Sources and technology key to balanced language education

Thanks to advancements in technology, learning Chinese is perhaps easier than ever.

Don't get me wrong, it's still an extremely challenging language for a native English speaker to grasp. But unlike when I was studying Spanish 10 years ago, improvements in videoconferencing and especially cellphone apps have made learning at all hours of the day more possible.

Before I took my first one-on-one Chinese lesson in May, I was learning basic vocabulary with the app HelloChinese. The app, which is free (!), uses mostly pinyin and features an enjoyable array of pictures, speaking activities and Chinese-character-writing exercises. My favorite part of the app is when a video recording of what appears to be a random Chinese person selected in public by the HelloChinese developers appears on the screen to utter a vocabulary word or phrase from the lesson.