Name: HelloChinese - Learn Chinese
Rating: 4.87094 (12522 reviews)

User Reviews for HelloChinese - Learn Chinese

4.87 out of 5

12.5K Ratings

6 years ago, travler66

Have many, this is the best, BY FAR

I love, love, LOVE this app! It is engaging and fun. As a teacher, I appreciate being able to see the careful, thoughtful design of building and reviewing vocabulary and grammatical structures over time, across lessons. I think it has a brilliant balance of activities from putting words in the right order to finding the answer to a question to speaking and having that evaluated to listening to videos of people saying a sentence and then writing the sentence. That last one is my favorite because it’s so authentic. People speak at their normal speeds, in their normal styles, which might be mumbly, and you have to listen well plus think about what they probably would have said, i.e., the grammar, if you couldn’t really catch all of the words. I have added half an hour into my morning routine before work in order to do the app because it’s so fun!! Downsides: I am not impressed with the games, especially that they don’t seem to test me at my current learning level (rather WAY earlier). Also, the immersion lessons, while cool in theory, are too long for me. I think they should be 5 quick minutes only. Finally, DEVELOPERS, WHY DID YOU TAKE THE FLASHCARDS AWAY??? I REALLY miss them!!!!

3 years ago, lotusindigo

Edited 2021 - false advertisement, no games in new version

HelloChinese is a fun, easy to follow program. You're given a variety of options to adjust the level of difficulty, as well as many supplemental learning tools such as flash cards, games, videos. It covers all the aspects of the Chinese language, including but not limited to proper pronunciation, reading both pinyin and traditional characters, as well as writing/typing pinyin and traditional characters. There is an achievement point system that allows you to access more content, and there is something satisfying about working my way down the curriculum path. I'd recommend this app to anyone wanting to learn to read, speak and write in Chinese. ETA (2021): I’ve returned to HelloChinese after a long hiatus and was glad to see there was a new, more comprehensive course available. However, they have done away with the games section for the new course and according to support there are no plans to reintroduce it. This is false advertisement considering that the Premium subscription claims that you have unlimited access to all training games. You can access the games still, but in order to play them you have to progress in the old course (which is redundant to and goes in a different order from the new course). That’s a huge limitation if you ask me, not to mention a huge inconvenience. The games were a big part of why I used to love this app, so my new rating and amended review is going to reflect that.

4 months ago, Zareesh saadat

DUOLINGO REALLY WAS BAD

I first thought duolingo was the best app, but then it started challenging me and that just got too hard and I started to quit and I wouldn’t learn Chinese even though I live in the United States. I wanna talk to this girl. I wanna be friends with her so I started to get on Duolingo, I first thought it was a great app but now I think hello Chinese is way better since it teaches me to write it and it also teaches me to speak Duolingo just tells you to fill in the blank hello Chinese actually tells me to speak it. Write it communicate and also shows video but the really thing I like is that it tells you what to use in Chinese and what do not use in Chinese the words in Chinese that you need to use them the words that you don’t need to use Chinese. Hello Chinese is a upgraded version of Duolingo way better than Duolingo. I really like it features and I’m glad it doesn’t give you hearts so you can only do it for a limited time. No, you’re just literally putting pressure on us that’s not it hello Chinese actually goes back and does it again until you get a ride I really like how you should download it if you haven’t yet

11 months ago, Tartar sauce da Vinci

Incredible!

This app is awesome. I learned some Chinese awhile ago but haven’t really used it in awhile.. but my wife is Chinese and her parents don’t speak English so I’ve finally resumed learning Chinese. This app is a super powerful complement to the conversational practice I’m doing on another platform. This app is helping me to refresh and review the Chinese I had learned but also helping me to reinforce the language structures that I had forgotten. For me personally the Premium+ is cheap for the value it provides. Much kudos to the devs / product manager(s) / designers who have made an app that has a good UX and makes me addicted to want to keep coming back to the app. Also happy that it goes up HSK4. IMO This is THE Chinese learning app. While there are other apps out there this is the most well rounded app and includes a very human quality with the podcast-style teacher talks that I find really fun to listen too since it fills in some cultural / contextual gaps that we can’t see when grinding away at the quizzes and tests. 10 mins is the perfect length for those talks. It took me 3 days to pull the trigger to get the Premier+. It is worth it!

12 months ago, Problems with subscribtion

Better By Design....A Must Do

Ok there is no babbel solution. Mondly is limited because because of its universal approach, and Rosetta Stone lacks the ability not to confuse even if it has the content. Hello Chinese has uniquely created a Puzzle of all the elements of simple Chinese in a way that those others do not. It uses in my estimation the most common sentence structures and focuses on key building blocks and hammers their usage to build the basic understanding of simple concepts. It is better because the approach has been so well thought out to find the basic stumbling blocks in the compact language and make them transparant. Because of this gradual but definite intellegent building block proces I equate this to the best of babbel without the chatbox. It does however have a simple Scritter like element that is a perfect add on. The only think missing is some Pimseleur like dialogues and a Mondly like AI driven handsfree learning for a total package. But considering its free use for extensive learning ( unlike Pimseleur, Rosetta Stone, or Mondly) it is a must do for all beginner to intermediate Chinese Students. Start here it will save you years of wasted effort.

