Kunming is the capital of Yunnan, in China's southwest, and about 8.5 million people lived in the city and its counties at the 2020 census. Its everyday speech is a dialect of Southwestern Mandarin. Kunming asks yes-or-no questions by putting 格 before the verb or adjective, where Standard Mandarin adds 吗 at the end, so 你格吃饭了？ means "Have you eaten?" (many people type it 给). We searched the App Store in China and the United States and found no app that teaches whole lessons in Kunming speech apart from Bubblegum. Most learners build on Standard Mandarin and pick up the local speech from people, local TV, and short videos.
Below, each app and resource is marked by whether it teaches Kunming speech itself or helps with the Mandarin, the characters, or the people around it. If you only want Standard Mandarin, our Chinese app comparison covers more courses, and our Kunming dialect comprehensible input comparison focuses on reading and listening.
Custom Lessons Made for You
Bubblegum
For serious learners, Bubblegum is the best app to learn Kunming dialect. You learn from Kunming dialect you can mostly understand, which is called comprehensible input.
Kunming speech is its own course in Bubblegum, listed as Chinese (Kunming / Yunnan). Tell Poppy, your AI tutor, your level and what you like, and she writes lessons for you the way people in Kunming talk, from ordering at a noodle shop to fixing a problem at work. Someone who doesn't know says 我晓不得 ("I don't know"), and 噻 marks an obvious answer, so 好吃噻！ means "Of course it's tasty!" Speakers stay polite where they should, and an older person is 你家, the respectful "you".
Poppy can chat with you, but she can't replace a neighbor from Kunming, and there's no set course to follow from start to finish. The tutors and language partners below fill that gap.
- Lessons, stories, and news are written in everyday Kunming speech at six levels, in Simplified characters.
- Grammar cards explain local forms such as 格, 哪样, 噻, and 晓不得.
- Look up a local word in the dictionary to see what it means in Kunming.
- Chat with Poppy, and she answers in Kunming speech.
- Collect stamps of local places as you learn, from Green Lake's gulls to the Stone Forest.
- Regenerative Review™ brings saved words back in new lessons, so you review them by reading instead of using flashcards.
- Clear, expressive AI voices read every lesson aloud, with a different voice for each speaker.
- You cannot import your own books, articles, or videos.
- 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
Build Your Standard Mandarin
Kunming speech is written in the same characters as Standard Mandarin and shares much of its vocabulary, so a Mandarin course gives you a solid base. Keep in mind that everything in it is Standard Mandarin.
HelloChinese
HelloChinese is a step-by-step Mandarin course with speaking and handwriting practice. It suits learners who want someone else to choose the order of the basics before they add Kunming speech.
- A pinyin course for complete beginners.
- Lessons follow the HSK levels.
- Speech recognition checks your pronunciation.
- More than 1,000 graded stories to read at your level.
- Flashcards
- Teaches Pinyin
- Traditional characters
Mobile
Look Up Characters
Pleco
Many Chinese learners keep Pleco on their phone as their main dictionary. Use it when a character on a menu or a bus sign in Kunming stops you, and check local words with a person or a Kunming course.
- Look up a word by typing it, drawing it, or pointing your camera at it.
- Paste in any text and tap words to see what they mean.
- Flashcards
- Traditional characters
- Zhuyin
Mobile
Practice With People From Kunming
A poster on the GoKunming expat forum wrote in 2012 that most people you pass on the street speak Kunming speech, and that a local friend is the easiest teacher. These services help you find someone from Kunming to talk with.
italki
Look through italki's Chinese teachers for ones who live in Kunming, and send a short message about what you want to practice. A teacher from the city can tell you when a line sounds like a textbook and which local word would fit better.
- Some Chinese teachers on italki say in their profiles that they live in Kunming.
- Practice with a person and get feedback on your speaking.
MobileWeb
Tandem
Most of the Kunming members on Tandem's page speak Chinese and want to practice English. Settle early on how much of each chat is in Chinese, so you both get your turn.
- Tandem has a page that lists language partners who live in Kunming.
- Practice through messages, voice notes, and calls.
- You arrange practice with a partner; it is not a guided course.
MobileWeb
HelloTalk
With the city filter, you can look for partners in Kunming. Ask them to write the way they talk, so you see local questions with 格 in real messages.
- Meet Chinese speakers who want to practice your language.
- Paid members can look for partners by city.
Mobile
Which Apps Teach Kunming Speech?
