Du Chinese Review || Is It Worth Your Time and Money?

Du Chinese Review: 9/10
Catering to learners from beginner to advanced, Du Chinese is a perfect app for those looking to improve their reading ability in Chinese and Chinese characters (which, let’s face it, is pretty key to the language).
It also includes cultural anecdotes and interesting lessons that are just enjoyable to read!

Du Chinese (which translates to ‘Read Chinese’) does exactly what it says on the tin.

The app’s name is read Chinese and that’s exactly what you get.

This isn’t an app to practice writing your Chinese characters, this app is all about reading Chinese.

The app is smartly broken down into 6 levels starting from elementary and working your way up to master.

In addition to being a mobile app, Du Chinese is also available on desktops.

Every so often content is released for a level allowing you to read a new article or story.

The articles are bite-sized, meaning you can read them on the go or in a couple of minutes if you’re short on study time.

📖 If you have the time to get stuck into a story, Du Chinese has multiple ongoing series and a range of stories for every level.

Let’s get stuck into this in-depth Du Chinese review.

Du Chinese Review #1 // Key Info

Du Chinese Review #2 // Pros & Cons

Du Chinese Review #3 // Cost

Du Chinese Review #4 // Introduction

Du Chinese Review #5 // How Does it Work?

Du Chinese Review #6 // Will My Chinese Improve?

Du Chinese Review #7 // Flashcards

Du Chinese Review #8 // Subscription (worth it?)

Du Chinese Review #9 // Conclusion (worth the download?)

Du Chinese Review #10 // Where to Download

Du Chinese Review #11 // FAQs

Du Chinese Review // Key Info

BOTTOM LINE: Du Chinese won’t go very far in teaching you grammar and how to speak or write characters, but it is great in picking up vocabulary as well as the pinyin as you read stories, helping you learn in a more natural environment.

Du Chinese Review // Pros & Cons

Du Chinese Review // Cost

For unrestricted usage, you can consider a subscription.

Du Chinese Review // Introduction

An assisted reader that allows you to read stories and learn at the same time, Du Chinese will show you the pinyin with the characters that you don’t know as well as give you the option to hear them.

Learn Chinese as you read stories!

The stories are often culturally relevant so you can learn a lot about Chinese culture as you go.

There are multiple stories at all levels – from beginner to advanced. This is rare in a lot of apps to cater to more advanced audiences!

Du Chinese Review // How Does it Work?

There’s really not much to get your head around here. Upon downloading the app, pick the level you think you’re at, choose an article and get reading!

The beauty of the app is its simplicity.

It doesn’t get much easier to learn Chinese than using Du Chinese.

Upon selecting an article you’ll see a screen with Chinese characters. But the screen can be modified to make the experience a little easier if there are some characters/sentences you do not know the meaning of.

For example (as shown in the image)…

• Not sure about a character? Click and hold the character and in the top bar, you will see the Pinyin, Hanzi and a translation into English.
• Think you know a character but just cannot remember how to say it? Use the Play/TAP button at the bottom middle of the screen and the voice software in-built into the app will read it out to you.
• Want to simply know the Pinyin pronunciation of a character? Again, head to the bottom of the screen and the 2nd button from the right will show the Pinyin, along with the tone.
  • FYI – The HSK button will show the level for each word, which is a great feature I will talk more about later.

Du Chinese Review // Will My Chinese Improve?

In a word, yes!

Du Chinese gives you exposure to a whole variety of sentence structures, vocabulary and situations which you come across daily if you live in China.

The ability to be able to save words and even four-letter idioms is such a fantastic feature. It allows that word/idiom to become a flashcard which you can review over and over and over again until it’s finally stuck.

For me, this factor alone is worth the download because it’s opened my mind to a whole new level of vocabulary in Chinese.

COOL FEATURE – Another thing that I like is the fact that it underlines most words with a colour. This colour relates to it’s HSK level.

At the time of writing I am personally studying for HSK 4 so any colour below that, I’d hope to know the character/word. If I didn’t, I’d review it further until I was happy with it.

On the contrary, if the character was HSK 5-6, I’d know I was getting ahead of the game by cramming in some extra vocab that I perhaps “shouldn’t know” just yet!

Whether it’s purely vocab you want to improve on or useful day-to-day sentences, the app does both and you can generally get out of it exactly what you want.

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Du Chinese Review // Du Chinese Flashcards

This is a feature that’s so obvious yet so, so powerful.

How often do we, as Chinese language learners, see a character, teach it to ourselves, and then within 15 minutes forget it?

Chances are, we probably aren’t going out of our way to find it and memorise it again.

There are learning apps solely dedicated to flashcards like Chineasy Cards for example. But what if we want to make our own deck of Flashcards as we go?

You can do just that with Du Chinese!

Reading the text and not sure about that word? Click it, then swipe up to save it.

Before you know it you’ll have a list of characters/words/idioms building up that you can go and review/test yourself at any time.

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You’ll see below the word that you can reveal its meaning by clicking on the ‘tap to show meaning’ button and reveal a sentence to see how the word fits into the context of a sentence, which is always taken from another Du Chinese article.

And in true Tinder style, you can swipe left if you aren’t quite there with the word yet, and right if you are happy that you know it!

Du Chinese Review // Subscription, worth it?

It’s both, giving you the freedom to do as you please.

Of course, by signing up for a paid subscription with Du Chinese you are given access to everything.

With the free version, you have access to a more limited number of articles.

That said, when using the articles, you can use all the features you’d be able to on the paid version.

You can pick and choose your lessons based on topic and I find that they tend to teach you about Chinese culture too which is quite cool.

I’ve been studying an article called “Ways of Saying Happy New Year” which gives you a brief insight into Chinese New Year Culture.

I used the free version of the app for about 2-3 months but realised I really was using the app daily on my short commute to work and when relaxing in the evenings.

Due to this I took the plunge and made a 6-month payment.

If you want improvement in your Chinese, I advise you to do the same!

ONE WORD OF WARNING – If you want fresh content all the time, this app might frustrate you and we recommend you giving The Chairman’s Bao a go also.

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Du Chinese Review // Should I Download Du Chinese?

It’s a no brainer. Absolutely

Du Chinese is simplicity at its finest, yet it has the ability to teach you so much Chinese.

Whether you opt for the free version or the paid version of the app it’s well worth your time. The wealth of topics covered at different levels and the ability to turn the app into your own flashcard app makes it so versatile and appealing to Chinese language learners of all levels.

Du Chinese Rating – 9/10

Du Chinese Review // Where to Download

Du Chinese is available on both the App Store for Apple and Play Store for Android.

It’s also now available on laptops and computers on the Du Chinese website.

Du Chinese Review // FAQs