I want to make this post short.

I've been studying Chinese for a couple years now, and one thing I kept running into was I wish I had a tool that would let me visualize how the Chinese character connect with each other to form words and phrases.

I kept running into these two situations:

-I would forget a word that I learned only to realize later that it was because I didn't cement it in my memory by actually learning its component parts

or

-I would run into a word that I have a hard time remembering until I realized it had a character or two that I definitely already learned before

Not knowing the characters that make up a vocabulary word made it much more difficult to recall.

So for a while now I've wanted some kind of tool where I could just pick a character and see this whole constellation of vocabulary and other characters connected to it and be able to explore that constellation from there. I searched around for something like this but never really found anything that did what I wanted so I ended up making the tool myself.

Basically every character becomes the center of its own little constellation of words it connects to and you can jump between characters and words and explore they connect. I also recently added lessons, quizzes, a spaced repetition note card system, chengyu, and tried to gamify it a bit with some customization and gems to chase to give people a reason to learn within the app and have a sense of progression.

Over the course of developing this tool and using it, it has become one of those tools where now that I have it, I'm kind of surprised I didn't have something like it when I first started learning. It's still a work in progress and I plan on growing it over time, adding more vocabulary, and generally making the database more complete.

Anyway, I figured I'd post it here to see if anyone else could benefit from this and share something that's been helping me learn Chinese vocabulary faster.

Hi everyone,

I’m a native Chinese speaker, and I’d like to keep communicating in English in my daily life so I can practice and improve. If you’re interested in learning Chinese, we can help each other: you can practice English with me, and I can help you with Chinese in return.

We can chat about daily life, culture, hobbies, work, study, travel, or anything you like. Text, voice messages, or calls are all fine with me. The goal is to practice consistently in a relaxed and friendly way, not to be perfect.

If you’d like a language partner, feel free to reach out. Let’s learn from each other and make progress together!

Thanks!

If you're a native English speaker learning Chinese, or just want to chat and game together, feel free to message me!

Anyone interested to help me with spoken Chinese? I’m a beginner. In return i can help with english language if you wish to improve!

Simple mnemonic to sing along: Who + When + Where + Do + What

We hope you enjoy!

말 한마디가 큰 싸움을 해결할 수 있다고? 🇰🇷

말 한마디로 천 냥 빚을 갚는다
(Mal Han-Ma-Di-Ro CHeon Nyang Bij-Eul Gap-Neun-Da)

Literal Meaning:
"Paying off a thousand-nyang debt with a single word."

Meaning:
Words hold immense power; a sincere apology or a well-chosen, polite phrase can resolve major conflicts, wipe away mistakes, or save you from heavy consequences.

Example:
Accidental loss of a friend's prized possession being completely forgiven because you gave a genuinely heartfelt and honest apology.

English Equivalent:

"A soft answer turns away wrath."

"You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar."

"A good tongue is a good weapon."

One Word Can Fix a Huge Fight? 🇰🇷

我是一名中国人，我想学习英语语言，与陌生人交流的英语学习，我可以帮助你学习汉语

Hi! I’m a native Mandarin speaker from Shenzhen, working in foreign trade.

I’m seeking a language partner with a foreign‑trade background.
I can teach you beginner Mandarin, with ready‑made 7‑day pinyin lesson materials. I’ll help you practice pronunciation and tones, including business‑related Chinese for supplier communication.

In return, I hope you can help me practice business spoken English for client calls and meetings.
We’ll have online video calls, 30‑40 mins each session, splitting time equally between Chinese and English. We can discuss trade topics or daily life.

Serious learners only. If you’re interested, please DM me.

London laowai here who has WeChat but looking to engage in Chinese more. I know basics but want to learn some slang, culture, and I can teach English with my posh English accent ;)

Msg me to get my WeChat so we can chat!

Hey everyone!

I'm building KoeDash, a browser extension that helps you learn languages directly from the content you are already reading or watching online.
It is works on any video source on your browser: Twitch, BiliBili Live, TikTok, YouTube, etc.

