Ginkgo: Learn Chinese Mandarin

I have been taking private Chinese language lessons for three years but have tried many apps along the way to practice and fill in the gaps. This is the one I love the very best, because along with a great way to make the vocabulary and characters stick, it helps you have a deeper understanding of the meaning behind the characters and culture in short learning snippets between practice sessions. It’s my favorite!

I love the friendly videos, efficient user interface, and radical-based character learning. I do wish there was an option for grading writing as a fourth category, even though the author specifically argues against it. I might not use handwriting in real life, but I personally consider it an important part of how I memorize characters. So I would like to be able to be promoted to write the character on paper (for a given pronunciation + meaning) and then swipe to indicate if I remembered how to write it correctly.

I studied Chinese back 18 years ago when I lived in China. While spoke decent mandarin, my reading was terrible. Since then I’ve learned about spaced repetition. It’s a game changer! This app uses it in a super intuitive way. If you want to be able to use a Chinese dictionary, learning these radicals is critical. And this is one of the best ways to learn it and have it stick. If I decide to fully refresh my Chinese, I’ll buy every app available from these guys!