“The essential app for anyone seriously wanting to learn a language, period”
Why Migaku is the best app for learning Chinese
Look up and study Chinese Words
Click Chinese words in websites and subtitles and see their definitions, images, pronunciations, and ChatGPT AI-generated explanations in real context.
Learn Chinese in Chinese with Migaku. Whether your goal is basic Chinese, or passing the HSK. Migaku helps you focus on learning the new words most relevant to your own goals.
youtube.com
真正的锋利不需要任何力道
Real sharpness comes without effort
你的剑很快，凌厉是不错，但花架子终究是花架子
花哨？愚蠢！
真正的锋利不需要任何力道
只要触碰到你，就会被斩断!
Tap the words
Hover over the words
try it!
Create flashcards with a single click
Create flashcards for a Chinese sentence in context! Learning Chinese from your favorite kung fu movies, or c-dramas is effective and enjoyable!
The flashcards you make contain:
The new word you’re learning and its context sentence, a screenshot, audio, definition, an AI explanation for it and more.
netflix.com
Create a card
try it!
羡慕
What does this word mean in context?
The term "羡慕" expresses a sense of admiration for someone else's situation, possessions, or qualities, coupled with a
Sourced from ChatGPT
to envy
to admire
有何可羡慕的
Study Chinese where you want, when you want
Study your flashcards on the computer or on your phone, enjoy learning Chinese in a way that fits into your life.
You review your flashcards just before you’re about to forget them. You can learn a large number of Chinese words without the fear that you will end up forgetting them.
Enjoy studying like a pro anytime, anywhere
Track words you learn and find content at your level
Migaku tracks all the Chinese words you learn.
This data is used to create a Chinese comprehension score for every site you visit. You can reference this score to find content at your level.
weibo.com
If you’re just beginning...
How do you learn basic Chinese?
Start learning Chinese with our Beginner Courses. They teach you Chinese pronunciation, and then 80% of the most common Chinese words and grammar patterns used in Chinese TV shows and movies.
Teaches basic up to intermediate Chinese
Comprehensive lessons introduce new Chinese words and grammar
Study 1 new word at a time
ao
/āo/
Extra Info
For the diphthong ao, the a blends into an o sound, akin to the in ”how”.
ai
/āi/
Extra Info
For the diphthong ai, the a keeps its original sound but quickly blends into an ee sound, similar to the i in ”fight”.
Adrian Reed
The browser extension is an amazing tool that covers almost everything a learner can dream of. Even if you are already fluent in a language, it can still help you getting the extra edge! Also, the community and support are awesome and you can really see the developers care about the users.
Alexander | 苦集滅道
Been using the Migaku Toolset for a good while now and I'm amazed. This has literally changed my life by changing my daily routine. I love this so much and I'll recommend this to everyone I know who is also interested in language learning 😊
AAV
@every1lovesAalex
As a language learning approach, Migaku is compassionate and human. It is truly refreshing to have these philosophies be brought to the community.
bfongbfong
After a year I can actually hold a decent conversation with my grandparents in Mandarin! I hated not being able to understand what everyone was gossiping about, laughing about, or upset about at the dinner table, but now I actually can connect with my family on a deeper level thanks to Migaku.
Manuel Tausch
@manulicious
I'm using Migaku to learn Chinese and I'm making a TON of progress creating flashcards on the fly from Netflix subtitles using the Migaku browser extension. This feature is a GAME CHANGER and really speeds up my flashcard creation process, the cards even contain the originally dialogue audio and screenshots. This really improves my reading, listening and speaking skills!
MAW
Makes tracking progress and learning new words easier :)
Thomas Collins
I am a serial Chinese language app user Lingodeer, ChineseSkill, Ling, Lingq, The Chairman's bao, Memrise, SuperChinese, Mondly are all apps I have lifetime subscriptions with but this is by far the most fun and powerful. If I were to recommend one app to a person learning Chinese Migaku is the one. It has courses for newbies and is so flexible and powerful you'll be able to use it as an advanced learner.
Joanna
@Joanna-le9fk
I recently started to enjoy immersion learning… and it is very effective. 👍
Nick Heller
Discovering Migaku for Mandarin has been the most mind-blowing experience for language learning I've ever had. The integration between comprehensible input with Netflix, Youtube, etc. and flashcards/anki is awesome!
Eli Goodrich
I became frustrated with the endless glut of subpar language resources... Migaku does all of the heavy lifting for you: customized card creation in Anki or its native app... I have now reached an upper B2 level... Migaku has turned it from a laborious process into an exciting life's journey.
SamD
Since early years Migaku has been helping me in my studies of Mandarin Chinese (Traditional Characters) to advance in my intermediate level. The tools offered to help me develop my vocabulary and comprehesion of my target language while enjoying the media that I like, it doesnt have a price.
FAQ
Migaku makes learning Chinese from native content like C-dramas and kung fu movies incredibly easy. It works like this:
- Parse → Analyze a video, web page, or selection of text with Migaku. This makes it possible to interact with the text or subtitles.
- Look up → Watch your movie, read your webnovel—or whatever you enjoy. As you come across unknown words, click to see what they mean, hear natives pronounce them, see images of them, and learn from AI-generated explanations.
