Frequently Asked Questions
Everything you need to know about learning with Pikkolo Pinyin.
What is Pikkolo Pinyin?
A Mandarin learning site built around interactive stories, speaking practice, and vocabulary drills. Every story shows Hanzi, Pinyin, and English together, so you can click any word to see how it breaks down, tap to hear it spoken, or let the whole page read itself aloud to you.
What are Read, Chat, and Learn?
The three things you can do here. Read is every story, short and long. Chat is Pikkolo — talk to him about anything, or step into a Scene with a task to complete. Learn is where you drill: Shadow Reading for words, sentences and paragraphs against native audio, and Vocabulary for daily words and (soon) tone training.
Do I need to already know Pinyin?
No. Pinyin (the Romanized spelling of Mandarin sounds) is shown alongside every Hanzi character and English translation, so you can learn all three together at your own pace.
What's the difference between short stories and Series?
Short stories are quick, 1-2 sentences per page — great for a few minutes of practice. Series are longer, chaptered books you read a few paragraphs at a time, for once you want a story to actually live in for a while. Switch between them from a toggle on Read.
What is "Shadow Reading", and why does it help?
Shadow reading means listening to native audio and repeating it out loud immediately afterward, mimicking the rhythm, tone, and pronunciation as closely as you can. It's one of the fastest ways to build a natural accent, because you're training your mouth and ear together instead of just reading silently. Find it under Learn.
What are HSK levels?
HSK is the official Chinese proficiency test, set by the Chinese government, and it's the standard almost everyone uses to measure how far along a Mandarin learner is. It runs from HSK 1 for complete beginners upward, and each level comes with a defined list of words you're expected to know — around 150 by the end of HSK 1, roughly 300 by HSK 2, about 600 by HSK 3, and around 1,200 by HSK 4. Because the word lists are fixed and public, they make a natural ladder to climb even if you never intend to sit the exam: you always know what to learn next, and you can tell how far you've come. Every story here is written using only the words from its level and the levels below it, so nothing you meet is out of reach.
What HSK levels do you cover?
Vocabulary and stories currently span HSK 1 through HSK 4, with more levels and content on the way.
Does my level and progress follow me to my other devices?
Yes, once you're signed in. The level you pick — in My Account, or just by choosing one on any page — becomes the level every story list, drill and chat opens on everywhere, on any device. Your reading history, starred words and sentences, story bookmarks, and Scene favourites all sync the same way.
How can I chat to Pikkolo?
Tap Chat in the menu, then tap the button and say something in Mandarin — Pikkolo the penguin listens, replies out loud, and shows you what you both said in Hanzi, Pinyin and English. He keeps to short sentences at your chosen level and always leaves you something easy to answer, so the conversation keeps going even when you're stuck. If a mistake got in the way of what you meant, he'll gently say it back the right way rather than stopping to correct you. When you're done, you can download the whole conversation as a recording or a Hanzi/Pinyin/English text file. You'll need a free account, which gives you 20 turns a day; the Chat plan lifts that to 1,000 spoken turns a month.
What are Scenes?
Chat's other half — a role-play with a real task, like ordering food or asking directions, instead of an open-ended conversation. Each one has its own character, its own little illustrated world, and suggested lines if you get stuck. Scenes come with the Chat plan, up to 600 spoken turns a month.
What's "Ask"?
Found in the menu above How It Works. Type or ask how you'd say anything in English, and Pikkolo Pinyin gives you the sentence a person would actually use — with Pinyin, a recording, and every word tappable, the same as a story. It comes with the Chat plan, up to 500 questions a month.
Is Pikkolo Pinyin free?
Yes — every story is free to read: short stories, picture books and every chapter of every series, at every HSK level, with no account and no card. Learn is free too, and a free account adds 20 turns a day talking with Pikkolo. The only things you pay for are the ones that cost us money every time you use them: the Chat plan is $4.95 a month for talking with Pikkolo (up to 1,000 spoken turns a month), Scenes, Ask, and 5 custom stories a month. Extra custom stories come in one-off packs.
Why are the stories free but chat isn't?
A story costs us nothing to hand you a second time, so we give them away. Every spoken reply from Pikkolo, every Ask answer and every custom story is generated fresh, and each one costs us money — so those sit behind the Chat plan, $4.95 a month, or a custom story pack.
What are custom stories?
Describe any story you like and Pikkolo writes it for you at your HSK level, with a picture and narration. The Chat plan includes 5 a month, and anyone can buy a pack: 25 for $7.95 or 60 for $14.95.
Do the stories have real audio, or is it text-to-speech?
Every story comes with its own audio, generated using a high-quality AI voice — not the robotic built-in voice your browser uses, which sounds different on every device. You can play a whole page, or tap any single word to hear it on its own.
Is there a podcast?
Yes — our long-form Series read start to finish, one book an episode. Find it from the podcast icon in the header, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Can I use this on my phone or tablet?
Yes — stories and practice pages are designed to fit any screen size without needing to scroll.
How do I hide the Hanzi, Pinyin, or English if I want to test myself?
Inside any story, use the small "Hanzi", "Pinyin", "Natural English", and "Chinese English" toggles above the text to show or hide each script independently. "Natural English" is the fluent translation; "Chinese English" shows the literal word-for-word English under each Chinese word instead, so tapping a word always underlines exactly its own English.
What's "My Books"?
Tap the bookmark on any story to add it, then choose My Books from the story-type filter on Read to see everything you've kept. Sentences and words have their own bookmark-and-filter in Learn. All of it follows your account to every device.
I found a mistake in a translation or a story — how do I report it?
Reach out via the Contact option in the account menu (top right) and let us know what you found — thank you for helping us improve things!