THE GEEK CORNER

>ADDICTIVE CHINESE

Rated one of the best apps of the year by Rewind magazine, Mindsnacks combines eight addictive cartoon games with vocabulary essentials necessary to grow fluency in Mandarin. The app features 1000+ words and phrases, 50 Chinese lessons, personalized learning algorithms, and side quests and challenges. You’ll be learning Chinese in no time, and coming back for more! Despite selling for a steep $4.99, it’s still a great buy for your iOS device. – TERENCE HSIEH (謝燕輝)

>CARTOONS FOR SLANG-ERS

Pop Chinese is a great addition to a ny Chinese-building software you might want. This free app presents scenarios in lively-illustrated cartoons with language content that will help you boost your professional or conversational Chinese. Want to learn the latest slang? Pop Chinese has it all: 靠譜兒 (kàopǔr, reliable, believable), 雷人 (léirén, shocking), 白菜價(jià) (báicàijià, cabbage price, cheap), 真牛 (zhēnniú), very good, very well) along with many other useful pieces of slang found in this great app. Each illustrated cartoon comes with a narrated explanation of the target phrase, as well as a short narrated dialogue to give it context. Each phrase comes in both Chinese, pinyin and a translation, so beginners and advanced slang-ers alike, have no excuse to not fit in with the locals. Although the description of the app is a little strange (“l(fā)earn real Chinese that will help you EARN MORE MONEY from Chinese customers” 掏光中國游客的錢！Tāo guāng Zhōngguó yóukè de qián!), there is a lot to learn from this free program. – T.H.

>DITCH THE TRANSLATOR AND NAVIGATE YOUR OWN WAY AROUND CHINA

LucSens Ltd’s Lost in China app is perfect for anyone who needs an emergency translator, but can’t afford (or has no desire) to hire someone to follow them around whispering English phrases into their ears. Lost in China allows the user to scan Chinese characters, which it in turn recognizes, returning back etymology, pronunciation, meaning and even flashcard input for over 3,000 words. As a free app, this is a must-have for anybody who needs immediate dictionary support in their everyday life. – T.H.

FIAD THE SECRET WARD, WIA A AAE-YEAR SUBSCRIPTIAA!

In the grid, cross off the characters that compose the words from the list below until only one is left—the secret word! Send the secret word with its English definition to editor@ theworldofchinese.com to enter a draw for a free oneyear subscription!

coal (煤炭 méitàn)

flounder (比目魚 bǐmùyú)

Drinking under the Moon (月下獨(dú)酌

Yuèxià Dúzhuó)

craft beer (微釀啤酒 wēiniàng píjiǔ)

third-tier cities (三線城市 sānxiàn chéngshì)

Hanging Monastery (懸空寺 Xuánkōng Sì)

daily life (日常生活 rìcháng shēnghuó)