Read Bean helps intermediate-advanced Chinese learners and heritage speakers improve their literacy using real-world content. Our bite sized lessons adapt to your progress, reinforcing vocabulary and tailoring content to maximize your learning.
I adore Read Bean! I've been using it for several months now, and not only is it easy to keep daily momentum with their streaks, but I can also tell that my Chinese is improving quickly. I've regained a lot of the literacy I lost when I stopped going to Chinese school in middle school, and I'm picking up new slang and idioms that I never learned before. Thank you for creating this amazing app <3 Can't wait to see what's coming in the future!
Hey everyone I’m Maggie, one of the co-founders here at Read Bean.
As an American-born Chinese (ABC), I grew up immersed in Chinese culture but lacked formal training and structure in my language learning. Since college, I’ve made countless attempts to re-learn, from building my own anki deck and watching c-dramas to screenshotting social media, but all these attempts were short-lived because they lacked structure and were either too easy or too hard for my level.
Enter Read Bean: an app to learn Chinese with content you actually love.
Here’s why Read Bean actually works:
- 📚 Personalized learning environment that adapts to your progress: content is personalized to your vocab level, making it constantly challenging to ensure your progress
- 🔬 Learning methodology backed by science: comprehensible input acquisition, the science behind our app, is how children naturally learn language
- 📅 Structured daily learning units: take the guesswork out of what to learn next to advance
- 🗣️ Contextual definitions and explanations: don’t learn textbook, stiff Chinese, learn like native speakers
- 📕 Learn Chinese through interesting content: chengyu (idiom), netizen slang, Chinese internet culture, American news, and more
Within just a few days, our users experience noticeable gains in vocabulary and reading skills—boosting literacy and improving active recall in conversation. Hear their results firsthand!
- “Today, I have a 1,862-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.” - LK
- “First lesson done! I can say with confidence that this knocked Duolingo out of the park.” - BL
- “If it gives you any idea, I decided to drop my 500+ day Duolingo streak and plan to fully incorporate Read Bean into my New Year's resolutions!” - GN
- “I'm amazed at how Read Bean has become my favorite app to open when I have a spare moment.” - AZ
We're currently available on iOS in North America. Redeem an extended 2 week free trial here! Not in your country/device? Waitlist here.
Join our discord learning community here.
We’re so excited to launch on Product Hunt and get all your thoughts. Chinese is just the beginning, so let us know what other languages you would like to see!
Congrats team looks super cool! Curious if there'll be a focus on helping beginners learn too, or if you're keeping your attention on heritage speakers?
@alan_wang5 Thanks so much Alan! We're thinking to build a beginner friendly series, but currently it's just intermediate (50-100+ characters) or heritage speakers based on the core functionality of the app. It would be a little too intense for a complete beginner as it stands!
Congrats! I'd like to know if you plan to focus specifically on the field of Chinese language learning, such as further enhancing the speaking scenario, or if you'll expand into learning other languages as well?
@zhiqi_shi Thanks for the comment! We're deciding based on what the users seem to need more! Currently plans are to expand to other languages before speaking but we will see :)
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This looks like an amazing tool for anyone trying to learn Chinese in a more engaging way! I really like the focus on personalized learning and the use of comprehensible input those are such effective methods for language acquisition. The inclusion of netizen slang and idioms is a great touch to make the learning process more practical and culturally relevant. Excited to see how this app evolves! Any plans to expand into other languages in the future?
@diane_digitalsolution01 Thanks so much for this thoughtful comment! Yes definitely want to expand to other languages after we've really nailed it with Chinese. What languages are you most excited for?
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I think Read Bean is very timely because more and more people learning Chinese these days. And I love the cute icon you designed. All the best wishes for your launch and product!
@evakk Thanks so much for the kind comment, Evak! Appreciate it :)
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Congrats on the launch! 🚀 I'm always in favor of language-learning apps, and I love that yours is focused in one specific language. That makes me think that you will be able to provide more specific support for Chinese learners. Also good to know you are focusing on more intermediate learners. At the moment I am with LingoDeer (I really love that app for asian languages, it really helped me with Japanese and starting Chinese). I'll give a try to your app as soon as I advance on the lectures!
@pablo_velez Thanks for the comment Pablo! We definitely wanted to start super specific so we could really nail the learning experience + personalization down before expanding to other languages and then even beyond language to other types of learning.
I've heard so many good things about LingoDeer! I think after you know 50+ Chinese characters, you could start Read Bean!
Hi everyone! one of the Read Bean makers here, so excited to launch our product at Product Hunt and see everyone give it a try! Would appreciate feedback on the app, thoughts on your learning experiences, and suggestions for how we can help you learn faster and with more fun!
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