Legal
Editorial policy
The rules a page has to meet before it can sit on a shelf.
Last updated: September 28, 2026
Hanzi Heard helps adults learn Mandarin they can use with a real person in China, and choose a course, a tool, or a path with evidence they can check. The about page says who it is for. This page says how a claim gets into print.
One job per page
A page answers one reader decision. A pronunciation page does not quietly become a ranking of apps. A travel page has to collapse if you delete the Chinese: sights, hotel roundups, and itineraries are not our work. A study page keeps a requirement attached to the school, the program, and the year. One campus is not the whole country.
What counts as evidence
- The official page. Prices, refunds, features, and course coverage come from the company, the school, or the public authority that owns the rule, and the page names the date we read it.
- A paper or a primary teaching source. It can support a claim about how something works, inside the limits of that study. We do not stretch a lab result into a promise about your app.
- A named person’s report. A forum post can show that this person said this thing. It cannot show that the product always does it.
- Our own check. If we measure something, the page says how, on what sample, and what failed. We do not write “we tested” for a reading of a marketing page.
A search-engine snippet is a way to find the original page. It is not itself a source for a load-bearing sentence. “We could not find it” is not the same sentence as “it does not exist.” If the official page does not list a feature, we say that the pages we read did not list it.
Money
A commission never decides the verdict. Comparisons write down the allowed reasons before looking at who would win. The affiliate disclosure describes how a commercial link will be labeled. As of September 28, 2026, no affiliate link is published.
The site does not run third-party display advertising. Advertising will not be allowed to choose a conclusion if it is ever added.
What we will not write
- That Chinese is the hardest language, as a hook.
- That you will be fluent in a fixed number of days.
- That a product is perfect for everyone.
- A master ranking whose job is “the best Chinese apps.”
- A student’s story we did not document.
- Visa or immigration advice about your case.
Software
Drafting may use software. A human editor checks a load-bearing claim against the source named on the page before it is published. Software output is not a personal test, and it is not a native speaker’s ear. The check by a native speaker of Mandarin is a separate step, and the page does not imply that step happened if it did not.
Corrections and updates
Prices, refund rules, and school requirements go stale. A page that carries them should show the date of the last check. If you see an error, email hello@hanziheard.com with the URL and the source. We aim to correct a clear factual error within seven days of confirming it, and to say on the page what changed when the change would mislead someone who read the old version.
How personal information is handled is in the privacy policy. The conditions of use are in the terms.