Chineasy

Chineasy
HeadquartersLondon,
UK
Founder(s)ShaoLan Hsueh
CEOShaoLan Hsueh
IndustryOnline education, Chinese Language, Graphic Design, Education
ServicesSecond language acquisition (Chinese)
URLchineasy.com
Advertisingno
Registrationno
Launched14 February 2013; 11 years ago (2013-02-14)
Current statusOnline and publications

Chineasy is an internet startup founded with the mission of teaching Chinese. It was created by entrepreneur Shaolan Hsueh,[1] and the teams operate from the UK and Taiwan. The approach is to learn Chinese characters with the help of illustrations to help memorize Chinese characters better. The 2014 book Chineasy: The New Way to Read Chinese contains about 400 characters.[2] It was based on her 2013 TED talk[3] and funded via a crowdfunding campaign through Kickstarter.[4]

While the book introduces common Chinese characters, it does not teach pronunciation or grammar, and thus does not teach how to read or use the language, although it does use voice recordings for the users to mimic.[5]

Chineasy's first app, Chineasy, launched in 2018, provides an accessible and engaging approach to learning Chinese through interactive flashcards and quizzes. Recognized as an Apple App Store Editor's Choice, the app achieved top rankings, reaching #2 in the UK and #6 in the US in the education category. Chineasy was also featured during the keynote address at Apple’s 2019 Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in San Jose, highlighting its debut on the new Apple Watch App Store. In 2022, the app was a finalist in the Apple Design Awards for its emphasis on Delight & Fun.[6]

In 2024, Chineasy released the Talk Chineasy app.

Set of characters

Chineasy teaches sometimes traditional and sometimes simplified forms. Hsueh argued that traditional and simplified forms of Chinese still share a great number of characters, and in real life – just as in the case of British English and American English – you will come across both forms. Where they differ, she shows the other version as well.[7]

Reception

Chineasy has been widely featured in the press, including the Financial Times,[8] the Wall Street Journal,[9] Time magazine,[10] and National Public Radio.[11] It won Wallpaper’s 2014 Design Award.[12] Hsueh's book uses illustrations and storytelling.[13] Characters are illustrated by various illustrators including Noma Bar.[14]

According to sinologist and linguist Victor H. Mair, "anyone who deceives him/herself into thinking that using Chineasy is a magic bullet for learning Chinese will simply be wasting his/her time." He wrote:

"First of all, if you employ Ms. Hsueh’s methods, you won’t learn any real Chinese language. You won’t know the sound of a single Chinese word. You won’t even know the sound of a single Chinese character. You won’t learn anything about Chinese grammar or syntax. You won’t be able to speak or write a single Chinese sentence. If you doggedly persist, you might learn to recognize a hundred or so individual characters, but you wouldn’t know how to pronounce them or use them in any meaningful context.
What is worse, you will be subjected to a lot of assertions that are wrong."[15]

References

  1. ^ "Want to speak Chinese? It's Chineasy, says ShaoLan Hsueh". Metro. 2014-03-13. Retrieved 2017-10-05.
  2. ^ Chineasy: The New Way to Read Chinese (Flexibound ed.). HarperCollins Publishers. ISBN 978-0062332097.
  3. ^ "Learn to read Chinese...with ease". TED.com. May 5, 2013.
  4. ^ "Chineasy: The easiest way to learn Chinese". Kickstarter.com. July 23, 2013.
  5. ^ Victor Mair (March 19, 2014). "Chineasy? Not". Language Log. Retrieved April 14, 2017.
  6. ^ "2022 winners and finalists - Apple Design Awards - Apple Developer". developer.apple.com. Retrieved July 18, 2024.
  7. ^ Murphy, Siobhan (March 13, 2014). "How Chineasy inventor ShaoLan Hsueh used beautiful design to decode Mandarin and Cantonese". Metro.co.uk.
  8. ^ Berwick, Isabel (August 9, 2013). "Learn Mandarin the Chineasy way". FT.com.
  9. ^ Wolfe, Alexandra (March 14, 2014). "A New Way to Learn Chinese". WSJ.com.
  10. ^ "Chineasy: A New Way to Learn Chinese Characters". Time. Retrieved 2017-02-19.
  11. ^ "These Cute Images Make Reading Chinese Characters 'Chineasy'". NPR.org. Retrieved 2017-02-19.
  12. ^ Wallpaper* Design Awards (January 15, 2014). "Wallpaper* Design Awards Life Enhancer of the Year – Wallpaper*". Wallpaper.com.
  13. ^ "Chineasy illustrated characters designed to make learning Chinese easy". Dezeen. Retrieved 2015-10-23.
  14. ^ Wainwright, Oliver (2014-03-26). "Chineasy peasy: Noma Bar brings fun and colour to Chinese characters". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2017-10-05.
  15. ^ Victor Mair: Chineasy? Not 19 March 2014, Language log, Linguistic Data Consortium, University of Pennsylvania.