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The Best Kids Apps for learning Chinese! Mobile devices have become a part of our learning in or out of our home or in the classroom. I like the flexibility and the variety that apps provide. Here I have picked 18 Chinese language learning apps that are educational and entertaining for your bilingual child. I kept the non-native speaking parents and children in mind when I made the selection. Many of the Chinese language learning apps have language options so you can switch between English and Chinese.
NEW
La La Learn – Mandarin Chinese
Sing Mandarin songs and learn Chinese. Chinese, pinyin and English translation. Turn on the mic and sing along. Click on the word or phrases to listen to the pronunciation with pinyin and English support. This app is created by a mother whose children are in the Mandarin immersion schools. Pronunciation: standard and clear. Singing: beautiful. Songs: classic Chinese children’s songs. Design: Simple and easy to navigate. Ages: kids-friendly.
LingoDeer
LingoDeear is a language teaching app and one of the languages is Mandarin Chinese. Mandarin is taught in English, French, Korean, Japanese, Spanish, and German. Non-English learners have a choice to pick a language to go with the course. Pronunciation: standard and clear. Versions: both traditional Chinese and simplified Chinese versions are available. Design: easy to navigate. Play and learn a new language. Ages: 5 and up.
Note to non-native Chinese speaking families:
We will start with the best kids apps for learning Chinese from the Chinese language learning apps using the bilingual approach. It is important to give comprehensible input to our young learners. Our young learners need to enjoy the exposure. Be a part of their learning journey!
Teach Chinese Best Apps for Kids
The apps that I have included are the ones suitable for children who are learning Mandarin Chinese as a Second Language and are for kids at ages 5 and up. My pick of best kids apps for learning Chinese are…(drum roll, please.)
Lingu Pinguin (Mandarin Chinese) – It is an interactive English-Chinese picture dictionary with audio.
The vocabulary themes are animals, transportation, food, face & body, farm, toys, nature, clothes, and house. There is a quiz section for review. Pronunciation: standard Mandarin Chinese. Audio options: English and Mandarin Chinese. There is one pronunciation of one character can be noted in this set that is “penguin” in Mandarin Chinese. It is read as Qǐ é – Qǐ (3) – 3rd tone and it can also be read as Qì é. Qi(4) – 4th tone.
Chinese Flashcards (Mandarin Chinese & multilingual) by INKids (Animal set/Mandarin Chinese version) – This is a flashcard app with very nice illustration for young children.
I like that the Chinese characters are included in each card. It is important that you select “Mandarin Chinese” in the language setting to hear the correct pronunciation. Audio options: English, Mandarin Chinese, and Cantonese.
Chungaboo – Language Series (Multilingual including Mandarin Chinese/Words set) – This is a multilingual app for kids including Mandarin Chinese.
It is a beautiful and entertaining set. Touch the pictures and see what happens. When you select Chinese in language setting you will see Pinyin (pronunciation guide) with tone marks on each card. This set has 20 interactive cards. Audio: Mandarin Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, or Spanish.
Fun Chinese: Mandarin Chinese Language Learning Games for kids – This is a game-based Chinese learning app with a 15 different languages combination. That means the game instruction is in your selected language. If you set “English” as your preferred language you will see “English” instruction in the game. The teaching material is in Chinese. This can be helpful for families who speak languages other than Chinese. Theme words and phrases are the main content for this app with a few simple sentences from the free version.
My pick of best kids apps for learning Chinese in the immersion approach are…
Go beyond words and learn some basic sentences
Piggy Picnic – This app uses immersion approach.
You can select English in setting to understand the questions when needed. Teaching Chinese as a second language approach.
Rick & Jacky – This is an entertaining and educational app.
This app introduces words and basic sentence patterns. Teaching Chinese as a second language approach.
Feed Me Chinese: This is a multilingual app and the Mandarin Chinese version is educational and entertaining.
It is designed in immersion style and it is fun and challenging at each level for children with some Chinese background.
My pick of best kids apps for learning Chinese in story-tellling approach are…
Adding listening and reading stories to your bilingual child’s daily routine
RyeBooks by RyeStudio:
RyeStudio has a very good collection of Chinese classic stories read in Mandarin Chinese with Chinese characters (in traditional or simplified characters or in Pinyin). You can start from the free stories first.
Interactive Books by Tinman Arts:
Tinman Arts is another app that has a good collection of Chinese classic and contemporary stories. English stories translated into Chinese and read in Chinese are also available. My young students and older ones all enjoy their interactive design of the stories. Try a free story and see the reaction of your young learner.
