New AppList: Apps For Learning Chinese
by Lenny Liang
May 15, 2012
For English speakers, Chinese can be a difficult language to learn. One reason for this is because Chinese is a tonal language, which means that different tones convey different meanings to a word. In one tone, the word ma can refer to your mother. In another tone, it can refer to a horse. Written Chinese is based on a pictographic system, as opposed to an alphabetical system; words are not formed by letters, they are represented by characters. What complicates things even more are the different dialects of Chinese and differing systems, such as pinyin, traditional Chinese and simplified Chinese. As the most common Chinese dialect is Mandarin, that is what the apps in this AppList will focus on, although the diversity of apps listed should aid in a diversity of educational needs.