3 years ago, mjw1926

The best language learning app by far

It pains me that Hello Chinese doesn’t reach more advanced levels or branch out into other languages. It’s teaching methods are good but it’s review system is the best in the industry by an extremely wide margin. You can easily look up terms, when you review you can see pinyin, block translation, and literal translation, it will mark words as difficult if you miss them a lot, but you can undo that if you want (e.g. the word is unimportant to you or you hit the wrong button). The spacing of the SRS is spot on, at least for me, and it tests you both Chinese to English and vice versa. It also gives XP for practice so you don’t feel the need to get out over your skis by learning new words when you haven’t mastered the old ones yet to protect a “streak” or anything like that. I’m pretty sure I’ve tried them all and HC is just miles ahead of everyone else. My only complaint is that this review system isn’t integrated into the premium plus “immerse” feature. That seems to have a lot of content but the review is low quality so I don’t see much value in it even though the lessons seem good.

1 year ago, Kbs1027

Great App and Useful

I used this app before I went to live in China and now am revisiting my Chinese before moving to Taiwan. It is genuinely a really helpful and useful app. The native speaker videos are helpful, the various lessons build well on each other, and, even with the changes, I love that I can still revisit the old program for learning as well. As to learning Chinese, it was a great foundational tool before I moved to China. It will not teach you everything of course but gives a great basis to get started (and enough to use for basic needs). I appreciate that you can also switch to traditional characters as well. In addition, the teacher context explanations are informative and interesting (and another way to hear more Chinese speakers). The stories are good too. The only thing I wish was that they had transferred the games to the new version too. Yes, I can go back and use the old ones, but I would have loved to see these updated with the newer program. I am not a huge review writer, but, for Chinese learning, I suggest this app over others (especially if you are planning to do a subscription).

5 years ago, AppleNicknameSystemSucks

Great App

Great app for learning Mandarin-Chinese. Some of the really great features is that you can download the lesson plans of the next course to study offline. Also, you will see clips of speakers and have to translate or interpret what they said, and sometimes their pronunciation is terrible and even my native speaker friends struggle to figure out what they’re saying, so it is good prep for real conversations. Also depending on whether you want to learn Simplified (Mainland) or Traditional (Taiwan), you can toggle the writing. The premium games are also pretty helpful in reinforcing practice. Also great that you can toggle between pinyin, characters, or pinyin+characters. However, I’d ask the developers to maybe consider letting users toggle between the 3 options on a per word basis. Pinyin is meant to be a crutch to help new learners, but it’s a bit tough to just instantly turn off completely for all 500+ words in the app. It would be helpful to be able to selectively convert one word at a time from pinyin+characters to just characters (i.e. memorise 我=wo, then going forward turn off seeing “wo/我” and just see ”我”). I think it would really help learners master the characters.

6 years ago, Glasspathways

The Best App I’ve Tried

This was the first app I used to learn Mandarin, and I’ve since tried Rosetta Stone, Duolingo, and a few others. This is by far the most intuitive way to learn the basics of the language that I have found. There are certainly areas that could use improvement; I wish we could learn to write all of the characters in the lessons instead of just some (the writing system itself is excellent though). I also wish it included more lessons in speaking and pronunciation, with suggestions on how to fix pronunciation when you’re incorrect. (Side note: sometimes when I’m speaking, it says I’m repeatedly pronouncing a word incorrectly, but when I long press to practice that individual word I get 5.0 stars. When it goes back, it still says I’m wrong. Not sure if this a glitch.) That being said, I love being able to see both the hanyu and the characters, then being able see just the characters (some apps make it impossible to learn the characters, and others throw you right into the deep end. I highly recommend this app to any beginners interested in learning Chinese.

4 years ago, Found

Wonderful App

Actually feel like real people who really understand Chinese made this, in a way that they actually want others to learn. I was not considering purchasing a subscription plan on any Chinese app but this has enough free content that I can see the value of the subscription. Really excellent content at an approachable level of difficulty. This should be made more we’ll known, as Rosetta Stone can’t hold a candle to this and DuoLingo, while good in some ways, is missing the language theory and grammar to the depth that hello Chinese has. The only thing I might want is the eventual option to learn Traditional characters at my option. Wonderful, wonderful app. Update: I do see now the Traditional Chinese Option, that is good! But now when I am asked to learn how to write a character the pictorial explanations that used to come up no longer appear. And when they did appear, it was only once. It was helpful to know where the Chinese characters came from originally, to see where the language came from. Again a wonderful app, I study every day.

10 months ago, nickname_i_just_created

Exceptional Teaching

This app has surpassed anything I had ever seen before in regards to teaching language. I had experience with companies such as Rosetta Stone and Duolingo but they simply don’t compare. I was originally having trouble learning anything with Duolingo, as it felt the app was asking me questions on terminology it never even taught me in the first place. Through reddit I learned of HelloChinese and couldn’t be happier since. This app gives you such a great foundation for learning and really gets you excited to keep coming back. They not only provide tips on how you should be studying but also are completely interactive. You can have conversations in Chinese and will always have benchmarks where you will need to speak to confirm that your pronunciation is correct. It has taught me so much not on just formal Mandarin but also how people speak on a normal everyday basis in their culture. I am so grateful to have found this app and wouldn’t wish for anything to change about it!

