Reviews (27)
1- Some pictures are ambiguous. 2- Odd pronunciation in that the 3rd tone would sound like 2 separate ones. 3- Need internet connection if you want to keep your streak.. else, when you have internet again, all are reverted back to the day when you last had internet, even the timer.
Great app! I love the categories! Instead of your native language being the focal point of learning Mandarin, there's limited English so that it actually feels like you're practicing Mandarin. You're looking at, reading, and listening to Mandarin. There's a glossary of learned vocabulary which you can look at if you forget the meaning of a word. But with most of the pictures, it's easy to remember.
I have to revise my rating because some of the images are impossible to interpret correctly, especially those for the times of day. Very frustrating when you know the word but misunderstand the picture. Otherwise it's still a great app.
Just did the first day trial. I think it's take good! But a bit expensive for premium.
I was using this to learn the Chinese radicals. However, I am going to delete it. There are too many errors. Either the tone being said is wrong or the tone with the pinyin is incorrect. Also, the constant ad notifications are annoying. It's too expensive for an app that's full of errors. The only positive is that it is great for learning to write characters.
This app is great besides the (female) audio. The voice sometimes doesn't match the pinyin tone, which is confusing. (Is iy on purpose, though?) Also, the pronounciation of some words doesn't sound authentic, and I've been casually learning Mandarin for nearly two years. Please correct me if I'm talking nonsense, though! It can be an accent that I'm not familiar with... Otherwise, I highly reccomend Drops! It really stands out among the many apps I've used, and it's one of the few I've kept. ❤
Button responsiveness is not good in the matching scene/activity (please other areas as well) when you do speed drills; you thought you tapped it but you didn't. Guided writing where you make the water fill the character is frustrating (could use more leeway there) as you will never ever be able to guess when the line should stop. The animation wastes time; is there an option to turn it off? The handwriting where you actually write is great. It's a good language learning app.
The best part is that it has pronounciation for everything! But has some downsides. Sometimes two words have almost the same picture. Sometimes that game about drawing a line on the square of letters is buggy and rejects a valid path. Drawing Chinese characters is included only for several most basic elements, and without that, I find memorizing characters impossible (but I've decided to try starting with pronounciation only, as it's fun anyway and won't hurt).
I really enjoy it. It teaches me a lot, and I like how you can always see the vocabulary and hear pronunciation even when your five minutes are up. I'd recommend practicing in a space where you're comfortable to try to pronounce what you learn. It's faster and more fun. Having a limit on learning can be annoying, but it helps you not get burnt out.
Drops is in my opinion better than any other language learning app for learning vocabulary, but it could use some improvements. 1) Sometimes the swipe left or right questions are obviously wrong, like 刀 above and only 火 below. The characters don't match, so you can get it right even without knowing the answer. 2) Questions should get more difficult over time, like going from 4 choices to 8. 3) Needs more question types. Ideas: audio only, selecting relevant responses, and fixing mistakes.
The app has a big problem. After learning about 20 or so words, the app stops pronouncing new words that it is teaching you. This happened once in the multi-language app and now a second time in the mandarin app. I've contacted Drops twice. Still hoping to hear back. I considered purchasing the lifetime subscription, but if it malfunctions like this with no customer support, it's not worth the risk. I can't learn new words on mute. I tried restarting, updating, in app settings, etc.
GREAT idea (to use graphics instead of translation), but still seems to have some problems (I have the Premium subscription): Main problem for me is that the app is unresponsive unless on a very good internet connection to outside China- which is often not the case in China... Other suggestions for improvements: • Some graphics are too ambiguous • Sometimes the right answer will "bounce" slightly to give you a hint: this happens much too early, giving away the answer before you've had time to really think hard... • Tones (very important in mandarin): some screens, the pinyin+tones are just too small print, or too quickly flashed to read the tones • Screens with just graphic + characters need to show tones (pinyin) on answer, not just pronounce the word • Need to be able to personalise - tailor sets of words to suit user's needs; make it so users can compile a set of words for a particular circumstance (e.g. my walk to work; my work; my shopping trip). • Finally, I don't like to set up accounts, nor provide lots of info & personal data to the providers & their 3rd parties; I am happy to pay a reasonable price for a quality app, and keep my privacy.