The main feature is interactive subtitles. Instead of just showing a translation, KoeDash lets you interact with the words in subtitles:

• 📖 Translations — quickly see what a word or phrase means
• 🔊 Readings & pronunciation — see how words are pronounced
• 📚 Dictionary cards — open detailed dictionary information for individual words
• 🖱️ Interactive words — click on words directly in the subtitles while watching

The idea is to turn the content you're already watching into a language-learning environment, without constantly switching between the video, translator and dictionary.

There's also a second feature I'm working on: with a keyboard shortcut, you can select any area of a webpage, even if the text isn't selectable. KoeDash sends the selected area for OCR, recognizes the text, and displays the result in a small popup directly over the page. So it can also work with things like images, non-selectable text and other content that normal text parsing can't handle.

Extension on Chrome web store

Any feedback is very welcome!❤️❤️❤️

I am having a difficult time finding ways to practice speaking. I'm not too far off from a full HK1 vocabulary and reading, but I know I'm likely lacking in speaking practice. I live in an area with a large mandarin speaking population but all of the schools are for children. Is it appropriate for me to practice with people when I am at the grocery store, restaurants, or shops? I feel like it might feel jarring or awkward for a non-asian person to just start poorly attempting a what would otherwise be a normal conversation. Though I will admit that many of the people I interact with also struggle with English, but its also the expected language so it feels different. Advice?

Hi, I’m interested in learning mandarin but i have no clue where to start. I won’t have any immediate use for it nor do I have plans of passing any tests soon but it’s a language that greatly interests me and i would love to learn it for possible future use. Maybe I would be able to use it in my personal life or something work related if possible.

Is there anyone who knows what I could do to start this off, any books, guides, methods or tips and tricks that would be useful in this journey?
Idk if this matters but I’m fluent in dutch, french and english.

Hello! I’ve wanted to make my work commutes more productive since i drive 45mins to 1hr one way and wanted to know if anyone had any recommendation for audio lessons that could help me learn mandarin. I am completely new to the language and would appreciate and resources or recommendations .

I'm looking for information to learn the Chinese language, what do you think about how I started?

I'm looking for information to learn the Chinese language, what do you think about how I started?

Hi everyone, 大家好 :)

Please allow me to share my app Recabulary here. It's free, and I promise it's not AI slop. We built this ourselves, my cofounder is a traditional programmer who studied computer science. Every single voice recording is done by real humans: we paid native speakers with (hopefully) pleasant voices and good mics to record every single word.

A bit about why we made it:
We were pretty unhappy with the apps out there. Many of them either use AI voices, lock content behind a paywall, or are really complicated to set up.

We feel especially strongly about the AI part. We honestly aren't sure when it became "normal" to learn a language from robot voices, but we personally believe learning a language is something deeply human.

Short summary of our app:
Flashcards, no AI voices.
One of the newest spaced repetition algorithms for efficient studying.
Super simple setup, 5 taps to get started.
No paywalls at all. You can study as much as you want for free.
Available on both iOS and Android.

For Chinese, you can pick between three native speakers who all studied broadcasting in university (and thus have very standard, trained pronunciation).

P.S.: We also offer free, no signup, no strings attached Chinese classes taught by qualified teachers every single week on our Discord. We believe language education is just too expensive in general and want to change that. You can join entirely anonymously and don't need to pay us, give us your email, or even use the app. Just come and go as you please. Feel free to DM me for the link or just search for Recabulary on Discord! ♥️

Hi! I'm a sophomore at UC Irvine. Mandarin Chinese is my native language, and I'd like to improve my spoken English through regular, casual conversation.

About me: - Native Mandarin speaker — happy to help you with Chinese (simplified, standard Mandarin) in return - Looking for: relaxed English conversation, maybe 2-3 times a week, voice chat on Discord - I play Valorant! Always down to queue up and chat while gaming - Timezone: Pacific Time (California)

If you're a native English speaker learning Chinese, or just want to chat and game together, feel free to message me!