We only know two phrases in Chinese–‘shie shie’ and ‘wo ay ni’. That’s “Thank You” and “I love you”, we believe, in Mandarin. We want to learn more but that’s one complicated language. But considering the Chinese make up almost a quarter of the world population, it will be nice to learn or at least understand a bit of Chinese. Back in 2014, Duolingo made an effort to begin testing and translation services after funds were raised. Fast forward to three years later, we learned a Duolingo Japanese course would be coming to Android and then TinyCards were made available for Android devices a couple of months ago for Android devices.
Now, Duolingo is offering a Chinese course for English speakers which can be accessed on the web, Android, or iOS. This is good news for anyone who wants to study the language. The course is free and is described as fun and effective. It’s a great way to learn Modern Standard Mandarin.
No doubt Chinese is widely spoken. To teach the language, Duolingo has prepared exercises on the four tones, recognition and pronunciation of common and important Chinese characters. The course teaches about 1,000 words and 1,000 characters one should learn if really serious in studying the language.
Learning Chinese can be complicated but the language experts made sure ideas and words are learned in a structured and more thematic manner. Some of the categories that can be learned include Food, Culture and travel, Festivals, Internet slang, and Business and finance.
SOURCE: Duolingo
