ChineseSkill
Summary
ChineseSkill is one of the most popular apps for people getting started learning Chinese. There are lots of lessons based on a variety of topics. It’s not the most thorough course and it won’t be the only tool you need. But, if you’re a beginner and want an introduction to Mandarin, it’s worth trying.
The app is really well designed and can be a fun way to begin learning Chinese.
It’s freemium, so it’s not really fair to expect it to cover everything you need to know.
It’s freemium and works well.
I Like
- Learning Chinese is intimidating, but ChineseSkill makes it easy to just get started without overthinking things too much.
- They incorporate reading, listening, writing, grammar, and even speaking.
- It’s pretty fun to use.
I Don’t Like
- Feature availability differs by course and platform.
- Not comprehensive enough for serious students.
Price
Freemium, with Premium and Premium+ subscription plans. Premium costs $11.99/month and $159.99/year. Premium+ costs 19.99/month and $299.99/year.
Table of Contents
I used ChineseSkill when I started learning Chinese
The ChineseSkill app helped me a lot on my first steps in learning Chinese. When I moved to China I still wasn’t sure if I would put in the effort to learn Chinese or just try to get by without it. After all, I had spent a few years in Spanish speaking countries and it took me much longer than I expected to learn Spanish. So, I thought, if learning Spanish was so hard for me, do I really have a chance to learn Chinese? I knew I had to learn the basics but wasn’t sure if I wanted to put in the effort to actually become fluent.
That’s where ChineseSkill came into my life.
It’s a great resource to gently ease beginner-level students into learning Mandarin. It’s fairly entertaining and easy to get started using.
I think it’s one of the better resources available for those who aren’t sure about studying Chinese and want an introduction to the language before spending any money. If you want a different option, you could try HelloChinese, but both are fairly similar. You also don’t have to choose one or the other, they can be used in tandem.
For those who are certain that they are going to study Chinese and want more thorough and in-depth resources, there are likely better options available. I’ll give recommendations for these students at the end of this review.
And if you’re studying Mandarin alongside other languages, you might want to look at LingoDeer, which actually evolved out of ChineseSkill. Between LingoDeer and its companion app DeerPlus, it contains nearly all the same material but also includes material for learning several other languages.
We’ll touch on the differences between LingoDeer and DeerPlus later on in this review. However, for now, let’s focus on ChineseSkill.
The Courses
ChineseSkill was created following the mold that Duolingo set before Duolingo released a Chinese course. That original version was just Mainland Mandarin but has since evolved to teach more varieties of Chinese. You can now choose from three dedicated courses:
- Mainland Mandarin
- Taiwan Mandarin
- Hong Kong Cantonese
What’s good about these distinctions is that each one is built around that specific variety—pronunciation, vocabulary, script—rather than implementing the same course with different audio slapped on.
These courses are designed around the particular form of Chinese they teach which means that you’ll work with Simplified Chinese and Pinyin for Mainland Mandarin, Traditional Chinese and Zhuyin for Taiwan Mandarin and Traditional Chinese with Jyutping or Yale romanization for Hong Kong Cantonese.
If you’re preparing to visit Taiwan, for example, you can study Taiwanese Mandarin and Zhuyin, while someone interested in Hong Kong Cantonese can focus on Cantonese pronunciation and Traditional Chinese.
Let’s take a look at what ChineseSkill currently offers.
What’s Inside Each Course
Every course follows a structured path instead of just throwing vocabulary at you. Lessons bring pronunciation, tones & characters, vocabulary & grammar, listening, speaking, reading, and writing together in one path for a more comprehensive learning experience.
For Mainland Mandarin, the main curriculum covers material roughly around HSK Levels 3 and 4 in terms of grammar and vocabulary though there’s a separate HSK Word Bank and HSK Character Bank to keep drilling beyond that.
You get to choose between the available options, which include Lessons, Review, and Booster. Let’s look at them one by one.
Lessons
The courses contain a good number of units, which are further divided into a few short-and-sweet lessons, language tips, dialogue practice, and speaking practice.
The lessons generally build on each other, introducing you to new characters, words, grammar and sentence structure. These lessons are short enough to fit into your routine, and you get native speaker audio, interactive exercises, and Knowledge Cards that explain grammar as you go. There’s a variety of activities, and a panda cheers you along, congratulating you when you do well.
