# Bookchoy
> Bookchoy is a Chinese-language learning app: a learning sidekick and spaced-repetition home for everything you want to remember. It's not a teacher or a replacement for tutors, Anki, or apps — it's a tool to understand Chinese and a place to save and review vocabulary captured from tutors, apps, books, shows, and conversations. Built by Steven Landow, a solo developer.
Bookchoy lets you look up Chinese words and save them to a spaced-repetition system (SRS) for review, with flashcards and quizzes, tone and pronunciation practice, and handwriting practice. You can capture vocabulary from across the web with the Chrome extension (works on YouTube, Netflix, Disney+, iQiyi, and any webpage), from Neovim with the bookchoy.nvim plugin, and from the app itself.
The mobile app lets you import any text or e-book to read and capture vocabulary from, test your pronunciation, learn handwriting. Bookchoy's SRS system is designed to be flexible and customizable. The mobile app has a library of word lists/review decks for topics and niches or HSK prep. It also has a curated library of original stories as well as a library of YouTube videos to watch with interactive subtitles. You can import your own YouTube videos too.
# Blog posts
## Flashcards
- URL: https://bookchoy.app/blog/flashcards
- Date: 2026-06-21
- Summary: Flashcards are here! Practice recall with 3-sided flashcards instead of quizzes, if you prefer.
When I thought Bookchoy was a quick weekend project to
replace Anki+Pleco for myself, I specifically wanted to
avoid flashcards. Instead of flashcards, Bookchoy
started with only multiple choice quizzes. My thought
was that it prevents you from being able to cheat
yourself by thinking "oh I kind" of remember" and then
just marking that card as correct.
However, after using Bookchoy for a long time I'm
noticing a couple of things. First, some people really
like flashcards! I want Bookchoy to be a tool people can
use the way they want to use it. Second, flashcards and
multiple choice quizzes each train two separate
overlapping mechanisms: recognition and recall. Multiple
choice quizzes have built-in reminders: you can guess
based on which answer makes the most sense or is more
familiar. Flashcards force you to rely only on your own
memory.
In the latest update that I submitted over the weekend I added
flascards as an optionla review mode for both Words and Sentences:
The flascards are "3-sided": English, Pinyin and Chinese Characters. You can pick the order
that you want to see them in:
* Can you remember which character(s) go with this pinyin and meaning?
* Can you remember the pinyin and meaning of these character(s)?
* Can you remember the meaning of these character(s) and pinyin?
When you've revealed all sides, you can swipe right to mark it correct, or
swipe left to mark it wrong. You can also check your pronunciation and tones by
tapping the mic icon:
This should be up on both iOS and Android within the next day or so. I hope you
enjoy! If you have any feature requests, questions or complaints please feel
free to send me an email at laoban@bookchoy.app
or DM me on Instagram at @bookchoy_app.
---
## Bookchoy Chrome Extension
- URL: https://bookchoy.app/blog/chrome-ext
- Date: 2026-06-13
- Summary: The Bookchoy Chrome Extension is here! It works on YouTube, Netflix, Disney+, iQiyi, and every webpage you visit. Everything you save on the extension will show up in the app for review.
The Bookchoy Chrome Extension is live on the Chrome Web Store! You can
[install it here](https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/bookchoy/ehckljibhpnkaelbkajjdnegohgmaimo).
The extension works on YouTube, Netflix, Disney+, iQiyi, and every webpage you
visit. Everything you save on the extension will show up in the app for review.
On any webpage, you simply hold `Shift` and hover over any Chinese text to get
the same word popup you would get in the app. You can see the pinyin, english
meaning, hear the pronunciation, see example sentences and most importantly:
_save the word to your SRS_! Whether you're shopping on Taobao (淘宝), reading
the news, or browsing Weibo (微博), you can collect new vocab.
For sentences, simply highlight the text and click the Bookchoy button and
you can see the full sentence translation, breakdown and save it to the SRS as well.
The extension also works on YouTube, Netflix, and iQiyi (iq.com). You just go
to those sites the way you normally would, and the extension will make the
existing subtitles interactive! Click on a word to see the per-word info or the
Bookchoy button for a full sentence. You can also turn on pinyin and the
existing subtitles will have accurate pinyin on top of the characters.
