One app wants you to come back every day. One app wants you to speak Chinese. Sometimes those are different jobs.
Duolingo is a brilliant habit machine that teaches some Chinese along the way. Myra is a Chinese classroom that happens to be fun. If Chinese is a side quest, keep the owl. If actually speaking — and passing the HSK — is the destination, the tea bird was built for you.
| Myra 🍵 | Duolingo 🦉 | |
|---|---|---|
| The ultimate goal | You actually pass the HSK and speak out loud | You open the app every day to keep the streak alive |
| Where Chinese fits | It's the whole product: one language, done properly | One of roughly 40 courses, all poured into the same exercise mold |
| Finishing a lesson | A mastery gate scores all four skills — listening, speaking, reading, writing — and won't open until each one passes | Tap the right answers to advance; speaking is optional and only lightly checked |
| Lesson structure | A full 8-part session, like studying with a tutor: new words → dialogue → two-way translation → grammar → listening → AI conversation → boss level | A string of short, repetitive drills, with no real concept of a "lesson" |
| Speaking practice | Speaking is the center: read each sentence aloud, the app grades every word, you re-drill the sounds you slip on, and you talk to the AI by voice | Now and then you read a sentence into the mic, and it's marked pass or fail |
| Content | Tracks the HSK curriculum closely, and builds custom drills from your class's own PDF | One-size-fits-all sample sentences for the whole world (famously… hard to predict) |
| When you get it wrong | A 30-second review of the exact word you missed, then you redo that word — nobody flunks out | You lose a heart, wait for it to refill, or pay to keep playing |
| Price | Free during beta · beta users get 70% off for life at launch | Free with ads · paid Super plan |
Honestly, the owl is no slouch. Duolingo is the right pick if you're juggling several languages at once, you just want a 5-minute habit each day, you don't want to spend a dime, or you're learning Chinese for fun with no exam in sight. When it comes to building a habit, they're the best in the world — and keeping a small habit beats abandoning a grand plan.
But if you've ever kept a 200-day streak and still couldn't order a dish in Chinese at a restaurant, the problem isn't your discipline. You're just missing a lesson that deserves the name.
The most polished global beginner course meets the app built for Vietnamese speakers. The differences are vocabulary, tones, and teaching language.
AI avatar tutors are great conversation partners — but Chinese also needs tones, characters, and a curriculum. Two different races.
Solid vocab drills and grammar notes — but how much do they get you speaking? Full comparison coming soon.