Introducing Zhong Chinese

Learning Chinese is one of the most difficult intellectual challenges a person can undertake. It requires patience, discipline, and years of consistent effort.

Yet, most modern language apps treat it like a game.

They bombard you with notifications. They threaten you with broken streaks. They lock your hard-earned progress behind monthly subscriptions that never end. They seem designed to keep you addicted, rather than to help you graduate.

We built Zhong Chinese to be the antidote.

We are not a game. We are a serious tool for serious students, specifically designed as the digital companion for A Course in Contemporary Chinese (Dangdai).

Here is what makes us different.

Zhong is not a Platform

We believe that education tools should be owned, not rented.

When you buy a physical textbook, you pay for it once and it sits on your shelf forever. You don’t have to pay a monthly fee to open Chapter 5.

Zhong Chinese follows this “Textbook Model.”

• No Subscriptions: We sell Licenses. You pay once, and you own the software for that period (or forever).
• No Data Hostage: If your license expires, you don’t lose your data. You simply lose the “Velocity” features (the ability to add new cards at a high speed). You can always review what you have already learned, for free, forever.
• No Distractions: You won’t find gems, loot boxes, or leaderboards here. We respect your attention.

Powered by FSRS: The “Smart” Engine

Under the hood, Zhong is powered by FSRS (Free Spaced Repetition Scheduler), a modern algorithm that is significantly more efficient than the older systems used by apps like Anki.

Most flashcard apps treat every student the same. FSRS treats you like an individual.

• It analyzes your review history to calculate exactly how fast you forget specific types of words.
• It adapts the schedule instantly. If you have a great memory for nouns but struggle with verbs, the algorithm will space them out differently.

This means you spend less time reviewing words you already know, and more time focusing on the weak points that actually need your attention. It creates a personalized learning path that is mathematically optimized for your brain.

Burnout Protection: The Steady Stream

The number one reason students quit Anki (and Chinese) is “Review Paralysis.”

It starts innocently: you feel motivated, so you add 50 new words in one day. But spaced repetition is exponential. Those 50 words come back tomorrow, then in 3 days, then in a week. If you keep adding 50 words a day, you will soon wake up to a “Review Mountain” of 500+ cards.

It is overwhelming, discouraging, and leads to burnout.

Zhong Chinese prevents this by design.

• Fixed Pacing: On our Free tier, we limit the number of new words you can learn per day. This isn’t a paywall; it’s a safety rail.
• Sustainable Habits: Even on our Paid tiers, we encourage “Steady” or “Serious” pacing rather than “Binge” learning.

We feed you a steady, manageable stream of new vocabulary—just enough to keep you moving forward, but never enough to bury you. We want you to be studying effectively in Month 6, not just burning out in Week 1.

Comprehensive Dangdai Support

Finally, we are built for a specific purpose: to help you master the MTC curriculum.

We don’t offer random user-generated decks full of errors. We offer a curated, verified curriculum that maps perfectly to Books 1 through 6 of the Dangdai series.

• Stroke Order: Native handwriting support for every character.
• Audio: Clear, natural pronunciation with the correct Taipei accent.
• Context: Example sentences that help you understand usage, not just definitions.

Start Learning

If you are tired of renting your vocabulary and playing games, welcome home.

Zhong Chinese is the study tool we wished we had when we started learning. It is calm, it is efficient, and it is yours.