For those looking to feed their brains with the knowledge and challenges that they crave, check out the following free apps that will help keep your thinking skills sharp and ready for the new school year.

Games

Lumosity
Scientists and game designers have come together to develop this brain training game. Lumosity is a simple online tool that allows anyone to train core cognitive abilities, such as memory and attention. Challenge your brain with more than 30 different games and puzzles, and track your score to help you improve or see how you compare with others. Free to download on iOS and Android

Brilliant
Are you looking to improve your math and science skills? Then this “brilliant” app is for you! Master subjects like chemistry, number theory, and computer science through conceptual quizzes, written by mathematicians and scientists who are passionate about teaching. Free to download on iOS and Android.

Chess.com
Have you ever shied away from learning chess, because it seems like too much of a difficult game? This app will boost your confidence by giving you various forms of support on your chess-learning journey. Lessons and videos teach you everything you need to know about openings, endgames, tactics, attacks, and strategy. You can solve tactical puzzles to develop your intuition about the best moves to make, or you can play against others or the computer to strengthen your overall skills. Free to download on iOS and Android.

Language Help

HelloTalk
HelloTalk is an app that you can use to learn languages by chatting with native language speakers from around the world. Choose from over 100 languages and become instantly connected with native speakers. This app offers many language learning tools such as voice-to-text, transliteration, translation, and grammar correction, which will help you pick up the language faster and more efficiently. Free to download on iOS and Android.

ChineseSkill
Similar to the well-known Duolingo, ChineseSkill is a game-based app that makes learning Mandarin a whole lot more fun. The lessons are available in the form of mini-games that test your listening, reading, writing, and speaking skills. The lessons are also split into bite-size pieces that cover topics such as greetings and introductions, shopping, travel, food, dating and flirting, and many more. Free to download on iOS and Android.

Online courses

Khan Academy
Whether you need extra homework help or you are just passionate about learning, Khan Academy offers videos, interactive exercises, and in-depth articles to help you learn math, science, economics, humanities, and more. You can also find lessons to prepare you for the upcoming SAT, GMAT, or MCAT. This is one of our personal favorite learning tools, as the lessons are easy to understand, and the exercises do a great job of reinforcing the main points. Free to download on iOS and Android.

edX
edX offers online courses from the world’s best universities and institutions including Harvard University, MIT, Tsinghua University, Microsoft, and The Smithsonian. Anyone who loves learning will benefit from the plethora of courses in subjects like programming, calculus, and business, which will fit into even the busiest of schedules. Free to download on iOS and Android.

Fun for kids

Scratch Jr.
Children as young as five can learn the basics of coding with Scratch Jr, an app designed by researchers at Tufts University, MIT Media Lab, and Playful Invention Company. This programming language is a simplification of the more famous Scratch language, as it is suitable for children who have yet to strengthen their reading skills. The objective of this app is to snap together different programming blocks to make adorable characters move, jump, dance, and sing. This app is not only perfect for teaching kids how to code, it is also great for improving their problem solving, design, and creativity skills. Free to download on iPad and Android tablets.

Photos: MIH83 via Pixabay, courtesy of apps

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This article originally appeared on p 18-19 of beijingkids August 2017 issue.
Download the digital copy here.

I have a good pictographic memory, and that makes it easier for me to remember Chinese characters. Recognizing them is just one thing; remembering their pinyin equivalents is another. And speaking them is a whole different level. These components of learning Chinese might be the ones that frighten off new learners, but of course there’s a way to alleviate that scary feeling.

My quest to improve my Chinese language (self-)study has brought me to new and interesting finds, like the first few characters to be memorized, podcasts and other WeChat resources to use, and digital proficiency tests. Then several months ago, I scoured my app store for other learning materials and I found that there are cool English and Mandarin game apps! So the focus of our today’s Mandarin Monday is on interactive materials aka game apps that are fun to play and… addicting! So if you or your child are very serious about learning Chinese, then download any or all of these apps.

The apps I use to self-learn Chinese. The bottom three are game apps. Of course, you already know the top three apps there.

Hùjiāng kāixīn cí chǎng 沪江开心词场 (Hujiang Happy Word Place)

Level of difficulty: 3/5
Price: Free on iOS app store

I must say that among the three apps that I use, Hùjiāng kāixīn cí chǎng is the hardest one to access. Okay, don’t get me wrong — all of them are fun to play — but the interface of Hù jiāng kāixīn cí chǎng is entirely in Chinese! But that’s the challenge of it, I should say. The game is pretty straightforward and just by tapping icons you’ll get your way to the fun part — a progress map of words and vocabulary.

The progress map awards you stars each time you complete a tile. But you need 45 stars to unlock the next level (roll eyes)

The first level has 15 tiles to unlock, and each tile has 10 HSK level 1 words, complete with their pinyin, characters, English translation, and audio guides. At the end of each tile, there’s a quick quiz. But don’t get fooled by the easiness of the quiz because the important thing here is to remember each word’s component: tone, pinyin, character, meaning. What I do is I regularly visit the tiles and the quizzes to check whether I remember the words.

ChineseSkill

Level of difficulty: 5/5
Price: Free on iOS app store; in-app purchases like lesson packs are available from RMB 12

It’s a monster of a Chinese app! While writing this blog, I discovered that ChineseSkill has more features other than the vocabulary pack. But before those features here’s what I like about this app.

Each of those tiles (see above picture) contains lessons, and before moving forward to the next you need to complete a quiz about all aspects of the vocabulary. Pinyin? Check. Tones? You need to pronounce and record your voice to pass that part. Sentence construction? Rearrange words to make a sentence. It is challenging!

That’s the welcome screen for each lesson, like a letter of your impending grammar exam!

But to spice things up, ChineseSkill has a Challenge feature where – as the name suggests – you’ll get a challenge from other app users from across the globe.  This is the feature that I just noticed while writing this article, and it makes me want to stop writing and go play the app! But can someone join me to compete with other teams?

Competitive pandas… just like the one I used to play in a popular video game.

HelloChinese

Level of difficulty: 5/5
Price: Free on iOS app store; in-app mini games can be unlocked when a premium service is bought

This is another fun app with an interface that combines the progress map layout of Hùjiāng kāixīn cí chǎng and lesson-style quiz like ChineseSkill. But what HelloChinese adds is that it begins every lesson with tips and notes aka a cheat sheet. When you successfully finish each quiz, you’ll be rewarded with coins that can be used to unlock other quizzes or mini-games.

Okay, I’m still on Basics II but I will catch up!

So what’s the point of playing this app if you can just upgrade to premium, right?

Aside from the main game and other mini-games, HelloChinese also records your daily progress and total in-app speaking time. Moreover, it sends notifications that are linked to its blogs and YouTube channel

On the downside of game apps, one might take studying for granted because there’s a lot of distraction and others might feel it’s too informal a learning style. But again, these game apps are just some of the many resources every beginner can use to learn Chinese. What do you use to supplement your study? Let us know by leaving your comments below!

Next in Mandarin Monday: Writing Chinese characters is a different league of its own, but there are ways to improve your nonexistent calligraphy skill!

Photos: Andy Penafuerte

More stories by this author here.
Email: andypenafuerte@beijing-kids.com
Instagram: @coolkidandy