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I just simply do DuoLingo from the browser to skip the Hanzi lessons as it’s not available on there.
What is very annoying is how they’re not trying to force you to use the characters without any Pinyin, ..
For me, these exercises without pinyin are the most useful.
I want to be able to read Chinese better.
When I first did EN-中文 two years ago there wasn't any pinyin - but there were not yet hearts to lose back then either...
It’s good you enjoy them but myself and many (especially on Reddit) have our preference for how we learn. Without Pinyin this app is pretty much useless for me so the subscription will likely be cancelled.
Without Pinyin this app is pretty much useless for me
Did you try the technique suggested by @Perris on Feb. 3? This is probably the best you can get from Duolingo if your intention is not to learn Hanzi.
No I just simply do it from the browser, this way it just removes all Hanzi lessons. But sadly the issue of it not showing Pinyin always still happens.
I am not sure if it will help but under your settings for Chinese (the face icon and then pick how to personalize it) you can opt to see pinyin with new words. Maybe that option will help. For me personally, learning the hanzi has been good as it is helping me to recognize words. I have to admit it takes a while and I am still not great at it but I am slowly learning to recognize characters and that is a huge step in learning to read. Mind you, I live in China so hanzi is everywhere...LOL
lrai
what's your legacy Learning Yiddish, Chinese, Russian and Spanish
You know, in Chinese, it’s often hard to get the meaning across without tones, context, and characters.
Studying only by sound is like playing with just half of a puzzle,
and it can easily lead to misunderstandings and confusion.
That’s why if you gradually learn the characters too, you’ll be able to use Chinese more confidently and enjoyably!
I think it’s difficult even for native speakers to understand sentences like these↓ by reading the pronunciation alone.
At the very least, you might need to say them out loud and think carefully to figure them out.
Examples:
wǒ wèn nǐ (I ask you.)
wǒ wěn nǐ (I kiss you.)
yī wǎn shuǐjiǎo duōshǎo qián? (How much for one bowl of dumplings?)
yī wǎn shuìjiào duōshǎo qián? (How much for one night of sleep?) In certain contexts, it could be interpreted as a bit risqué.
wǒ yào mǎi shū (I want to buy books.)
wǒ yào mài shū (I want to sell books.)
wǒ zài kàn shū (I'm reading a book.)
wǒ zài kǎn shù (I'm chopping down a tree.)
wǒ yào hē tāng (I want to drink soup.)
wǒ yào hē táng (I want to drink sugar.)
wǒ ài nǐ (I love you.)
wǒ ài nǐ (I’m bothering you.) These sound exactly the same.
māma mà mǎ ma? (Does mom scold the horse?)
mǎ mà māma ma? (Does the horse scold mom?)
And what's troubling is that there are countless examples like this...
I am not sure if it will help but under your settings for Chinese (the face icon and then pick how to personalize it) you can opt to see pinyin with new words. Maybe that option will help. For me personally, learning the hanzi has been good as it is helping me to recognize words. I have to admit it takes a while and I am still not great at it but I am slowly learning to recognize characters and that is a huge step in learning to read. Mind you, I live in China so hanzi is everywhere...LOL
I currently have it set to “All Words” but that’s currently broken as it doesn’t work. Even when I was doing one course they were giving incorrect answers along with the Hanzi which made it even worse.
No matter what I have zero interest or intention to learn Hanzi, like many on Reddit. If they don’t fix it soon I’ll just simply stop using and paying for the app, simple as that.
No matter what I have zero interest or intention to learn Hanzi, like many on Reddit. If they don’t fix it soon I’ll just simply stop using and paying for the app, simple as that.
Since your intention is not to learn Hanzi, it appears that the goal is to learn conversational Chinese (as you will never see anything written in pinyin in real life). If that is the case Duolingo may not be the right tool, no matter what. You may want to explore applications that focus on audio exercises like Primsleur (mentioned by @Thomas.Heiss on 24. Dec 2024).
Users in this forum are in no way affiliated with Duolingo so none of us has any power to request any feature change or anything from the corporation. Instead what you read here are opinions and suggestions of people trying to be helpful. Because this is a diverse community, what you read is not always what you would like to hear and yet it might be helpful to view things from different perspectives.
