Dino Kids
A Japanese, Korean and Chinese learning app for kids from age three
Dino Kids is a free language learning app for kids: Japanese hiragana and katakana, Korean Hangul and first Chinese characters with pinyin, each one read aloud with a picture and an example word, and traced in stroke order. A child who cannot read yet can still tap and listen. You choose which languages each child sees.
- Free
- No advertising
- No in-app purchases
- No account needed
iPad and iPhone (iOS 15 and later) · Android phones and tablets (7.0 and later) · Rated 4+ · Vietnamese, Japanese, English, Korean and Chinese
- 5languages to choose from
- 999picture word cards, 26 topics
- 2,141kanji in Levels 1–10
- 500folk tales in five languages
Learn Japanese for kids: hiragana and katakana
The kana board lays out all 104 hiragana and 46 katakana, one button to swap. Tap a character to hear it, then an example word with a picture — “a … あめ”.
- Kana handwriting in stroke order, marked stroke by stroke.
- 100 Japanese folk tales with hiragana readings over the kanji, such as 桃太郎 and かぐや姫: a child who reads hiragana can read the whole tale.
- A Japanese interface one switch away, so the characters appear in their own context.
Learn Korean for kids: Hangul, counting and writing
A Hangul board in two tabs, consonants and vowels. Tap a letter to hear its name, then an example word with a picture — ㄱ “기역” … 고양이 (cat).
- 40 letters: 14 basic and 5 double consonants, 10 basic and 11 combined vowels.
- Counting 1–20 in Sino-Korean numbers (일, 이, 삼…), with romanisation for the adult alongside.
- Hangul writing top to bottom, left to right, marked stroke by stroke.
Learn Chinese for kids: first characters with pinyin
39 everyday characters in Simplified Chinese, each with pinyin, a picture and an example word, read aloud in Mandarin — 月 yuè … 月亮 (moon).
- Four groups: the numbers 一 to 十, easy characters (大 小 上 下), people and animals (人 口 手 牛), nature (日 月 山 水).
- Counting 1–20 in Mandarin, with pinyin under each number.
- Stroke order follows the mainland Chinese standard; where it differs from the Japanese order, as in 耳 and 田, the strokes are reordered.
For older children: JLPT N5–N1 and kanji Levels 1–10
Once the alphabet stage is over, Japanese carries on in the same app.
- JLPT words and grammar, N5 to N1: 387 words and 81 grammar patterns, meanings in three languages, a 10-question quiz.
- All 2,141 jōyō kanji in 10 levels that follow the school years in Japan — Level 1 is the 80 kanji of grade 1. Each has on and kun readings, stroke count, radical, meanings in five languages, words and example sentences.
- Handwriting and practice tests by level: checked for shape, stroke count and order; tests cover reading, writing, radicals and stroke counts.
You can look up all 2,141 kanji on the web today.
999 picture words and 500 folk tales in five languages
Each word card has a picture of something familiar, with its word below in the languages your child learns, and every line is read aloud. There are 26 everyday topics — animals, fruit, vehicles, the kitchen, the airport… Chinese has pinyin over every character; Japanese is written in kana. You can see and print all 999 cards on the web.
Stories come 100 to a language, each from its own culture rather than translated from another: Japanese has 桃太郎, Korean has Korean folk tales, Chinese has Chinese ones with pinyin on every character. Read the 100 English and American folk tales on the web.
English and Vietnamese too
The same Learn languages tile has an English alphabet board — 26 cards, each read as the letter's name and then an example word, “ay … apple” — with counting 0–20 and A–Z handwriting for a younger sibling.
For families keeping Vietnamese alive at home, there is the Vietnamese alphabet, handwriting with tone marks and Grade 1 phonics, where the child joins a first sound to a rime and a tone while the app reads each step. More on that in Keeping your child's home language alive abroad.
You choose the languages, and the voice
Tick Japanese only, or Japanese and Korean, under “Languages to learn” in your child's profile; brothers and sisters each choose their own. Step by step in How to set up child profiles.
Every lesson already has a voice. If you speak the language, you can record your own; anything you have not recorded is read as before. See Record your own voice for lessons.
Questions parents ask
Can a child who cannot read yet learn Japanese or Korean in the app?
Yes. Every letter card has a picture and is read aloud: tap ㄱ and the app says the letter name, then 고양이 (cat). Nothing on the card has to be read.
Does my child have to learn all five languages?
No. Each child's profile, behind the parental gate, has a “Languages to learn” setting: tick any of the five. Learn languages shows only those, and if you tick just one, the tile opens it straight away. Unticked languages are only hidden.
Is there anything for older children learning Japanese?
Yes. JLPT words and grammar run from N5 to N1, and the kanji section covers all 2,141 jōyō kanji in 10 levels that follow the school years in Japan, with handwriting checked stroke by stroke and a practice test for each level.
Is the language learning really free?
Yes. Dino Kids is free on the App Store and Google Play, with no subscription, no in-app purchases and no advertising. All five languages, the word cards, the kanji and the stories are open from the first launch.
Does the language app work offline?
Mostly. The letter boards, the tracing and their voices — English, Japanese kana, Korean Hangul and the first Chinese characters — are inside the app from the moment it is installed. The word card pictures and voices download the first time your child opens Word cards on a connection, and after that they work offline. A folk tale needs a connection the first time it is opened, to fetch its narration; after that it plays offline too.
In the same app
Languages are one tile. The same app also has:
Install it and hand it over
Free, no advertising, no in-app purchases. Pick the languages for your child and every card speaks from the first tap, no account needed.