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.
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!
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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!
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!
Hey makers! 🙂 Really enjoy the idea of helping people to learn (anything)!
One question about plans. Are there any differences in additional features/benefits in the different pricing plans?
+ What is your competition advantage comparing to DuoLingo?
@busmark_w_nika Hey Nika, Thanks for the comment! Currently we only have 1 plan that gives full access to the app. There is a free trial leading up to either a monthly or annual version of the plan. We played around with a freemium model, but really the learning experience felt incomplete without the whole app, so we stuck with a singular paid plan!
In terms of competitive advantage compared to Duolingo, our first audience focus is quite different. We're looking for intermediate learners who already know 50-100 characters, or heritage speakers who grew up around the language. These learners often have already done Duolingo, or want a bit more of a hearty learning experience day to day. Our other focus is on personalization, so your content + text differs from others rather than a static learning path that everyone follows. Hope this makes sense, and would love your feedback!
congrated to your launch
I used to won 1st on chinese major in China's college entrance exam and am currently a kol, and the vast majority of my followers are non-Chinese. So I've always been concerned about how other language groups should learn Chinese effectively, and Readbean provides a great way to think about it.
don't know why I can't join your discord(maybe sth wrong), but I'm looking forward to communicating with you more!
Good luck girls!
@amiaomomo Hey Jemmy, Thanks so much for the comment! We'd love to find a way to work together, teaching Chinese has become super huge on the internet + now especially with more non-Chinese on XHS. Let me know if this discord link works, https://discord.gg/ERAwgJNzzh otherwise feel free to connect with our email founders@readbean.app
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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!
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