This app is turly helpful! I am using is for nearly a week and if I would have the money I would go to premium for the unlimited time and content. I love that it teaches you in a very friendly way and uses different techniqued to deepen the learned words. The design is just so friendly and beautiful, I love it. I can only just recommend it. Have fun using it! ^^
I wish you could show pinyin on-demand and hide it otherwise, so that we can learn the character but learn how to pronounce it still. Also, it would be nice to know the meaning of each character on-demand as well. Writing practice would be nice. Otherwise, it's nice and quick, and the graphics are simple, yet descriptive enough. Glad I don't have to type!
I've used drops for Italian, Spanish and Chinese. If your looking for a way to quickly build your vocabulary this is way to go. The interface is easy to use and eye catching. The topics of vocabulary are well sorted. You are also continually tested on words you previously learnt. I highly recommend purchasing premium!
I like the 5 minutes idea, but the free version does not allow you to review practice, so you end up forgetting whatever you've learned. Not only that, they prevent the free users from viewing the list of words previously learned! Besides, the app teaches words only. Consider other apps, like HelloChinese, Duolingo, Memrise, ChineseSkill/Lingodeer, Buusu, etc.
i will start by saying if you got this to become fluent in the language then probably isnt for you. if you want a start of understanding words and structure than this can help . its super useful and helpful. I wish you could replay the words more but the visual and the test help. will I be an expert no but I'll understand words when they are used and be able to recognize them.
Very slowly .... It's tedious ....5 minutes of language but we are need waiting 5 minutes for start the application ....
Really enjoying the new seasonal word lists. I wouldn't recommend drops by itself to a total beginner but it's great for expanding your vocabulary.
Hi, Drops Team. I really appreciate the effort and time you poured into this app and its amazing, thats why I downloaded and tried it out. But unfortunately I wasn't able to received a reminder for me to cancelled my subscription and google play automatically charged me for a year premium account which is P3290. I have a plan in the future to avail the said account but not today. The pandemic is still roaming around and that amount is huge for me. Especially I still dont have work now. :(
I would gladly pay for pro if you had hsk specific vocab training available:)
I've only used this app once so far, but I love it! I like the use of 5 minutes of your time is free, so I hope they continue on the way I'm imagining they will! I study Chinese in university so this is just something to get extra vocab, so I don't need a lot of time in the app. There hasn't been any ads yet, I wouldn't mind of there was, as long as they weren't extremely loud. Anyways, it's a good app so far!
I really love the app. Unique but simple. I think it's very effective. I want to suggest adding phrases or sayings often used in situations. I really love the vocabulary and more vocabulary the better. I hope an option or an add-on with phrases used learnt in this style would be something I would love to see in the future. Again thank you for the app, really useful and valuable for me learning. 😀😁
Good for a wide range of vocabulary in many different useful topic sections. Haven't been introduced to any actual phrases yet, but maybe I just haven't used it enough yet. The free version is limited to 5 free minutes a day unless you watch an ad for an extra minute.
Good for supplemental vocab and really intuitive! Edit: took away one star for the notifications, I never get the reminder notifications and when I get any notifications at all they tell me I still have time to learn when I actually don't. It's very frustrating.
The app would have gotten a 5 but, there is a page where you assemble the characters and the characters are hard to move. There is also a horizontal line that never moves and you end up spending 3 of your 5 minutes trying to move it.
I haven't checked the full content yet but the first few minutes of using left me a really good impression. I'm someone who needs to learn through repetition and this app does the job very well. The exercises are varied enough that it doesn't feel boring to spend a few minutes learning and revising and adding new words slowly.