Niú Chinese App Review | Read Chinese & Enhance Your Skills
Niú Chinese App Review // Learn Chinese by Reading Short Stories
Niú Chinese Review: 8/10
A graded reading app with a nice layout and integrated HSK levels to help you learn Chinese from interesting stories.
Welcome back to another LTL app review.
Here are LTL, we love getting stuck into brand new apps to learn Mandarin and then reviewing them.
In today’s edition, our fabulous intern Eva talks us through a new app she discovered not long again. Let’s see what she has to say…
Today, I will introduce the Niú Chinese app.
So, why am I sharing this app with you today?
Personally, I really like to read stories and learn Mandarin.
So, I wanted to find an enjoyable way to combine reading with learning Chinese.
I started to research on my phone the different types of apps I could use to read Chinese and learn the language.
A few weeks ago I stumbled across Niú Chinese.
My goal was also to find a fun app, because I get bored very easily! This app seemed to tick all the boxes and this is why we share it with you today.
Let’s begin our review of Niú Chinese and show you what it’s all about!
Niú Chinese | Intro & Key Stats
Niú Chinese | Pros & Cons
Niú Chinese | Cost
Niú Chinese | What is Niú Chinese?
Niú Chinese | How Does the App Work?
Niú Chinese | Just For Beginners?
Niú Chinese | Can I Really Learn Chinese?
Niú Chinese | Where to Download?
Niú Chinese | FAQs
Niú Chinese Review | Intro & Key Stats
Niú Chinese Key Stats
| Name | Niú Chinese |
| Description | “Hello, NIU Chinese is a Chinese Graded Reading (中文阅读 Yue Du Chinese) app, making Chinese / Mandarin learning an easy task.” (Niú Chinese) |
| Website | Play Store |
| No. of Languages Offered | 1 (Mandarin Chinese) / Supported languages; 简体中文、繁體中文、English、日本語、한국어、ภาษาไทย、Tiếng Việt |
| Price | ABSOLUTELY FREE |
Niú Chinese Review | Pros & Cons
| HNiú Chinese PROS | Niú Chinese CONS |
|---|---|
| 1. It’s completely FREE. | 1. Inability to turn off Pinyin – very frustrating for more advanced learners. |
| 2. Read interesting stories as you learn new characters! | 2. Only reading – no practice of doing the language yourself. |
| 3. Levels compatible with HSK levels & can select multiple levels at a time. | 3. Limit to what you can learn. |
Niú Chinese Review | Cost
Absolutely free! Incredible!
Niú Chinese Review | What is Niú Chinese?
You can download Niú Chinese on the App Store.
Niú Chinese’s logo is an ox.
This is because “Niú” is the Pinyin of “牛” which means ox in English.
Don’t you also find their logo super cute too?!
FUN FACT | Did you know in Chinese slang 牛牛牛 (Niú Niú Niú) means something that is awesome. Maybe deeper thinking when naming the app!
What is the concept of the app?
This app is a Chinese graded reading app. The goal of the application is to allow you learn Mandarin more easily.
Niú Chinese will teach you Chinese characters, pinyin, new vocabulary, grammar points, and the pronunciation of each character is recorded by a real native speaker.
It offers a lot of different stories, such as funny, educational, cultural and many more.
All of these stories are written by professional and Chinese native speakers.
The app is available in several languages: English, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese, and Thai.
This app really is for everyone because they offer stories for every taste of literature.
Plus, if you like the stories, you can leave a comment and chat with other people who also read them!
Niú Chinese Review | How Does the App Work?
Now that I’ve briefly introduced Niú Chinese, let’s take a look at how it works.
Joining a Niu Chinese group
First, after downloading the app, you will receive a message to join a group to communicate with other Chinese learners.
However, in order to join this group, you will have to download WhatsApp or Telegram.
Of course, joining the group is optional, and the app does not make you join it if you do not want!
Simplified & Traditional Chinese, and Levels
Afterwards, the app asks if you want to read simplified or traditional Chinese.
After you choose what type of characters you’d like to read, the first page looks like this (see photo) all you have to do is to click on a story that interests you.
Of course, my advice is to watch out for the level of the story. You can see this below the title. The stories follow the HSK levels.
This is important because of course you don’t want to be studying something way too easy or way too difficult for you.
You are free to choose a story of a higher level if you wish.
There is no restriction to which stories you can choose to read.
If you want to read a story suited to your Chinese level, all you have to do is:
- Click on “all levels” at the top right of your screen;
- Choose your Chinese level.
