Spoken by 1 billion people, Mandarin speakers continue to rise. Mandarin is being used more frequently on the global platform as both a first and second language. With the language usage ever expanding, the interest in learning Mandarin has also increased. Many even consider Mandarin the language of the future. But whether it is or not, nevertheless, learning Mandarin effortlessly has increased significantly with mobile apps. Plus, it is even possible to get free apps to learning Mandarin on your own!
Why should I learn Mandarin?
China’s economy is vast, powerful and geographically enormous with a great amount of speakers dispersed throughout Southeast Asia and the West. Mandarin is a tremendously rich language, considered by many to be hugely interesting, complex and of course, useful.
Besides, China itself is a very old country with an amazing history which spans millennia. The cultural tapestry which extends through China’s history makes it a great language to learn for those interested in history. Academics, linguists and business people worldwide as well as just those who are looking for a great language to learn – regardless why – even considers Mandarin the holy grail of languages to learn.
Mandarin is also a growing language and its usefulness is underpinned by the fact that it’s spoken by 1 in every 8 people as a first language and many more as a second language. Mandarin is especially widespread in Asia.
Understandably, learning a language isn’t an easy task. However, prospective learners of Mandarin will find that it’s a rewarding, engrossing and long-term task. The rewards are great and they’ll serve you for life.
What are the free apps to learning mandarin on my own?
The choices available for learning Mandarin are vast in themselves – you have classes, software programs available on and offline, thousands of books and of course, apps. Moreover, from learning basic Mandarin to reaching an expert level, these apps have come to the fore as being adaptive to trends in language learning, meaning they’re up to date, advanced and comprehensive. Here are our favourite free apps to learn Mandarin on your own:
Bilingua
Bilingua allows users who wish to study or practice their language skills to connect to like-minded individuals. By learning with other native speakers, aspiring language learners can also tap into a unique resource of people – not just quizzes, vocab and information. Bilingua is distinct from apps in its class because it offers this feature of language exchange – there’s no better way to learn than from a native! It doesn’t end there, though, Bilingua features a learning bot named Shiro which helps guide its users through a language learning journey with the assistance of games, quizzes and other exercises. It’s fun and effective and a new way to learn.
Bilingua creates an innovative fusion between organic face-to-face learning with natives and traditional quizzes and exercises. This allows users to take the approach they’d like to take – you can practice in real-time with other users and put your theory into practice!
Also, Bilingua has an immense database of users and it pairs new users with language partners who are native or fluent speakers in their target language.
Pleco Chinese Dictionary
This is more than a Chinese dictionary. It’s a fully fledged partner for those learning Mandarin and other Chinese dialects, like Cantonese. Featuring two massive dictionaries and optional downloads, you can be sure that it more than covers most aspects of Chinese languages. Alongside these core features, it enables you to practice your writing with a touch-screen character recognition feature. There are pronunciation features and you can point your device camera at Chinese words to recognise and translate them too.
Google Translate
Google Translate isn’t just a translator – not anymore. It’s now equipped with extra features that really increase its potential for language learners of many languages including Mandarin. As well as the advanced translation service that we use, Google Translate also features a phrasebook, a camera sensor for translating text from images and allows users to practice their handwriting.
Learn Mandarin Chinese for Beginners
This app focuses on those traditional learning methods like vocab, alphabets and phrases.The app uses tried and tested methods to communicate basic info about Mandarin as well as more advanced phrases and vocab via its various classes. The app also provides various classes on subjects like the human body, the home, transport, etc. Furthermore, the app provides a wide choice of 26 classes on various aspects of the Chinese vocab.
Language Lu
This app is pretty simple but has a comprehensive set of quizzes, vocab guides and a phrasebook. It features lots of languages – not just Chinese – and the pronunciations, etc, are all recorded by natives. Users can browse by categories on places, people, directions, objects, etc. Simple and easy to navigate, the app shows users phrases and words based on the category they search for.
Monkey Write ★ Learn Chinese
This app is great for writing Chinese characters! Writing in Mandarin is a difficult task and many find this a sticking point when learning the language. This app enables users to practice their writing skills via an innovative touch recognition system which increases the thickness of character strokes based on the pressure exerted by the stylus. With an advanced writing sensor implemented into the app, it is able to translate characters based on the pressure exerted by a stylus or finger.
Learn Chinese Free – Chinese Skill
This app for learning Mandarin Chinese is popular and features tons of exercises, lessons, quizzes and games. It features standard lessons and flashcards ranging from speech assessment to writing tests and tons of games. In addition, the app really advanced and fully comprehensive app helping beginners to advanced learners alike. A powerful app, it contains all manner of bite-sized learning courses to teach a variety of elements of Mandarin within one easy to use interface.
It also features an enormous set of various Mandarin language tools alongside games, quizzes, pronunciation and writing tests and much more.
Learn Chinese – HelloChinese
This app is designed to get users to a decent level of conversational Mandarin quickly. It achieves that through vocabulary and grammar tests as well as pronunciation recognition. It’s a fully-fledged app and it offers audio clips recorded by human native speakers, a handwriting recognition system and numerous extra features. Also, the app uses bite-size language games which are very well designed allowing users to learn basic Mandarin Chinese.
Chinese in Flow
This app is designed to help you learn Mandarin characters where you will have to match English translations to their character pairings in a time frame. Featuring three different modes, a user will be able to choose if you wish to learn the characters, practice them or review your progression. Moreover, the app is seamlessly simple and effective.
HSK Magic Chinese
This Mandarin app teaches Mandarin via methods that suit the syllabus of HSK international exams. Efficient and streamline, the app concentrates on various aspects of Mandarin, ranging from vocab to pronunciation. It’s definitely a great companion for studying HSK exams as the Mandarin lessons as the app delivers lessons with a focus on the HSK syllabus.
