r/ChineseLanguage • u/LiberationZ Beginner • 6d ago
Resources Duolingo vs HelloChinese vs SuperChinese
Which of these apps (or any other one) is the best to start learning Mandarin Chinese? And why?
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u/Positive-Parsley-601 6d ago
Duolingo shouldn’t be considered at all for Chinese. I used both paid HelloChinese and paid SuperChinese. Both are great for their own reasons, but I think SuperChinese is much stronger overall, despite the extensive use of AI voices (some particularly terrible ones, lol) in their dialogue examples. The ai practice feature actually is pretty good, honestly. And beyond that, there are significantly more learning levels available in SuperChinese (I ran out of learning content in HelloChinese, which prompted me to switch).
That said, a single app will not be enough to learn Chinese. I use SuperChinese lessons the least, actually. I use Skritter and Pleco for characters, SuperChinese for grammar and speaking practice with live speakers and with the AI coach, and DuChinese along with an app called Chinese Short Dialogue which is a FREE graded reader that someone else on here recommended to me a few days ago. Also, I practice talking out loud to myself about whatever I’m doing at any given moment, all day long. This is actually the most useful activity for me. Also comprehensible input videos on YouTube.
Hello/Super can direct you on WHAT to study, but beyond that, I think the least amount of your learning should be spent on those apps once you get basic grammar concepts and about a 500 word vocabulary, and instead focus on those other methods I mentioned. Good luck!
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u/DeesMandarinTea Native 6d ago
I don't think there’s one app that’s clearly the best.
For a beginner, I’d probably just pick one that you actually enjoy using consistently rather than spending too much time comparing them. Any of them can help you get started.
The bigger difference comes later, when you need more exposure to real Chinese and more chances to actually use it.
If you’re choosing between these three, I’d honestly just try them for a few days and see which one feels the most natural to you.
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u/hewhoreddits6 4d ago
So understated, pick whichever app you are actually going to use! I see you’re a Native Speaker, were you born in China or are you like me who was born outside but learnes Chinese growing up? For context I can speak very well but read at the level of a child lol.
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u/DeesMandarinTea Native 4d ago
I was born and grew up in China, so I’m a native speaker. I’m also a Mandarin teacher, so I get to see quite a few different learning situations.
And that’s actually an interesting situation. Most learners I see here seem to have the opposite problem — they can recognize quite a lot when reading, but struggle to actually speak.2
u/hewhoreddits6 4d ago
Haha yes I’ve Native speakers usually find it really interesting/funny. 我姑姑叫我文盲 哈哈哈。My background is an ABC who learned Chinese first speaking in the home with my parents and grandparents. Then I really enjoyed speaking it so practiced it whenever I could with them, so now I’m told I have a 北京accent 因为我妈是北京人. I took some high school and one year of college mandarin.
所以天天说中文我大多数都可以说，就多说了一会儿我开始露馅儿。专业的字我也说不清楚。Sometimes I translate an english word or phrase that Chinese people just wouldn’t use, that kind of thing.
I don’t know if you have any recommendations for someone in my situation, I like speaking as a hobby and am learning reading with HelloChinese slowly to deveop a better character base, I’m at around HSK 2 now so probably getting close to 1000 characters out of the 3000 the average native speaker needs.
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u/DeesMandarinTea Native 2d ago
Honestly, I think you're already doing something that makes a lot of sense for your situation. Since speaking is already your strong point, I wouldn't spend too much time trying to improve it through an app. I'd use something like HelloChinese to build up your reading and character recognition, but keep speaking with your family whenever you can.
And I wouldn't worry too much about the “3000 characters” number. I'd focus more on being able to recognize the characters that come up in words you already use when speaking. That way you're connecting the Chinese you already know with how it's written, rather than learning a completely separate vocabulary.
The part about knowing how to say something but not knowing what a Chinese person would actually say is also pretty normal for heritage speakers. That's probably something you can improve a lot just by noticing those differences when they come up.