Later, I will keep adding to the extension. More streaming sites, support for
baked-in subtitles which are common for lots of Chinese streaming sites like
Bilibili. I also need to add the full in-depth breakdowns, the auto-pause,
pronunciation and shadowing tools and more. For now though, I am very happy
with it and I hope you enjoy it too!
---
## bookchoy.nvim
- URL: https://bookchoy.app/blog/bookchoy.nvim
- Date: 2026-05-29
- Summary: Use Bookchoy's dictionary directly in Neovim! If you are a programmer like me, you can use this plugin to look up Chinese words and save them to your SRS without leaving your text editor.
This one is for the computer nerds, like me. As a programmer, I have a favorite
text editor: Neovim. I use it for all my coding, including when I work on
Bookchoy. I also use it to write blog posts, and stories for Bookchoy.
Sometimes, I need to double check a Chinese word or character. Bookchoy the
mobile app, and soon the chrome extension make it easy. But I want Bookchoy
_everywhere_! So I made a Neovim plugin that lets me use Bookchoy's dictionary directly
in my favorite text editor:
If you also use Neovim, you can grab it for free on GitHub: https://github.com/stevenctl/bookchoy.nvim
---
## Practice Handwriting Chinese Characters!
- URL: https://bookchoy.app/blog/handwriting
- Date: 2026-05-01
- Summary: Improve your character recognition by handwriting hanzi in Bookchoy!
When I first started learning Mandarin Chinese, it was just my wife and I in
the car, and she would teach me a few words here and there. Later, I started
using some youtube videos and podcasts and my only goal was to speak and
understand. The character system was so foreign and intimidating to me I
figured I could just ignore it. I've actually heard some other learners say the
same thing, but now I know it's not the way. When I started using Hello
Chinese, I ended up learning the characters and eventually turned the pinyin
mode _off_. It turns out having the characters to tie meaning to really helps
with the ability to separate similar sounding words and understand the language
on a deeper level. Eventually, I could read entire graded readers with minimal
assistance!
But there were still some problems. The only "writing" I had done was using
pinyin based keyboards. This still helps train some recall and recognition, but
you have so much context in that kind of writing. On occasion, I'd get similar
characters confused. For example: 其 and 真, or 成 and 城. Sometimes they'd
just have a similar shape, other times there would just be a single differing
部首 (radical/component). I had learned to recognize the characters as wholes,
but I didn't understand how to look at the smaller components to figure out
the meaning of similar looking, or even new characters I hadn't seen before.
I started trying to copy handwriting on paper, but it's pretty tedious and
honestly my goal was not to be able to actually handwrite. Just to improve my
recognition. So, I built it into bookchoy!
Now you can take the words saved in your SRS and practice writing them stroke
by stroke. I've already started to notice an improvement in my reading and
overall understanding of characters. There are definitely some improvements to
be made, currently it's too easy to just get a hint for every stroke. For now I think
it's a pretty nice addition, and I hope you find it useful!
---
## Pronunciation Practice!
- URL: https://bookchoy.app/blog/pronunciation-practice
- Date: 2026-04-01
- Summary: Practice your tones and pronunciation as part of your daily Bookchoy habit.
I just added a major new feature to Bookchoy: pronunciation practice! The app will grade your pronunciation and tones and give you useful feedback to help you improve.
The first type of pronunciation practice is per-word practice:
The app will ask you to pronounce a word, and it will tell you characters that sounded a little off, and whether your tones were correct. You have to get it right 3 times in a row to move on. If you get it wrong 3 times in a row, you move on and the SRS will track that this word needs more practice. I got this idea from Outlier Linguistics. In a podcast, they talk about how pronunciation is less like a study-able topic, and more like practicing a sport or an instrument. You can't just get it right once and move on; you have to practice till you can't get it wrong. Before each pronunciation practice, you'll get a quick "pinyin check" which helps you memorize which tones correspond to which characters and meaning.
