iLearn Chinese Characters Lite

My husband is very visual and prefers understanding the visual breakdowns of the characters. He is absorbing so much better. Thanks!!

I really love the way this app explains Chinese, and it's a really good app for learning the language. However, i do agree that the app is a little ugly and I do want there to be more advanced lessons and tests, and also tests that quiz your ability to write the characters as well as read and comprehend. Overall great app!

The organization is excellent. In 'progressive study' mode, you learn characters based on their frequency of use, and have to pass a quiz to move on to the next few (6-12) characters. Or you can look up characters based on category without taking quizzes. In either mode, you get both basic and advanced examples of how the character is used in a phrase. There's also an index organized 'alphabetically' by pronunciation. The app would be improved by placing the traditional character (and the ancient pictogram, when available) in an obvious and consistent spot on every page. It would also be cool if the quizzes gave you a definition/pronunciation and asked you to draw the character.

Great if all you're looking for is simplified. Don't download otherwise.

I've been meaning to learn Chinese for a while. Being the basics or more interestingly the characters. After trying multiple apps, I found this to be a great resource for beginners who are passionate about learning Chinese. It breaks the writing, history and how-to to help you start Chinese very quickly. If you have an iPhone or iPad, you can immediately enable he Chinese writing and practice some of these characters that you learn. Great work..

The best information and detail I've seen so far to break down Chinese characters with their original meanings, and then contrasting simplified vs traditional. Understanding the history and reason for the pictograms makes everything much easier to remember. The downside is the app is very ugly and a face lift would really do this app justice! This should be one of the top Chinese apps.

As a historian of ideas, I've had to learn to make my way through a number of languages, to date, I can read without over-dependence on a dictionary etc. around twelve. Like most Westerners, I was at first intimidated by Chinese because of the characters. However, I found that learning characters is no more difficult than learning any set of vocabulary and the manner this program teaches characters makes even that fairly straightforward, and it's etymological approach to explaining characters appeals to persons who see history as a wonderful type of storytelling. The fact that compared to Sanskrit and Classical Greek, Chinese grammar, such as it is could be described as either non-existent or a "cake walk" only serves to make things more easy and more enjoyable, is just an added benefit to the program's manner of treating the primary difficulty Chinese does present.

I needed help with writing. The stroke demo is really helpful.

Does a good job teaching words, explaining the characters, and showing how to draw them.

Makes me rate it before trying it!