Learn Chinese is an educational iPhone game allowing to learn Chinese hieroglyphs using the multiple choice questionnaire. The application is based on simplified Chinese characters, but it will also be interesting for those learning traditional Chinese orthography since many characters are identical between the traditional and simplified variants.

Learn Chinese makes a seemingly difficult process of learning new words extremely easy, each question contains a character with 4 options of its translation into English or Russian. Answering them, you gradually create and enlarge your Chinese vocabulary, so it will be great for both beginners not knowing where to start and more experienced students of the Chinese language.

The game is developed in the way allowing to go step by step and spend as much time as you can. Statistics section shows your success ratio through the studying process and helps you to make sure that your progress is going in the right direction. This game will be useful to anyone who wants to break into Chinese culture and understand basic Chinese hieroglyphs.

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Overview

When you run the application, you can choose to Start testing, see the Statistics of your previous performance or go to the Settings screen.

If you tap Start, you will see the first question of the test consisting of a hieroglyph and two options: ‘I am not sure’ and ‘I know the answer’. After selecting the first one, you will see four answer variants and be able to select the one that seems most probable. If you choose wrong, the app will show your mistake by displaying the correct answer, tap it to see the next question. Selecting ‘I know the answer’ displays a keyboard for you to type in your variant. In case it is not correct, four choices of possible answers will be provided.

You can access the statistics of your past performance any time by tapping Statistics at the bottom of the screen. Here you will see the results of both typed and multiple choice answers including your success ratio. You can switch between the current statistics (for this run of the app) and total statistics.

In this screen you can tap Graphs to see the diagrams reflecting the test results. There are two lines based on typed and multiple choice answers. To return to the test, tap Continue.

Tap the bottom right icon to open the Settings screen where you can switch between the two available languages, English and Russian, and enable or disable vibration.

A couple of tips

The good news is that Learn Chinese is not a usual test requiring previous learning to take it, though obviously knowing some characters will make it all easier at first. After you’ve come to grips with the app, you’ll see that it is not only useful but also extremely engaging.

When you’ve answered a few questions, you might notice that they repeat from time to time giving you the chance to memorize the words. So even five minutes into using this app answering the questions will be easier, take less time and your success ratio will be higher.

Besides, it is helpful to find the connection between the hieroglyph and its translation, something in the character resembling the represented notion. For example the hieroglyph that means fire indeed reminds of flame, and the one meaning an open box really looks like one. So use your imagination and search for any link that works for you.

Statistics