Everything Zhihuzhe does, and what’s coming next.

Read any Chinese sentence aloud. Zhihuzhe listens to the recording itself, not a transcript of it, so it can hear the shape of each tone and the difference between sh and s.

You get back an overall score, separate scores for tones, sounds and fluency, every syllable marked, and a note from your teacher on what to change first.

Xiao Lin, Master Wang and Manager Li each teach differently, from relaxed small talk to exam drills to boardroom rehearsal. Every reply comes with pinyin over every character.

They know your HSK level, your goals and the words you’re working on, so a conversation at HSK 2 sounds nothing like one at HSK 5.

Paste anything and get pinyin with tone marks over each character, coloured by tone so the pattern of a phrase jumps out. Tone changes for 一 (yī) and 不 (bù) are applied the way textbooks print them.

Every sentence can be read aloud in natural Mandarin. Pick a warm voice for everyday listening, or a clear, precise one when you’re copying a model sentence sound for sound.

Tones are learned in pairs, not one at a time. Tone gym drills the 20 two-syllable combinations with real words, first by ear, then out loud, and spends longest on the pairs you miss.

It also teaches the tone changes textbooks mention once and never come back to.

Shadowing is how interpreters train: hear a line and say it straight back, matching the rhythm as well as the sounds. Zhihuzhe draws your pitch over the model’s so you can see where you drifted.

Practice the conversations you’re nervous about before you have them. A teacher plays the waiter, the landlord or the interviewer, keeps to your level, and goes over what you said afterwards.

Short stories written for each HSK level, so you know nearly every word and can guess the rest. Pinyin stays out of the way until you need it: tap a word for its sound and meaning.

Try it: tap any word in the story.

Every new word you meet in a chat, a story or a scene is saved with the sentence you found it in. Reviews come back further apart each time you get one right, so a word you know well stops taking up your time.

Every check you do feeds one chart: how often you get each pair of tones right. Plenty of learners are fine on single tones and stumble on particular pairs, and this shows you which ones.

Each week your teacher picks the weakest pairs and builds your drills around them.

Point your camera at a menu, a street sign or the back of a packet. Zhihuzhe reads the characters, puts pinyin over them and tells you what they mean, and you can save any word straight to your word bank.

Trace characters with your finger in a practice grid. Zhihuzhe checks each stroke’s direction and order as you go, and shows the next one when you’re stuck.

Calligraphy teachers start with 永, forever, because it contains all eight basic strokes. So do we.