2 years ago, djun13l

They put so much into this

I've tried tons of apps and this one has always been my favorite for Chinese. And just when I thought it couldn’t get better, they added even more extremely helpful features! Being able to use Chinese in a convincing, conversational way is my goal (it’s painfully obvious to native speakers when awkward or inappropriately formal speech is used). So things I love about Hello Chinese include: training basic vocabulary using simple sentences, clips of native speakers so you get a feel for how things should sound, short videos of helpful situations and common conversation topics, and now they’ve added podcast episodes after lessons! The 10 min podcast after the very first lesson (I’m starting over to relearn writing) explained that nihao and zaijian aren’t typically used and should be avoided!! I had a hunch that was true but it’s amazing to have a credible source explain it in detail and I’m so thankful that they really put in work for a resource that’s mostly free!

6 months ago, Jessamine LeFeu

Best app I’ve tried for Mandarin

I’ve tried Duolingo, Drops, Ling, Rocket Languages, Tofu Learn, and Zizzle. Tofu and Zizzle are all right as study supplements. But over Duolingo, Ling, and Rocket, HelloChinese really stands out. It being designed for Chinese specifically instead of Chinese being one of many language options gives it a leg up, I think, and it shows in the way the character practice is designed, the detailed lessons on pinyin and radicals, and the nuanced options for how to hide or show or dim pinyin alongside the characters. Really the one thing I don’t like is the horrible repetitive loud sound effect on the fast recognition bamboo slicing minigame—it’s annoying enough that I never play that one because I basically have to turn the volume all the way down and then back up when I’m done. I think it would be much improved with a mute option, or even better, if when you sliced the correct one it pronounced it (where applicable).

2 years ago, Sparklenunu

The best app I’ve found so far (updated)

I’ve recently started learning Chinese and out of the 5 apps I’ve downloaded, this one is the best. It’s like a cross between LingoDeer and Duolingo. It’s only like Duolingo to me because of the app’s setup. What I love about LingoDeer, I found here, the audio response that you do to make sure your pronunciation is correct. I truly appreciate the notes that come with the lessons explaining actual conversational Chinese. The thing I do have a problem with is the section for pinyin, which I really need to focus on myself. It’s good with hearing how it’s pronounced, but when you’re repeating it back, majority of the time it’ll count your pronunciation correct even if it isn’t. I’ve tested it by saying completely different things and it still counted it as correct. Once that’s fixed, it’s a 5 star app to me. So far, I’m loving it! P.S, I’m not trying to truly compare this app to any other, I’m just noting anything that could be helpful for anyone who’s previously used either apps. HelloChinese is a brilliant app in and of itself, as a first time learner.

8 months ago, Camonbama

Best app for serious learner of Chinese

As a seasoned educator with extensive experience teaching Japanese and Vietnamese, I can confidently assert that this app embodies the pinnacle of effective pedagogical practices. Having embarked on a personal quest to master the intricacies of the Chinese language, I diligently explored a multitude of courses and language learning applications. However, amidst this diverse array of options, it was this particular app that emerged as an indispensable tool for any dedicated language learner. This app's pedagogical prowess manifests in its meticulous attention to the fundamental principles of effective language acquisition. It seamlessly integrates engaging interactive exercises, immersive multimedia content, and personalized feedback mechanisms to foster a dynamic and stimulating learning environment. Unlike many language learning apps that rely on rote memorization and passive absorption, this app empowers learners to actively construct their linguistic knowledge through meaningful interactions and real-world applications. Highly recommended.

7 years ago, emtee22

Simply an amazing app

Been using this app for four months and I can easily say this is the best, most effective language learning app I’ve ever used — hands down. I’ve used a number of language apps not just for Chinese but also Korean and Japanese, and nothing compares to this. They guide you along a path of lessons with each lesson building on the last which allows you to better memorize vocabulary and grammar. They don’t just throw phrases at you without explaining grammar rules like Duolingo. The app takes seriously the explanation of grammar structures so that you can take these grammar structures and formulate your own sentences around them. Pronunciation is also taken seriously as each lesson and test will ask you to say sentences and vocabulary out loud. One section of each lesson is solely dedicated to pronunciation. When I flew to California for a visit after 3 months of study, I talked to some Chinese native speakers who explicitly noted that my pronunciation was surprisingly on point.

7 years ago, 欧瑞学汉语

Best Chinese Learning App

I normally don't write reviews, but this app is so awesome I feel obligated to promote it! This app has EVERYTHING! Flashcards to review words you've learned, games for a daily practice that covers everything you've learned in a fun way, Immersion videos to listen and speak in real life conversations, and lessons that include listening, speaking, writing, and obviously reading exercises! The voice recognition on the speaking exercises is a bit questionable, but the fact that it forces you to practice speaking in the first place makes up for this! I look forward to every update because somehow they continue to get better! They are super responsive to messages and have regular videos on requested topics. And all of that is their Free version! And they don't bug you with notifications and ads for their premium version! This app is really amazing for someone wanting to start learning or practice Mandarin! I can't speak more highly of it.

5 years ago, glassofwonder

Exceptional - Needs Improvement

I have been using this app to supplement my private lessons with 中文。I love the easy-to-use, cute interface. The APP itself has a host of benefits: they provide native 中国人 speakers to present lots of the dialogue; roleplay/voice dubbing practice; 汉字 stroke order tracing (with and without a guide!); lots of listening and speaking assignments with and without visual clues; etc! All of the language presented and tested are relevant and necessary words for learning Chinese, and they do a great job explaining the rules and history behind the words/words’ meaning. However, there are some continual bugs that make it hard to progress through the lessons. Often times, when there’s a question with visual answers, the visuals are blank... or there’s no sound when you click the audio button on an audio question. I’ve reported these questions many times, but nothing has changed. I am hopeful, though, that the developers will get around to it — they are diligent and do a great job with updates and new content!

