Lessons, audio, and shows help you learn the Xi'an dialect when you can follow what they mean. Input you can mostly follow has a name: comprehensible input. Almost everything written for Chinese learners is in Standard Mandarin, so this guide shows which app gives you Xi'an speech at your level, which apps give you Standard Mandarin to build on, and where to hear Xi'an speech once you can follow it.
A useful target is one unfamiliar word per sentence, with the meaning still clear. Beginners need short, simple sentences full of words they know, while advanced learners can handle longer ones and guess a new word from the rest of the sentence. When you lose the thread, pick something easier. For tutors, courses, and dictionaries, see our Xi'an dialect app comparison.
Custom Lessons Made for You
Bubblegum
For serious learners, Bubblegum is the best app to learn Xi'an dialect. You learn from Xi'an dialect you can mostly understand, which is called comprehensible input.
Bubblegum is the one app we found that writes Xi'an speech at your level. Poppy, your AI tutor, writes each lesson for you. From the first level, lessons use short Xi'an forms such as 今儿 (today), 么 at the end of a yes-or-no question, and 美得很 (really nice). By Level 3, you read short chats and stories in Xi'an speech, with forms like 把…一 + verb: 你快把饭一吃，咱就走 means "Hurry up and eat, and then we'll head off."
The trade-off is that Bubblegum can't help you read Chinese you found yourself. For a news story or a novel you already picked, Pleco and LingQ are the better fit.
- Read and listen to lessons, stories, and news in Xi'an speech, about things you like.
- Each level adds more local words and grammar, so the dialect grows with you.
- Grammar cards explain each local form you meet in a lesson.
- Ask Poppy about any sentence while you read.
- Regenerative Review™ brings saved words back in new lessons.
- Clear, expressive AI voices read every lesson aloud, with a different voice for each speaker.
- You cannot bring in your own books, videos, or articles.
- A new custom lesson costs us real money to make, so your first one is free, and Bubblegum Pro gives you unlimited custom lessons. The lesson library is free for everyone, because we believe everyone should be able to learn.
- Regenerative Review™
- Teaches Pinyin
- Traditional characters
- Zhuyin
Mobile
Stories in Standard Mandarin
These apps write graded stories in Standard Mandarin, not Xi'an speech. They build the characters and grammar that Xi'an speech shares with Mandarin, and you can read them alongside local lessons.
Du Chinese
Du Chinese publishes new graded stories every weekday, each with grammar notes and a translation of every sentence. It's one of the apps that inspired Bubblegum.
- Over 3,000 readings are sorted into six levels.
- Voice actors read each story.
- See the translation of each sentence.
- Flashcards
- Traditional characters
- Zhuyin
MobileWeb
The Chairman's Bao
The Chairman's Bao retells current news as short graded lessons, with a pop-up dictionary and grammar notes. Newspapers in Xi'an are written in Standard Mandarin too, so this reading carries straight over to local news.
- News stories are written for learners at six levels.
- People record the audio.
- Flashcards
- Traditional characters
MobileWeb
Read Chinese You Choose
These apps help with Chinese you pick yourself, such as an article from a Xi'an news site.
Pleco
Pleco's reader lets you paste in a whole article and tap any word to look it up. It explains words in Standard Mandarin, so check a local word you meet there with someone from Xi'an.
- Paste in any text and tap words to see what they mean.
- Look up a word by drawing it or pointing your camera at it.
- Flashcards
- Traditional characters
- Zhuyin
Mobile
LingQ
LingQ pairs Chinese text with audio from its library, and you can import your own articles too. Choose it when you already have reading in mind.
- Bring in books, videos, and articles you want to read.
- See which words you know and which are new.
- Flashcards
- Traditional characters
- No Zhuyin
MobileWeb
Watch and Listen to Xi'an Speech
Local TV and videos are made for people who already speak the dialect, so they suit you once Level 3 lessons feel comfortable. Start with something short and replay it.
- 《西安故事》 is a drama series from Xi'an TV about the everyday lives of people in Xi'an, acted in Shaanxi dialect. It airs on the Xi'an Metropolitan Channel.
- 《主角》, a 2026 TV drama about Qinqiang opera, made Shaanxi-accented Mandarin fashionable, according to Xinhua. Shaanxi Daily's guide to words from the show explains lines such as 吃咧么？ ("Have you eaten?") and 咋咧？ ("What's wrong?").
- Xi'an's official city account made a video about the new Xi'an in Shaanxi dialect, with words such as 克里马擦 (in a flash) and 嫽扎咧 (awesome).
- China National Radio's dialect program 乡音密码 has an episode on Shaanxi speech, with a tongue twister in Shaanxi dialect to try.
Learn the Xi'an Dialect in Your Language
These counts cover menu-language choices, including script variants. Other apps’ counts and full lists come from their iPhone listings. Lesson explanations and other platforms may differ.
| App | Supported Display Languages | Full List |
|---|---|---|
| Bubblegum | 74 | Full list
|
| Du Chinese | 1 | Full list |
| The Chairman's Bao | 1 | Full list |
| Pleco | 1 | Full list |
| LingQ | 17 | Full list |
Other Apps We Looked At (3)
- 乡音阁A new and growing Chinese-language tool that reads text aloud in 18 dialects, including 陕西话, and turns recorded dialect speech into text.
- Mandarin BeanA free graded-reading website with Standard Mandarin stories in simplified or traditional characters.
- maayotA daily Standard Mandarin lesson at your level, with a short story and audio.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which Xi'an dialect app should a beginner choose?
If you are serious about learning Xi'an dialect, start with Bubblegum. Poppy writes lessons at your level about things you like. If you'd like to build Standard Mandarin reading first, Du Chinese's six levels of voiced stories are a good start.
Does pinyin show how Xi'an people say a word?
No. Pinyin shows the Standard Mandarin reading of each character, and Xi'an speech has its own four tones and a neutral tone. Read with pinyin to learn the characters, and let the audio teach you how a line sounds in Xi'an.
Can I learn the Xi'an dialect just from TV?
Not at the start, because local shows move fast and assume you already speak the dialect. They help much more once you can read short chats in Xi'an speech, especially when you watch a scene twice.
Is Bubblegum free?
Yes. The lesson library is free for everyone, because we believe everyone should be able to learn. It holds lessons that other learners asked Poppy for. A new custom lesson costs us real money to make, so your first one is free, and Bubblegum Pro gives you unlimited custom lessons.
Sources
- 西安电视台《西安故事》: a Shaanxi-dialect drama series on the Xi'an Metropolitan Channel (TVmao listing)
- 陕西日报《跟着电视剧〈主角〉学陕西话！》(2026), via Sina
- Xinhua, 作品要有真东西，观众自会真买账 (2026), on 主角 and learning to speak Shaanxi-accented Mandarin
- 西安发布《用“陕西话”解读“新西安”！》(2019), via The Paper
- 中国之声《乡音密码》: 陕西话，嫽扎咧！快来挑战陕西话版绕口令 (2024)
- Guanzhong dialect: four tones and a neutral tone in Xi'an
- 乡音阁 on the App Store (China): 18 dialects including 陕西话
- Mandarin Bean, free graded readings
- Bubblegum
- Du Chinese
- The Chairman's Bao
- Pleco
- LingQ
Checked on October 14, 2026 against each app's own pages.