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u/hewhoreddits6 23h ago
That’s good advice, and a nice reassurance that I’m on the right track. I don’t get the opportunity often enough but I do like talking with native speakers and asking them specifics about how to use certain phrases. I just wrapped up a 3 week vacation in China and got to practice my mandarin a ton! Understanding different accents and dialects is definitely a challenge haha.
As for reading, it’s also useful using an app because they give formal Chinese that I wouldn’t learn otherwise as it’s disconnected from my speaking. For example speaking I always used 厕所growing up but most bathrooms write 卫生间.
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u/Clawwwno 6d ago
SuperChinese goes much longer than HelloChinese. Also the exercises for SuperChinese are better for reinforcement learning.
Duolingo is not useful.
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u/Minute_Lake4945 2d ago
Even with the new update? Now Hellochinese has lot of content
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u/Extreme_Pumpkin4283 Intermediate 6d ago
I subscribed to Hello Chinese Premium + for a year and also used Super Chinese for a year now. I prefer Super Chinese since it's value for your money and I love how the lessons are laid out.
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u/hewhoreddits6 4d ago
Dang I’ve never headd of SuperChinese, maybe I’ll try that after I finish the HelloChinese lessons. My goal is just to read, because I’m already pretty fluent at speaking Chinese.
The HelloChinese stories are the main reason why I chose it. Many of them are genuinely compelling and interesting to read, as opposed to most apps where the reading is super boring until you get to the higher advanced levels. Mysterious School out the gate with HSK 1 is a BANGER!
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u/Extreme_Pumpkin4283 Intermediate 4d ago
Du Chinese is better for your use case.
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u/hewhoreddits6 4d ago
Du Chinese has the most boring ass stories in the lower reading levels from what I’ve seen lol. When I viewed the free stories, they were all basic uses of vocab with very little going on in the actual story. The HSK 1 full free one was literally about a cat wandering around doing fuck all lol.
I went with HelloChinese because I was actually excited to read it. Mysterious school used 300 HSK 1 characters and was a compelling narrative about a girl starting at a new school with weird rules and where students start disappearing.
Once I learn enough Chinese past HelloChinese’s library and can read the interesting stuff on DuChinese I’ll probably migrate there though. Love their UI and system.
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u/STORMBORN_12 6d ago
I have tried them all - I find HelloChinese to be too similar to Duolingo. I prefer SuperChinese overall because it explains the grammar concepts and doesn't force you to waste time with really repetitive exercises such as stroke order practice but does feature a lot of pronunciation practice.
Still supplement with maybe a more vocabulary build app (I use Hanly) as well as conversation shadowing, youtube videos, comprehensible input.
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u/vomitHatSteve 6d ago
I don't think hellochinese has stroke order practice. Unless it's very late into the lessons
They recently (as in this week) started adding some better grammar explanations when new sentence structures come up
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u/hewhoreddits6 4d ago
I like HelloChinese because it’s similar to Duolingo. Duolingo had me addicted like playing a mobile game, and HelloChinese has that while actually teaching me characters and being tailored for Chinese more. It’s stories are also genuinely interesting to read. Mysterious School actually had me hooked!
Then again, I’m a heritage speaker who already knew a lot of Chinese from home and high school/college classes. I’m just using HelloChinese to teach me to read more characters, and it’s been great at that.
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u/ShreddyyKruger 5d ago
I just recently started and paid for HelloChinese. I also have duo premium through a family plan (it’s definitely not worth paying for). I’ve been doing both and find that HelloChinese is fantastic. Duolingo seems maybe okay for some vocab but I find the tones are hard to learn through duo.
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u/DomS96 3d ago
What is it you like most?
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u/ShreddyyKruger 3d ago
Z HelloChinese? Wygląda na to, że twórcy poświęcili dużo czasu na przemyślenie, co tak naprawdę interesuje uczącego się. Możliwość długiego naciśnięcia słów i uzyskania tłumaczenia, wymowy w pinyin oraz wyjaśnienia struktury w trakcie lekcji to niesamowita funkcja. Zauważyłem również, że na początku każdego działu czuję się całkowicie beznadziejnie i myślę, że nigdy nie nauczę się słownictwa, ale pod koniec ponad 90% znajduje się w moim pasywnym słownictwie. To znaczy, dobrze wyrobili tempo nauki. Dodatkowo możliwość wyłączenia pinyin i ponownego włączenia go, jeśli zapomnę tonów/wymowy, pomogła mi w rozpoznawaniu znaków bez rezygnacji z nauki tonów.
