The best way to learn Chinese speaking

1. 1

   You say sentences out loud

   Speaking is a skill you only build by speaking. An app that only taps and swipes trains recognition.

2. 2

   It uses whole sentences

   Sentences teach word order, endings and rhythm that single words cannot.

3. 3

   You hear native-style audio

   Listening and speaking feed each other. You need to hear how it should sound.

4. 4

   Feedback is specific

   Knowing which word you missed is more useful than a red cross on the whole sentence.

5. 5

   It is short and daily

   A ten-minute habit you keep beats a long course you drop.

Every sentence goes through the same four steps, and the last one is the point.

• Order

  Rebuild the Chinese sentence in English from a bank of words.

• Translate

  See the English and build the Chinese sentence word by word.

• Listen

  Hear the sentence in Chinese and type what you understood.

• Speak

  Say it out loud and see which words landed.

Chinese is tonal: the same syllable can mean different things depending on pitch. You cannot learn that silently. Hear each sentence, say it aloud, and check which words the recogniser heard.

• Hello

  你好

  Hello

• Thank you

  谢谢

  Thank you

• A first sentence

  我想喝茶。

  I would like to drink tea.

Play buttons use your device’s own voice and appear only when it has one for Chinese.

An app builds habit, vocabulary and the muscle memory of speaking. It does not replace talking with people. Once you can say a handful of sentences, find a conversation partner or tutor and use what you practised. See how long Chinese takes to plan your time.