ChineseSkill does a good job of reinforcing vocabulary. You’ll be given different versions of the same question: matching Chinese to English, English to Chinese, Chinese to a picture, writing.
It’s pretty good for grammar, too: you’ll practice building sentences, spotting the extraneous word, changing out words to create new sentences, and more. And as you progress, the example sentences become more difficult, and you gain exposure to new words, grammar, and sentence structures.
The Mainland Mandarin course currently has around 300 lessons, while the Hong Kong Cantonese course has around 200 lessons for complete beginners. So depending on the course, you’ll have access within the lessons to things like:
- Pinyin (Mainland Mandarin), Zhuyin (Taiwan Mandarin), or Jyutping (Hong Kong Cantonese) training
- Native speaker audio
- Tone and pronunciation exercises
- Interactive Knowledge Cards
- Guided character writing
- Listening, speaking, reading practice
- Sentence-building activities
- Additional vocabulary for each unit
Pronunciation and Speaking Practice
Pronunciation gets quite a bit of attention in the current version of ChineseSkill.
Getting comfortable with tones and pronunciation early on can save you a lot of trouble later, and the app includes dedicated lessons for both at the very beginning of the learning path. If you’re a complete beginner starting from scratch, you can start there before moving on to more practical vocabulary, grammar, and conversations.
Aside from the Tone Training, you have a few more opportunities to practice speaking. There are speech assessments within lessons, which give you a way to practice saying Chinese and receive feedback. And if you want more speaking practice, you can try the AI Tutor.
Reviews
ChineseSkill’s Review tab lets you go back over what you’ve already studied and spaced repetition (SRS) to help you retain it over time. The SRS system is similar to what you’d find in Anki, while keeping it inside the ChineseSkill ecosystem.
You can also bookmark things yourself. It sounds like a small feature, but it can be really handy when you come across a tricky character you keep forgetting or words that you constantly mix up that you need to revisit.
Booster Content
There is also a Booster section in the Mainland Mandarin and Taiwan Mandarin courses if you want to practice further. Here, you have access to;
AI Tutor
The AI Tutor provides conversation practice across more than 100 topics and gives you suggestions on how to improve your grammar and phrasing. You can adjust the AI Tutor’s speaking speed, difficulty, and personality to your liking.
Practice Zone
The Practice Zone contains 10 different games to help you drill what you’ve already learned. They won’t teach you Chinese, but they will give you a chance to test your memory, especially when removed from the context of the vocabulary and grammar you were drilling in the lesson.
For example, in Grammar Tunes, you have to spot the grammatical mistakes in the sentences. In Dialogues, you have to listen to the conversations and choose the correct answers. Word Express, Memory Castle and Drifting Letters test your vocabulary.
It’s important to stress that the games don’t correspond directly to the lessons in the Main Course, and some require more Mandarin knowledge than others. They can feel less structured than the Main Course – but they are a great way to drill material and add some more variety to your Chinese studies.
Fluency Builder
This section focuses on natural, everyday conversations. The material here ranges from HSK 1 to 5. First, you’ll listen to the dialogue line-by-line, while seeing it written in hanzi and pinyin on the screen, along with a translation. You can click on individual words to check their meaning and listen to them once again.
Next is the Speaking Exercise where you can record yourself saying the dialogue or hear the dialogue and practice selecting the right hanzi in the Writing Exercise. There’s also a Key Points section that will briefly explain part of the text.
HSK Word and Character Bank
Word Bank groups words by category, and the Character Bank groups characters by topic, though you can sort them by HSK level if you like. The Word Bank covers vocabulary from HSK Levels 1 to 6 and the Character Bank covers characters from the New HSK Levels 1 through 9.
The Character Bank also has a search feature to help you find characters and create your own study decks. This could be useful for targeted practice when you want to concentrate on a particular group of characters.
ChineseSkill makes it very easy to try out Chinese. You can start learning Mandarin without investing much time or any money. They pack so much value into a freemium app that it’s hard to complain about it.
Travel Phrasebook
There’s also a Travel Phrasebook, which contains phrases on practical expressions that could come in handy while traveling. This also includes native speaker audio and SRS review.
Recent ChineseSkill updates now allow you to customise your experience like choosing between Pinyin or Zhuyin, or trying different voices. You also have more control over how much of the gamified side you see so if you enjoy the competitive side of language apps, there are leagues, achievements, and badges. What’s more, you can still learn even while offline and sync your progress between devices.
