Takeout:The Card Game was inspired by my very real struggles learning Chinese when I lived abroad. My language main goals were ordering good food and not looking too stupid to my coworkers, but there are loads of reasons to learn Mandarin. Here are some fun ways to work on recognizing characters and basic Chinese:
In the Chineasy picture books, common characters and radicals are introduced as ShaoLan Hsueh’s charming and logical illustrations. If you struggle to remember or to make sense of radicals, you’ll enjoy this book of simple and fun illustrated characters, with bold, stylized drawings showing the morphology of compound characters. This adorable picture book is an artistic supplement to your Chinese lessons and a fun way to memorize key characters.
In Chinese Writer By Trainchinese, language-learning players try to write Chinese characters as they fall from the top of the screen, and finish before they reach the bottom. Of course, I like game-based learning, and it’s extra good for all the required memorization of learning Mandarin. This works well because players can set their own difficulty to have a good challenge, but not an impossible, frustrating play experience. Language learners can either write or trace the falling characters, choose how long they’ll have, and decide how many vocabulary words in the game. The tracing game mechanic is fairly forgiving of sloppy handwriting, as long as stroke order is correct, so learners will be able to improve their writing, without a lot of frustration. After each game, players can post their scores to Twitter and Facebook. (And with all the work you’re putting into your Chinese skills, why not brag?)
The Fireworks Chinese learning app focuses on tones, pronunciation, recognizing and writing characters. The cheerful fireworks keep it feeling game-like. This is definitely a lighter learning app, so language learners may want to add additional grammar and vocab lessons to Fireworks Chinese.
With Mindsnacks Chinese, Mandarin students can enjoy playing phone minigames as they build Chinese skills. This app has eight different learning games, covering vocabulary, sentence structure, common phrases, and then conversation. A special game, called Galactic, focuses on Mandarin tones, a particularly difficult skill for many English speakers studying Mandarin. The app teaches both pinyin and simplified characters.
Conversational Chinese Dialogues: Over 100 Chinese Conversations and Short Stories uses simple, interactive dialogues for applicable Chinese skills. No lists of animal names or colors her, this one has students reading and repeating full everyday sentences pretty early on. This is such a practical book for an individual student or a small group, because you can see words in context.
When you’re struggling with tones or memorizing flashcards, it’s easy to forget just how lovely written Chinese can be. The Art of Chinese Characters app will remind you of the beauty in each character. Art of Chinese Characters methods will teach and then reinforce different strokes, different radicals, and connections between characters. This is also one of the more relaxing ways to build written vocabulary, because the app highlights the beauty and logic in Chinese characters.
What’s that? None of these apps or books have enough pink? Then Princesses Learn Chinese is the Mandarin learning app for you! This is a cute kid-friends introduction to Mandarin, with adorable princesses to accompany your language learning. Princesses Learn Chinese uses stories to introduce basic Chinese words, and to put them in context. Language learners will also use games, virtual stickers, coloring and music to help reinforce concepts. Why not learn Chinese with the pretty princess sticker book? We won’t judge!
Let me know if you’ve found any other fun ways to improve or keep up your Mandarin skills from home.
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