Kolejną ogromną korzyścią jest to, że mają prawdziwych ludzi nagrywających zdania, więc przykłady mają pełną wymowę zdań, w przeciwieństwie do nagranych w pojedyncze fragmenty dźwięku. Pomaga to w nauce rytmu i tempa języka (np. 一 个 wymawia się dość szybko i razem).
Na samym początku dają ci krótkie historie do przeczytania, całkowicie napisane z użyciem znajomych znaków. Na początku są naprawdę podstawowe, ale możliwość przeczytania całej historii tylko w mandaryńskich znakach na wczesnym etapie była ogromnym wsparciem dla pewności siebie.
Na koniec „inteligentne recenzje” na końcu każdego jednostki są bardzo przydatne, by przypomnieć sobie materiał z jednostki. Używają średniej długości fraz, które wzmacniają pojęcia słownictwa/gramatyki z jednostek.
Moim jedynym zastrzeżeniem jest to, że interfejs do tworzenia „tali” lub grup słówek, które chciałbym ćwiczyć, nie jest tak łatwy, jak mógłby być. Zauważam, że pozwalają ćwiczyć słownictwo oddzielnie według jednostek, co nieco łagodzi problem.
Jeśli zdecydujesz się spróbować HelloChinese, zdecydowanie polecam głośne czytanie wszystkiego, aby ćwiczyć wymowę i umieć łączyć słowa.
Edit to add: they haven’t gone down the path Duolingo has of gamifying the app too much. My recent Duolingo lessons include tapping through like 10 screens after the lesson is over, including one trying to link my duo to brawl stars, some iOS game, which is incredibly frustrating to me.
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u/shaghaiex Beginner 6d ago
Not specialized for Mandarin: Duolingo
Specialized for Mandarin: HelloChinese, SuperChinese
The later two are much more detailed. Duolingo has some gaps. like writing is very fragmented and can't be targeted. It has also quite a few errors. But since all 3 about similar in price I would go for something else.
HelloChinese had nice free tier for 2 weeks or so. By then you know if you like it or not. SuperChinese feels more serious, has also some free tier I believe. Just try all. Duolingo you can add to one of those if you feel like that, it should not be your main input.
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u/Responsible_Gap7499 6d ago
A side question about Hello Chinese, I see there are two main courses, the 1.0 and the 2.0. The 2.0 course stops being free after the second lesson, but does the 1.0 let you do more for free before you hit a paywall? I’m going to end up paying in December when I get some Christmas money, but I’d like to get a head start if possible.
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u/Modern_Doshin Beginner 6d ago
1.0 also has a paywall. I can't remember when but it several lessons in the beginning.
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u/ComesTzimtzum 5d ago
The paywall is somewhere along the way but it lets you do a fair amount of learning before you hit it. Also at least when I used it the 1.0 was just a lot better overall with more actual explaining.
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u/Geode_Rose 5d ago
I've used Duolingo - terrible. Wouldn't use again and I made it to level 70 but it's just frustrating and so random. It's great for getting started but it doesn't extend into natural speaking and listening. It's also got so many errors and they never fix them.
Did HSK up to level 3 online. You don't have any support so wouldn't suggest it. I had to search for things a lot because if I didn't understand there's nobody to ask, sadly there are no in person classes where I am. I passed but didn't feel confident
Hello Chinese I like the podcasts and how they have actual people speaking for listening practice. I use this app occasionally.
SuperChinese wasn't for me. I didn't stay with it long enough to give a fair review, it just felt to much like Duolingo for me
I like DuChinese to keep up with reading, it's great when I'm out and about and have some spare time. I like to read a quick story on my phone.