No matter what I have zero interest or intention to learn Hanzi, like many on Reddit. If they don’t fix it soon I’ll just simply stop using and paying for the app, simple as that.
Since your intention is not to learn Hanzi, it appears that the goal is to learn conversational Chinese (as you will never see anything written in pinyin in real life). If that is the case Duolingo may not be the right tool, no matter what. You may want to explore applications that focus on audio exercises like Primsleur (mentioned by @Thomas.Heiss on 24. Dec 2024).
Users in this forum are in no way affiliated with Duolingo so none of us has any power to request any feature change or anything from the corporation. Instead what you read here are opinions and suggestions of people trying to be helpful. Because this is a diverse community, what you read is not always what you would like to hear and yet it might be helpful to view things from different perspectives.
That’s the thing, it’s not a case of requesting a new feature or something like that, the course is broken and has a bug. There’s no point in having the option to show Pinyin for all words when it doesn’t even work since the last course refresh. Even the translations are wrong, it clearly has issues.
It’s also good to understand the perspective of people who just want to learn to speak a language and both bother with writing as well. Here people may be more favorable towards Hanzi but as I’ve mentioned, on other sites like Reddit people are unhappy about it being forced on them and it will just cost this app users.
There’s no point in having the option to show Pinyin for all words when it doesn’t even work since the last course refresh. Even the translations are wrong, it clearly has issues.
Okay, please don't get upset with me for the following:
If all you want to do is "speak" a language that is okay, but you are missing so much of the culture and depth of that language when you can't read or write it. At first when I came to China all I wanted was to be able to understand when people spoke to me and that I could reply back, however the inability to read or write Chinese soon became an issue. Yes, I can use a translator, or have help, but to be honest I find that both of those options make me dependent on someone or something and I miss out on so much. It is a pain to learn the Hanzi and it's slow for me, but I can honestly say that it has been a boon to my learning Chinese and since starting this task I have begun to recognize characters and that has been amazing for me.
I am not telling you or anyone how to learn a language, but from experience being able to read and write in that 2nd, 3rd etc language I believe is essential to really learning the language. It can open up so much more into that culture and world. Again this is only my opinion and experience.
lrai
what's your legacy Learning Yiddish, Chinese, Russian and Spanish
I'm in a similar boat here, learning to speak Mandarin so I can communicate when I'm visiting my wife's family in Taiwan. I can appreciate why everyone on here is adamant that people should learn to read and write Chinese as well as speaking it, but from the context of going to Taiwan learning simplified Chinese is kind of useless because everything is in traditional. The OP doesn't really specify that, but it's very important to recognize because a lot of people using Duolingo are probably using it to travel to Taiwan, and it is a different written language.
learning to speak Mandarin so I can communicate when I'm visiting my wife's family in Taiwan.
(...)
but from the context of going to Taiwan learning simplified Chinese is kind of useless because everything is in traditional.
This is correct. In this context learning Chinese for speaking only or learning traditional characters is a very legitimate goal. Learning traditional characters has a topic on its own:
This topic focuses more on not learning hanzi at all and it is a legitimate goal as well - you do not have to learn characters if you do not want to. Most likely though you will want to write Chinese vocabulary somehow for the sake of learning. Pinyin might be a good option for that. Your case could be more complicated because Taiwan uses a different system for transliteration - zhuyin - that is harder to learn but offers some advantages (check out this thread: viewtopic.php?t=38491-learning-by-zhuyi ... support-it)
The bottom line is - whether you want to learn Chinese writing or not it is totally up to you. Whether you want to learn simplified or traditional characters is also up to you - both systems have pros and cons and it really depends on your situation.
The question that remains is whether Duolingo provides the toolset to meet your needs. The answer is no - it does not - at the moment it does not offer the course in traditional characters. Moreover it appears that the function to display pinyin above hanzi in a consistent manner is broken as other users have reported. Traditional characters may come one day or never come - betting on it might be a bit risky if your schedule is tight.
Yesterday, for the first time, the lessons have hansi writing practice. My other account doesn't have hansi writing practice and never has. I've been using Duolingo for 4 years and suddenly I'm being forced to learn to write. Has everyone always had writing practice?