One thing worth flagging about ChineseSkill when choosing between the 3 Chinese courses is that feature availability differs by course and platform and the extras aren’t identical across all three. Native speaker videos, Booster content, and some of the AI and speech assessment tools are currently limited to the Mandarin courses.
If you’re picking Hong Kong Cantonese specifically, you won’t be getting the exact same feature set as the Mandarin courses.
Cost
Keep in mind that, like with other freemium language apps, many of the mentioned features are only accessible with a paid subscription.
ChineseSkill’s Premium plan gives you access to the core material (Main Courses, Tone Training, Pinyin Guide and SRS Reviews), while the Premium+ plan unlocks everything else including Booster content (AI Tutor, Fluency Builder, HSK Word & Character Banks).
Premium will cost you $11.99 per month, $39.99 quarterly and $159.99 per year. And Premium+ will cost $19.99 a month, $39.99 quarterly and $299.99 per year.
ChineseSkill vs LingoDeer: What’s The Difference?
On initial glance, it might seem like the biggest difference between ChineseSkill and LingoDeer is whether you’re cheered on by a panda or a deer. However, the two apps vary in quite a few ways.
ChineseSkill is the original version of LingoDeer. When LingoDeer was first launched, the main difference was that it offered additional languages. This is still a big plus for LingoDeer: if you’re looking to learn Spanish and Mandarin at the same time, for example, then LingoDeer will likely be a better option for you.
LingoDeer uses ChineseSkill’s Old Course with a few small tweaks. The main one is that with every lesson, you practise with a story instead of conversation practice. It also has Fluent Chinese, which is similar to Fluency Builder on Chinese Skill.
The Arcade, meanwhile, has moved to a companion app – DeerPlus. If you were a big fan of the Arcade games, but you’re not keen on using a second app for it, this tips the scale in ChineseSkill’s favor.
Neither LingoDeer nor DeerPlus, however, have the Main Course or the HSK Drills.
To sum up: you can find everything on LingoDeer and DeerPlus on ChineseSkill (minus the other languages, of course!). If you opt for LingoDeer and DeerPlus, meanwhile, you won’t have access to the HSK Drills. And if you just use LingoDeer, you won’t get the HSK Drills or the Arcade games.
On top of that, there are some pricing differences. Currently, ChineseSkill’s premium subscription fee is more expensive than LingoDeer’s (by a very small margin) but cheaper than the combined subscription for LingoDeer and DeerPlus. Since there are frequent price drops, however, it’s worth comparing all the apps at the time of purchase.
Is ChineseSkill (Or LingoDeer) right for you?
Possibly. ChineseSkill is best for those who just want an introduction to Mandarin or have no money to spend. It’s great if you aren’t sure if you’re really willing to put the time into learning Chinese but want to get started easily and try it out.
However, if you’re reading this, then you’re probably trying to figure out the best resources to utilize your limited time and wondering if ChineseSkill is one of them. If you’re really trying to build that solid foundation that you can later build upon, I’d have to suggest using other resources to get you started.
What are the Alternatives to ChineseSkill?
As well as LingoDeer, there are plenty of other options for learning Mandarin.
HelloChinese would be the obvious alternative as both are quite similar.
Skritter is the best option for learning to write Chinese characters that I’ve seen.
ChinesePod is one of the best resources out there, especially for listening comprehension.
Yoyo Chinese is also a good alternative to ChineseSkill but for different reasons than ChinesePod. It’s not as cheap, but the lessons progress in a very clear and well-structured manner. Grammar is explained very clearly. They also have a good free video pinyin guide.
ChineseForUs has an incredibly thorough online Chinese course for beginners. It’s not too expensive and is really good.
If you’re interested in practicing reading Chinese, I’d suggest either Du Chinese or The Chairman’s Bao. They’re both excellent apps that provide practice reading materials for various levels of Chinese.
Final Thoughts
One person’s best resource might leave another person disappointed. After all, we all have different motivations, free time, and learning styles.
ChineseSkill has developed considerably; the biggest change is probably their decision to build courses around different varieties of Chinese, with each course taking the differences of each variety into account.
If you’re serious about learning Mandarin and looking for something that will help you ace HSK exams or move to Beijing, ChineseSkill might not be the best option for you as your main resource but may work well as a supplementary one.
However, if you’re a beginner looking for something fun, ChineseSkill is a good app that will introduce you to the basics of Mandarin Chinese.
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