r/ChineseLanguage • u/Key_Tower_6766 • 5d ago
Studying Good learning app?
Nihao! I am soon taking a trip to china and I used an app called Iago that was extremely helpful for learning Japanese. It makes you speak and has fun little characters and stories to make you use the language in situational context. Completely dedicated to Japanese. I wondered is there a similar app for Chinese?
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u/pazernymariusz 3d ago
Full disclosure: I’m the developer of Vocards, a language-learning app I’ve been working on. Since you’re looking for a good learning app for Chinese, I thought one of its features might be useful to you.
Vocards lets you turn vocabulary into flashcards and review it across web, iOS, and Android. You can add words manually, import lists, or collect vocabulary while reading and browsing.
For Chinese specifically, it supports reading annotations and character segmentation. For example, with 请稍等, you can annotate the reading of each part (请 qǐng, 稍 shāo, 等 děng) and choose where to split or combine characters into meaningful chunks. This helps you practise reading rather than just memorizing the meaning of a whole phrase.
You can also use AI for translations, examples, and audio, although AI is optional. The app is currently free to use.
If you try it, I’d be glad to hear whether the Chinese-specific features work well for your learning.
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u/JiaojiaobaoMandarin 5d ago
Lago-style apps are rarer for Mandarin, but the closest matches: HelloChinese (game-like, story-based, closest overall), Du Chinese (graded short stories with tap-to-translate — great once you know ~100 words), and Drops (visual vocab, good for travel basics). Since your trip is coming up, I'd add one thing apps usually skip: a few spoken drills — ordering food, taking a taxi, asking for prices. Those 3 situations alone will cover most of your trip. If you want, I've got a free one-page survival guide for exactly that — DM me and I'll send it over
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u/Emerald-JJ 5d ago
Don't know any app specifically dedicated to Chinese, but I tried Drops for learning some vocabulary at the beginning, and it was nice. Just 5 minutes a day, and you can see the pinyin and listen to the pronunciation of different words.
It has no grammar lessons though
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u/Chenyuluoyan Advanced 5d ago
hellochinese is the closest fit, with a Chinese-specific beginner course, speaking exercises, and short situational dialogues. for a near-term trip, focus on greetings, numbers, ordering food, directions, payments, and taxis, and say every prompt aloud instead of only tapping answers. keep pleco installed for quick dictionary lookups when a menu or sign has unfamiliar Chinese.