Best iPhone iPad Games

About to create a section very soon similar to the Japanese section I have on my site.  I’ve been going through tons of apps past month or so.  I think there is definitely more room for some quality Chinese apps in regards to ones offering quizzes, idioms, phrases, etc. like their Japanese app counterparts have.  So here is my rough draft.

Pleco is well worth the $100 (educational discount or $150 without) for those serious about learning Chinese. It’s a universal app so looks great on iPad. I plan on taking tons and tons of screenshots but I’m on an iPad and waiting for 2.2 cuz they say they’ll optimize UI a tad before I do.  So I plan on emphasizing why it’s worth the $100 cuz they don’t do the greatest job at marketing it. I do have some minor complaints though I wish it had a slideshow mode like two free apps below do and also wish one could increase the length of the popup window since I do like the fonts a tad bigger than default.  Maybe fine on iphone but for ipad there is much more room.

Get Survival Mandarin 347MB cuz of videos but free until Sep 2nd then back to $10 I believe.  They had a 7 day learning Mandarin app for $2 which I thought is good for one totally new to Chinese like myself.  So gonna see if that Survival Mandarin app is worth the $10 or not. Well going through Anki $25 and nah I don’t think I’m gonna include it.

eZi Test Chinese $free has a great slideshow mode and nice multiple choice mode.  Recently was updated to include a few more cards.  Also has built-in voice pronunciation syllables only though. Why is this slideshow so great?  You can choose what to display on first side toggle on or off Simplified, Traditional (choose which one is on top or bottom) Pinyin (choose which kind of Pinyn tones), English definition (choose all, first meaning, or just first word, Spoken Mandarin. Now once it flips you can choose how long to display front and back side of flashcard.  You can toggle again Simplified, Traditional, Pinyin, English and Speak Mandarin.  So on the front I like it to show me only Simplified and Tradition and have it speak Mandarin then after 5 secs or so it’ll show me that again speaking it again with the pinyin and English definition.  I wish Pleco could do this!

Flashcards Deluxe $4  or demo has some decent vocab lists and it is a universal app so that gives it a bonus. Also recently added a Simplified and Traditional fonts to choose from in an update. Slideshow is decent but not as good as eZi Test Chinese though since you can’t have multiple fields display at once so that limits it’s flexibility in configuring it. Still this is a great app and not only for Chinese but tons of other subjects, etc.

Dinhua Dictionary Audio Module I bought for $1 when it was on sale but it’s back to $5 now.  It’s decent and has prerecorded words on many of them rather than just syllable recordings.  You must manually search and add each vocab though as it doesn’t have importing of pre-existing vocabulary lists.  I’d be more inclined to recommend this one if it did.  There is a free version without the audio.  Quiz mode is decent and I like the style.

That’s basically it for learning Chinese apps.  What that is just a few.  Your right but that doesn’t mean I didn’t purchase a ton of others or tried out their demos.  I did, it’s just I felt underwhelmed.  The Japanese apps are much more diverse so like I mentioned there is huge room for improvement (dictionaries and flashcards field is solid though).  Here’s a few more Chinese related apps I recommend.

MetroNav Beijing $1, MetroNav Shanghai $1, MetroNav Guangzhou $1, MetroNav Taipei $free  these are excellent subway maps and displays times and has taxi cards to show to have a taxi take you to a particular subway station.

Pocket Timetable $3 universal app by far the best for looking up train routes, ticket prices, times, etc.

Shanghai WOW! City Guide $free or Chinese version $free contains lots of info of places to visit with prices.

Fancy Food ipad $2 or Eating in China iphone $2 both are excellent showing you lovely photos of turtles and frogs among many other exotic and traditional cuisines.

Japanese 101: Kansai Dialect
I remember being at  Kinokuniya in Umeda,　a Japanese Bookstore, and just amazed at their selection.  I believe a popular title, or at least it was prominently featured was some dirty Osaka-ben slang book. Fast forward to modern times and now we have a popular Japanese iPhone app that features Kansai-Ben otherwise known as Osaka Japanese Slang.  My wife is from Osaka and she was getting a kick out of listening to some of them and honestly didn’t even realize some of the dialogue was in fact Kansai-Ben.  She just was raised and never thought about it as it’s just a natural way of speaking for those from that area.  Categories include Feeling Bad, Greetings, Food, Apologizing and nine others. In total has about 250 phrases or so each recorded by a native Osakan.

It’s not really that hard for a native Japanese or with a semi decent commmand of Japanese to pick up.  It’s just like being thrown a curve ball in language learning and adapting.  So what good is this app?  Well, if you plan on visiting or especially living there it’ll give you a head start and when they start ripping like so:
Kansai Ben = Japanese equivalent

honma kaina ほんまかいな = honto ni　ほんとに
ee na ええな　=　ii desu ne いいですね
akanあかん = dame　だめ
nambo なんぼ = ikura いくら
shiran しらん = shirinai しりない
hokasu　ほかす = suteru すてる
chau ちゃう　= chigau ちがう
dekihen できへん = dekinai できない

Japanese 101: Kansai Dialect features Categories where you can browse throw the phrases and memorize them.  Each phrase is spoken by a native Japanese female who sounds like those Yanki girls with dyed hair. That’s a compliment btw. Then in the flash cards even study further.  Tapping the flash card will reveal the English and explanation on the backside. You can select multiple categories for your quiz which is a four multiple choice.  I always like to not look at the answers and just hear the phrase spoken and formulate the answer in my head.  You can always tap again if you didn’t quite catch the spoken phrase the first time.  End of a quiz you can review your wrong answers if any. Overall this is a nice application now if someone comes up with a recording device that slows down my Bachan in realtime so I could understand a bit more of what she is saying then I’d be all set.  Until then I’ll have to keep asking my wife “What in the world did she just say?”

Japanese Idioms is targeted to those with intermediate Japanese understanding. It contains 101 Japanese idioms. What is an idiom? Like a “chip on your shoulder” or “hit the nail on the head” are examples of English idioms. Has three sections, namely, Categories where you browse through and learn idioms.  Flash Card mode lets you choose display order either by Japanese or English and choose either Phrases Only, Examples Only or All.  Front of the flash card shows the English equivalent translation with practical usage.  Tap on flash card to flip over and it’ll show Japanese kanji with romaji and sound button you can hear it too. Quiz mode has you choosing multiple choice.

Covers a broad range of topics.  While your learning an idiom of interest to you it’ll give you the English equivalent translation alonog with the literal translation. Clicking sound button let’s you hear the Japanese idiom, English equivalent translation, Example sentences in Japanese and English.  I could easily see someone making a list of 101 idioms with sound and selling it but they go in depth with pratical usage information and example sentences to reinforce when to properly use such an idiom.

I absolutely love Quiz mode.  Best way is to just hear the idiom and form the answer in your head and then look at the choices.  If you look at the choices you may be cheating.  It’ll auto advance and speak the next idiom after answer the question.