My pick of best kids apps for learning Chinese characters are…
Writing Chinese Characters:
Writing Chinese Characters is fun
Skritter – Learn to Write Chinese by Skritter. This is a fantastic app for learning Chinese characters for children or adults. It is a well-designed app and it has features to track the progress, add new word lists, keep track how much you use it daily and much more. I am very impressed with the app with its overall structure, writing design, word lists, audio, and beyond. My kids started with the free version and then paid for subscription. I want to see a better subscription fee with the full version. Another recommendation is to have multiple users under one account with a family subscription rate.
Chinese Writer by trainchinese: This is excellent app for writing practice and sight words exercise.
You can select the Traditional Chinese or Simplified Chinese version on the app. FREE version with in-app purchase option. This app is good for children who are Grade 3 and above.
Just for fun: Are you Hungry? Watch out!
This one can be a family game with all the family members participating
Chinese Fridge Dim Sum: Sight words for Dim Sum dishes and it is entertaining. There are 5 dish names to learn. Standard Mandarin Chinese pronunciation. Chinese characters options: Chinese traditional, Chinese simplified, and Pinyin. Be ready to order your Dim Sum dish in Chinese next time.
My pick of best kids apps for parents who need assistance with Chinese language are…
Learning Companion Tools
PLECO is a must-have tool and it is a powerful Chinese dictionary app. It is an integrated dictionary, document reader, flashcard system with full screen handwriting input, live OCR, and stork order diagrams. Its new release of Chinese History, an eBook is described as “The most valuable English-language reference book on China anywhere” (Professor Richard Smith, Rice University). Download the free version now! In-app purchase available.
KTdict is a comprehensive Chinese-English dictionary. It has over 100,000 entries. You can use this app offline and search with input in English, Chinese, and Pinyin. This app features Reader, OCR, Flashcards, and Trainer.
Quickdictionary is a Chinese-English, English-Chinese dictionary. It’s easy to translate from English to Chinese and vice versa with audio support. Users can view synonyms, antonyms, and related words in examples with live links.
My pick of new kids apps are…
New and Noteworthy
Duolingo (Chinese): Duolingo is a language learning app offers 30 languages including Chinese. Its gaming approach makes the everyday language time interesting. Duolingo has a basic frame for a language but it needs more in-depth content. I hope the company can invite Language experts and teachers to help improve its accuracy.
Gus On The Go (Mandarin Chinese): Gus On The Go has a collection of multilingual apps including Mandarin Chinese. It is well-designed and with high quality graphics and audio recording. You will find one app titled “Taiwan Chinese” for traditional Chinese writing and one app titled “Mandarin Chinese” for simplified Chinese writing. Look out for their upcoming new release of Stories by Gus On the Go.
The Great Dumpling Adventure – Miao Miao: Miao Miao has a collection of Chinese learning apps. They are designed for preschoolers and young learners. This is an interactive and entertaining app. Children will have a cultural experience with Miao Miao!
2KidsChinese: This is a curriculum style app led with a story in each lesson. It focuses on basic skill building in a spiral learning approach. This app is in immersion style and it will work for children with some basic knowledge of reading and writing in Chinese. Writing system: simplified Chinese characters.
Art of Chinese Characters: Art of Chinese Characters are great for older children with some Chinese language knowledge. This is an award winning well-designed app for Chinese character learning and writing with Chinese culture information included. The program features 15 Chinese characters visualization images. There are over 80 Chinese characters and 160 commonly used phrases introduced in this app. All Chinese characters included in this edition are in the pictogram group. Children can visualize each character from the images presented in the app. Writing systems: Traditional & Simplified Chinese. If you and your child enjoy this one you can advance to the 2nd level: Art of Chinese Characters 2. In this 2nd app of the series, it features 30 wonderful Chinese character recognition images with 150 Chinese characters and 200 commonly used phrases.
ChineseSkill: This is a game based learning app. It is designed for adult learners I have found older children enjoy this program. Learning is playful and this game-based style helps the learning process.
Tiny Cards: This is a multilingual and multi-subjects app. For Chinese language you will find a collection of learning cards from Chineasy with well-designed visual graphics and clear audio. Chineasy presents Chinese characters with appealing graphics for both children and adults.
The best way to use the apps with your bilingual child
1. Play with each app that you are interested in as a parent first.
2. Play the educational app with your child together.
3. Select 3 to 5 words that you have learned, write them down and use them in the next 24 hours with your child. Use the new words, phrases and sentences in the conversation you have with your bilingual child. Repeat with your young learner every day. Add 3 to 5 new words, phrases, or sentence in the following week. Repeat the routine.