The Reading
Once you have selected the story you’d like to read, the screen will look like this:
As you can see, the story is written with simplified Chinese characters and includes Pinyin.
You can read the story or you can click the button ‘play’ and a recorded voice of a native Chinese speaker will read it out aloud for you.
I really like this feature because it’s not a robotic voice.
It’s nice to hear a real person’s voice. We can also adjust the speed, so we can always make sure to understand the story properly.
I personally advise you to repeat after the voice.
This way, you can practice speaking and the pronunciation of the Chinese tones.
If you encounter a word you do not know or do not understand, you can click on it and the app will show you the definition.
You can save the word on the app to create a dictionary for all your new words, and then review them later.
This app is really easy to use!
If you are lost with Chinese pronunciation and tones, here is a short video to review tones in Chinese:
Niú Chinese Review | An App Solely for Beginners?
Now, that you know how to use Niú Chinese, you might have questions about the Chinese levels that this app offers.
What I like about this app is that everyone can download and use it.
Niú Chinese offers stories for different capabilities, from HSK 1 to HSK 6.
As I said earlier, when looking for a story to read, you can click on ‘all levels’ and select the one you feel the most comfortable with.
It is that easy!
However, keep in mind that the app will always show the Pinyin, no matter the level of the story, for every character.
It might be frustrating for someone that can read Chinese fluently, as we do not need the Pinyin for every word if we already know them.
It would be great to be able to select if we want to use pinyin or not.
This could come in handy not just for advanced students but also beginners wishing to move away from pinyin.
This way we could try to remember the words by ourselves.
Besides that, the app is a good fit for everyone thanks to its wide variety of stories styles and the different levels of Chinese.
Niú Chinese Review | Can I Really Learn Chinese?
In my opinion, Niú Chinese can really help people with learning Chinese, because if we do not live in China, we do not encounter Chinese characters on a daily basis.
It is hard to practice reading when outside of China if we are not pushing ourselves.
Being able to read Chinese characters is really important, and can help you familiarise yourself with the grammar and sentence structures.
Therefore, I can confidently say that this app can help you learn a lot of new Chinese vocabulary.
In my humble opinion, it is a wonderful app and I really enjoyed reading their stories!
To improve all aspects of the Chinese language (reading, writing, speaking and listening), make sure to take classes with a professional native teacher.
Using apps may be great as a companion study tool, but to really master a language, instant feedback and a structured curriculum is a must.
Niú Chinese Review | Where to Download?
Niú Chinese is available on both the App and Play Store.
iOS
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/niu-chinese-hsk-reading/id1602348129
Android
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.niu.chinese&hl=en&gl=US
What did you think about our review of Niú Chinese? We hope you found it useful.
If you have any questions, you can comment below. As always, we will be really happy to answer!
Niú Chinese Review – FAQs
What is Niú Chinese?
Niú Chinese is Chinese graded reading app.
The goal of the app is to allow you to learn Chinese characters as smoothly as possible.
Niú Chinese will teach you Chinese characters, Pinyin, new vocabulary, grammar, and the pronunciation of the character with the recorded voice of a real native Chinese speaker.
Can I read Traditional Chinese on Niú Chinese?
You can read Traditional Chinese on this app!
Choose your preferred characters (simplified or traditional) upon signing up, or later in the settings.
Are the stories on Niú Chinese difficult to read?
No it’s not. The reason is, this stories are available for different levels of Chinese from HSK 1 to HSK 6.
So, If you want to read a story suited to your Chinese level, all you have to do is:
Click on ‘all level‘ on the top right corner of your screen and choose your Chinese level.
Can I practice pronunciation on Niú Chinese?
You can!
Each story comes with a recorded version, where a native speakers voice read the story out loud for you.
Also, if you click on a word you do not know, the voice will pronounce it out aloud.
It’s a great feature to help improve you listening capabilities.
If you don’t know about the Chinese tones yet, make sure to check out our guide on how to remember Chinese tones forever.
Can I learn Chinese with Niú Chinese?
After using the app for some time, I can confidently say that this app can help you learn a lot of new Chinese vocabulary.
For me, it is a wonderful app and I really enjoyed reading their stories!
To improve all aspects of the Chinese language (reading, writing, speaking and listening), make sure to take classes with a professional native teacher.
REMEMBER THOUGH | Using apps may be great as a companion study tool, but to really master a language, instant feedback and a structured curriculum is a must.
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