Textbook Chinese sounds nothing like real Chinese
So LanLan skips the textbook. Your usual scroll becomes Chinese practice: real people, real speed, real slang, with everything you need to understand it one tap away.
Scroll
A feed of real videos picked for your level: vlogs, street food, comedy, gaming and dramas. Chinese subtitles, tone-coloured pinyin and English sit under every video, never over it.
Tap
Tap a word you don't know. You get its meaning, pinyin, HSK level, characters and examples from other videos, and it's saved to your words.
Remember
Flashcards replay the exact line you met the word in, so you remember the moment, not a list. A few minutes a day, spaced out for you.
Why learners pick LanLan
The same things the Play Store page promises, because they're all in the app today.
- Real Mandarin, the way people actually speak it: 1,500+ hand-picked videos
- Pinyin over every Chinese character, with tone colours, so you hear and see the tones
- Tap any word: meaning, pinyin, HSK level and the sentence you heard it in
- Each character broken down, plus examples of the word from other videos
- LanLan reads the word or the whole line, slowly if you like
- Slow videos down to 0.75x or 0.5x, and tap under a video to pause and read the line
- Every word you tap becomes a flashcard, with the exact video moment you met it
- Spaced repetition brings words back right before you forget them
- Videos picked for your level and what you're into
- New videos every Sunday, and you vote which kind
You pick next Sunday's videos
New videos land in LanLan every Sunday. Vote for the kind you want: the category with the most votes is the one we add that week.
Loading this week's votes.
Chinese the way people actually talk
1,500+ hand-picked videos from Chinese YouTube creators, with more every Sunday. Real accents, real slang, real speed. Slow a video to 0.75x or 0.5x, or tap under it to pause and have the LanLan voice read the line slowly.
Want something heavier? Serious mode is business, economics and history in Mandarin.
- 美食Street food
- 日常Daily vlogs
- 搞笑Comedy
- 游戏Gaming
- 电视剧Dramas
- 历史History
More inside the app
Textbooks give you one word. Real Chinese has five.
47 everyday phrases, each ranked from polite to savage, with pinyin and when to use it. Free, no app needed.
Who LanLan is for
- Beginners who want real Chinese from day one: the first videos are the easiest, slowest ones
- Learners stuck between textbook Chinese and real conversations
- Fans of Chinese dramas, variety shows and creators who want to understand without subtitles
- Travellers, people with Chinese family or a Chinese partner, and anyone learning Mandarin for work
- Lazy learners who already scroll every day and want that time to count
Who it isn't for
- iPhone users: LanLan is Android only for now
- People who want a grammar course with set units. LanLan is immersion: real videos plus the tools to understand them
Watching is free. Premium is for the learning tools.
Free
Forever, no account
- Watch every video
- 5 word look-ups a day
- Learning mode (pinyin, translations, taps) on 3 videos a day
- Watch a short ad for 5 more look-ups or 3 more learning videos
- Home-screen widgets: HSK words with sound, lines from real videos
Premium
€39.99 a year (about €3.33 a month), or €6.99 a month
- Pinyin, tones and translations on every video
- Unlimited word look-ups
- Flashcard review with spaced repetition
- The LanLan voice: lifelike Mandarin, generated on your phone
- Serious mode: a feed of only business, economics and history
- No ads
New subscribers try Premium free for 7 days when Google Play offers it. Or pay once: lifetime is €99 once. Cancel any time in Google Play.
Prices in euros. Google Play shows the price in your currency.
Questions
What is LanLan?
LanLan: Learn Chinese Lazily is an Android app for learning Mandarin from real Chinese videos. You scroll a short-video feed of 1,500+ videos from Chinese YouTube creators; every line has Chinese subtitles, tone-coloured pinyin and English. Tap any word for its meaning, and LanLan saves it as a flashcard that replays the moment you heard it.
Can you really learn Chinese lazily?
Lazily, not effortlessly. LanLan swaps textbook drills for something you already do every day: scrolling short videos. You still learn the words, but the studying happens inside the scroll. Tap what you don't know, review a few flashcards a day, and five minutes counts.
Is LanLan free?
Yes. Every video is free to watch, with 5 word look-ups and learning mode on 3 videos every day, and free home-screen widgets. Premium unlocks pinyin and translations on every video, unlimited look-ups, flashcard review, the LanLan voice, Serious mode and no ads.
What level do I need?
You can start from zero: pinyin and English sit under every line and any word is one tap away. If you're a beginner, your first videos are the easiest, slowest ones (HSK 1 and up). Intermediate learners get real speed, slang and accents, which is where textbooks stop.
What kind of videos are there?
Daily vlogs, street food, street interviews, comedy, gaming, Chinese dramas and variety shows, plus Serious mode for business, economics and history. New videos arrive every Sunday, and anyone can vote on lanlanchinese.com for the kind of videos added next.
Where do the videos come from?
From Chinese creators on YouTube. They play in YouTube's own player and belong to their creators; LanLan never downloads or edits them. Creators can ask for removal at lanlanchinese.com/dmca.
Does LanLan help with HSK?
Every word card shows the word's HSK level, the free widgets show HSK words with sound, and the feed is ordered for your level. LanLan is vocabulary and listening in real context, not an HSK test-prep course.
How does the free trial work?
New subscribers can try Premium free for 7 days when Google Play offers it. LanLan reminds you 2 days before the trial ends, and you can cancel any time in Google Play.
Is LanLan on iPhone?
Not yet. LanLan is Android only (Android 8.0 or newer), on Google Play.
Do I need an account?
No. Open the app, answer a few setup questions and start scrolling. Your words and progress stay on your phone.
Scroll tonight. Remember tomorrow.
LanLan: Learn Chinese Lazily, free on Google Play.
