Learning Chinese the Candy Crush Way

Speaking as a recovering Candy Crush addict, I will be the first to vouch for the allure of a Chinese Language Learning App promising to teach the language in a way that borrows Candy Crush's addictive magic formula of challenge and reward.  Welcome to the world of gamification, where the scientific principles of game psychology could turn the dullest experience into something you can't stop doing. 

Photocredit: AFP, Channelnewsasia

That's exactly what Chinese language apps like Memrise, Chineseskill and Skritter are trying to do.  Using the standard formula of challenge, praise and reward, they hope to make learning the language easy for working professionals hoping to get acquainted with the language, and more importantly perhaps, get access into the growing Chinese economy by first being able to speak the language.   For many professionals working in Hong Kong and China, this must be a God send.

While Singapore's Chinese majority's mother tongue is purportedly Mandarin, I think the truth is nowhere near.  In an asiaone report in 2009, Ministry of Education reported that 3 out of 5 Primary One children come from homes that speak predominantly English.  And with Chinese Language tuition centres like Berries World enjoying such phenomenal success, I certainly think the Chinese Language app originally designed for our 'Ang Moh' counterparts might have many willing parents and (hopefully) willing children signing up too.  Singapore's smartphone penetration rate is one of the highest in the world, so there is definitely a market.

Screenshot of Berries World Website

Having said that, I think anyone who thinks these Chinese Language apps will in any observable way ameliorate our Chinese language woes is probably having a really wet dream.  In the first place, unlike westerners in China and Hong Kong, there aren't many places kids in Singapore can practice whatever they learn.   What many Singaporean Chinese lack is an authentic language learning environment.  Ironically, westerners in Hong Kong and China have a greater chance of benefitting!

Chinese is cool - we hope!

But I think the biggest challenge is a socio-cultural thing.  Mandarin Chinese was never the language of the local Chinese to begin with, so there is little emotional attachment to it.  If anything, there is resentment, it being forced upon them, and it being made out to a conduit by state sanctioned social and nationalistic values.  Having said that, many Singaporean Chinese have bought into the China story.  So to sum it up, these smartphone Chinese language learning apps probably won't make a dent, but at least it might be a good start.