You'll also be able to practice full sentences, based on the words you're practicing:
These ones are a bit tougher, but it's definitely worth practicing. I've noticed while testing the feature that if I listen to the built-in audio samples a few times first, my pronunciation naturally improves when it's my turn to try.
Finally, I also integrated pronunciation practice directly into the YouTube player.
You can turn on the "repeat" button and drag the markers to pick a segment of the video you want to focus on. You can also turn on "auto-pause" to pause after each sentence. Tap the microphone icon and you can record your voice, and the app will give you feedback on how well you pronounced it. Shadowing is one of the most commonly recommended techniques for improving both pronunciation and listening skills. Now it's easy and convenient directly in Bookchoy!
---
## Videos and Podcasts for Learning Chinese
- URL: https://bookchoy.app/blog/videos-and-podcasts
- Date: 2026-01-02
- Summary: Some of my favorite Chinese learning resources from YouTube
Comprehensible input is easily the most FUN way to learn a language. You get to
watch videos, listen to podcasts, and read stories that actually interest you.
You learn about culture, current events and every day life while improving your
language skills. Think about it this way: if you watch a 15 minute Chinese
video, you'll probably hear roughly **1500 words** (assuming slower paced learning
content). Think about how _boring_ it would be to do 1,500 word drills. Not only
do you get **repeated** exposure to words in context, you'll start to pick up
on grammar patterns, sentence structures, and even pronunciation naturally. It
really happens faster than you think.
One way to make this stuff STICK is to use active recall. After
watching a video or listening to a podcast, try to summarize what you
learned in Chinese. You can use Bookchoy to quickly look up and save
words that you want to remember, or quickly get an explanation for
grammar or words in context. Your review sessions are a lot more fun
when you can tie them back to the interesting content where you
originally encountered a word or sentence. Just paste the link into Bookchoy and start
watching (or watch Netflix, iQiyi and YouTube with the new Chrome Extension!).
## Lazy Chinese
Beginner: 5/5
| Intermediate: 5/5
Playlists:
[Beginner](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjgH7-dte9OI70iliLciPVVYaNc3tJZKu&si=ojZ3seSzfEP8QB6S)
| [Low Intermediate](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjgH7-dte9OJrUyg_Iqwt2RMjbQ6Kl0yS)
| [Intermediate](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjgH7-dte9OK0BEA-ohBSVHVG7zqtnJjm&si=3dMAYN2_B9-U_EuJ)
| [High Intermediate](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjgH7-dte9OKV4sneMBZSPl0AfTY-HFrp&si=BMttzOT75ypU5lGj)
[YouTube | @Lazy-Chinese](https://www.youtube.com/@Lazy-Chinese)
Suqing's channel is one of my _favorites_. She uses TPRS (Teaching
Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling) to teach Chinese in a
very engaging way. When I first started watching these, I was shocked:
"Wow I can actually understand Chinese."
She has videos for all levels. Even starting from absolute beginner, her videos
are useful because she combines pictures and gestures to help you guess what she's
saying without looking up every word. Up to high intermediate, her videos are
pretty fun to watch, and cover pretty deep topics like [do you stay friends with your ex](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sg2RIM9G8s)?
She does collabs with other Chinese teachers and content creators and her channel
has a TON of variety. Highly recommended.
## Tea Time Chinese
Beginner: 3/5
| Intermediate: 5/5
Playlists:
[Literature (文学)](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhRGJL8iF6uQP3vtAL360i1Jf364CXNih)
| [History (历史)](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhRGJL8iF6uS7gqaexjQLw-zzOaRNs2YM)
| [Culture (文化)](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhRGJL8iF6uQ32X7n2JBAVVECzNwzZ2zl)
| [News (新闻)](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhRGJL8iF6uRJ9Pqzjq0lZ7KcOCu00uaF)
[YouTube | TeaTimeChinese](https://www.youtube.com/@TeaTimeChinese)
Nathan's channel is another favorite of mine. He covers a wide range of topics
related to Chinese culture, history, and literature. The podcast has a variety of formats:
sometimes he'll read a story, sometimes he'll talk about his own life, and other times he'll
discuss interesting cultural topics or current events. His videos are well-researched
and deeply fascinating. He speaks at a moderate pace, making it easy to follow along.
