TCB - Read and Learn Chinese Hack 8.0.2 + Redeem Codes

This app is amazing! Yes, there are small bugs that need to be fixed and it needs to have auto repeat(which it doesn’t have currently). Also sometimes there is problems with the subscription system , which sometimes will not allow access to content right away(when you first start your subscription)

Even with some small annoying bugs , the app is hands down the best study tool on the market! And completely worth the subscription cost! If you are serious about learning Chinese , your money is best spent here!

New content is added constantly, sometimes I’ll finish a lesson and then find that new articles have just been posted!

The ability to filter by HSK level is genius. It helps you maintain that all important “flow” , so that the articles are not too hard or too easy- this “sweet spot” will help you improve very quickly.

This app best pairs with formal study of the language and is not really for absolute beginners. If you are looking for some phrases to say while traveling in China - this is not the app for you.

The articles are from real current Chinese news and blog posts and such -rewritten to match hsk level. Plus the app includes blog posts written in English that will help “fill in the gaps” on your knowledge of culture and society.

The learning tools are great and easy to use, each article includes a vocabulary quiz and several learning activities!

Customer service is very fast!

100% hands good content for what I’m looking for. I think the content is a good value for the money for me personally — paid for a year.
The three star rating is due to the minor bugs and poor UI/UX. It looks like it was designed by an engineer and a poor testing process. There is no cohesive color palette for the design. While I do applaud the content of the app, every time I use the app itself I notice more flaws: sometimes it loses the session of my account and I have to kill the app, inconsistent animations, random colors used for buttons, some articles have excessive white space at the bottom of articles, it doesn’t appear to cache the state of the app so it needs to refetch the page when I switch between different sections making it feel unnecessarily slow. I was going to switch to use the website instead of the phone app but the “mark as read” button on the website didn’t work so I am now stuck using iPhone app. I think the problems I describe are all solvable and the app has potential but for now it is what it is.

I always read review titles and think, “Really? Is it really going to make me fluent?” Honestly this app is not going to make you fluent, and sometimes it’s a little slow, and the flash card system is extremely basic; however, it’s absolutely amazing at providing articles to PRACTICE your reading. Will it make you a fluent reader? No. But it will help reinforce vocab words that you’re already studying and help you feel like your making decent progress. The one real problem I have with this app is that it only has articles. I would love to see some Chinese short stories, Chinese recipes, or even just journal entries in Chinese. I don’t know how many times I’ve read “根据了解.” With that said, I’ve bought a five year subscription and have used it very regularly.

This app has the most content of any chinese reader on the web. The content comes from real sources and is well translated. It has a built in dictionary and audio tracks for each text, which makes it a good resource for practicing listening skills. Texts even have audio and reading quizzes. This is one of the few Chinese learning apps out there worth paying for. I have been using them since they were free, and whenever I am studying intensively I am sure to reactivate my subscription. The drawbacks of the platform are the way the dictionary interfaces with texts, and the poor quality of quiz questions. The dictionary assumes what word you want to look up rather than letting you select which characters to include. Sometime it gets it wrong, even for vocab words for that article. Quiz questions often focus on details that don’t test level appropriate language skills (like remembering a number) or focus on remembering the exact order of characters rather than comprehending details.

As you progress in learning Chinese it becomes increasingly difficult to find content- especially when you don’t quite have the vocabulary to read things created for native speakers, but don’t want to be reading dumb dialogues in your text book that are boring and kind of useless.

The graded-level articles in TCB are wonderful in that they provide enough interesting content to reinforce the grammar and vocabulary as you continue to learn. It’s worth the price to know I can have so much content available to me as I go forward. Also, having it right there on an app on my phone leaves no excuses to squeeze in some reading practice instead of scrolling through, like, what a celebrity ate for breakfast on Instagram.

There are some minor issues but overall it’s good. I wish I could see the sentences within the articles fully translated because sometimes I still am not sure of the meaning even if I know all the words. Also, the wrong definition is frequently selected for words. App has a lot of potential but a learning app with incorrect dictionary can be harmful. On the other hand, the audio and quizzes are a nice feature. It would be a 5* app if it didn’t have the harmful dictionary selections although that may require hiring a proof reader.

Edit: after dev response and thinking I have changed my mind a bit and decided the app is pretty good at what it provides well, which is Chinese articles graded by level. I do hope they continue improving it

After I decided to study Chinese, I looked at TCB's free sample lessons for several months. Today I bought the two-year subscription plan, confident that I made a wise purchase.

With TCB, I'm going to read, hear, and imitate the spoken Chinese language. While I do all this, am going to learn about Chinese culture, too. With all these inputs offered by TCB, my chances of success will be greatly increased.

I have been a teacher of English as a foreign language since 1986. I know good foreign language teaching curriculum when I see it. TCB is good. I can't recommend this resource highly enough.

Chairmans Bao is great for preparing for the HSK. I can guarantee if you read and use their built in flashcard / word saving feature, you will be prepared for the HSK if you read their articles. Many of the articles also have some words that are at higher levels which only serves to broaden your horizons. I love the app and desktop site, yet I ran into several issues where words were not being saved. I was quite disappointed and after sending an email, the CoFounder reached out to me. We started an open dialogue about the problems we were having, why they were occurring, how to solve them etc., He was quick to act and very helpful and gracious. Great service but also great customer service. Truly impressive.

I like chairmansbao, but I would like to see an automatic repeat option when listening. I want to listen to chairmansbao in the car while driving, but without the automatic repeat button it is dangerous while driving. If there actually is an automatic repeat button and I just haven’t found it, then there needs to be better instructions on how to use TCB.

Just read Ben’s review. Disagree about customer support. I have sent several emails asking tcb to fill out a tax form, so my school could pay for my subscription. I have never received a response! The app is useless when trying to change my subscription so it can be paid for by my school. I am also a chinese teacher. So saying customer support is good is laughable.

This app heart is in the right place and by and large it is an effective educational tool. However, one of it’s principal features is fill-in-the-blanks quizzes, and these work extremely poorly. When I tried using the app on my iPhone, it would constantly fill the current answer into the previous blank, changing that answer. Sometimes it would take twenty tries before it would insert the answer I wished into the blank where I wished it to go.

For this reason, I switched to the IPad. The experience is better, but still not perfect, so it is fairly common to miss a question not because I had not answered it correctly, but because it had changed one of my answers.

Not being able export vocabulary words to study with others from other sources—huge drawback.

Occasional conflicts between glossary below and definitions above.

Occasional typos.

Reverts randomly from my preference of hiding pinyin to displaying pinyin. Occasionally switching to Traditional. It is not hard to go back to preferences to fix, but I’d rather spend the time learning Mandarin.

Requires diving deep into timeline to find new material—new daily material is not nearly enough to support use of the app for more than a few minutes.