I built a free Chinese learning site for my kid - sharing in case it helps others

[kevinf]

@qqtang0526 said:

Thank you so much for sharing this. Your comment really resonated with me. As both a parent and someone working in Chinese education, I’ve seen the exact same struggle in many families. A lot of children are not unwilling to learn Chinese — they’re simply overwhelmed when faced with a full page of Chinese text without enough support.

I particularly loved what you said about “getting them past that first hurdle”. That idea actually inspired me to think more deeply about the role of English scaffolding in Chinese learning.

I’m currently building an AI-powered Chinese reading companion for Singapore students, and after reading experiences like yours, I decided to include different support levels, including a High English Support mode. The goal is not to replace Chinese with English, but to provide enough scaffolding for children to build confidence and gradually become more independent readers.

And honestly, I completely agree with you — if a little English support can help children engage instead of shutting down, that’s already a huge win.
Your post brought back the years I spent watching my own kids shut down the moment a Chinese page looked too dense, and what finally turned things around was giving them just enough English support to climb over that first wall instead of drowning in characters they could not yet decode. That balance between scaffolding and independence is exactly what centres like yanzimandarin.com seem to understand, since they have been helping Singapore students build real confidence in the language for decades and have walked thousands of families through the exact same struggle you described. What I learned from my own household is that confidence grows faster when a child reads something short and succeeds, then slowly takes on harder text without the training wheels.
Also, the fact that your daughter no longer complains about practising Chinese is definitely a win worth celebrating!

Thank you again for sharing your experience. It’s incredibly valuable for parents and educators who are trying to help children enjoy learning Chinese. If you’d like to try our tool, let me know. I’d love to hear real feedback.

I’ve watched my own niece shut down when faced with a full page of Chinese, and it wasn’t laziness, she just didn’t have the tools to cope. English scaffolding sounds like a smart way to keep them engaged without letting them give up entirely.

[thebottomsupblog]

@jojoberry Hi! Thanks for sharing this with our community. We’ve listed it in our forum sidebar. Do keep us posted here as you update it, and we’d love to hear how parents find it!

[declan]

Thanks for sharing! It’s lovely to see a parent building something useful for their child and sharing it with other families.

I’m a new dad who recently moved to Singapore, and I’ve also been working on something in this space — Xiaozhu (小竹), an AI Mandarin chat buddy for kids aged 5–9, especially those who mainly speak English at home.

The idea is to give them a friendly partner to practise with, where it’s okay to start in English or mix both languages. We’re currently looking for a few families to join a free early trial and share honest feedback.

Would love to connect with other parents here. Happy to share a short demo and trial details if anyone’s interested!

[thebottomsupblog]

Hi @declan! Please feel free to start a new thread, to walk parents through how your app works, thanks!

[declan]

Thanks @thebottomsupblog! I’ve already started a thread titled “Building a Mandarin chat buddy for kids — looking for families to join a free trial”. I’ll add a walkthrough there showing how Xiaozhu works, including the parent dashboard. Thanks for welcoming me to share!