Hanzi Explorer 9.5

Hanzi Explorer is one of the best softwares for learning Chinese. First of all it's based on teaching you the chinese characters. The most common characters are about 2500. So don't thing that in a few months you will learn it. You need years to study it, but Hanzi will help you.

Every Chinese character will be displayed with colored components and animated in big size stroke by stroke. The software will draw the character exactly in the strokes order and also shows the exact direction of the strokes. To be sure that you will learn how to pronunce these characters, the software has the ability to read them based on the voice of a chinese broadcast announcer. Even if you are not a chinese native speaker, you will be able to understand the pronounciation because the voice of the announcer is very clear.

There is also dictionary present that shows the pronunciation of the characters and the multiple tones of them that means different things.

If you pay the whole product you will get access also to chinese study books that will help you in further learning process. If you need a pause you can play some educational games like quiz, memory, etc.

The interface is like a puzzle, because all the commands have chinese explanation. But if you try them you will understand their meaning. Be sure to use frequently the right mouse button. Only in this way you will get all the options.

Pluses: how the characters are displayed; the dictionary, the pronunciation

Drawbacks / flaws: the interface is not intuitive

In conclusion: It is very helpful in learning reading and writing Chinese.

version reviewed: 9.1