The vocabulary is slightly more varied, but still accessible for intermediate learners.
Total beginners might struggle a bit, but it's worth trying out. If it's too hard, you can
take it slow and look up words as you go, or just come back to it when you're ready.
## Zhangkai Chinese
Beginner: 3/5
| Intermediate: 5/5
[YouTube | Zhangkai Chinese](https://www.youtube.com/@ZhangkaiChinese)
Zhangkai's channel is so awesome. His videos highlight daily life, often him vlogging
out and about in China. He speaks at a faster, but still easy to understand, pace, and definitely uses
a very authentic accent and natural speech patterns, not classroom Chinese. Amazing to get used to
what real life Chinese sounds like. He takes the time to highlight and repeat the key vocabulary words,
and his vlogs are the perfect visual aid. You can probably learn a lot of words without even looking up
their English meanings.
## SyS Mandarin
Beginner: 5/5
| Intermediate: 5/5
[YouTube | Sys Mandarin](https://www.youtube.com/@sysmandarin)
Sys Mandarin is a great choice if you prefer a more structured
approach. Their videos are will often take a specific topic, song, or
scene from a movie and break down grammar and vocabulary word by word.
They have been around for years and have around 600 videos to choose
from.
## Conclusion
These are just a few of my favorite channels that I can personally recommend after years
of watching and learning from them. There are tons of other great resources out there,
so don't be afraid to explore and find what works best for you. The most important thing
is to find things you're actually interested in. This makes it so much easier to stay motivated
and consistent. Happy learning! 加油!
---
## Launching my Chinese App
- URL: https://bookchoy.app/blog/launching-my-chinese-app
- Date: 2025-12-31
- Summary: Before 2025 ends, it's time to let everyone try out Bookchoy!
What is bookchoy? It's a dictionary, an e-reader, a video player, a chrome-extension, an OCR tool
and an SRS. I think it's the perfect toolkit for learning Chinese, even if you
only use one or two of the things it can do.
Towards the end of 2024, my Chinese learning hit a wall. I could hold a basic
conversation, but my vocabulary was too limited to express myself the way I
could in English. I needed a way to learn new words, the words *I* wanted
to learn, not whatever Duolingo-style apps decided to show me next.
Anki seemed like a good fit. It's the standard for memorizing vocabulary. I'm
not the biggest fan of flashcards, though. I don't love making them and the
self-grading aspect doesn't give feel like satisfying feedback, so errors
sink in and correct answers don't feel rewarding.
The original idea for Bookchoy was simple: a dictionary app with built-in SRS
that could generate interactive quizzes instead of traditional flashcards.
Then I realized another problem: I don't always know which words I need to
learn next. So I've built vocabulary lists for topics like food, travel,
computer programming, and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Eventually, it would be cool if
these became topical mini-courses, but I'll need some help from native speakers
who enjoy the specific topics to make that happen.
Lists are cool, but not as fun as real input. One of the most effective
language learning strategies is **Comprehensible Input**: consuming content you
can *mostly* understand: movies, shows, books, songs, podcasts that are slightly
above your current level.
### Reading
Reading builds character recognition and expands your vocabulary naturally.
You'll also start picking up grammar patterns passively.
Bookchoy has a small library of built-in stories (with audiobooks!), but the
real power is importing your own. Paste any Chinese text into the app, upload
an `epub` or paste a YouTube or webpage link and Bookchoy makes it readable
with interactive dictionary lookup and in-depth explanations of sentences and
words in context.
Making it easy to save words while reading is what transformed Bookchoy from a
dictionary app into an e-reader. Chinese has a lot of ambiguity. Figuring out
where words start and end isn't obvious:
**我喜欢学习中文。**
There are no spaces. Where does 喜欢 start? Where does 学习 end?
I developed a custom algorithm and a small AI model that runs on-device to
handle this. It can also disambiguate characters with multiple meanings and
pronunciations:
**把面条拉成长条**
成长 (chéng zhǎng) means "to grow," but here we actually have 成 "to become" +
长条 (cháng tiáo) "long strip."
Bookchoy handles most cases correctly. I'll continue refining it over time.