Bubblegum is the one app here with lessons written in Kunming speech. The rest give you Mandarin, a dictionary, or a person from the city.
| App | Lessons in Kunming Speech | What It Helps With |
|---|---|---|
| Bubblegum | Yes | Kunming lessons with audio at your level |
| HelloChinese | No, Standard Mandarin | Mandarin basics in a set order |
| Pleco | No, a dictionary | Characters on signs and menus |
| italki | With a teacher from Kunming | Speaking with feedback |
| Tandem | With a partner from Kunming | Calls and chats with a partner |
| HelloTalk | With a partner from Kunming | Local partners through the city filter |
Hear Kunming Speech on YouTube
A few free videos let you hear Kunming speech with English around it. The ILoveLanguages! channel has a six-minute video of a speaker from Kunming. In Chinese with Dani's video on Southwestern accents, friends from Yunnan, Sichuan, Guizhou, and Chongqing show how their home speech shapes the way they talk. RADII's Learn Slang in Kunming Dialect is under a minute long.
For Advanced Learners, in Chinese
Once you can follow Chinese explanations, these go deeper. Yunnan's provincial broadcaster put a half-hour episode of its program 封面 on YouTube, 云南老昆明话大汇总, a roundup of old Kunming expressions. The local account 昆明范儿 wrote a beginner's guide to Kunming speech in Chinese, with common words, a sample chat, and tips like talking with taxi drivers and market sellers. A 2017 report in 都市时报 on Kunming dialect rhymes in kindergartens includes a long list of Kunming words and phrases.
Learn the Kunming Dialect in Your Language
These counts cover menu-language choices, including script variants. Other apps' counts and full lists come from their iPhone listings in the United States.
| App | Supported Display Languages | Full List |
|---|---|---|
| Bubblegum | 74 | Full list
|
| HelloChinese | 13 | Full list |
| Pleco | 1 | Full list |
| italki | 19 | Full list |
| Tandem | 14 | Full list |
| HelloTalk | 16 | Full list |
Other Apps We Looked At (4)
- 方言通 - 传承乡音A new and growing Chinese-language app with common phrases in dozens of Chinese dialects, recorded by local people. Its listing names Cantonese, Hokkien, Wu, Sichuanese, and Hakka as examples.
- 乡音 - 方言交流分享A Chinese-language community where people share recordings of their home dialects and play a guess-the-dialect game.
- 老昆明童谣A five-minute collection of old Kunming children's rhymes on YouTube, in Kunming speech.
- 尚义街六号, read in Kunming speechA reading of Kunming poet Yu Jian's 1985 poem, named after an address in the city, for advanced listeners.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which Kunming dialect app should a beginner choose?
If you are serious about learning Kunming dialect, start with Bubblegum. Poppy writes lessons at your level about things you like. If you're brand new to Chinese and want the basics laid out in order, HelloChinese is a good place to begin before the local speech.
Should I learn Standard Mandarin first?
It helps. Kunming speech uses the same Simplified characters, and people in Kunming understand Standard Mandarin too. The free Pinyin course on this site teaches the Standard Mandarin sounds that dictionaries and most courses use.
Do people in Kunming still speak the dialect?
Yes, though younger people speak more Standard Mandarin. In a 2017 survey of more than 3,000 children in the public kindergartens of Kunming's Wuhua District, six in ten spoke only Standard Mandarin at home, and the district began teaching Kunming rhymes and games that year.
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.
Anyone can use this site's Pinyin course and Mandarin lessons for free, with no sign-up.
Sources
- City Population: Yunnan prefectures and cities (2020 census, Kunming 8,460,088)
- Wikipedia: Kunming dialect (a dialect of Southwestern Mandarin)
- The World of Chinese: The hybrid Ming court dialect of Kunming (yes-or-no questions without 吗)
- HelloChinese on the App Store
- italki: Chinese teachers
- Tandem: Language partners in Kunming
- HelloTalk: City search is a VIP feature
- ILoveLanguages!: Kunming Dialect (YouTube, 2024)
- Chinese with Dani: How Southwestern Dialects Influence Mandarin Chinese (YouTube, 2025)
- RADII: Learn Slang in Kunming Dialect (YouTube, 2019)
- 云南广播电视台《封面》: 云南老昆明话大汇总 (YouTube, 2022)
- 昆明范儿: 教学干货——如何系统学习昆明话 (Sohu, 2017)
- 都市时报: 昆明娃不会说方言！这13所幼儿园试验方言教学 (Sina, 2017)
- GoKunming forums: Learning Kunmingese (Kunminghua)
- 方言通 - 传承乡音 on the App Store
- 乡音 - 方言交流分享 on the App Store
- Bubblegum
- Pleco
- Tandem
- HelloTalk
Checked on October 14, 2026 against each app's own pages.
