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中文 Mandarin Chinese
Mainland Mandarin, in Simplified characters.
No card. $19.95 a month afterwards, for Mandarin Chinese alone.
Hear it
Three lines from the Mandarin Chinese set
Not samples written for this page — these are blocks from the shipped content, exactly as you would drill them.
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我是软件工程师。wǒ shì ruǎn jiàn gōng chéng shīI'm a software engineer.
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请问，这个多少钱？qǐng wèn zhè ge duō shao qiánExcuse me, how much is this?
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不好意思，我没听清楚，能再说一遍吗？bù hǎo yì si wǒ méi tīng qīng chu néng zài shuō yí biàn maSorry, I didn't catch that — could you say it again?听清楚 — hear clearly. 没听清楚 blames your ears rather than their speech, which is the polite direction.
Audio uses your browser's built-in voices. If nothing plays, no Mandarin Chinese voice is installed on this device — the app says so plainly rather than failing quietly.
What is inside
15 islands
Each is a topic you can hold up on your own for thirty seconds. Build few, drill them past the point of thinking.
- My work 我的工作 The second question anyone asks. Have all five blocks ready cold.
- Why I study Chinese 我为什么学中文 Fires the moment anyone compliments your Chinese. It always comes.
- My family 我的家庭 Rewrite this one first. Wrong details here are worse than no island.
- Where I live 我住的地方 Pairs with the work island. Somebody always asks where you came from.
- What I do outside work 我的爱好 The island that keeps a conversation going once the basics are done.
- Ordering a meal 在餐厅点菜 Transactional, high-frequency, unforgiving of hesitation. Drill to reflex.
- Taking a taxi 打车 You need this one while stressed and carrying luggage. Overlearn it.
- Asking directions 问路 You need this while tired and carrying luggage. Overlearn it.
- Shopping 买东西 Short, frequent exchanges where hesitating costs you the queue.
- Weather and small talk 闲聊 The filler that keeps a silence from becoming awkward.
- Making plans 约时间 The moment a conversation could become a second meeting.
- When something goes wrong 出问题的时候 The island you will need under stress, which is when improvising fails.
- Opinions and preferences 我的看法 What turns an interview into a conversation.
- On the phone 打电话 No face to read and no characters to draw. Overlearn the opening.
- Officialdom 办事 Fixed vocabulary, narrow script, and a real cost to fumbling it.
Under pressure
6 staged conversations
Drills tell you which island is coming. These do not — somebody speaks first, and you work out which of your islands answers them.
- Meeting someone at dinner A friend's dinner in Beijing. The man beside you turns and starts talking. Four of your islands cover everything he is about to ask — the only question is whether you can reach the right one in time. 4 beats
- Dinner for two A busy restaurant at seven. The server is moving fast and will not slow down for you. Every beat here is a sentence you already have — this is a speed test, not a comprehension one. 5 beats
- Taxi to the airport Six in the morning, two bags, a ten o'clock flight. The driver asks short questions and expects short answers. Hesitation here costs you the expressway. 5 beats
- Making the connection Eleven minutes to departure and the boards are no help. The clerk is helpful but quick, and every fumbled question costs a minute you do not have. 4 beats
- Buying something that fits A department store on a Saturday. The assistant reaches you within seconds, so the "just looking" line has to be ready before you have decided anything. 4 beats
- Something went wrong Customer service on a Monday with a queue growing behind you. Complaining in a second language is where politeness and clarity pull against each other — these blocks do both at once. 4 beats
How Mandarin Chinese is graded
Graded character by character, and tones scored separately.
Type in characters and every one has to be right — a character is correct or it is not. Type in pinyin and the syllable and its tone are scored apart, so you can see whether you are losing marks on the word or only on the tone. Punctuation is ignored, and 一 and 不 keep their sandhi tones.
Every drill grades what you actually produced, word by word or character by character, and shows you the exact unit you dropped. The number is there so the scheduler knows what to bring back; the marking is there so you can see what to fix.
Seven days of Mandarin Chinese, free
No card, nothing to cancel. If the drilling works, it is $19.95 a month for Mandarin Chinese — and your islands stay yours either way.
Open Mandarin Chinese