4 months ago, ItsToonZ

Love the information but it’s a little broken

This app does a good job at teaching HSK1-4. I’ve learned a lot since I’ve came to china while studying using this app. I even bought a couple months of premium so I could actually study past HSK2 which is kinda sad they require premium just to study all the way through to HSK4… Other than that last comment the the main reason I’m reviewing low stars is because the app seems to have some problems, now it won’t let me do my daily reviews, or even review any sections of the courses. Instead it gives me the error message saying ,” Some lesson data can't be downloaded at this time, please try again later.” Which is extremely annoying because these reviews really helped me to remember and refresh my mind on what I previously learned from the day/week before. This is not a Wi-Fi connection problem, I’ve tried everything to fix this issue; I’ve tried using my cell data I’ve tried closing the app I’ve tried logging out and loggin back in I’ve tried updating the app I’ve tried deleting and re-downloading the app Etc… but nothing works.. so other than requesting to fix this issue could you also let the HSK1-4 be free to all users not only premium members, I think a lot of people would truly appreciate that as well. Anyways I have a mandarin test coming up pretty soon at a Chinese university, wish me luck and I thank you for creating an app that has helped me tremendously on this journey

1 year ago, GermanMerchandise

I am amazed by this app

I have only written 2 reviews in the past 10 years, but when I see an app this good I have to commend the developers. This app is packed full of incredible resources. It has all of the gamification that duolingo provides, and that’s just scratching the surface. If you’re using duolingo, you’re getting 10% of this app. Literally every type of game, the achievements, the progress, it’s all there just like on duolingo. But on this app, that’s just the beginning. It’s one of the many features of the app. There are immersive stories, videos of native speakers talking, so so so many stories. Not just stories, but a library of stories. And lessons on all kinds of topics, for example there are 5 lessons for ordering at KFC! And I’ve only used the free version so far. If the free version is this good, then I’m definitely going to get premium now. Thank you for this app!

4 years ago, nothanksforanickname

Great with one huge flaw

The app is great and how they teach the language is very acceptable. They offer reviews that could be a little more mixed in what you have already learned besides a random group of questions from one lesson you learned at a time. The biggest problem this app has is honestly enough to make me look for other apps to use and it’s such an easy one to fix: they have questions that ask you to translate the native speaker in a video. They are almost always filmed outdoors and with people who seem to want to do anything but say the sentence. Zero quality control here makes these videos a huge annoyance and they can’t be skipped. They have an option to slow the audio but sometimes that makes it even worse because all the speakers mumble horribly. I have reported nearly every video I’ve come across in the app. But to be honest the further I get into the lessons the worse the video quality and speaker clarity gets. How anyone was stupid enough to think this awful attempt at a native speaker attempt was good is beyond me. If these parts were able to be skipped or done with an ounce of professionalism this app would be great.

9 months ago, Kuba Kukla

Best Language LEARNING

I got Hello Chinese in 2016, so I have had it for seven years now, and I still haven’t used all the FREE features. This app has it all: pronunciation, reading, writing, games stories, etc… and they are always adding more! I am so grateful to this app for making Chinese Learning accessible to me. Thanks to this app I am actually in China now studying Mandarin and so far ahead of all my classmates. In fact, this app is so much better at teaching then my teachers that I do all my studying with it, and I think I’m gonna need to take the plunge to upgrade to premium to reach my fluency goals. After how much this app has given me I can’t say thank you enough and I will feel good about my money going to something that has already proven itself. Also, based on my experience with this app I feel that this is the type of company I would love to work for one day…

4 months ago, Catherine Jeannine W

Having a great time so far

The app is providing a good foundation for language learning, it motivates me by “gamifying” things, and it’s so thoughtfully developed. The progress is very natural because there is a good a mix of grammar, vocabulary and character writing in each lesson. I can tell I’m learning a lot because it’s been less than a month and when I talk to my husband who speaks some Chinese I can understand some of it. I enjoy how the app gamifies Chinese learning. For example, there are fun vocabulary games and the app itself keeps track of your streak, how many days you’ve practiced in a row. The fun games and the streak keeps me motivated to keep going. My favorite part of the app is the attention to detail that went into making the app. The app is thoughtfully designed and you can tell that the developers really are skilled in making apps and in teaching. Thank you!

9 months ago, Kedvall

Best language learning app that I’ve found

This app is awesome, been using it about half a year. The explanations are clear, they do a good job explaining Chinese language concepts with clear English examples and logic. The pronunciation is clear, high quality audio in standard Mandarin. There’s lot of content, about up to HSK4 and characters, pinyin, native speaker audio, short stories, etc, even some games are all included, I found these quite helpful. In my experience I found this app to be better than something like DuoLingo. This focuses purely on Chinese and thus does so exceedingly well. The explanations are clear, the pacing and progressing is good and the app does a good job of helping you review what you’ve learned. It also has a spaced repetition system built in to help you review more efficiently (although I prefer to pair this app with Anki). The devs, and staff as a whole, seem quite invested in this and regularly add new content. I particularly enjoyed the “Teacher Talk” segments that explain some of the Chinese culture behind things you’re learning, they’re fun and interesting to learn and a nice break from just pouring over vocab. Also I’ve found the paid subscription to be worth it for the additional content. Overall I would highly recommend this app and encourage supporting the team behind it :)

3 years ago, Calion

Pretty darn good!

