Language Apps Work Better After TV Watching, Not Before!
Are absolute beginners using the best order of operations?
When I first started learning Mandarin in April of 2023, I heard really good things about the HelloChinese app. Almost everyone said unanimously that it was better than every app out there, specifically for learning Mandarin.
One thing that HelloChinese does, which almost no other app does, is it’s actually challenging. You don’t memorize words in isolation; they’re always in meaningful sentences you would use in real life. The app also doesn’t let you pass until you get all the exercises right.
HelloChinese isn’t “pretend learning” to satisfy its user base. You’re actually learning real Mandarin. And it’s challenging as an absolute beginner.
I had a very difficult time tuning my “American ears” into the “Chinese frequency.” I would often fail lessons and have to restart them from the beginning because my ears could not yet pick out the nuances of the sounds.
If you’re failing at an app, the app must be very good.
After repeating some of the lessons several times, I could eventually move forward and grasp the concepts.