Japanese and Chinese, on your phone

Learn a language the way you would if you moved there.

Ting is a small, story-led game. You answer a help-wanted notice, take the train up to a mountain village, and help an old innkeeper run their guesthouse. The language comes from the people you meet there, a few words a day, always in conversation.

Join the iPhone beta Why I made it

Free while in beta. iPhone only for now, through Apple's TestFlight.

The opening of Ting: your character on a little train through a cedar forest, on the way to a mountain village in Japan.

Why I made this

I've tried a lot of ways to learn a language. The apps kept me busy, but none of them felt like the real thing: being somewhere, needing to say something, and hearing the same few words from the same people until one day they're simply yours.

Most of us can't move to a village in Japan for a year. So I started building one you can carry around.

Ting is that village. It's slow on purpose. You help out, you talk to people, and the words come with them. It's still small, and I'm building it a few days of story at a time. If it sounds like something you've wanted too, come and stay a while.

Winston

How it works

Each day in the village takes a few minutes: a job in the morning, a bit of the story, someone to talk to over dinner. You don't need to know any of the language to start.

Checking in a guest at the counter. Tanaka-san asks which room, for one person; the Japanese words have their readings above them.

1Hear it first

Every line is spoken aloud. New words are highlighted with their meaning underneath, and you can tap any of them to hear it again. You'll always hear a word before you're asked to use it.

A free talk with a guest by the hearth: a short list of things to find out, and a row of your words to use.

2Say it your way

Some conversations are open: type whatever you like, English mixed with the words you know. Nobody marks you wrong. At most you'll get a small note on how people usually put it.

The end of a day: the day's quests, the new words learned, and what happens tomorrow.

3Keep the story going

Guests check in and out, neighbours drop by, the house needs mending. Each day brings a few new words, and yesterday's words come back with the people you meet.

The bedtime dream: a word is played aloud under a night sky, with three meanings to choose from.

4Sleep on it

At bedtime the day's words come back in a short dream. The ones you remember are kept for good, and you can see them grow.

What it isn't

A few things I left out on purpose.

No decks to clear

No flashcards or drills. Words come back because people use them, not because a timer says so.

No losing

No hearts, no game over, no red crosses for grammar. You can't fail a conversation.

No streaks

Miss a day and nothing is lost. The village is where you left it.

Two villages, so far

Pick the language when you start. Each village has its own story, its own people and its own way of doing things.

Morino from above: thatched roofs around a pond, the little station and its train.

森野

Morino · Japanese

Thatched farmhouses around a pond, paddies, and a single train through the hinoki forest. Tanaka-san's knees can't keep up with his guesthouse any more, so he's asked for a hand.

Readings above every kanji

Yunlai at dawn: the sun rising over a sea of cloud, seen from the mountain railway.

云来

Yúnlái · Mandarin Chinese

A town halfway up a mountain railway, where the fog rolls in every afternoon. Grandma Lin has run the inn by the station for fifty years, and could use some help.

Pinyin with every word

Try the beta

Ting is in testing on iPhone through TestFlight, Apple's app for trying apps before they're in the App Store.

Install TestFlight from the App Store.
Open the invite link on your iPhone.
Tap Accept, then Install. Updates arrive in TestFlight as they're ready.

Open the invite

The public invite link goes up here in the next few days.

What to expect

It's early. The story is a few days long in each village and grows with each update. Some things will be rough.

The most useful thing you can do is tell me what you think: what confused you, what you liked, where you got stuck. You can send feedback from inside the app, or take a screenshot while playing and TestFlight will ask if you want to send it.

Help build the village

Ting is made independently, without ads. If you'd like to help it grow, you can support it on Patreon. Supporters are thanked by name in the app's credits.

Support Ting on Patreon