I'm coming from Duolingo, and this app is better in most ways than Duolingo. There really are only two ways it's inferior: It's less polished, pretty and well-organized; and the fastest speaking speed is still too slow (Duolingo doesn't, unlike HelloChinese, allow you to change how fast the app speaks (I mean, it's got a "slow down" button in many places, but no overall customization), but Duolingo's default speed is better than HelloChinese's fastest speed). In almost every other way, HelloChinese is superior, sometimes vastly so. • It provides writing exercises that teaches you how to write Chinese characters. • It always provides a literal translation of every Chinese word or phrase (so helpful, and my main frustration with Duolingo) • It allows you to turn on and off (or dim!) the Pinyin (phonetic) words over the Chinese characters—helpful when you do or don't want "hints", or want to learn the pronunciation or Pinyin spelling • Premium membership is actually useful, providing mini-lectures and other useful tools (not sure Premium+ is worth it though) And in general, the lesson structure makes me feel like I'm actually *learning Chinese,* rather than getting good at the translation tasks Duolingo focuses on. HelloChinese is not perfect—there are tons of tweaks that would make it better. But it's definitely the best resource I've tried for learning Chinese.

2 months ago, aiden28373

literally obsessed with this app!!!

i am a mexican american college student and i literally don’t know anyone who speaks mandarin. i downloaded this app after seeing an ad about it, and was like lol why not? oh my god this app is the best language learning app on the market. i am going to school for education and their teaching styles and techniques are so effective! even for someone like me, coming into it with zero background knowledge. i’ve tried duolingo but i found it to be too slow, and nowadays it’s impossible to do anything in that app without the premium version. this app does have a premium version, but you will still get an amazing mandarin education without it. however, the premium version does look pretty cool and definitely can add to your learning but it doesn’t bombard you with ads about it! this app sets a perfect pace, and actually forces you to remember what you’re learning unlike duolingo. they give you super helpful tips for remembering the different characters and has really cute minigames for review (which i frequent often since it’s such a new language for me lol). i sort of wish they had some sort of friend system so i can get my friends to play and flex on em with how many points i get everyday. other than that, this app is perfect!!! i’m literally obsessed.

5 years ago, LooselyCanon

Better than Duolingo

I think that Hello Chinese is an extremely useful tool for acquiring a good foundation for listening and reading comprehension. I appreciate that there are audio clips of native speakers and I like that they include writing practice so that I can learn the stroke order for characters. I haven’t had the opportunity to try out the paid content, but there’s a lot here just in the free content to get me started. I just started learning Chinese almost a month ago, but I can already attest to how much Hello Chinese has improved my listening comprehension alone. For language immersion, I watch Chinese dramas on Viki Rakuten and within just a week of practicing on this app, I was able to understand entire sentences of speech without looking at the subtitles. Of course, you’re going to get out of this what you put into it, but as for my and my learning style, I’m very glad that I found this app!

1 year ago, PinkSnake -Original

Always room for improvement

AMAZING APP so far, I’ve only had it for about a week but unlike other apps I haven’t been asked to pay yet. And the teaching breaks down things to simple forms. I have been using other apps so I caught on a little faster than others maybe and if your are a beginner the I recommend fully. Then only thing I can say is , I was a little confused at some parts in wording. Such as listening to the video and copying the words to suddenly having to answer the video’s question. The method is great I just wish the wording wasn’t similar to“select the sentence that fits the subject” and more along the lines “Pick the answer that best fits the question stated in the video” Maybe just recheck some areas in this beautiful app that has helped me a lot and clean up some words… or not, still a great app

2 years ago, elevatormusick

非常好

到今天为止，我已经用这个APP学汉语一年了。我感觉很舒服建议这个APP对别人。什么时候我开始，我不知道任何汉语。现在我有一个基础很好。 I’ve used this app for a year, paid for premium and genuinely think it’s a great app to start learning Mandarin. When I started, I didn’t know any Mandarin. I completed the main course in about ~220 days and just do the daily review since then. It is miles better than Duolingo’s Mandarin offering. Some things I would like to see added are: more teacher talk lessons, clearer audio in the native speaker exercises, and an option to type answers in pinyin instead of picking from a word bank. After completing the course, I started speaking to natives and expanded my vocabulary and grammar from other sources. No, you won’t reach “fluency”, but I have no doubt HelloChinese gave me a pretty strong foundation to build off of. I wish they had an app like this for Cantonese, Japanese and Korean. 谢谢你，HelloChinese.

2 years ago, Nickeo07

Best Chinese Learning App

This is the best app by far for learning elementary Chinese. I have been using it for 4 years now and I really retain a lot of the knowledge. There are periodic quizzes that pop up and have you go over all the grammar you’ve learned so far to keep you up to speed. It’s great to supplement other apps that you may have. I personally use it as my main learning app and staple for learning Mandarin Chinese and it’s great as a platform to build from. That being said, the subject matter covered is extremely well though out both in the practical sense as well as the order. In a practical sense, you’ll find yourself learning words and phrases that are used everyday. In an ‘order’ sense, the most commonly used words are learned first it seems and the more specific/ complex words and phrases are learned second. It’s great because you build your knowledge and use what was previously learned to construct sentences in future courses where you’re also using advanced vocabulary. Overall, 10/10 on the free version! The paid version has a lot of content although I haven’t explored it all yet. Even then, there are a lot of free courses you can try out in the meantime as a sort of trial for the paid version. Good job HelloChinese team!

