Ka Chinese Tones: Learn Pinyin 4+

I discovered this app through a subreddit, and then saw it show up in a few discord servers too. I decided to check it out and am immensely impressed! It really does help with tone recognition, and it’s got such a fun UI. It is easy to stay interested.

I feel like the one setback this app has is there is no real “penalty.” When I make a mistake, I get the red screen, but then the same audio and example shows up, and I will then know the answer, but not because I was able to hear it correctly. I also am still capable of getting full points for each lesson. Actually experiencing some form of penalty for getting the answer wrong might be nice. And to improve tonal recognition quality, I would love for some more variation. Most of the examples have the same audio in each lesson, so once you hear it once, it can be pretty easy to figure it out the next time it shows up (I’m speaking about when sentences containing the tone show up). Maybe some varying audios for each time within each lesson would make it a bit more challenging?

Have been using this app for a few months now and have been really enjoying it! I have found it helpful to hear tones not just alone but as parts of full words and phrases, and to hear the ways in which the tones can change subtly when placed together. I have actually come to end of the created levels, but this gives me a great opportunity to go back and listen to what I’ve learned over again and make sure I’ve retained it.

*update* the levels have been updated and so have the features! I like being able to speak the various sounds and tones and to hear them immediately. I think this is the best new feature!

When I first started studying Chinese, my teacher told me that tones are the least important aspect of Chinese (yes, she was very wrong). So I focused heavily on solving HSK tests but didn’t pay much attention to tones. Boy was it a costly mistake. And that was over 10 years ago!! During this time I was desperately searching for an app that could help, tried memorizing tones with flashcards but nothing really worked. But then I found this app. I think that’s exactly what I was looking for. I love that it also tests your tone recognition with a context. I purchased a yearly subscription, so I’ll add a review a year later!