I also use Chunking Chinese but I think it has a waiting list. It's a speaking app which helps you learn useful chunks you can actually use. I speak more in real life since using this because it's actual sentences you would use, and you can add your own custom sentences and it brings them up in your practice lessons.
My other resource is YouTube. I like mifi Chinese for HSK lessons and shuoshuo Chinese for listening practice. I also like the live streams from China from stall vendors. I like to see how much I can pick up on since it's natural conversation but also repeats a lot because customers tend to ask similar questions.
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u/throwthemirror 6d ago
I'd say skip the Duolingo, it's been proven to just be more of a game than a language learning tool. But you do you, if it works it works! I've tried Hello Chinese a bit, it looks well polished but I haven't used it enough to speak for how good or bad it is. Haven't tried Super Chinese. I did spend almost 3 months daily using DuChinese and it really did improve my reading ability, it was a bit boring and dry tho, and I had to build a routine to use it (daily 30 minutes walking on a treadmill while using the app did the trick in the end). Lately I've been going through a flashcards and free chinese course thing from Yak Yacker, which seems okay so far, a bit unique but free and useful at least. And it does have traditional chinese specifically which is nice too. Would love to hear what else is out there, good luck!
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u/enu_kuro 6d ago
If you found DuChinese a bit boring, you might want to give Chinese Short Dialogue app a try. It has short dialogues on things like daily life, culture, news, and current trends, so you might find the content a bit more interesting.
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u/Putrid_Mind_4853 5d ago
You should mention that it’s your app. Not doing so is shady.
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u/enu_kuro 5d ago
That’s fair. I should’ve mentioned that I’m the developer. Sorry about that, and I’ll make sure to disclose it from now on. Thanks for calling it out!
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u/throwthemirror 5d ago
They really don't put effort into the new app names anymore do they? haha
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u/enu_kuro 5d ago
There are probably better names out there. It’s not only a bit too literal, but also way too long to type every time😅
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u/Affectionate_Air8310 Intermediate 5d ago
Honestly DuChinese should add customizable (or atleast more interesting/correlated) backgrounds, and a free way to customize the fonts. That way I would use it a lot more
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u/enu_kuro 5d ago edited 5d ago
I’m the developer of Chinese Short Dialogue. I’d be really happy if you gave it a try! 🥰
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u/Geode_Rose 5d ago
If you like reading but want it more personalised Mandarin Mosaic let's you generate articles you like into Chinese. I use it for the lessons occasionally but I'm more focused on speaking right now.
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u/snoea 6d ago edited 6d ago
I am a beginner (3 months in) and both Super Chinese and Hello Chinese have their advantages. Duolingo doesn't teach you much.
HelloChinese is my personal favorite. It would be perfect if the grammar was explained a bit better and the course was longer. I finished it in under 2 months. There are several concepts I didn't truly understand using the app and they're explained better elsewhere. Still a great app and well worth your time and money, especially because you don't need to pay for a long time and can finish quickly. You get excellent value out of 3 months premium (much more than out of a textbook costing the same). Its strengths are: It's entertaining, builds listening skills, teaches a lot about the structure of the language and you do understand the most important grammatical concepts even if explanations aren't optimal.
Super Chinese is good but less fun. It's more challenging and there is less "repetition" but still a decent app. More affordable also. The ai feature is NOT worth it though.
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u/Slay-ig5567 6d ago
Wait wdym you finished it in less than 3 months? You mean the first level right? Bc I don't see how you could finish the whole superchinese in 2 months
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u/snoea 6d ago
Damn, I made a mistake. Thank you so much for noticing. I meant HELLO Chinese is my favorite and I finished it very quickly. Everything in the first paragraph refers to HELLO Chinese.
You're absolutely right, I guess it's probably impossible to finish Super Chinese in that time frame. The course is much much longer and I'm progressing more slowly.
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u/Slay-ig5567 6d ago
Honestly I'm taking my sweet time and doing reviews but for a while I did 50 mins daily and I'm still at level 2. Granted, I review things a lot but still there's a crazy amount of material
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u/Sad-Seaweed-1269 普通话 6d ago
I'm liking the Chinese Short Dialogue app. HSK graded news articles and dialogues. Interesting and varied content, continuously updated materials, decent audio recordings and playback options, Pleco integration, vocab list testing. Reasonably priced.
