I made an app to help you master the tones in Chinese
A fun, free way to practice pinyin pronunciation and learn to recognize the four tones
You may remember me as the writer behind Chinese News Club, an email newsletter I ran during the pandemic. During that time, I sent out news articles written in easy-to-understand Chinese. Thank you so much for reading them; I hope they were useful.
This year, I started another project: Ka, an iOS app to help people learn and practice the tones in Mandarin Chinese.
If you’ve ever mispronounced mā (妈, mother) for mǎ (马, horse), or struggled with hearing the difference between shāng hài (伤害, hurt) and shàng hǎi (上海, Shanghai), give my app a try. It’s available for iPhone and iPad, and is suitable for both beginner and intermediate learners of Chinese.
Ka takes a fun, gamified approach to learning and practicing Chinese tones, and contains 100+ levels with quick, snappy flashcard drills. When you use it, you are training your ear to pick up nuances in pronunciation between similar-sounding words, and gradually becoming more confident with knowing when to use which tone. As an additional bonus, you also pick up a ton of vocabulary while doing so.
Best of all, Ka is free of charge. If you want to support me, consider buying the optional in-app purchase or telling your friends about the app; otherwise, it is completely free to use.
Give it a try today at https://apps.apple.com/us/app/ka-chinese-tones-learn-pinyin/id6444140899 and let me know what you think!
Android users - I haven’t forgotten about you. Register your interest at https://forms.gle/YnYYtbzV5qixa52J6 and I’ll email you when I release an Android version.
Kai
Let me know if you need help with the android app, would love to help! I'm an Android dev and I work mainly with compose :) you can contact me through this email mic_jaz@hotmail.com (I can give you my other formal email if we end up talking!)
Hello 👋 Glad to see you back! Would gladly give this app a try. Take care