I’ve been learning for a bit over a week now. Been using the app HelloChinese and some YouTube videos. Also made It a goal for myself by the end of the week to learn about 100 character. To which I was relatively successful at. Though I think I still need some work. The whole tonal thing is a bit confusing to me since I’m a tad deaf when It comes to accents but I think I’m getting the hang of It slowly.

What really motivated me was meeting nice native Chinese folk on Rednote and the current US-China trade war. Hell when I could read the name of the app I was ecstatic lol.

My goal for now is knowing enough to have basic to average conversations and read basic stuff like food menu’s and signs. But If I’m still really motivated I might have to learn 2000-3000 characters which is probably enough to read a book.

I’ll still see. Not sure what the point of this post was but I hope this motivates ya’ll to learn a bit too.

  • SamotsvetyVIA [any]@hexbear.netEnglish
    2·
    22 hours ago

    Some app suggestions:

    Du Chinese - mentioned in the thread
    Pleco
    ReadMe HSK - gives you a sentence of your level but with a few words you don’t know, follows the HSK progression
    ClozeMaster - reading+listening practice, you can get about 20 listening sentences per day using a trick
    Drops - turn off the pinyin assist as soon as you’re comfortable, it’s not good for character practice but I use the app as a way of getting a foot in the door for words. After using it you’ll start to recognize words elsewhere quicker

    • SamotsvetyVIA [any]@hexbear.netEnglish
      3·
      21 hours ago

      I think this is correct but “我也是” would probably be more natural, especially in Chinese if the original sentence you’re replying to had a verb

      • SamotsvetyVIA [any]@hexbear.netEnglish
        2·
        22 hours ago

        If you want to boost your reading ability try Du Chinese, they have a bunch of graded readers, and they regularly turn the premium ones into free ones for a time so you can read a bunch without paying a cent. After a certain point you can turn off the pinyin assist. Make liberal use of the flashcards functionality in there.

      • RNAi [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
        5·
        1 day ago

        You should download Pleco, and try Ankidroid.

        If you buy the HelloChinese, buy the top premium, the cheap “premium” is a scam, and yiu can’t upgrade without paying the full price again.

        Oh and DeepSeek for explaining long phrase translations, nuances and etc, tho it’s a lib and wont translate/explain “violent” phrases like Death to America

  • riseuppikmin [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
    21·
    1 day ago

    I bought hellochinese premium and it has been worth it FYI. Just the normal tier jit the plus tier. I imagine you’ll run into the pay gate soon and would want input. It seemingly goes on sale every black Friday in the US