Du Chinese - Mandarin Reading

Sinamon

- March 12, 2017

Everyone

Education

Offers in-app purchases

( 2,024)

Du Chinese - Mandarin Reading- screenshot thumbnail

Description

Reading Chinese Made Easy

Du Chinese is a Mandarin reading app which lets you quickly look up the translation of any word or sentence with a simple tap.
The lessons include English translations for both words and sentences, and have full human voice recordings which are synchronized with the text. The word translations are context-dependent to give you the word's meaning in the current sentence.

Du Chinese contains Mandarin lessons of difficulties ranging from newbie to master, and new lessons are added frequently. The lessons cover topics like everyday life in China, funny stories, business, and the latest trends in China.

Features
* Human voice recordings synchronized with the texts
* Context-dependent word translations
* Sentence translations
* Save and review words using an intuitive flashcard system
* Supports both simplified and traditional Chinese characters

Reviews

4.8

2,024 total

5 1,693

4 262

3 38

2 18

1 13

Paul Dolby

I don't write reviews often, but this app is very well refined. Best way to learn Chinese for me. You don't have to compete levels Rosetta stone style. Instead you can very easily and naturally learn the language at your own pace from short stories that are translated in real time. You have full control over pinyin, characters, and audio.

Nicholas Cushman

Very very efficient and intuitive learning. Wide range of difficulties. Easily turn pin yin on/off, highlight any word for very good definitions, save words you don't understand for later review, listen to audio at 3 different speeds. I'm very impressed!

Michael Spencer

Many of the features this app has sets it apart from the rest, but it's translation to English can be a bit off, which makes it hard to learn. I realize not every sentence is perfectly translatable to English, but it can still be a substantially better. Users who aren't experienced enough would not realize this, and would lead to them learning phrases that don't quite match up with characters. I would've liked to subscribe, but until translation accuracy improves, I will not.

11kwright

Can't fault it really as it has the PinYin and translation if you choose to have it on. The pieces also make sense which helps with one's progress. As beginner pieces with other apps can sometimes be difficult to make sense and doesn't help with progress. However, comparing price with other apps, I'd say a little too expensive. Why buy when you can get exactly the same with other apps. However, the way it's all well packaged will be hard to beat. One hugely quality app for helping progress one's learning Chinese forward.

Meli Chen

Very good app. I like it very much that its hard for me to stop reading it 😁. It really help me to improve my chinese pronunciation. I hope you can add more free and interesting lesson. 👍

yulia petrunina

This app really helps to memoraize 汉字。 I am getting better, thank you delevoper. Don't purchase premium subscription yet since want to be good at newbie level first.

User reviews

Paul Dolby June 10, 2017

Nicholas Cushman March 30, 2017

Michael Spencer July 13, 2017

Sinamon July 7, 2017

Hi Michael, thank you for your feedback! In the context of that lesson, that is what the sentence means. Unfortunately not every Chinese sentence is perfectly translatable to English, and we believe that literally translating it to “Is the teacher?” does not convey the original meaning very well. Thank you for your understanding!

11kwright May 26, 2017

Meli Chen May 12, 2017

Very good app. I like it very much that its hard for me to stop reading it 😁. It really help me to improve my chinese pronunciation. I hope you can add more free and interesting lesson. 👍

yulia petrunina March 24, 2017

This app really helps to memoraize 汉字。 I am getting better, thank you delevoper. Don't purchase premium subscription yet since want to be good at newbie level first.

Jay Stephen June 20, 2017

I'm an advanced speaker and writer. This App helps me to learn HSK 5 & 6 vocabulary with ease. I'm at a 4/5 level. It's hard for me to find apps that can teach beyond level 1 or 2. I love this app.

Sam Keeley Ong July 18, 2017

I've never written a review for an app before so to me, it's that good. So if you want to learn Chinese, this is the app for you.

Oğuzhan TEKİN March 29, 2017

This is an unbelievably amazing app to brush up your Chinese and/ learn new words and phrases for the first time while learning something about the Chinese culture and way of thinking. The best part so far is also the fact that it is free! Thank you very much!

June 8, 2017

For the past 10 years I've collected Dictionaries, listened to podcast and barely survive a conversation with a 3yo from China. Why? There are no sentences and pronunciations with dictionaries . There are no looking for meaning and definitions with podcast. They just ramble on leaving you wondering what they just said. Du Chinese deals with this dilemma. Actually recorded voices with speed control. A finger pauses the reading and let's you see what two or three characters mean. The ability to save the Chinese words and later review on Du and then extending to Pleco is the best combination to my Chinese lessons. I've done more in 2 weeks than I've done in 6 months prior. Where have you been all my life?!

Wennie Yaniko March 13, 2017

It really helped me a lot!! Although i hope it will improve the way we save words. I have to used two fingers just to save one word. But overall it is a really nice and helpful learning app. And i hope there is japanese version.

Sinamon March 18, 2017

Thank you for your feedback! To save a word you can hold down on the word with a finger to bring up the menu, and then swipe upwards with the same finger to select "Save".

Gabby Smith June 18, 2017

Very good app, love the features to review vocab later. I wish it were free though, there's not too many free articles to read.

