Outlier Linguistics Mini-Review: Master Chinese Characters

Outlier Linguistics

Rating 4.3

★★★★

★

Price:

Dictionary add-on costs $29.99, Courses cost between $49 – $99

Summary

Outlier Linguistics is the best tool for understanding the logic behind Chinese characters. Available as an add-on for the must-have Pleco dictionary, Outlier shows how the characters actually work. This makes it easier to connect the sound and meaning components of characters, as well as understand how the various meanings relate to each other. Besides the dictionary add-on, there’s also a Chinese Characters Masterclass, a Pronunciation and Accent Masterclass, and more. You can save 20% on a purchase by using the coupon code ‘ALR20’.

New Year Sale! 30% off everything! Discount applied automatically at checkout. See details on the website.

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Pleco Mini-Review: The One Chinese App Everyone Needs

pleco

Rating 5.0

★★★★★

Price:

Free, Add-ons start at $4.99

Summary

Everyone studying Chinese should download Pleco on their phone. It’s easily the best dictionary app available, but it can do so much more than just help you look up the meanings of words. The core features are free to use, but there are a number of add-ons (some paid) which makes it even more useful. Some of these are SRS flashcards, OCR which lets you look up words using your camera, audio recordings, document reader, screen reader, handwriting recognition, and more. This is the one app that pretty much everyone agrees is a must-have.

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HSK Online Mini-Review: The Best Chinese Test Prep App

Rating 4.0

★★★★★

Price:

Summary

HSK Online is an app that focuses on helping learners prepare for the HSK exams. However, just because it’s a test prep app, doesn’t mean that only those interested in taking the HSK tests can find value in using it. It can help you improve your vocabulary, reading and listening comprehension, writing, and you can even take practice exams. You can also save 15% on a subscription with the coupon code ‘alr15’.

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Super Chinese Review — An Interactive Mandarin App

Super Chinese

Rating 3.8

★★★

★

★★

Summary

Super Chinese is an app for learning Mandarin that claims to help users, “Learn efficiently using our proprietary artificial intelligence.” Produced by the creators of HSKOnline, it’s available for iOS and Android, is free to download, and requires a subscription for full access. Language practice happens in a variety of interactive exercises that test learners’ abilities in reading, writing, listening, and speaking Mandarin.

Quality 4.0

★★★★★

The app is easy to use and fun, but animated videos aren’t especially engaging.

Thoroughness 3.5

★★★

★

★★

Practice is varied, and lessons build on each other nicely, but I think it’s doubtful you’ll come away fluent or proficient at writing.

Value 4.0

★★★★★

There are cheaper resources out there, but study time with Super Chinese should equip you with some practical language skills.

I Like

The practice activities are varied.
There’s male and female native speaker audio.
It’s fun to use.

I Don’t Like

There’s no clear character memorization aspect.
The writing practice feels insufficient.
I wanted more guidance with pronunciation.

Price

A subscription to Super Chinese+ is $69.99/year or $149.99 for lifetime there is also $11.99/month. You can save 15% with the coupon code ‘alr15’.

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Meet the Super Chinese mascot. Don’t let those mischievous eyebrows scare you away, teaching Mandarin is all this monkey has in mind.

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Beelinguapp Mini-Review: Reading & Listening Practice

Beelinguapp

Rating 4.3

★★★★

★

Price:

Freemium, $29.99/year

Summary

Beelinguapp makes it easier to read and listen to interesting content in a number of languages. You’ll find short stories, news, fairy tales, music, and more. Their side-by-side reading functionality highlights the sentence in the language you’re learning, as well as in a language you’re familiar with. The karaoke feature makes it easy to follow the audio with the written text. Some of the content and features are available for free, but there are also premium plans to unlock more.

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Skritter Review: Solid Chinese and Japanese Writing Practice

Skritter

Rating 4.2

★★★★

★

Summary

Skritter is a language app that teaches learners to write characters in Chinese and Japanese. It uses handwriting recognition technology in conjunction with a spaced repetition system to teach stroke order, meaning, and vocabulary. Users can choose from many pre-made study decks, including some from popular textbooks or programs. It’s also possible to create your own decks.

Quality 4.3

★★★★

★

The app has a great design and quality content; the handwriting recognition isn’t perfect, but it’s rarely inaccurate.

Thoroughness 4.0

★★★★★

It sets out to teach reading and writing and does a great job, but some additional explanations would be nice.

Value 4.0

★★★★★

The SRS makes practice efficient and worthwhile, but some people may only want to pay for a month at a time.

I Like

Native-speaker audio is high quality.
The handwriting recognition works very well.
The design and interface are great.

I Don’t Like

It’s somewhat costly for a resource with a narrow focus.
The review mechanics can be confusing at first.

Price

One Month $14.99
Six Months $59.99
One Year $99.99
Two Years $179.99

You can save 10% on any subscription by signing up with the link below.

