Radical Chinese

Stop playing games. Learn Mandarin.

I built Radical Chinese as a solo student project because I needed it myself. With a summer school program in China coming up, I wanted to learn as much Mandarin as humanly possible in a short amount of time.

I didn't have time for gamified apps, and while traditional flashcards are great for rote memorization, they don't give you the reading and speaking practice you actually need for the real world. I just wanted a straightforward, rigorous tool built for rapid language acquisition. So, I built one.

Designed for serious beginners and motivated learners, Radical Chinese bridges the gap between studying characters and using them.

CORE FEATURES:

The New HSK 1-3: Master around 2,000 essential words (with higher levels planned for the future) structured for rapid learning.

Start Where You Are: A quick vocabulary quiz places you at the right level so you're not grinding through words you already know.

Understand, Don’t Just Memorize: Stop staring blindly at characters. The Character Anatomy tool breaks complex words down into their core radicals and components, so you understand how they are built.

Total Immersion Roleplay: Practice speaking in realistic scenarios like ordering food or talking to a cashier. You get to chat with an AI that provides detailed feedback on your grammar in a zero-pressure environment.

Read Anything: Read our built-in graded stories, or import your own text. Just tap any character to see its pinyin, meaning, and audio.

Scientifically Proven Retention: Built on the FSRS-5 spaced repetition algorithm. It predicts precisely when you are about to forget a character and schedules your review to lock it into your long-term memory.

Research-Backed Methods: The methods used in the app are based on real linguistic research. You can even find links to the specific scientific papers right in the settings.

Learn Offline: Take your studies on the go. The core flashcards and built-in reading stories work entirely offline. You only need an internet connection for the AI roleplay and importing custom text.

Track Real Fluency: Watch your vocabulary grow with transparent stats, mastery heatmaps, and retention data.

100% FREE. NO SUBSCRIPTIONS. I built this app for my own studies and want to share it with other serious learners. There are no paywalls, no forced ads, and no premium subscriptions. I have no plans to ever charge for it. If the app helps you out, there is a simple "Buy Me a Coffee" button in the settings, but otherwise, just enjoy learning!