Du Chinese – Read Mandarin 读中‪文‬ 4+

After a year’s patronage of Du Chinese, I can confidently say this app along with its desktop version, were instrumental in my progress. Seems like all the good things have already been noted by other users, but I do want to emphasize a few things. I am so impressed that the hover-definitions show the exact usage and context of the word within the sentence/story. The UX is beautiful and interface is responsive, ability to change fonts (on app) has helped my character recognition immensely, and even the thumbnail graphics are enticing. Most importantly, the content. Regarding the article lessons, I am very impressed at the range of social, cultural, and even entertainment news, all done in a relatively neutral tone. My favorite are the classic stories. I grew up in the US with the likes of Crime and Punishment and the Magic School Bus as cultural references, so it’s quite enlightening and even exciting to have the ancient Chinese classics available, albeit abridged for the eager learner. I use this material (at the moment, it’s the “Romance of the Three Kingdoms” series) in my live classes, so my native Mandarin-speaking teacher is able to impart even more insight to us that we can relate to as adult readers, whilst we consume comprehensible input at our own graded reader levels. Thank you DC team!!!

I owe all of my Chinese progress to this app. I was demoralized by slow progress from lessons & flash cards, but being suddenly able to read real stories gave me a major speed & confidence boost. I went from reading at HSK1 level to HSK4 in a month. I barely have to think about grammar anymore, and seeing vocabulary used in natural context has made speaking almost second nature. Not to mention this is so much more fun and rewarding than anything else out there!

The user experience is absolutely amazing too. You can listen along as you read - jump back, look up words, or add them to your flash cards with one tap. Translations even take into account the context within the sentence for words with multiple meanings. Flashcards use the same spaced repetition as Anki, but so much better since the vocab is customized to your own learning experience. Absolutely worth the subscription, best money I ever spent.

<If a developer is reading this:> I would love the ability to filter & study flash cards by HSK level. I often encounter more advanced words while reading that I want to save for later, but continue studying the words at my current level.

This app provides the basics in the best way. Many levels from beginner to “master;” choice of simplified or traditional characters; show or hide pinyin and translation at the tap of a button, and you can choose to show neither, either, or both. The recorded speech is natural sounding and you can adjust the speed (my only quibble: I sometime have a little initial trouble setting the desired speed, but maybe that’s because I have only used the app for a week).

But what really impressed me and led me to subscribe was that I sent in a question about a translation and got a response within a few hours from the proofreader himself! Now that’s some proactive service. After our exchange he made a helpful tweak to the translation. So I have a lot confidence in both the integrity and responsiveness of this service.

I guess I should mention what they don’t offer (as far as I know). I don’t think there is any provision for pronunciation feedback or for learning to write characters. I am considering Hello Chinese for that. But I am highly satisfied with what Du Chinese gives me for the price. Highly recommended.