations. Great for the beginner but you will definitely need something more comprehensive. Also, I would love to have seen some type of calculator for word mastery.
Great software, very limited vocabulary
The method is great and the software is very well built. However, it's very limited due to the tiny amount of words you could learn by using it. Anyway, a great purchase for a beginner.
1st time learner
i have never spoken mandarin before although i know sum because of family who can speak it this app does teach you sum pretty good words i say words because in the menu numbers it has i.e 1-20 body parts i.e head arm hand the bottom 3 im not intrested in because i wont use it but learning coulors numbers body parts foods is pretty good there is like 20 or so word per catigary so its not alot but what this app offers you is a chance to test if you can recall what you learn if you get it right straight awat you got more points as you can see on the preview
you all in all this is more of a memory game and sum light mandarin learning all in 1
and also remember this only teachs you like 20 things in each menu
it plays you each word as a male and female to each get the tone right
when playing the game i would sergest quiting if you dont get it right first time because then you know what you have master not just tappin anythin till you get it right
i realy hope iv made my point what the only bad thing is there ant alot to learn but the best thing is testing my recall
you all in all this is more of a memory game and sum light mandarin learning all in 1
and also remember this only teachs you like 20 things in each menu
it plays you each word as a male and female to each get the tone right
when playing the game i would sergest quiting if you dont get it right first time because then you know what you have master not just tappin anythin till you get it right
i realy hope iv made my point what the only bad thing is there ant alot to learn but the best thing is testing my recall
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Easy to use
I was looking for a fast way to learn mandarin, this app really helps with the sounds from both a male and female voice, also the ability to record your own pronunciation, and a few games to help reinforce your learning, the only problem is I will need more word/phrase categories, I hope they supply more with future updates.
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amazing
The games you have are simple and help you learn new words easily...