### Watching
Bookchoy has a built-in YouTube player with interactive subtitles. Tap any word
to see its meaning and pronunciation, with the same in-depth explanations as
the reader.
Eventually, I'll release a Chrome extension for YouTube, Netflix, Bilibili,
Disney+, iQiyi, and more—same interactive subtitles, same vocabulary
collection.
> EDIT (June 2026): The Chrome Extension is coming soon! It should be available this month for download as soon as Google approves it on the Chrome Web Store. It will work on YouTube, Netflix, Disney+, iQiyi, and every webpage you visit. Everything you save on the extension will show up in the app for review.
### Listening
Listening practice matters too. I plan to add a podcast player and audio
recordings for built-in stories. I might even support generating audiobooks for
imported content.
For now, listening is limited to the YouTube player and audio playback for
individual words and sentences.
> EDIT (June 2026): As you can see in the reader screenshot above, built-in stories now have audiobooks!
### Studying and Reviewing
Repetition is what makes words stick. Bookchoy uses Spaced Repetition (SRS)—the
same science-backed approach used by most language apps. Each time you review a
word, the interval before you see it again increases. You review right before
you'd forget, which helps cement it in long-term memory.
Current review activities:
- Multiple choice — test pronunciation and meaning
- Fill in the blank — learn how words are used in context
- Sentence drills — translate English prompts into Chinese using a keyboard or
word bank
- Writing practice — open-ended prompts with feedback on grammar and word
choice
This should be up on both iOS and Android within the next day or so. I hope you
enjoy! If you have any feature requests, questions or complaints please feel
free to send me an email at laoban@bookchoy.app
or DM me on Instagram at @bookchoy_app.
---
## Bookchoy Chrome Extension
- URL: https://bookchoy.app/blog/chrome-ext
- Date: 2026-06-13
- Summary: The Bookchoy Chrome Extension is here! It works on YouTube, Netflix, Disney+, iQiyi, and every webpage you visit. Everything you save on the extension will show up in the app for review.
The Bookchoy Chrome Extension is live on the Chrome Web Store! You can
[install it here](https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/bookchoy/ehckljibhpnkaelbkajjdnegohgmaimo).
The extension works on YouTube, Netflix, Disney+, iQiyi, and every webpage you
visit. Everything you save on the extension will show up in the app for review.
On any webpage, you simply hold `Shift` and hover over any Chinese text to get
the same word popup you would get in the app. You can see the pinyin, english
meaning, hear the pronunciation, see example sentences and most importantly:
_save the word to your SRS_! Whether you're shopping on Taobao (淘宝), reading
the news, or browsing Weibo (微博), you can collect new vocab.
For sentences, simply highlight the text and click the Bookchoy button and
you can see the full sentence translation, breakdown and save it to the SRS as well.
The extension also works on YouTube, Netflix, and iQiyi (iq.com). You just go
to those sites the way you normally would, and the extension will make the
existing subtitles interactive! Click on a word to see the per-word info or the
Bookchoy button for a full sentence. You can also turn on pinyin and the
existing subtitles will have accurate pinyin on top of the characters.
Later, I will keep adding to the extension. More streaming sites, support for
baked-in subtitles which are common for lots of Chinese streaming sites like
Bilibili. I also need to add the full in-depth breakdowns, the auto-pause,
pronunciation and shadowing tools and more. For now though, I am very happy
with it and I hope you enjoy it too!
---
## bookchoy.nvim
- URL: https://bookchoy.app/blog/bookchoy.nvim
- Date: 2026-05-29
- Summary: Use Bookchoy's dictionary directly in Neovim! If you are a programmer like me, you can use this plugin to look up Chinese words and save them to your SRS without leaving your text editor.
This one is for the computer nerds, like me. As a programmer, I have a favorite
text editor: Neovim. I use it for all my coding, including when I work on
Bookchoy. I also use it to write blog posts, and stories for Bookchoy.