- Flashcards → If a word looks useful, you can turn it into a flashcard with a single click. Flashcards contain the selected word, the sentence it appeared in, an audio snippet from your video, and a screenshot from your video.
- Review → Migaku’s spaced repetition flashcard system will nudge you to review your flashcards over time, ensuring you eventually remember them.
This immersion-based approach ensures that users learn the specific Chinese vocabulary words they need to consume the content they enjoy.
Yes, Migaku is perfect for absolute Chinese beginners! All Migaku subscriptions include unlimited access to two simplified Chinese courses:
- Migaku Chinese Fundamentals → Learn pinyin and Chinese pronunciation
- Migaku Japanese Academy → Learn the ~1,500 Chinese vocabulary words and ~330 Chinese grammar patterns necessary to follow 80% of Chinese media content
At a pace of 10 flashcards per day (roughly 30 minutes per day), Migaku’s structured courses will bring users from zero to intermediate Chinese in about six months.
While Migaku is not designed to help users master Chinese pronunciation, we do provide several tools that will enable users to improve their pronunciation and learn the challenging tone system.
- Migaku Mandarin Fundamentals → Learn pinyin pronunciation, starting from vowels and diphthongs like “ao” and “ai” and eventually moving onto tone combinations and minimal-pair training. Each sound covered features an audio and video recording of the native speaker saying the sound.
- Color coding → Chinese content parsed by Migaku, Migaku’s flashcards, and our in-course pronunciation guides all include optional color coding for different tones (1st tone: red, 2nd tone: yellow, 3rd tone: green, 4th tone: blue, neutral/5th tone: grey). This gives learners one more cue to latch onto as they build their listening skills.
- Immersion → A big part of learning Mandarin pronunciation simply boils down to spending a lot of time interacting with Mandarin media—hearing native speakers speak their language. Migaku provides learners with the tools necessary to begin consuming media, even if they are still a beginner.
Essentially, the platform helps you learn proper tones in context through real examples rather than isolated practice.
Absolutely! Migaku tracks the Chinese words that a user learns and utilizes this data to calculate a comprehension score for all Chinese content the user interacts with. This score gives users a visual representation of how hard a piece of content will be for them, given their current vocabulary.
User data indicates that Migaku users can sustainably learn 10 words per day, while power users regularly double or triple that number. Some users have achieved vocabularies of over 40,000 words.
Unlike traditional Chinese learning apps, Migaku focuses on enabling users to learn from authentic, native content rather than artificial textbook examples.
- Other apps → Most Chinese apps don’t see their users staying around long-term. They expect that learners will subscribe, learn basic Chinese, and then move on to whatever it is that they really want to do.
- Migaku → Migaku provides structured learning to beginners, technological support to intermediates beginning to explore Chinese media, and convenience to advanced learners who want to spend more time consuming media and less time preparing learning materials.
- Beginner — If a user knows no Chinese, they can start learning with Migaku’s courses.
- Intermediate — Once a user gets their feet under them, Migaku provides the boost they need to begin enjoying native Chinese media.
- Advanced — Advanced learners can continue doing whatever they do, and Migaku will streamline the process of looking up unknown words and making flashcards.
If you’re new to immersion-based learning approaches, see this video for more information:
Migaku is not intended to prepare users for the Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi (HSK). Instead, Migaku has three main goals:
- Build a foundation → Bring users from zero to a level where they are ready to begin consuming real Chinese media as efficiently as possible
- Facilitate immersion → Provide users with tools that make it easier to engage with media in Mandarin
- Remember words → With one click, users can create media-rich flashcards directly from their media of choice
The immersion-based approach helps learners understand nuanced meanings and usage patterns that pure textbook study often misses. For this reason, interacting with real Chinese media is an essential element of any HSK preparation.
Having said that, Migaku’s Chinese Academy teaches ~330 basic Chinese grammar points, covering the majority of grammatical structures encountered through HSK 5, so Migaku is still a good choice even for learners that definitely plan to take the HSK.
While Migaku’s courses are only offered with simplified characters, the wider platform supports both Traditional and Simplified Chinese characters.
- A setting enables users to change simplified characters in subtitles, webpages, and so forth to traditional characters (and vice versa)
- Dictionaries are available for both words written with traditional Chinese characters and simplified Chinese characters
- Migaku recognizes both simplified and traditional characters, regardless of whether the user has indicated that they prefer one set of characters or the other
So, yes: Migaku supports both writing systems, and can be used by learners interested in learning Mandarin Chinese as spoken in China, Taiwan, or elsewhere.
Migaku offers comprehensive Chinese learning starting at $10 USD per month.
- Migaku Standard → $10 monthly / $96 yearly
- Migaku EA → $15 monthly / $144 yearly
- Migaku Lifetime → $499, one-time payment
All subscriptions provide unlimited access to Migaku’s features—the word-lookup system, one-tap flashcard creation, SRS flashcards, vocabulary word tracking, courses for beginners, and more. Users with an EA (Early Access) subscription will be able to test new features before they are made public.
To start learning with Migaku, or to see which features are currently in active development, see Migaku's pricing page.
