Babbel Chinese: Why There's No Mandarin Course

Does Babbel have Mandarin Chinese?

No — Babbel does not offer a Mandarin Chinese course, in any form. It's not hidden in a regional store listing or locked behind a different plan; it simply isn't part of the catalog. Babbel currently teaches 14 languages: Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Swedish, Indonesian, Russian, Danish, Turkish, Dutch, Polish, Norwegian, and English. Chinese has never been one of them, and Babbel hasn't announced plans to add it.

What Babbel actually teaches

Babbel's whole catalog is built around short, practical dialogues aimed at real conversations — ordering food, asking directions, small talk — taught through bite-sized lessons rather than long grammar drills. It's a genuinely well-regarded method for the languages it does cover, consistently among the higher-rated apps in the category. The thing every one of its 14 languages has in common: they're all written in the Latin alphabet, give or take a few accent marks.

Why doesn't Babbel teach Chinese?

Babbel has never published an official reason, so anything beyond the fact itself is inference — but the pattern is hard to miss. Chinese is missing alongside exactly three other languages: Korean, Japanese, and Thai. Every one of those four uses a script Babbel's existing production pipeline wasn't built for — characters instead of an alphabet, or a non-Latin phonetic system — while all 14 languages Babbel does offer share the same Latin-based foundation. Building a Chinese course from scratch, with character recognition, tone, and a completely different reading system, is a different kind of project than adding a 15th Latin-alphabet language to an existing pipeline.

Is Taiwan specifically a gap, or is it Chinese generally?

It's the broader gap — Babbel skips Chinese entirely, not just Taiwan's variant of it. So there's no "switch to Traditional characters" setting to look for, the way there genuinely is on some other apps (see our look at Rosetta Stone and LingoDeer, both of which do support Traditional). If you're comparing apps specifically for Taiwanese Mandarin, Babbel doesn't belong on that shortlist at all — not because it does a bad job with Taiwan, but because it never attempts Chinese in the first place.

What to use instead if Taiwan is your goal

Since Babbel isn't in the running here at all, the real choice is between general-Mandarin apps that happen to support Traditional characters (strong on characters, usually silent on Taiwan's own accent, vocabulary, and Zhuyin) and something built around Taiwan specifically from the start. See our full review roundup across four major apps for how the general-Mandarin options actually compare, or our complete beginner's guide for the full learning path regardless of which app you pick.

Frequently asked questions

Does Babbel have Chinese?

No. Babbel offers 14 languages — Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Swedish, Indonesian, Russian, Danish, Turkish, Dutch, Polish, Norwegian, and English — and Mandarin Chinese isn't one of them, despite years of learner requests.

Why doesn't Babbel teach Chinese?

Babbel hasn't stated an official reason. What's notable is the pattern: Chinese is missing alongside Korean, Japanese, and Thai — every language on Babbel's list uses the Latin alphabet, and all four of the ones it skips would need a built-from-scratch approach to characters or a non-Latin script instead.

What's a good alternative to Babbel for learning Chinese?

Any dedicated Chinese-learning app, since Babbel isn't an option at all here. If Taiwan specifically is your goal — Traditional characters, Zhuyin, the accent and vocabulary actually used there — look for a course built around Taiwan specifically rather than a general-Mandarin app with Taiwan support added on.