Sometimes, I need to double check a Chinese word or character. Bookchoy the
mobile app, and soon the chrome extension make it easy. But I want Bookchoy
_everywhere_! So I made a Neovim plugin that lets me use Bookchoy's dictionary directly
in my favorite text editor:
If you also use Neovim, you can grab it for free on GitHub: https://github.com/stevenctl/bookchoy.nvim
---
## Practice Handwriting Chinese Characters!
- URL: https://bookchoy.app/blog/handwriting
- Date: 2026-05-01
- Summary: Improve your character recognition by handwriting hanzi in Bookchoy!
When I first started learning Mandarin Chinese, it was just my wife and I in
the car, and she would teach me a few words here and there. Later, I started
using some youtube videos and podcasts and my only goal was to speak and
understand. The character system was so foreign and intimidating to me I
figured I could just ignore it. I've actually heard some other learners say the
same thing, but now I know it's not the way. When I started using Hello
Chinese, I ended up learning the characters and eventually turned the pinyin
mode _off_. It turns out having the characters to tie meaning to really helps
with the ability to separate similar sounding words and understand the language
on a deeper level. Eventually, I could read entire graded readers with minimal
assistance!
But there were still some problems. The only "writing" I had done was using
pinyin based keyboards. This still helps train some recall and recognition, but
you have so much context in that kind of writing. On occasion, I'd get similar
characters confused. For example: 其 and 真, or 成 and 城. Sometimes they'd
just have a similar shape, other times there would just be a single differing
部首 (radical/component). I had learned to recognize the characters as wholes,
but I didn't understand how to look at the smaller components to figure out
the meaning of similar looking, or even new characters I hadn't seen before.
I started trying to copy handwriting on paper, but it's pretty tedious and
honestly my goal was not to be able to actually handwrite. Just to improve my
recognition. So, I built it into bookchoy!
Now you can take the words saved in your SRS and practice writing them stroke
by stroke. I've already started to notice an improvement in my reading and
overall understanding of characters. There are definitely some improvements to
be made, currently it's too easy to just get a hint for every stroke. For now I think
it's a pretty nice addition, and I hope you find it useful!
---
## Pronunciation Practice!
- URL: https://bookchoy.app/blog/pronunciation-practice
- Date: 2026-04-01
- Summary: Practice your tones and pronunciation as part of your daily Bookchoy habit.
I just added a major new feature to Bookchoy: pronunciation practice! The app will grade your pronunciation and tones and give you useful feedback to help you improve.
The first type of pronunciation practice is per-word practice:
The app will ask you to pronounce a word, and it will tell you characters that sounded a little off, and whether your tones were correct. You have to get it right 3 times in a row to move on. If you get it wrong 3 times in a row, you move on and the SRS will track that this word needs more practice. I got this idea from Outlier Linguistics. In a podcast, they talk about how pronunciation is less like a study-able topic, and more like practicing a sport or an instrument. You can't just get it right once and move on; you have to practice till you can't get it wrong. Before each pronunciation practice, you'll get a quick "pinyin check" which helps you memorize which tones correspond to which characters and meaning.
You'll also be able to practice full sentences, based on the words you're practicing:
These ones are a bit tougher, but it's definitely worth practicing. I've noticed while testing the feature that if I listen to the built-in audio samples a few times first, my pronunciation naturally improves when it's my turn to try.
Finally, I also integrated pronunciation practice directly into the YouTube player.
You can turn on the "repeat" button and drag the markers to pick a segment of the video you want to focus on. You can also turn on "auto-pause" to pause after each sentence. Tap the microphone icon and you can record your voice, and the app will give you feedback on how well you pronounced it. Shadowing is one of the most commonly recommended techniques for improving both pronunciation and listening skills. Now it's easy and convenient directly in Bookchoy!
---
## Videos and Podcasts for Learning Chinese
- URL: https://bookchoy.app/blog/videos-and-podcasts
- Date: 2026-01-02
- Summary: Some of my favorite Chinese learning resources from YouTube
Comprehensible input is easily the most FUN way to learn a language. You get to
watch videos, listen to podcasts, and read stories that actually interest you.
You learn about culture, current events and every day life while improving your
language skills. Think about it this way: if you watch a 15 minute Chinese
video, you'll probably hear roughly **1500 words** (assuming slower paced learning
content). Think about how _boring_ it would be to do 1,500 word drills. Not only
do you get **repeated** exposure to words in context, you'll start to pick up
on grammar patterns, sentence structures, and even pronunciation naturally. It
really happens faster than you think.
