🇨🇳 Mandarin Chinese · 中文
Learn Mandarin Chinese by reading, character by character
Graded Chinese stories with tap-to-translate and pinyin — climb from your first sentence all the way to Journey to the West.
Waitlist members read the first book free at launch.
Live demo — hover a sentence, tap a word, or press ▶ to listen.
The Mandarin Chinese library
The Chinese ladder is in production: graded originals that climb to a level-controlled retelling of 西游记 — Journey to the West — and then excerpts of the real thing. Join the waitlist to read the first book free at launch.
The Mandarin Chinese ladder · in production
One story, from your first Mandarin Chinese sentence to B1
The opening chapters use short A1 sentences, then vocabulary and grammar grow gradually toward B1. Waitlist members read the opening book free at launch.
How it works
Reading is the method. The app just removes the friction.
No word lists to memorize before you're “allowed” to read. You open a story at your level and start.
Tap what you don't know
Tap any word for an instant translation — with pinyin or romanization for new scripts. Hover a sentence for the whole thing. You never leave the page or lose the plot.
Read stories, not sentences
Graded books that start at absolute-beginner A1 and grow one notch per chapter — so the story stays a story, and the difficulty is always right behind you.
Words become known by themselves
Meet a word three times without needing a tap and it counts as known. Your level estimate, progress chart and per-book Anki decks all build from real reading — not quizzes.
Super easy
Everything designed so you actually finish books
Instant translation + romanization. No app switching.
A1 sentences → real classics, chapter by chapter.
Every word you meet is remembered automatically.
Start reading the day your language is live.
Once read, your books and translations stay with you.
One tap to unlock the full catalog forever.
Why reading works
Extensive reading, minus everything that made it hard
Decades of second-language research point the same way: the fastest reliable route to a large vocabulary is comprehensible input — reading a lot of material that is just slightly above your level. Learners who read graded readers consistently outperform flashcard-first learners on vocabulary retention, because words met inside a story arrive with grammar, collocations and emotional context attached.
The problem was never the method — it was the friction. Paper graded readers strand you at a dictionary every third sentence in Mandarin Chinese, and authentic texts are a wall of unknowns. ReadNative removes both: stories graded so precisely that each chapter adds only a handful of new words, and tap-to-translate so a lookup costs half a second instead of a lost paragraph.
The app then does what a book can't: it remembers every word you've met. Words you keep reading without help quietly move to “known”. Your CEFR-style level estimate, your progress chart, and a ready-made Anki deck per book all fall out of the reading itself — no separate study session required.
Languages
Which language are you learning?
Georgian is fully live. The next ladders are in production — every language launches with its first book free.
ქართული LIVE Spanish
Español SOON French
Français SOON German
Deutsch SOON Italian
Italiano SOON Brazilian Portuguese
Português brasileiro SOON Russian
Русский SOON Japanese
日本語 SOON Mandarin Chinese
中文 SOON Korean
한국어 SOON Arabic
العربية SOON Armenian
Հայերեն SOON Azerbaijani
Azərbaycanca SOON Persian
فارسی SOON Thai
ภาษาไทย SOON Vietnamese
Tiếng Việt SOON Ukrainian
Українська SOON Serbian
Српски SOON Greek
Ελληνικά SOON Hebrew
עברית SOON
Questions
Frequently asked
Do I need to know characters before starting?
No — every word shows its pinyin and translation on tap, so you can read real sentences from day one and absorb characters in context, at reading speed.
Is Journey to the West really readable for learners?
The ladder version is a level-controlled retelling: the story of 西游记 told within a graded vocabulary, climbing chapter by chapter. By the top of the ladder you read excerpts of the original.
When does Mandarin Chinese launch?
The Mandarin Chinese graded ladder is in production now. Waitlist members get the first book free at launch.
Is it free?
The first book in every language is completely free — no account, no card. A Pro subscription later unlocks the rest of each library.
How is this different from flashcards?
Flashcards teach words in isolation; stories teach them in context, with grammar and collocations attached. ReadNative tracks your vocabulary automatically while you read, so you get the measurable progress of an SRS without the grind. And if you love Anki, every book exports a ready-made deck.
Do I need to study grammar separately?
You can, but you don't have to start there. Graded stories introduce structures gradually and tap-to-translate shows you the meaning of whole sentences, so grammar patterns emerge from reading — the way they did in your first language.
What does “words known” actually measure?
A word counts as known once you've met it three times without looking it up. It's a conservative, honest measure based on your real reading — not on multiple-choice guesses.
Be first to read Mandarin Chinese.
Join the waitlist and get the first graded book free the day it launches.