Read Bean

Before Read Bean, I felt like I hit a Chinese learning wall. Watching c-dramas demands 5 hours, I straight up was not advanced enough for news articles, and Duolingo was teaching me useless sentences. As they say, the most important part of learning is staying consistent, and there is no other language app that encourages this consistency as Read Bean. The lessons are short enough where you can easily incorporate Chinese practice into your daily routine. Because it’s tailored to your HSK level, everything is just challenging enough. Lastly — like the other reviewers mentioned, the content is super engaging. Past topics have ranged from historical topics like Chinese maritime history, to playful topics like why Chinese consumers are captivated by the LABUBU toy series, to topical news like the TikTok ban. Through this relevant content, Read Bean allows you to learn not only the language, but also and more importantly, Chinese culture. That’s (usually?) why most people try to learn languages in the first place! I’m excited to see where this app will go - nothing is ever perfect, so it’s nice to see the developers releasing such frequent improvements. I’d never thought that I would look forward to practicing Chinese < 3 I’ve definitely noticed myself improving already and I’ve gained so much yap material with my cousins.

This is honestly the best app I’ve used to learn to read in Mandarin. Today, I hit a 55 day streak in Read Bean, and my comprehension when reading as well as my vocabulary for all forms of communicating has made significant progress already. The language I’m learning is also practical language. A few native speaking friends have already commented on the improvement in my proficiency level since I started (and this is after already learning Mandarin over the past 6 years). The lessons have great variety in content, with a mix of relevant modern articles and cultural content. Not only am I learning but I am also enjoying reading along the way! Today, I have a 1862 day streak on Duolingo, but if you told me I had to make a choice, it would genuinely be to only use Read Bean moving forward. Lastly, the developers make updates that consistently improve both the experience and functionality of the app; the app was already innovative when I started using it, but it’s only continued to surprise and impress me as time has gone on. ~LK

I LOVE READ BEAN!!! It is so so intuitive and has all aspects of a learning app that has been so helpful to relearning Chinese. I think the features they built as super useful like the tap to translate and vocabulary chests have helped me relearn and learn hundreds of new words! I also love how they included daily articles of varying topics like history lessons, short stories, and even news that I look forward to reading daily. I felt like relearning Chinese was a huge task that didn't seem possible, but now that Read Bean is apart of my daily route, I can really see the progress and even text my grandparents in Chinese!!! It has been LIFE CHANGING and I would recommend to everyone :D