Today I will try to make chinese learners discover useful resources. Those may not be new to everyone but I found them relevant this year. We will focus on three resources, according to the level of the learner they address to :
1. CHINESE SKILL, elementary level
This one is designed for primary learners, around HSK2. It allows you to review your vocabulary, and to learn new words and phrases. You make our way through separate lessons, and you can access the next block of lessons only if you succeeded in finishing the previous one :
In each lesson, you encounter various exercises : you can be asked to recognize a word, or to put together its separate parts :
There are multiple-choice questions, and you must find the correct order for words in simple phrases :
It may appear very simple in the examples above, but as you progress through the levels, it becomes harder and harder. It’s a good app to help you remember your chinese vocabulary, and it’s much less boring than flashcards ! It also makes you study your oral understanding, since some exercises require listening comprehension. The themes are numerous and varied, it’s a lot of fun, so this is definitely helpful for « upper-beginners ».
You can download the app right here.
2. DECIPHER CHINESE, intermediate level
God, how long did I wait for such an app ? One of the many difficulties to tackle with when you learn chinese is to find some correct reading material. I found some through the years, I described that previously, but I lacked some fresh material. You know….those damned stories talking about legends or pandas, it’s so boring sometimes.
So I must say it was a huge breath of fresh air when I stumbled upon Decipher Chinese lately :
Not only does this app offer recent press articles in chinese, but it also suggests the audio transcriptions of the phrases of the article. Ok, it’s voice synthesis, but it’s better than nothing. Words or expressions that are hard to understand are explained when you highlight the « book » icons. :
Under each word, you will find a colored line corresponding to the HSK level of the word, it’s just fantastic. For a better understanding, you can also highlight each character to disclose its english translation :
This is a must-have, nearly the app of the year in my humble opinion, and a major step for chinese learners.
3. 电视家, advanced level
It’s the most performing app on Android platforms to watch chinese televisions.
I might already have mentioned this app on polybri, and I use it steadily, even if sometimes I can only decipher a few characters in the subtitles. Anyway it’s important to listen to the language you are learning, to absorb the pronunciation, even if you don’t understand every thing that happens on the screen. It now comes in 2.7 version :
Browsing through the app is relatively intuitive. There are more than 200 channels, some of them in high-definition, great quality indeed :
Available on the playstore here, go for it !