4. Break down each unit into short sessions according to your needs. It should not be overwhelming for you or your little one. Every word is a building block. Take your time.
5. Put down the device, go out and use the words, phrases, and sentences that you have learned in real life! Have fun!
Multimedia Learning and Usage Resource:
Media and Children
Apps and Screen Time for Kids: Learning or Babysitting?
iPad in Education – Stories
*This is an independent review and in order to maintain its independence and impartiality,
Miss Panda Chinese buys and tests the apps it evaluates.*
Enjoy this post? Share with a friend who needs this!
Post updated in 2018.
Great recommendations and reviews! Just a quick note. Penguin should be pronounced Qi(3rd) e(2nd), not Qi(4th)
Thank you very much for noting the regional differences. It is very helpful. Many thanks!
For adult, learning a new language does not need to be funny, but be fast. A free app for learning some common pinyin here:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.zbase.essentialchinesepinyinfree
Hi. we have some of the above. Right now my 4 yr old likes Gus on the Go the best. Little Pim is kind of lame… Look forward to trying Rick and Jacky. Thanks!
Thanks for these Miss Panda.
We have an app called Fun Chinese. It’s for kids but some adults like it too.
https://itunes.apple.com/app/fun-chinese-er-tong-zhong/id547571511
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.pumkin.funchinese
Dan, FC is on my device and we enjoy it. We also tried the Spanish one. They are both educational and entertaining for kids and adults. Thank you for the recommendation.
Hi,
I recently developed an iPad and iPhone app for preschool and early elementary school children to learn basic Mandarin vocabulary. https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/mandarin-chinese-vocabulary/id836174367?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D2
Thank you for the recommendation.
TalkingLearn – Learn Chinese is one of the most interesting apps of “TalkingLearn” series. It is specially developed for those who are learning and practicing oral Chinese. With this app, you will not be afraid to speak Chinese at all. What’s more, it would be fun for you to communicate with others in Chinese soon. This app also includes some words of wisdom for you to learn from the ancient Chinese wise men.
Web links: http://www.talkinglearn.com/
Great review! I came across this blog searching for Chinese learning apps for children. I find it very helpful. I would also like to recommend Kids Write Chinese, a simple Chinese writing program for kids through a game approach. My 5-year old niece loves to play this app. https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/kids-write-chinese/id1061374744?mt=8
Thank you so much for listing these apps. Audio helps a lot in learning difficult Chinese words. Great piece of content.
So glad to know that you find this app list resourceful.
Thank you so much for listing these! Wish I had found this before summer travel but I’ll still put it to good use!
Diana, This list gives a good starting point for choosing an app to learn or review basic Chinese. Let me know which one is your favorite.
Hi Amanda,
Thanks for your great article. I would like to present to you Ninchanese (https://ninchanese.com), a gamified app to learn Chinese!
Thank you for introducing your Chinese learning resource with us!
Thank you so much for spending the time and resources in reviewing all these apps! We are starting a new Mandarin programme at our school, I am in the process of finding a suitable app for my young second language learners to use. Have you come across one that can be used in a classroom setting where the teacher can track the students progress? I would love to hear your thoughts.
How exciting! The apps listed here are a good start. All language learning needs a combination of support from teacher, books, to supplement learning materials. What are the age group of the learners for your school? The teachers can use Quizlet to create various materials for the students. Google classroom is another one that teachers can create resources and track the students’ participation and progress. I hope these give you a good start. Please feel free to let me know if you need more resources. Let’s always keep learning fun!
Thank you so much Miss Panda for this wonderful review! 🙂
Our team also developed an game-based Mandarin learning app called Ed-Wonderland, and would love to share it with you!
I am looking forward to checking out your app. Thank you for your feedback.
Thank you too for sharing so many great articles and resources! 🙂
You are welcome. I hope these materials can help parents and educators at home and in class. Let’s always keep learning fun!
Thanks for sharing good Chinese learning Apps.
Recently, we just release a good iOS App for learning Chinese and easy to learn as game-based learning course, especially, for kids and beginners. This App supports both iPhone and iPad, Simplified and Traditional Chinese (Mandarin) are both supported.
What are you going to learn?
•1000+ Chinese sentences
•1000+ Chinese key words and phrases
•How to make Chinese characters
•200 word creation
•Count from 1-100 in Chinese
This iOS App is available on iTues.
Can you update with whether apps are Simplified or Traditional?
Carrie, I have notes in the post indicating the available version. Let me now if there is any special one you are looking at.