Yesterday, for the first time, the lessons have hansi writing practice. My other account doesn't have hansi writing practice and never has. I've been using Duolingo for 4 years and suddenly I'm being forced to learn to write. Has everyone always had writing practice?
Mine only started it recently, maybe in the last few months and I’ve been using over a year. They also force Hanzi still and don’t provide Pinyin, even for brand new words. The course just seems to be broken.
I’ve been learning Chinese for a while now, and one thing I realized is that just reading or listening isn’t enough — I would forget new words almost as fast as I learned them.
What really made a difference for me was actively typing and listening at the same time. That’s why I started using https://typingmandarin.com — it’s a free site where you hear short Chinese sentences (sorted by HSK level) and type exactly what you hear, tone marks included.
Typing forces me to recall characters and pinyin from memory, not just recognize them. It’s like muscle memory for your brain. When I listen, type, and then see the correct sentence instantly, the repetition locks the pattern in my head.
It also helps me notice word order, tone patterns, and small grammar points that I’d usually miss in passive listening. After a few days, I started remembering whole phrases instead of isolated words.
If you’re struggling to retain vocabulary, I highly recommend trying something interactive like this — it turns listening practice into active recall, and it’s surprisingly fun!
YES, I couldn't have said it better! As a teacher I know that some kids need the kinetic input for learning anything. When they can do it, they can learn it. I am also a kinetic learner (learn by doing) so doing the hanzi practice for me has been essential. I will check out the link you suggested so I can dive deeper. Thanks.
lrai
what's your legacy Learning Yiddish, Chinese, Russian and Spanish
I’ve been learning Chinese for a while now, and one thing I realized is that just reading or listening isn’t enough — I would forget new words almost as fast as I learned them.
What really made a difference for me was actively typing and listening at the same time. That’s why I started using https://typingmandarin.com — it’s a free site where you hear short Chinese sentences (sorted by HSK level) and type exactly what you hear, tone marks included.
Typing forces me to recall characters and pinyin from memory, not just recognize them. It’s like muscle memory for your brain. When I listen, type, and then see the correct sentence instantly, the repetition locks the pattern in my head.
It also helps me notice word order, tone patterns, and small grammar points that I’d usually miss in passive listening. After a few days, I started remembering whole phrases instead of isolated words.
If you’re struggling to retain vocabulary, I highly recommend trying something interactive like this — it turns listening practice into active recall, and it’s surprisingly fun!
Does it still require learning Hanzi or can you do Pinyin only? Sadly I had to stop learning after a year due to this app forcing Hanzi.
I would like to introduce the famous tonal tongue-twister poem “The Lion-Eating Poet in the Stone Den (Shī shì shí shī shǐ)” was created by the linguist Zhao Yuanren (Zhào Yuánrèn / 趙元任).
The poem humorously showcases the complexity and playfulness of Chinese tones.
Amazingly, every single word in the poem is pronounced “shi.”
Without the Chinese characters, even native speakers would find it almost impossible to understand.
It is often used as a tongue-twister game to read aloud, but even in the Chinese character version, it remains quite a challenge for native speakers.
Pinyin Version:
Shī shì shí shī shǐ
1 Shí shì shī shì Shī shì, shì shī, shì shí shí shī.
2 Shí shí shì shì shì shī.
3 Shí shí, shì shí shī shì shì.
4 Shì shí, shì Shī shì shì shì.
5 Shī shì shì shì shí shī, shì shǐ shì, shǐ shì shí shī shì shì.
6 Shī shì shí shì shí shī shī, shì shí shì.
7 Shí shì shī, Shī shì shǐ shì shì shí shì.
8 Shí shì shì, Shī shì shǐ shì shí shì shí shī.
9 Shí shí, shǐ shí shì shí shī shī, shí shí shí shī shī.
10 Shì shì shì shì.
English Translation:
Lion-Eating Poet in the Stone Den (Literal translation: The Story of Mr. Shi Eating Lions)
1. In a stone den lived the poet Shi, who loved lions and vowed to eat ten of them.
2. From time to time, he would go to the market to look at lions.
3. At ten o’clock, ten lions happened to arrive at the market.
4. At that time, Shi happened to be at the market.
5. Shi looked at the ten lions, and relying on his skill with arrows, he caused all ten lions to die.
6. Shi collected the carcasses of the ten lions and brought them back to the stone den.
7. The stone den was damp, so Shi had his attendants wipe it dry.
8. After wiping the den, Shi began to prepare to eat the ten lion carcasses.
9. While eating, he realized that the ten lion carcasses were actually made of ten stone lions.
10. Thus, the matter was explained.
For the OP and anyone else who wants to skip Hanzi I finally found a workaround.