Brett Griffith June 29, 2017

I've been looking for exactly this! Perfect for anyone but better for those with a little experience learning the language. Look no further if you want to get better at character recognition by reading characters with easy translation links and pinyin ovetop as an option.

Finlay Cannon July 9, 2017

The natural reading (ie, a human reading with natural pauses and phrasing), plus the highlighting of the current word, make this the best app I have seen for reading practice. Very practical vocab, and a touch of humour in the content too.

Sergei Halquist May 20, 2017

我喜欢这个app. I have more than 20 chinese-learning-related apps on my phone. This one is among top 3. Strongly recommended for beginners and intermediate levelers.

Yi Rui Tian April 7, 2017

I like everything about the app but a little too many lessons cost money and the navigation is a bit tedious.

Sinamon April 7, 2017

Hi! We would love to hear your feedback on how we can improve the navigation. Please send us an email at info@duchinese.net and let us know what part you find tedious. Thank you for using Du Chinese!

Nathalia Cahyadi May 25, 2017

This app provides interesting articles (and sometimes jokes too) in hanzi (and pinyin (optional)). It also provides sentence-to-sentence translation (besides word translation) which greatly enhances my understanding. You can save new vocab in the flashcard and review it afterwards too. Thumbs up!

Darek Malinowski April 29, 2017

Very good app. The only thing I would suggest to improve is the visibility of the already read articles.

Daniya Abdul Wadood July 14, 2017

honestly love this app, makes reading so much easier with the individual and sentence translations, i feel that ive learned a lot from reading these articles daily n that i can use more complex sentences when conversing due to being more exposed to how certain phrases and words are used in a sentence also it really motivates you when you start to realise that you can read and understand more and more sentences without the need for a translation ^^ i find bens diary entries and the chats very helpful at the moment thanks a lot for making such a great app! 😁💙

Andrew Wroblewski June 28, 2017

Best app out there for reading. It is so easy to use for reading, I wish it would allow me to import my graded readers so I could use the pinyin feature (understanding no English translation would be available).

Li Ling Foo April 9, 2017

The audio recording allows easy learning of the correct pronunciation for words. Various levels of difficulty is good as allows for individual learning speed and style. Thanks for this app!

Cristián Dagnino June 5, 2017

Very pleasant to use! It still needs a bit more reading material in their databse, but if they keep adding stuff it'll be a great source (and slicker than the competition)

Juan Martino April 25, 2017

Lots of article to read with varying difficulties, and lots of features as well. Very easy to use and useful for learning chinese.

Dustin Sun April 1, 2017

Best app for daily reading - love that I can turn on the setting to see each sentence in English. That way I can read the English, translate to Chinese, then see if my translation matches up!

McMg July 6, 2017

Very helpful app, it helps you extend your knowledge on Chinese vocabulary with fun and entertaining lessons everyday, which I really like! so thank you so much for making this app! One of the best apps for learning Chinese!

Glenn Ianaro March 18, 2017

I find this reader to be a great collection of stories and a really efficient interface to support my studying.

Leon Chan June 7, 2017

Excellent app to improve my reading and listening while also building my vocabulary. The variety of the texts is refreshing. Really nice and clean user interface! It's worth the money!

Matthew Teasdale April 23, 2017

My #1 tool for learning Chinese characters and getting good reading practice. The lessons are always interesting and sometimes really funny. I recommend this to everyone I meet who is learning to read Chinese characters.

Jaime Villanueva March 13, 2017

Love the stories but I wish there were more free ones

June 6, 2017

Very useful app, one of the best online ressource for learning Mandarin in my opinion. The audio is great, as well as the pinyin on/off feature !

Selene Ruiz May 16, 2017

Great app! So easy to use, the topics are very interesting and funny. Love the word test feature so easy to use, as well, and very helpful to remember and learn deeper about a character.

Ann K April 15, 2017

Du Chinese teaches language through interesting and culturally relevant content. Is there a way to take a quiz on a lesson you've learned in the app?

Kris Foltun June 21, 2017

It's very well designed. Lots of content, even for free users (which I am), and the mix full and partial translations, plus the save feature, are very helpful.

Søren Krum July 22, 2017

Really nice app. I like it especially as I can, by varying my work style, can improve my listening or my reading comprehension, and I can transfer words I am interested in in a small vocabulary trainer.

C Cedilla April 9, 2017

The app is a really good resource! Excellent work. What would be perfect for me would be if there was a way to import/export words to trainchinese!

Jayce Belea May 14, 2017

Excellent app which helps develop vocabulary and illustrate how those words operate in a casual environment. I wish there was a version of this app for every language!

Kat N July 1, 2017

I really like it. The stories with pinyin, audio, characters, and English translations is great! I wished there was a cantonese version; it'd be amazing.

May 5, 2017

Very good l love it what happened sound???? after upgrade it disappeared I want it come back

Rodrigo Dias June 11, 2017

Excellent! If somehow you have a way for users to include text, than you could offer even more free lessons.

Content Wombat May 22, 2017

Really useful app but I won't be buying it as it's much more expensive in the UK Play store than the USA one

Sinamon May 22, 2017

Hi Content Wombat, thank you for your feedback. We use Google's standard pricing which includes VAT, and unfortunately this means the subscription costs a bit more in countries with higher taxes. Thank you for your understanding!