One way to make this stuff STICK is to use active recall. After
watching a video or listening to a podcast, try to summarize what you
learned in Chinese. You can use Bookchoy to quickly look up and save
words that you want to remember, or quickly get an explanation for
grammar or words in context. Your review sessions are a lot more fun
when you can tie them back to the interesting content where you
originally encountered a word or sentence. Just paste the link into Bookchoy and start
watching (or watch Netflix, iQiyi and YouTube with the new Chrome Extension!).
## Lazy Chinese
Beginner: 5/5
| Intermediate: 5/5
Playlists:
[Beginner](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjgH7-dte9OI70iliLciPVVYaNc3tJZKu&si=ojZ3seSzfEP8QB6S)
| [Low Intermediate](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjgH7-dte9OJrUyg_Iqwt2RMjbQ6Kl0yS)
| [Intermediate](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjgH7-dte9OK0BEA-ohBSVHVG7zqtnJjm&si=3dMAYN2_B9-U_EuJ)
| [High Intermediate](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjgH7-dte9OKV4sneMBZSPl0AfTY-HFrp&si=BMttzOT75ypU5lGj)
[YouTube | @Lazy-Chinese](https://www.youtube.com/@Lazy-Chinese)
Suqing's channel is one of my _favorites_. She uses TPRS (Teaching
Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling) to teach Chinese in a
very engaging way. When I first started watching these, I was shocked:
"Wow I can actually understand Chinese."
She has videos for all levels. Even starting from absolute beginner, her videos
are useful because she combines pictures and gestures to help you guess what she's
saying without looking up every word. Up to high intermediate, her videos are
pretty fun to watch, and cover pretty deep topics like [do you stay friends with your ex](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sg2RIM9G8s)?
She does collabs with other Chinese teachers and content creators and her channel
has a TON of variety. Highly recommended.
## Tea Time Chinese
Beginner: 3/5
| Intermediate: 5/5
Playlists:
[Literature (文学)](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhRGJL8iF6uQP3vtAL360i1Jf364CXNih)
| [History (历史)](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhRGJL8iF6uS7gqaexjQLw-zzOaRNs2YM)
| [Culture (文化)](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhRGJL8iF6uQ32X7n2JBAVVECzNwzZ2zl)
| [News (新闻)](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhRGJL8iF6uRJ9Pqzjq0lZ7KcOCu00uaF)
[YouTube | TeaTimeChinese](https://www.youtube.com/@TeaTimeChinese)
Nathan's channel is another favorite of mine. He covers a wide range of topics
related to Chinese culture, history, and literature. The podcast has a variety of formats:
sometimes he'll read a story, sometimes he'll talk about his own life, and other times he'll
discuss interesting cultural topics or current events. His videos are well-researched
and deeply fascinating. He speaks at a moderate pace, making it easy to follow along.
The vocabulary is slightly more varied, but still accessible for intermediate learners.
Total beginners might struggle a bit, but it's worth trying out. If it's too hard, you can
take it slow and look up words as you go, or just come back to it when you're ready.
## Zhangkai Chinese
Beginner: 3/5
| Intermediate: 5/5
[YouTube | Zhangkai Chinese](https://www.youtube.com/@ZhangkaiChinese)
Zhangkai's channel is so awesome. His videos highlight daily life, often him vlogging
out and about in China. He speaks at a faster, but still easy to understand, pace, and definitely uses
a very authentic accent and natural speech patterns, not classroom Chinese. Amazing to get used to
what real life Chinese sounds like. He takes the time to highlight and repeat the key vocabulary words,
and his vlogs are the perfect visual aid. You can probably learn a lot of words without even looking up
their English meanings.
## SyS Mandarin
Beginner: 5/5
| Intermediate: 5/5
[YouTube | Sys Mandarin](https://www.youtube.com/@sysmandarin)
Sys Mandarin is a great choice if you prefer a more structured
approach. Their videos are will often take a specific topic, song, or
scene from a movie and break down grammar and vocabulary word by word.