All you need to do is do Duolingo from a browser and use the extension "Pinyin Overlay | 拼音叠加" which works for Chrome, Edge and Brave which automatically converts Hanzi to Pinyin. I can finally start learning again after losing my streak of over 1 year!
If you go into settings, preferences if you look you then should see this choice Chinese Pinyin ALL WORDS or Pinyin New Words, so you can see the pinyin with the Hanzi, just in case you want both and need both. This should be an easy fix for all. Hope that helps. BTW just my two cents but learning Hanzi is really worth it if you want to really become fluent in Chinese. It helps you to read, and write at some point, (still working on that part) but it's helped a lot in improving my skills.
lrai
what's your legacy Learning Yiddish, Chinese, Russian and Spanish
If you go into settings, preferences if you look you then should see this choice Chinese Pinyin ALL WORDS or Pinyin New Words, so you can see the pinyin with the Hanzi, just in case you want both and need both. This should be an easy fix for all. Hope that helps. BTW just my two cents but learning Hanzi is really worth it if you want to really become fluent in Chinese. It helps you to read, and write at some point, (still working on that part) but it's helped a lot in improving my skills.
That option is sadly broken but thanks for the suggestion. I've had it on the whole time and it will still not provide Pinyin, even on new words which is the issue. I even reset my course progress just to see if that would help but it didn't. My wife is Chinese (Mandarin is her first language and I am Chinese too but never learnt) so just want to be able to speak and read Pinyin, even she says speaking only is fine.
Oh, that's interesting, the option works fine for me...maybe it's a bug in your version??? I am not a techie type so I can't say for sure. Also that option is on my computer version, not the tablet version app, maybe that is the difference. I live in China and work here so learning to read the characters is useful for me. However I suppose if you are not living in China then it may not be that important. I have found that in learning any language (I am currently doing 4 of them) the ones where I can read the text, I do much better overall. When I can't read the text my ability to really grasp and retain is not as good. Not sure why but that's how it is for me.
lrai
what's your legacy Learning Yiddish, Chinese, Russian and Spanish
Oh, that's interesting, the option works fine for me...maybe it's a bug in your version??? I am not a techie type so I can't say for sure. Also that option is on my computer version, not the tablet version app, maybe that is the difference. I live in China and work here so learning to read the characters is useful for me. However I suppose if you are not living in China then it may not be that important. I have found that in learning any language (I am currently doing 4 of them) the ones where I can read the text, I do much better overall. When I can't read the text my ability to really grasp and retain is not as good. Not sure why but that's how it is for me.
I gave it a try on my tablet to see if the issue persists and it's still there. The issue myself and many have is we got very far in the courses then they suddenly introduced it so there's no way for us to read the words we previously learned and this is a forced option for myself and many others.
And yes I agree if I was to actually live in China I'd considered reading necessary but I have no intentions of moving there so speaking is more than enough.
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Suggestion:
A lot of people want to learn spoken chinese only. There should be an option to do the Chinese lessons entirely in pinyin.
Explanation:
A large subset of users are only looking to improve their Chinese so they can talk with family members. They WILL NEVER write or read anything in hanzi, nor wilk they ever visit any chinese speaking country.
Ov kors, yu kan lern the wey yu wont. But wut wud yu sey if sumwun tryd to develop Inglish lerning materiyuls ritn entaiyerli akording to pronansieyshun? Wudnt yu wont tu ask, 'Waey meyk lerning so difikult on purpus?'
English spelling may seem irregular at first, but it actually helps distinguish homophones, provides grammatical cues, and reinforces memory. The same can be said about Chinese. Imagine trying to learn Chinese using only pinyin, without any characters. Every sound can correspond to dozens of different words, and your brain would have to figure out the meaning entirely on its own. The confusion would be overwhelming—probably fifty times greater than in English! If that’s the path you want to take, I wish you the best of luck!