5 years ago, Iamgirl1

Perfect Beginner App

Im a complete beginner and I started with the Chinese portion from Duolingo. It was great at first then went too fast and got confusing. I heard great things about Hello Chinese so I decided to give it a try. I haven’t been disappointed, it moves you through at a perfect rate (not too fast and not too slow) it explains why things are the way they are. This is extremely helpful. The user interface is fun, smooth and super easy to use. It’s easy to learn on with this app. The only down sides are that the voice recognition (when speaking Chinese into the mic) is off sometimes. Also when drawing the characters there is a certain character that is hard to get correctly unless you follow it to a t. But let me tell you, this app is great and the developers did a fantastic job. I’ve been using it now for 23 days and feel like I’ve learned a lot!

6 years ago, lianxi;))

Excellent app for reviewing Putonghua basics

I took a couple of Putonghua classes back in university more than 20 yrs ago. Never really had a need to speak more than a few basic sentences until recently as I’m preparing for work. After screening a few online schools, I decided to take business level lessons from a private teacher. Initially, I was pretty confident. But by the end of the third lesson, it was clear that I needed to revisit the stuff from back in uni as well cover new territory. HelloChinese is awesome in that it provides a fun and engaging way to learn (or review) Mandarin. It has a good mix of all the important elements needed when learning a language; reading, writing, listening and speaking. And it’s designed so that as you progress through each level, you’ll build up your vocabulary by adding new words and sentence structures to the material from previous lessons.

10 months ago, pissedncomplaining

Hate reviewing but I have to cuz it’s so good

I tried pimsleur, duolingo, and many others and nothing compares to the comprehensiveness of the Chinese language than this app. I struggled with learning Chinese because I just learned how to read pinyin and say words. When I went to Shanghai, the amount of English words wasn’t enough to know what is what. I had to learn how to at least read in Chinese and nothing is better at doing so than this app. The grammar is taught well through actual examples and explanations. I just wish it taught what words are used now in 2023. My wife mentioned how no one says this now or mentions this word now from time to time but I guess every region is different? Still a great app and I hope this is the only app I can use to be an expert in speaking, reading, and writing/typing in Chinese.

1 year ago, danita221

Best language learning app I’ve ever used!

This is the best language app I’ve ever used. Unlike babel It is non repetitive and interesting but at the same time the lessons build upon one another so you can move at a fast pace. If you need a refresher just open a previous lesson. I have take Mandarin 101 and 102 in college and this app keeps me on my toes while also filling in some gaps in learning. For example you can turn off the pinyin forcing yourself to learn the characters. It has voice recognition so you can practice the tones. There are even dialogue “quizzes” (you can skip them if you want) where you have to verbally answer questions that the app says to you. this helps you you to speak and listen— which is why we’re learning Chinese right? I wish all languages apps were like this one

6 months ago, C9onz

Really awesome app and intro to Chinese language

This really changed my perspective on the Chinese language. It’s quite beautiful and tonal, which makes it both fun and interesting to learn. Languages really open up worlds to cultures you may or may not be familiar with. Learning in this manner removes some of the intimidation and complexities you might encounter with a language. This engages you and allows you to hear variations of sounds from different people. It may seem easy at first because conjugation isn’t necessary, but the tones are difficult to master. It almost feels like you’re learning different melodies which get deconstructed and reconstructed over again - and it feels really satisfying for my brain. It requires your verbal participation, ear trains, and forces you to visualize. Happy I learned about this app.

5 years ago, GirlyGenius🤪

I LOVE this app!

Looking for a quick, easy way to learn and practice Chinese? What about Duolingo? Think again. Duolingo makes you use LIMITED hearts when you miss a question. If you miss 5, you have to restart the lesson then go to practice mode, only to get 1 heart. If that‘s not bad enough, it sends emails to you everyday even if notifications are off. Just saying, your first choice should honestly be HelloChinese. HelloChinese has amazing ways to learn this language. Under “Learn” you can do normal lessons and practice if you click on the right side leaf. If you click on “Train” you get a daily free game. The games are only available for a day but are quite helpful. Under “Immerse” click on a free tab and you can do 5 different steps to learn how to say something in Chinese. I highly recommended this app for anyone that’s willing to learn something new.

4 months ago, HannahC99

Genuinely the best language app out there

I've tried a LOT of language learning apps, from broad ones like Duolingo to specific ones that only cover one language like this one. No other app even compares to what HelloChinese does. I've only had it a week and I'm amazed at how much more I've learned than Duolingo would teach me. HelloChinese gives you the pronunciations, speaking practice, word order practice, minigames, stories, and the TeacherTalk section tells you practical stuff like specific rules to each grammar point that other apps don't get into. It also tells you ways to remember kanji like looking at a picture. I seriously cannot praise the creators enough for making an app that's actually easy to learn, teaches practical every day Chinese, and is not completely boring.

5 years ago, yeeyee-boy

Perfect App

This app is amazing ! I’ve only using the app started today, and I can already see how amazing it is. I’ve learned phrases and words in about an hour or two (counting doing other things such as eating and taking breaks in that timespan). It shows you how to write the characters, but not too much to the point where you’re bored with it. It has you pronounce it, and shows which areas you pronounced the word/phrase incorrectly so it’s extremely easy to fix the way you pronounce it, and the thing I really like about it is that you can go back and do lessons over again how ever many times you want if you’re not confident in that area. Overall, it’s an amazing app and 10/10, would recommend tl;dr: shows how to write characters, shows how to pronounce words/phrases, and you can go back and do lessons again.

