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About Hanzi Heard
A notebook for adults who want Mandarin that works in a real place, and choices they can check.
Hanzi are the characters. Heard is the standard this site cares about: not only whether an app accepted a sound, but whether a person listening would understand it. The pages are written in English for adults. They are checked by a native speaker of Mandarin.
The job is narrow on purpose. Help a reader learn Mandarin they can use in China, and choose a course, a tool, a trip’s language preparation, or a study path with evidence that can be opened and read. Chinese study is the spine. Travel and study-in-China pages exist because that is where the language has to work, not as a second travel site.
Who it is written for
The first reader is an adult, from zero to a workable middle, stuck on a start, a tone, listening, characters, grammar, speaking, or the choice of a product. The second is about to travel and needs the language for ordinary tasks. The third is considering a language program or a longer stay and needs requirements kept specific to a school, a program, and a year.
The tone stays adult. The site does not treat difficulty as a selling point, and it does not promise that anyone will become fluent on a deadline.
What the shelves are
Six sections, not six magazines. Start here, pronunciation, skills, courses and tools, travel tasks, and study in China. A page belongs to one problem. A travel page that would still make sense after the Chinese was deleted does not belong here at all.
The first essays are not up yet. These pages are the shelf labels and the rules. When an essay is published, it will name what was read and when.
What we will not pretend
- We will not publish a master ranking of Chinese apps.
- We will not write that we tested a product unless the page describes the test.
- We will not turn one person’s forum post into a fact about every copy of an app.
- We will not give visa, immigration, or legal advice, or tell you that you will pass an exam.
The working rules are written out in the editorial policy. How the site handles personal information is in the privacy policy.
Corrections
If a page is wrong, write to hello@hanziheard.com with the URL and the source you are looking at. A factual correction should not have to wait on a redesign.