Chinese Skill: great drills, grueling marches

Chinese Skill is a good sergeant but a poor general.  It is good at reviewing what you already know, but not so good at helping you get to your goal.  It's not as famous or as slick as apps like Rosetta Stone, Pimsleur, and Duolingo.  But Chinese Skill is not just a cheap imitation.  It packs a variety of unique drills.  Each drill takes just a couple minutes and can easily be squeezed into spare moments of your day.  

The main lessons are very multi-faceted.  They even teach you how to write Chinese.  (I don't think this skill is a priority, since most of the time you'll be typing, not writing by hand.  But still, if it helps you recognize the characters when reading, that's a great thing.) 

    

Learning grammar is necessary, but long written explanations like this are rarely retained.  

  

More snapshots from a lesson.  

  

 

These quizzes have you listen to recordings and then tap on the words you hear.  The video recordings give you practice distinguishing Chinese from a variety of voices.   

 

It includes an SRS flashcard system. But it only practices translation from Chinese audio into English.  It doesn't practice from English to Chinese.

  

Here's a glimpse of their tone drill.  It plays an audio recording and you mark the tones for the words.  I practiced with this drill a lot, and I'm still terrible at it. 

    

Bottom line?  Chinese Skill is great for drill but bad for retention.  

Want to know what tools work better?  Click here.