4 years ago, michellealicecee

This is NOT a free, accessible app

Very frustrated with the lack of transparency and deceptive promotion of an educational platform that should be more easily accessible to users. There is no advance notice when you start the main course (nor on the the app’s page in the App Store) that you can only get through a limited number of lessons before you are asked to pay a premium subscription fee in order to access the rest of the course. Nor is there any guidance anywhere on the app that makes it known to users that the basic course is available instead without the premium subscription. This is entirely a bait and switch scheme. The app is otherwise great with its informative lessons and use of a variety of educational tools, including speaking practice, but the utter lack of transparency with respect to the paywall setup really undermines the value of this app. A clear, advance disclaimer of when users are expected to pay up a subscription fee during the course or a trial basis expressly made for a preliminary number of lessons would prevent such misleading design.

7 years ago, OnlyByGod'sGrace

MUST GET 🤩 Amazing Chinese Learning App😍

惊人！It is extremely engaging and so very helpful. I love how you can use the mic to check your pronunciation 🎉😊. I am using this app along with Fluenz Mandarin (an online program) 😍 Sooooo amazing！非常感谢。🎊 ( I don’t normally write reviews 😋..... BUT😂😏🧐 after using this app.... I realized I needed to 🤗😇😊. I should add that I made the decision to start learning Chinese about 5 months ago... I live in America and I really understood almost NOTHING of the Chinese language. American students are not really encouraged to learn Chinese😫😩😭😢....We are encouraged to learn Spanish, French etc. 🤫. Anyways 😜 As a beginner this app has done a fantastic job in starting me out. They offer so many different resources for studying. The lessons are VERY engaging and extremely helpful. Give it a try 🤗 Have a wonderful time studying 🙌🏻💪🏻👏🏻😇.

3 years ago, ShannonLex

Totally recommend - a fun way to learn a language that hits all the different parts

this is one of the best language learning apps I’ve come across. I love to learn languages and you usually cannot get it all from a single app. This app includes writing, speaking, reading/recognizing, and does it all in a cute/funny way so that you remember what you learned. The mnemonics for remembering the characters is so helpful! I really enjoy the Teacher Talk for each lesson. The listening/speaking exercises are very important since Chinese is so difficult for my English mouth to pronounce. I am so excited to have come across this in my journey to learn Chinese. At 45 years old, I’m learning a new language I always thought would just be too hard to even attempt. Definitely recommend this over Duolingo if you are learning Mandarin.

2 years ago, JennaJelly

Great for everything!

Learning characters, pinyin, speaking- useful words too! if you don't want to learn characters you can skip, if you can't use microphone you can skip. Each section is is categorized well, and there are explanations for different things each chapter. There's free weekly bonus learning and stories. I've been using the app for years, and even tho I've been doing a few months on and sometimes up to a year without opening the app- every time I come back I surprise myself with how much I remember. And I think that’s the truest measure of how good this app is at teaching. I've also gotten a few comments from native speakers saying that my pronunciation is pretty good- so I'm proud of that (: Overall, 12/10, highly recommend this app

1 year ago, DeepKimchi

Good, if it works. Be cautious with long term purchase!

I feel the overall content, and teaching method is the best and most relevant to improving Chinese when compared to the other apps I’ve tried. I had some issues initially with my subscription but this seems to have been rectified. I feel like the developers care about keeping the content fresh and updated with the current context in China today. There is a lot of flexibility in learning and the lessons seem to build upon past lessons to reinforce uptake. The pronunciation guide seems to be fairly accurate in providing feedback on proper speaking of tones. However I purchased a 3y subscription, but had technical issues with my account. I lost significant time (months) trying to get it resolved. My account yesterday said I still had about a year left, today it says I don’t even have a subscription. I’d hold off on making a purchase if I were you, or at least don’t do something long term. I’ll update review if this changes.

7 years ago, AppleBuddy22

It would be great if

If you could fade out icons or (something) to indicate that we need to study more on it. Sort of like what duolingo does. I know you’ve got the review checkpoint and it tells us when we should review but I want also little chunks at a time. Because the review checkpoint has a TON of things and it would be great to do smaller sections also, and it would also be great if you could make it so I can skip the audio pronunciations in the reviews. Because that’s why I don’t do it is because I usually use this app when I’m in public and I want to do the review but then I have to exit when I remember that it doesn’t give me the option to skip the verbal pronunciation part. Thanks! Did you guys partner with Duolingo? I see a section that says Duolingo characters or something. It’s awesome! Thanks so much!!

2 years ago, proudestmonkey

So far so good

I have used Rozeta, Pimsleur, drops, and a few other online tools for learning Chinese. None have seemed as well thought out as hello Chinese so far. The only reason I put so far is that I have only finished the first two levels, and hope that it will continue for quite some time so that I can get into more complex speaking and language skills then simple greetings and “do you speak English or Chinese“ these are, of course, important, first lessons, but they all cover these basics. With both Rosetta and Pimsleur, after getting through this part, I got lost pretty quick. I’m pretty old and language is tough for me at this age, so I hope the various ways of getting me to remember relatively simple concepts language devices, and characters continues.

