Read Bean helps heritage speakers and intermediate-advanced Chinese learners improve their literacy using real-world content. Our bite-sized lessons adapt to your progress, leveraging spaced repetition and contextualized input to accelerate 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!
I recommend Read Bean to anyone who wants to improve their Chinese language skills using real content! This is a great app for those who already have basic knowledge and want to move on.
Congratulations, team! This looks fantastic! I'm curious if there will be support for beginners as well, or if the focus will remain on advanced learners?
Amazing!! Will be recommending this to everyone I know :) The UX and design is lovely.
✨ Absolutely love the concept of Read Bean! 📚 Combining the convenience of audiobooks with the immersive depth of reading feels like the perfect balance for today’s busy lifestyles.
The feature that lets you sync between reading and listening is genius—ideal for those moments when you’re commuting, cooking, or just resting your eyes. 🚶♂️🍳👓 Plus, the attention to personalization and multi-format integration shows how well you’ve thought about user needs.
Curious about your future plans—will there be integrations with platforms like Kindle or Goodreads? Wishing you all the best with this innovative launch! 🚀👏
Woop woop! Congrats on the launch :) it’s awesome to see all the development on Read Bean! One of my favorite apps :))
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?
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?
deepseek is gonna take over the world so I will definitely grind this hard. congrats for yc backing
Absolutely love this product. This is what happens when you truly pay attention to what a community of consumers need. Obsessed!
Congrats @garrytan@savannah_liu2@maggie_zhang5@pearlli98 !
I'm Daniel Founder of Digital Products, you can find us on ProductHunt as well.
We help connect consumers to digital brands in 2 ways:
1. Consumers - reviews are in a short format only, meaning it's easy for them to share what's on their mind about your product, and to do it fast.
2. Digital Brands - reply to consumer reviews and engage directly with your consumers.
Getting listed on Digital Products will give you more exposure to a new audience, and increase your chances of getting new users to Read Bean.
Let me know what you think :)!
This is sweet! Congrats on the launch. I used to use Duolingo and felt I wasn't learning much despite having a big streak. Finally something that actually focuses on learning.
Congrats on launching @maggie_zhang5 and team!! Read Bean looks like a better Duolingo that I’d actually use
