Who makes Laowai?
Laowai is developed by Dmytro Polianskyi. The iPhone and iPad app combines dictionary lookup, reading and vocabulary practice. The website provides a free online dictionary, grammar explanations, short readings and teaching resources.
How the learning resources are organised
The grammar library combines original website lessons with rewritten explanations based on the Laowai grammar curriculum. Retained database examples and the original AllSet Learning credit are identified on the relevant pages. Readings and their exercises are written for this website. Difficulty labels are editorial, not official HSK placement.
Grammar pages explain sentence patterns and give examples with pinyin and English translations. Many topics link to the corresponding grammar exercises in Study; original website lessons also include a quick practice question and vocabulary downloads. Connect to iCloud on the Study page to share vocabulary lists and study progress with the app.
Browse grammar lessons · Read short Chinese texts · Vocabulary in context
Dictionary sources and coverage
The online dictionary uses attributed CC-CEDICT definitions, available French CFDICT definitions, Tatoeba sentence pairs and Make Me a Hanzi stroke graphics. Ukrainian definitions and examples have separate source and review information. Translations, examples and stroke graphics are not available for every entry.
Read the source credits, licences and coverage details. These notices identify the underlying snapshots and explain how the public data is prepared.
Languages and privacy
The web dictionary supports Chinese characters, pinyin, English, French and Ukrainian lookup. Input-language detection runs in your browser. Search runs in your browser. Lists and study progress save on this device, with optional iCloud sync after Apple sign-in. Optional analytics require consent.
Corrections and feedback
If an explanation, example or definition needs a correction, please include the page URL and the sentence or word in your message.