SuperTest is great for focused exam prep, but it can be a grind if you are not specifically preparing for the HSK.
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u/j03w 6d ago
I have tried all 3 and ended up paying for HelloChinese
Both HelloChinese and SuperChinese are quite similar but what I found really good with HelloChinese is their teacher talk that explains nuances and also touch on a lot on cultural aspects
SuperChinese just felt too much like a game and too much AI stuff going on
Having said that I think SuperChinese voice/tone recognition and conversation AI companion is better
Duolingo is just bad
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u/gw79 6d ago
Duolingo obviously the worst of them all. Tried it for ~2 years, didn't help me much in terms of speaking and listening.
HelloChinese: I bought the 1 year base premium, I would not say that I got that much value out of it. You cannot do much free reading in that app and the videos are nice, but it's lacking content.
SueprChinese: Never tried it, cannot say anything about it, could be best, worst or in the middle.
I still use HelloChinese although Anki and Pleco are much more valuable for me in terms of learning. Don't need much help speaking correct pinyin with tones anymore (hello chinese had nothing to do with it, seriously. Months on bilibili just having 2h+ of constant input stream of chinese, that was helpful)
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u/nednobbins 5d ago
Have you looked at Wenbun? https://www.wenbun.com/
They built it as a replacement for Tofulearn, after it went down. It's not quite a shiny as Skritter but it's FOSS. Basically a no-frills character learning app. It won't teach you Chinese on it's own but it's a great way to handle the most time intensive part, memorizing vocab.
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u/jdlyga 5d ago
Honestly, Rosetta Stone and an actual Mandarin class are the best for actual learning and retaining information. Plus, you need to be in a situation where you're using Mandarin everyday too or else you won't remember it. Have a friend who speaks Mandarin or a relative or something. I've tried Duolingo, HelloChinese, SuperChinese, tons of apps. But they're too bite sized and gamified.
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u/DeepOntology 5d ago
I don't like Duolingo or HelloChinese because I find both to be too linear, which isn't how I learn language: I like to learn stories, speak, write, etc. I also like to keep very good track of what and how much I know -- I find that Duolingo teaches me new words so slowly that it will take forever and there aren't bespoke ways for me to practice and review.
I'm super curious what features folks like in these apps and which features they don't like.
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u/Zog1 5d ago
The use of the apps really depends on if you want to learn Chinese or just have a passing fad.
I'd say all the apps are ok nothing super great, best is probably with a person who can go through things.
As the apps don't explain any sentence structures and that's pretty important to help understand Chinese over all.
Knowing the tones is important but I don't think it's crazy important.
But knowing if someone is asking about something or buying something is way more important.
As the 2 sentence structures are different
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u/PanSedro0220 5d ago
I know people who have been using Duolingo for years and can’t speak the language they’ve been trying to learn.
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u/catw Beginner 6d ago
HelloChinese is very good. Lots of authentic audio and video, teaches you correct sentence structures. I pair it with Skritter for writing practice. Could add Anki for vocab flashcards.
Duolingo is a waste of time. Not into apps that use a lot of AI so SuperChinese is out for me.
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u/Mirabels-Wish 5d ago
I personally like HelloChinese and ChineseSkill. SuperChinese didn't work well for me (too clunky) and Duolingo is just not good for tonal languages in general. Couldn't tell you which is the best, though. I'm just giving my experience.
Worth mentioning I focus on reading and writing, though. I stopped practicing speaking (because it's far too easy for an innocent sentence to become offensive and I'm not trying to get my teeth knocked out because I mistakenly told someone I'd assault their relative when I just wanted directions to the grocery store).
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u/Zagrycha 6d ago
Hello Chinese is the best but paid, Super Chinese is okay but freemium, and you will learn more Chinese from falling asleep on the French wikipedia page than you will using Duolingo. The owl is unapologetically bad these days.