Chinese for Expats: Past Survival, Into Real Life
Chinese for expats starts as survival: order food, give an address, understand the reply. Chenjin covers that stage, then keeps going where phrasebooks stop.
Practice the tones people need to understand you, rehearse everyday errands, and grow into reading the city around you.
Be understood the first time
Tones decide whether the taxi hears the right street. Tone Coach plays a native speaker, records your imitation, and overlays your pitch curve on theirs, syllable by syllable. It's part of the Plus plan (7-day free trial), and it's the fastest fix for the blank looks.
Read the street, the menu, the group chat
Paste any Chinese text into the free pinyin converter for word-aware pinyin with tap-for-meaning. Menus, signs, apartment notices, the neighborhood group chat: readable on day one, no account needed.
Grow past survival Chinese
The library grades real articles about food, culture, history, and daily life from HSK 1 to 7. Reading a little every day is how expat Chinese goes from transactional to conversational, and every word you look up can feed your flashcards.
Frequently asked questions
I'm moving in three months. Where do I start?
Start with core phrases and tones now, and add daily reading once you land. Three months of short daily sessions is enough to handle arrival logistics in Mandarin.
Do I need characters, or is pinyin enough?
For speaking, pinyin carries you a while. But menus, signs, and apps are characters, and living there is the best reason to learn them. The reader's optional pinyin keeps characters approachable while you do.
What's on the free plan?
The dictionary, three library articles a day, the games, the vocabulary map, and the free graded reader. Tone Coach, dictation, and video study are on the Plus plan with a 7-day trial.
Keep exploring
Try it tonight
The free plan includes the dictionary, the free graded reader, three library articles a day, games, and flashcards. If it fits the way you learn, the Plus plan unlocks the rest with a 7-day free trial.
Create a free accountFree forever plan · no credit card required