Still Fluent

You were fluent once. Stay that way.

Still Fluent is a short daily practice for people who used to speak Mandarin or Japanese well and don't want to lose it. Read something real, talk about it, review what slipped. Five to ten minutes a day.

Join the beta How it works

Small private beta on iPhone. Email us and we'll send a TestFlight invite. Already in? You can also practice in your browser.

Today's piece · Business · 中文

由于供应链问题，这家公司决定推迟(tuīchí)新产品的发布。

推迟 tuīchí · to postpone, put off. Saved to review.

One session, three parts

No lessons and no drills you outgrew years ago. Each day is one piece of real-world reading and one real conversation, pitched at the level you actually have.

  1. Read

    A short piece on something you care about: news, business, policy, culture or tech. Tap any word for its pinyin or furigana and a definition, and save it.

  2. Talk

    About five minutes of spoken conversation with an AI partner about what you read. It speaks a little above your level and doesn't interrupt to correct you.

  3. Review

    Afterwards you get the mistakes you made, better ways to say things, and new words. They go into a spaced-repetition deck and an error journal that shows what keeps recurring.

For people who were fluent, not beginners

Maybe you lived in Taipei or Osaka, grew up speaking it at home, or studied it seriously for years. You can still follow a conversation, but words don't come as fast and the characters are getting blurry.

Still Fluent assumes you know the language. You rate your own reading, listening, speaking and writing on the ILR scale (0 to 5), and the reading and conversation are matched to that.

What it isn't

  • Not a course. No alphabet lessons or flashcards for "hello."
  • Not a game. No points, gems, leagues or cartoon mascots.
  • Not a time sink. A session is meant to fit before work.

Mandarin and Japanese

One app, two language packs. Choose the one you're keeping up.

中文

Mandarin Chinese, simplified or traditional characters, with pinyin. Feedback tracks tones alongside grammar, word choice and register.

日本語

Japanese with furigana (on or off). Feedback tracks pitch accent alongside grammar, word choice and register.

Friends, if you want them

Practicing alongside someone helps. You can add a friend by username or send an invite link, and they have to accept. Friends can be learning different languages.

Sharing is off by default. For each friend separately, you choose what they see:

  • Nothing (the default)
  • Streak only
  • Streak and minutes
  • Full activity: sessions, language and progress

Private by design

  • No ads, no trackers, no analytics, on this site or in the app.
  • We don't sell your data.
  • Delete your account and practice history from Settings at any time.

To run conversations, your words go to the AI providers that power them. The privacy policy lists exactly who and what.

Join the beta

Still Fluent is in a small private beta on iPhone. It's early: expect rough edges, and tell us about them.

Join the beta

Email us and we'll send a TestFlight invite. You'll need an iPhone on iOS 17 or later.