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Mandarin Blueprint Review — A Unique Teaching Method

Mandarin Blueprint

Rating 4.0

★★★★★

Summary

Mandarin Blueprint is an online course for learning Mandarin Chinese. It teaches the language through videos and flashcards on the Anki flashcard app. It also makes use of the Hanzi Movie Method, which is a mnemonic memorization technique involving visualizations. The course is very thorough and designed for absolute beginners looking to build a solid foundation in Mandarin.

Quality 3.5

★★★

★

★★

There’s some great teaching material, but the course relies on third-party resources like Google Slides and Anki.

Thoroughness 4.5

★★★★

★

The course is detailed enough to take absolute beginners to the intermediate level.

Value 4.0

★★★★★

The initial phases are time-consuming, but serious learners will get a lot of value from the course.

I Like

The Hanzi Movie Method is effective.
The hosts are likeable and provide quality instruction.
Native speaker audio includes male and female voices.
The material is culturally aware.

I Don’t Like

There is a lot of English explanation.
The course progression is confusing at first.
Most of the practice happens through Anki flashcards.

Price

There are three different options for purchasing Mandarin Blueprint:

One-Time: A single payment of $997 gives you full, lifetime access to everything. Subscription: A $175 for 6 months. There is also a 12 monthly payment option of $97.

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What Is Mandarin Blueprint?

Mandarin Blueprint (MB) is a comprehensive resource for learning Mandarin Chinese. It teaches material mostly through video lessons and flashcards via Anki, a spaced repetition system (SRS) program.

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Cudoo Review — I Wouldn’t Even Use it if it Were Free

Cudoo

Rating 0.6

★

★★★★★

Summary

Cudoo is an online learning platform that offers courses in over 160 languages. The platform also offers courses teaching soft skills and other professional development courses. Certificates are available upon course completion, and courses are provided to libraries and non-profits for free. We feel that the quality of the language courses is quite low, and that the prices are relatively high.

Quality 1.0

★★★★★

It’s nice to have native speaker audio, but I personally found the course to offer very little learning potential.

Thoroughness 1.0

★★★★★

The course didn’t cover everything listed under “Course Content” and offers no explanations.

Value 0.0

★★★★★

This course is way overpriced in my opinion. I wouldn’t even use it if it were free.

I Like

Audio by a variety of native speakers.

I Don’t Like

I wanted more explanations
Practice opportunities felt severely limited
I found the material unengaging
Content doesn’t build on itself logically.

Price

Price varies by course, from $4.99 to $24.99, with language bundles costing up to $199.

https://www.alllanguageresources.com/recommends/cudoo/

This seems like a reasonable list of goals, depending on the meaning of “…and more!” even if it is a little bit light for the $25 price tag.

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Yabla Review — Affordable and Effective Video-Learning

Yabla

Rating 4.3

★★★★

★

Summary

Yabla is a language-learning platform that uses videos with interactive subtitles and language games to help users learn a language. It’s currently available on the web and for iOS, with an Android app in development. Its videos are of varying difficulty levels and types, and are either sourced from the internet or originally produced, but all videos use native speakers.

Quality 4.5

★★★★

★

It’s very easy and enjoyable to use, but the flashcard feature could be more developed.

Thoroughness 4.5

★★★★

★

While they vary slightly for each language, the video libraries are extensive and full of interesting content.

Value 4.5

★★★★

★

It’s most valuable for learners at the intermediate and advanced levels and is priced very fairly, but you’ll only get access to one language.

I Like

It’s very affordable.
The review activities are enjoyable and varied.
You can filter content by region.
There are plenty of interesting and varied videos.

I Don’t Like

Audio in some review activities is robotic.
No speaking practice.
Translations don’t take context into account.

Price

After a 15-day free trial, users can subscribe to one of the following options:

One month: $12.95 Six months: $54.95 One year: $99.95

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The best learning resources are the ones you actually enjoy using. This makes video-learning super appealing — who doesn’t enjoy videos?

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FluentU Review — More Expensive than the Competition

FluentU

Rating 3.1

★★★

★

★★

Summary

FluentU is a language-learning platform that uses real-world videos and interactive subtitles to create an immersive learning experience. The videos take on a variety of forms, including commercials, music videos, interviews, and more. Accompanying quizzes give users the chance to practice language used in videos. FluentU offers videos in nine different languages and is available for iOS, Android, and on the web. Most of its content is beyond the beginner level, but it has videos for learners at all levels.

Quality 3.5

★★★

★

★★

It’s very straightforward and easy to use, though not especially visually pleasing.

Thoroughness 3.0

★★★★★

There is a wide variety of videos, but they’re short and disconnected. They also aren’t suitable for absolute beginners.

Value 2.5

★★

★

★★★

It is not the most complete way to study a language.

I Like

The site is easy to navigate.
Interacting with subtitles is easy.
The videos are authentic and tied to practice activities.
Exercises recognize Chinese and Japanese characters.

I Don’t Like

Flashcards use robotic text-to-speech audio.
Writing practice is limited, speaking practice is nonexistent.
Practice activities aren’t very interesting.
There’s no easy way to filter content by region.

Price

After a 14-day free trial, users can purchase one of two subscription options. Subscriptions grant access to all FluentU languages.

Monthly Subscription: $30/month

Annual Subscription: $360/year

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