That’s your browser’s Mandarin voice, not the app’s. On iPhone this plays through an enhanced system voice — cleaner, louder, at real speed.
This device has no Chinese voice installed, so audio can’t play here. The app doesn’t have that problem — it uses the Mandarin voices built into iOS.
Pick a category. Every page is free, with pinyin and audio you can play right here.
A menu, a building notice, a medicine box, a WeChat message from your landlord. Point the camera at it and Tingbudong hands you back a card — pinyin, every word broken down, what it actually means, and a reply you can send straight back.
A WeChat message from your landlord. You have about a minute before he moves on to the next tenant.
In the app it also comes with audio at real speed, a listening drill, and a reply you can send straight back. Save it and it lands in your review deck.
Save it and it comes back in tomorrow's review. Do that for a few weeks and you've quietly built a phrasebook out of your own life — cards no textbook could have written for you.
The panel above is a mock-up of what the app shows. The real thing runs on your phone: point the camera at anything Chinese, get the same breakdown offline, and save it to your review deck.
Your phone rings and it's rapid Mandarin. The cheat sheet is the home screen — one tap gives you full-screen characters and loud audio. Show them, or play it out loud. It works on day one, mid-crisis.
Everyone teaches you to order. Nobody teaches you what comes back. Every situation includes the likely replies — 我到了，你快点 — fast, blunt, real.
Allergic to dairy, not peanuts? Ayi comes Fridays? Swap the word inside the phrase — 我对牛奶过敏 — and it stays set. Your cheat sheet speaks about your life.
Every scan becomes a card you can save, hear at real speed, and review later. A few weeks in, your deck is made of the situations you actually ran into — the courier who never finds your gate, the pharmacy you go to, the thing your ayi keeps asking. Nobody else's syllabus looks like yours.
No. This page can only use whichever Mandarin voice your browser happens to have, which is usually the plainest one on the system. Tingbudong on iPhone uses Apple’s enhanced and premium Mandarin voices, plays at real conversational speed, and has a slow mode for practising. You can pick your preferred voice in the app under Settings → Voice, and download better ones in iOS Settings.
The app is free to download. Six situations — allergies included — stay free forever, with full audio. Pro unlocks all thirty, unlimited scans and the review deck. Everything on this website is free to read, always.
Yes. Every phrase page is free to read, with audio. The app adds real-speed listening drills, spaced review, the camera, and offline access.
No. Every phrase comes with pinyin and English, and the app is useful on day one — you don't finish a course before it starts working.
Translation tells you what a word means. This tells you what to say back, and what the other person is likely to say to you, in the thirty situations that actually happen.
Yes. Cheat sheets, the dictionary and audio all work with no connection — which is exactly when you need them.
None. There is no account, no analytics and no server. Everything stays on your iPhone. Full privacy policy.