12 months ago, @elisha

Good for beginners to intermediate

Then you’ll want a different challenge, like LingQ and Skritter. Also, this app has improved a lot and has more features since the first time I downloaded it. Great curriculum and review system for building foundational Mandarin. I recommend the 6 month subscription to complete the main course. I also recommend supplementing it with Du Chinese to learn how to read. Hello has stories, but fewer for new learners; it’s not as user friendly for studying; and the vocab just doesn’t build on each other like it should. The other Premium+ exercises are great, though. I appreciated the literal translations offered in the lessons. If you were considering the expensive Pimsleur approach, reconsider now! This app will get you there in half the time.

2 years ago, Ahja Reyn

Fantastic Chinese app!

I’ve downloaded so many apps to help me learn Chinese and this is my favorite so far. You can speed up or slow down the audio, there’s videos so you can see native speakers talking, and you have the option to hide or show the pinyin. The lessons explain new hanzi as they are introduced, you can trace the hanzi (which is great for me cuz now I know the stroke order so I can practice on my own) and then at the end of each section there’s the teacher talk! This is my favorite part. It’s like a mini podcast with small summaries on what they are taking about. It gives the app a more personal feel because now you know you’re not just learning textbook style - they actually want you to succeed at speaking with others in a natural way.

3 years ago, Mimi Tangardio

LOVE - useful features help making your mandarin more fleshed out!

This app is by far the best I have tried for learning mandarin. I used to use duolingo, but realized some of the sentences I was learning are too formal and not used by actual Chinese people. This app has the basic vocabulary as well as many features to help you learn the language more efficiently, such as "Teacher Talks" which are short audio lessons clearing up misconceptions foreigners have about the language. The app also breaks down characters into easy-to-memorize pieces with literal translations, and adding drawings over characters like 人（person) to show how the word is a symbol for the meaning. (For 人, it looks like two legs walking) They also help you with writing characters. Overall, great app.

4 years ago, temmev

If you’ve made it to here already you should probably just download the app

If you’re interested in learning Mandarin and looking for a starting place this app is a no brainer. Beautiful ui, rarely buggy (even in the notorious waters of speech recognition!), ad free, and most importantly well-designed lessons with good repetition/practice built in. I’ve found it gratifyingly easy to keep up a pace that feels productive and not overwhelming. I'm not a subscription-happy person but after using this consistently for a month or two now I will be paying for premium... primarily because I feel like I’ve gotten well over the price tag’s worth of content for free. The unpaid features are a complete course on their own and don’t constantly route you off to content behind the paywall. So if you’re not looking to spend anything this app still hits and exceeds the mark. That said if you can afford it they probably deserve it for this little gem. Bonus: I‘m terribly lazy about reviewing things and I don’t even remember ever having gotten bumper notifications asking me to! I really just appreciate this app that much. Thanks to the folks that put this together and keep it up...you’ve created something wonderful here. 多谢🙏

5 years ago, BentleyBox

Awesome app for learning Chinese!

This is an absolutely fantastic app for learning Chinese! Before I started using it, my husband (who knows Chinese) evaluated the different apps I was looking at for learning, and this one was his top choice! Since starting to use it, I have learned SO much! I’ve been able to use some Chinese with my in-laws, and also speak & understand a bit in a recent trip to Taiwan! I chose to be a premium member after using the app for a while, because I think it is 100% worth the price! The games in the old course have been incredibly helpful to me in further integrating and memorizing what I’ve been learning. I hope games will be added in the new course soon! Thank you to the developers for creating and continuously updating and improving such an awesome app!

Description

HelloChinese is the best Mandarin Chinese learning app for beginners! Featured on the App Store in New Apps We Love and Notable Education Apps! Designed in a fun and highly effective manner, HelloChinese helps you rapidly learn Mandarin Chinese from scratch to a conversational level. With HelloChinese, learners can "learn the Chinese language, explore Chinese culture" – you will not only learn Mandarin Chinese but also enjoy the process of delving into the culture intertwined with the language. Features: ◉ Game-based Chinese learning: You will never get bored. ◉ 1000+ graded stories: read engaging stories at your level! ◉ Immersive lessons help you to have real-life, practical conversations quickly. ◉ Over 2,000 videos - all featuring authentic Chinese speakers! ◉ Innovative self-adaptive learning games that incorporate Chinese cultural education. ◉ Speech recognition corrects your pronunciation and makes speaking Chinese a breeze. ◉ Handwriting specially designed to learn Chinese characters at a faster rate. ◉ Systematic courses based on HSK levels. ◉ A well-designed Pinyin (pronunciation) course for newbies. ◉ Bite-sized curriculum to fortify your Chinese listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills. ◉ Simplified and traditional Chinese(Mandarin) are both supported. ◉ Offline accessibility: Once a course is downloaded, no internet connection is required. ◉ Study progress tracking across multiple devices. With these tools at your disposal, nothing can stop you from mastering Chinese. Start on your path to fluency today! HelloChinese Premium offers: One-month subscription for $8.99 Three-month subscription for $19.99 Twelve-month subscription for $59.99 The above prices are for U.S. customers. Pricing in other countries may vary, and charges may be converted to your local currency depending on your country of residence. Once purchased, subscriptions automatically renew unless auto-renew is turned off in your iTunes Account settings at least 24 hours before the end of the payment period. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HelloChineseApp/ Privacy Policy: https://www.hellochinese.cc/privacy.html Terms of Use: https://www.hellochinese.cc/terms.html Premium users can always reach us at [email protected] if they need any help.