Getting started

What Zen Reader does, who does what in a family, and the first thing to try.

Zen Reader listens to your child read a book aloud, then shows you — page by page, word by word — what they read correctly and what they missed. You do not need to read or speak Chinese yourself. That is the whole point of it.

What you can do with it

• Reading practice. Your child reads a real book aloud; the app records, transcribes and scores it against the book's text.
• Spelling. School spelling lists, practised by writing, by saying, and by a dictation test — with the handwriting marked from a photo.
• Word lists. Flash cards that listen and coach, a speed card game, a spoken test and write practice, over any list.
• Listening. The app reads a passage aloud and asks questions about it — your child listens without seeing the words. A preview feature, not yet in every family's menu.
• Composition. A composition title, a plan, proper writing paper to print, the finished pages read back from a photo, and specific things to look at — never a mark. A preview feature, not yet in every family's menu.
• Oral Practice. Your child talks with Jas, in the language they are learning, about a page of one of your books — and you get the whole conversation with a translation, and feedback in words rather than a score. A preview feature, not yet in every family's menu.
• Tasks. A list of what has been set for a child, by you or by their teacher.
• Homework help. Photograph a worksheet and get a tutor that guides your child to the answer rather than handing it over.
• Reports. Every session is kept, so you can see progress over weeks rather than guessing.

Who is who

A Zen Reader household is a family, and everyone in it has a role. The role decides what they can see and change.

• Family Manager — the person who signed up and pays. Can do everything, including inviting others and managing the subscription. A family can have more than one.
• Parent — another adult, invited by the manager. Sees the children's work and can add books, but does not control the subscription.
• Reader — the child. Has their own login and sees their own work only: their own portfolios, their own suggestions, and never another child's results.
• Teacher — a school or tuition teacher, linked to one child by that child's family. Sees only the children they were linked to.

Your first ten minutes

1. Sign in on the device your child will use. See Signing in.
2. Add a book. Open Library, tap + New book and import a PDF — or start with one of the example books already on your shelf. Mark the title and copyright pages as not part of the reading while you are there. See Adding and preparing a book.
3. Read it. Open Reading, pick the book, turn to the page, tap Start recording and let your child read it aloud. Tap Stop & check when they are done.
4. Look at the result. The score and the page-by-page detail appear on the same screen. See Understanding a reading report.

If a first attempt feels like too much pressure, switch the mode to Practice page — identical, except that nothing is saved.

The first time anything listens — a recording, a spoken flash card, Oral Practice — Zen Reader first explains why in a short Before we listen sheet, with Continue or Not now, and only then does your device ask for the microphone (and, on an iPhone, iPad or Mac, speech recognition). If the microphone was turned off earlier, the app says The microphone is turned off and offers Open Settings rather than failing quietly. If only speech recognition is off, recording still works.

That is the loop. Everything else — spelling, word lists, homework help — sits alongside it.

Straight after you create your family

From version 1.304 there is no plan to choose when you register: you give your name and country, tick the parent-or-guardian box, and you are in. You choose Individual or Family later, when you subscribe. Your family is named after you — (your name)'s family. From version 1.310 a Family Manager can rename it in Settings → Rename family (see Renaming the family on the Family page).

From version 1.305, the first page you see on the device you registered on — after the AI question below — is Your first spelling list: Photograph this week's spelling list (听写). It sets out three steps: photograph the list from school, your child writes the words as Zen Reader reads each one aloud, then photograph the written sheet and Zen Reader marks every word. Photograph the list opens the camera (on a computer the button reads Choose a photo of the list and opens a file instead); the words are read off the photo, saved as a spelling list called This week's spelling list, and the Spelling screen opens on it, ready to practise. A photo is not always read perfectly; if a word came out wrong, correct it in the Book editor.

Not now — go to the Library skips it. This page is shown once; after that the app opens on your library, where the example books are waiting — open one, read a page aloud, and see how it is marked. Signing in on a second device does not show it there.

Trying it before you pay

If you register in the Android app — or the Windows app or the Mac app downloaded from zenreader.co — your free trial starts by itself as soon as you have registered (the app shows Setting things up… for a moment). There is no card and no payment details of any kind. Every free trial includes everything in the Family plan. If the trial could not be started — say your family has already had one — the app tells you why and offers a Start my free trial button to try again; the same button is on the No active license screen. Only the Family Manager can start it.

On an iPhone or iPad, or the Mac app from the App Store, you can try Zen Reader first: the banner Try Zen Reader before you choose a plan stays at the top of the app — practise a spelling list, or open an example book and read a page aloud. Once one has been marked it says That's how Zen Reader works with a Choose a plan button that takes you to the plans. That first look lasts until your first marked reading or marked spelling sheet, or one day, whichever comes first.

If your family has more than one member, the Individual plan (for one person) cannot be bought — choose Family, or remove the other members in Settings first.

Two things worth knowing before you take it:

• It is your family's one free trial. If you subscribe on this website while it is still running, you keep the free days you have left: the first payment is taken on the day the trial would have ended. The checkout page shows that date before you pay.
• You are told before it ends. In the last three days the Family Manager sees a banner, Your free trial ends on (the date). On Windows and the Mac app from zenreader.co it has a Subscribe button that opens this website; on an Android phone or tablet there is no button — we email you how to subscribe instead. Reminder emails also arrive shortly before the end.
• When it runs out, nothing is charged — there is no card to charge. The app shows Your free trial has ended, with Subscribe / start free trial, Refresh and Download your data. Nothing you have made is deleted at that point — your books, recordings and reports are kept, and you can download all of it at any time. See Your subscription.

If the button says This family has already used its free trial or This family already has a subscription, there is nothing to start — subscribe, or carry on, as usual.

The free trial is not offered in every country. We cannot sell Zen Reader in the United Kingdom yet, so there is no free trial there either, in the app or on this website. In the app the button does not appear; if it is pressed on a screen opened earlier, the app says Zen Reader isn't available in your country yet and gives an address to write to, so we can tell you when it opens.

On this website the trial is the Start free trial button on the plans page: sign in, give your name and country, tick the parent-or-guardian box, and it starts — no card. It is the same trial as the app's, so a family gets one or the other, not both.

On an iPhone or iPad, or the Mac app from the App Store, there is no Start my free trial button: the plans are bought in the app and any free trial is Apple's — see Buying inside the app. A family already on a free trial from this website or another app can subscribe there too — the trial-ending banner's Subscribe opens the plans in the app — but Apple's subscription starts on Apple's terms, so the free days left are not carried over.

Getting help without leaving the app

Press F1 on a computer, or tap Help in the menu, and Zen Reader opens the help page for the screen you are on — already signed in, so there is nothing to type. On a phone or tablet the Help menu item is the way.

Ask Jas is the other route: a chat that answers questions about how the app works, in plain language. It is in the app's menu, and in the corner of every page on this site.