They have been around for years and have around 600 videos to choose
from.
## Conclusion
These are just a few of my favorite channels that I can personally recommend after years
of watching and learning from them. There are tons of other great resources out there,
so don't be afraid to explore and find what works best for you. The most important thing
is to find things you're actually interested in. This makes it so much easier to stay motivated
and consistent. Happy learning! 加油!
---
## Launching my Chinese App
- URL: https://bookchoy.app/blog/launching-my-chinese-app
- Date: 2025-12-31
- Summary: Before 2025 ends, it's time to let everyone try out Bookchoy!
What is bookchoy? It's a dictionary, an e-reader, a video player, a chrome-extension, an OCR tool
and an SRS. I think it's the perfect toolkit for learning Chinese, even if you
only use one or two of the things it can do.
Towards the end of 2024, my Chinese learning hit a wall. I could hold a basic
conversation, but my vocabulary was too limited to express myself the way I
could in English. I needed a way to learn new words, the words *I* wanted
to learn, not whatever Duolingo-style apps decided to show me next.
Anki seemed like a good fit. It's the standard for memorizing vocabulary. I'm
not the biggest fan of flashcards, though. I don't love making them and the
self-grading aspect doesn't give feel like satisfying feedback, so errors
sink in and correct answers don't feel rewarding.
The original idea for Bookchoy was simple: a dictionary app with built-in SRS
that could generate interactive quizzes instead of traditional flashcards.
Then I realized another problem: I don't always know which words I need to
learn next. So I've built vocabulary lists for topics like food, travel,
computer programming, and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Eventually, it would be cool if
these became topical mini-courses, but I'll need some help from native speakers
who enjoy the specific topics to make that happen.
Lists are cool, but not as fun as real input. One of the most effective
language learning strategies is **Comprehensible Input**: consuming content you
can *mostly* understand: movies, shows, books, songs, podcasts that are slightly
above your current level.
### Reading
Reading builds character recognition and expands your vocabulary naturally.
You'll also start picking up grammar patterns passively.
Bookchoy has a small library of built-in stories (with audiobooks!), but the
real power is importing your own. Paste any Chinese text into the app, upload
an `epub` or paste a YouTube or webpage link and Bookchoy makes it readable
with interactive dictionary lookup and in-depth explanations of sentences and
words in context.
Making it easy to save words while reading is what transformed Bookchoy from a
dictionary app into an e-reader. Chinese has a lot of ambiguity. Figuring out
where words start and end isn't obvious:
**我喜欢学习中文。**
There are no spaces. Where does 喜欢 start? Where does 学习 end?
I developed a custom algorithm and a small AI model that runs on-device to
handle this. It can also disambiguate characters with multiple meanings and
pronunciations:
**把面条拉成长条**
成长 (chéng zhǎng) means "to grow," but here we actually have 成 "to become" +
长条 (cháng tiáo) "long strip."
Bookchoy handles most cases correctly. I'll continue refining it over time.
### Watching
Bookchoy has a built-in YouTube player with interactive subtitles. Tap any word
to see its meaning and pronunciation, with the same in-depth explanations as
the reader.
Eventually, I'll release a Chrome extension for YouTube, Netflix, Bilibili,
Disney+, iQiyi, and more—same interactive subtitles, same vocabulary
collection.
> EDIT (June 2026): The Chrome Extension is coming soon! It should be available this month for download as soon as Google approves it on the Chrome Web Store. It will work on YouTube, Netflix, Disney+, iQiyi, and every webpage you visit. Everything you save on the extension will show up in the app for review.
### Listening
Listening practice matters too. I plan to add a podcast player and audio
recordings for built-in stories. I might even support generating audiobooks for
imported content.
For now, listening is limited to the YouTube player and audio playback for
individual words and sentences.
> EDIT (June 2026): As you can see in the reader screenshot above, built-in stories now have audiobooks!
### Studying and Reviewing
Repetition is what makes words stick. Bookchoy uses Spaced Repetition (SRS)—the
same science-backed approach used by most language apps. Each time you review a
word, the interval before you see it again increases. You review right before
you'd forget, which helps cement it in long-term memory.