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Q: Anyone know of any good apps or programs for learning Mandarin?
I am a uni student in Sydney and have just started Chinese 101. I was wondering if anyone has heard of a good free program for Macbook Pro, or an app for an old smart phone, or even any good websites?
Regards
8 years 8 weeks ago in Teaching & Learning - China
Hmmm - I was going to give you a snarky comment along the lines of "no, none at all... and don't believer anything you might find if you do a search, cos it's all lies"... but since you've been specific with your requirements, and their a bit off-centre...
Depends - what OS does your phone use? You might have to get something that hasn't been updated since launch a few years ago - which may well mean Plecco and others are out.
I don't know if these will help cos of your limitations, but try ChineseWriter (obviously, basic is free, advanced isn't).
Also, get Pinyin Chart - Pinyintutor.com for tones.
And My Chinese Library.
You will ALWAYS have DianHua and ICED on your phone for dictionaries.
Like Pleco and FoxTalk are very good app for Mandarin learning, Pleco is for you to learn exact words, and FoxTalk can let you know friends and talk
Well, I would suggest to get the basics of the language with the teacher than simply write Chinese characters at least half an hour a day (one hour better) and talk talk talk ...
Mandarin is hard for Western languages speakers and there is no miraculous way around.
It's all about hard, daily work.
Wish you luck!
I have the Chinese wife app. Not a good choice. It does not work, and once installed, it cannot be removed.
iWolf:
My Chinese wife app is rubbish. I input and usually get back "I don't know".
Thanks very much, Plecco and memrise look excellent. I will have a good look at the rest.
Muddie, check out Chinese Pod. It has excellent short, practical conversations that the hosts disect well - in PDF with pinyin and MP3 for each lesson. Not that I would recommend it, but you can download it from kat.cr
I had the PDFs printed into books at minimal cost and great advantage.
Pleco is excellent as it provides several choices depending upon the situation you are in.
Chinese Pod + Pleco and you are good to go.
I have just been doing some some searching on my course guidelines, and they recommend 'Quizlet' which is quite good, and 'Chinese-tools' which I haven't had a real good look at yet. I have used that pod site before and had forgotten how helpful it was with my Thai, and yes, I like reading papers not computer screens.
I have given up on the smart phone given to me. Writing is too small (I'm old), typing with my delicate piano playing fingers is difficult (I'm a fat bastard) and phones, be it smart or dumb, just plain give me the shits.
Thanks wolf.
