物極必反 Chinese the way Taiwan writes and speaks it.

An iPhone app for Taiwan Mandarin 台灣華語: Traditional characters, Taiwan readings in 注音 or pinyin, and a TOCFL track. Train from white belt to black in a kung-fu dojo, with a coach who kicks when you tap him.

  • Traditional only
  • 注音 or pinyin
  • Works offline
  • No account

物極必反 wù jí bì fǎn: “when things reach an extreme, they reverse.”

加油!Jiāyóu! Keep going.

Built for Taiwan

台灣 Not a font switch

Many apps teach mainland Mandarin and swap the characters. Wu Ji Bi Fan starts from Taiwan: the words, the readings, the stroke order and the exam.

Taiwan Mandarin

Taiwan-standard readings such as 垃圾 lèsè and 星期 xīngqí, and Taiwan words: 捷運 for the MRT, 影片 rather than 視頻, 軟體 rather than 軟件.

Traditional characters

3,525 characters with stroke outlines, Taiwan stroke order where it is available, and a breakdown of every one into the parts it is built from.

注音 or pinyin

Read with zhuyin (bopomofo), the way Taiwan learns it, or with pinyin. Pick one when you start and switch any time in your profile.

TOCFL preparation

A placement test, listening practice, writing tasks and mock papers laid out to the format of Taiwan’s Test of Chinese as a Foreign Language.

Levels

Five belts, white to black

Belts are levels, forms are lessons and sparring is review. Each belt ends in a belt test. The vocabulary is the app’s own graded list of 14,300 words, each with its reading in zhuyin and pinyin.

  • 白帶White · FoundationsFree
  • 黃帶Yellow · Daily lifeFree
  • 綠帶Green · Travel and workPro
  • 紅帶Red · Longer readingPro
  • 黑帶Black · Fluent readingPro
  • 14,300words
  • 3,525characters
  • 14disciplines
  • 3,147example sentences
The Dojo

練功 Fourteen disciplines

Train any of them, in three groups. The home screen’s coach picks your next move and tells you why that one.

The daily forms

  • Form OneFlip-card vocabulary that feeds your reviews
  • Listening DojoPlay, tap any word, shadow it into the microphone
  • Brush FormsWatch the strokes, then trace them
  • SparringSpeak and get each syllable’s tone scored
  • Belt TestFour-option quiz; hints cost a point
  • ScenariosBranching roleplay set in Taiwan, said out loud

Sharpening

  • Root SystemThe parts characters are built from, and what you can already assemble
  • Tone PairsAll 20 pairs, with tone sandhi taught, not left to chance
  • Look-alikes己 已 巳 as traps; 請 清 情 晴 as a family
  • Measure Words一本書, not 一個書

Reading

  • LegendsGraded Taiwan stories with tap-to-define
  • TournamentReading challenge, a weekly league and badges
  • Sentence Patterns66 patterns, each with the mistake it is confused with
  • Idioms25 成語 and the story behind each
Features

功夫 What you train

Speaking, writing, reading and memory, each checked by the app rather than taken on trust.

Tone sparring, scored on your iPhone

Say a word and see your pitch contour drawn over the model, with each syllable marked right or wrong. Scoring runs on the device. When iOS has its offline Chinese (Taiwan) speech model, the app also checks the syllables themselves: it hears 資 when you meant 知 and tells you whether the initial or the final slipped.

- - - model—— youAn illustration of the pitch chart
  • 1 · high, flat
  • 2 · rising
  • 3 · dip, rise
  • 4 · sharp fall

Brush Forms: stroke order you actually write

Watch a character’s strokes animate in order, then trace them yourself. Your strokes are scored against each stroke’s path, so “written unaided” means unaided. A brush pad lets you repeat a character with the model faint beneath it, then test yourself with it hidden.

  • Taiwan stroke order where the source has it
  • The compound words each character appears in
  • The Root System shows which parts you already know

Legends: graded stories from the island

Four stories in sixteen chapters, read at your belt, with grammar notes and a comprehension check after each chapter. Tap any word for its meaning; one more tap adds it to your reviews.

  • 第一次來到台灣 First Time in Taiwan
  • 虎姑婆 The Tiger Grandmother
  • 林投姐 Lintou Sister
  • 台灣第一條鐵路 Taiwan’s First Railway

Scenarios: Taiwan, out loud

Ten branching roleplays, at least one for every belt. Your partner’s next line depends on what you chose, and you say every reply out loud to have its tones scored. Written for Taiwan, scripted and offline. There is no chatbot.

  • A 7-Eleven at night, the MRT at Taipei Main Station, a stall at 士林夜市
  • Ordering lunch, meeting your partner’s family, the pharmacy
  • Renting a flat, seeing the doctor, returning something faulty, a job interview

The TOCFL track

Find your level, then prepare for the test in the format it is set.

  • A 45-item placement test
  • 100 listening comprehension items
  • 24 writing tasks with model answers and rubrics
  • Mock listening and reading papers, laid out to the format tocfl.edu.tw publishes

It reports the share you got right and the level that suggests. It says plainly that no practice app can turn that into an official score, because TOCFL does not publish a conversion.

A dictionary that reads and draws

Look up any of the 14,300 words by characters, pinyin or English, and save any of them to your reviews.

  • Draw to look up. Draw a character you cannot type. It is matched against the strokes of all 3,525 characters, in any stroke order.
  • Read Anything. Photograph a sign or a menu, pick a photo, or paste text. The app reads it on the device, splits it into words, and shows how much of it you can read at your level.

Memory: spaced repetition with FSRS

Every word you learn returns just before you would forget it, scheduled by FSRS-4.5, with a desired-retention dial from 80 to 95 percent, or the classic SM-2 curve if you prefer it. The Memory screen shows a 26-week heatmap, a 30-day forecast of what is due and your predicted recall. It also finds the words that keep failing and says why: a look-alike, a sound-alike or a hard tone pair, with the drill that fixes it.

The coach, the Tournament and your fluency score count what you recall, never how long the app is open.

Private by design

The whole course is inside the app. Nothing you say, write or photograph leaves your iPhone.

  • No accountNo sign-up, no login, no email address. Open the app and start training.
  • Works offlineEvery word, story, drill and exam is bundled. Your progress is saved on the device.
  • On-device listeningTone scoring, speech recognition and photo reading all run on your iPhone and are never uploaded.
  • No ads, no trackingNo advertising and no third-party analytics. Read the privacy policy.
Pricing

Free to start, Pro to black belt

White and yellow belts are free, with every discipline. Your reviews are always free: nothing you have learnt is ever locked.

Free

US$0

  • White and yellow belts, with all 14 disciplines
  • The dictionary, with draw-to-look-up and Read Anything
  • Reviews of every word you have learnt, always
  • Legends and scenarios at white and yellow belt
  • The TOCFL placement test and listening practice
Save 33% yearly

Pro 精進

US$39.99 / year

3 days free on the yearly plan · or US$4.99 / month

  • Everything in Free
  • Green, red and black belts: every word to black belt, with its drills, strokes and examples
  • Every legend and scenario above yellow belt
  • The full TOCFL mock listening and reading papers
  • The TOCFL writing tasks, with model answers and rubrics

Prices are in US dollars; the App Store shows the price for your country. Pro is an auto-renewing subscription bought through Apple and charged to your Apple Account. It renews at the same price unless you cancel at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Manage or cancel it in your Apple Account settings. See the terms.

Questions

FAQ

Is this Taiwan Mandarin or Taiwanese?

Taiwan Mandarin, 台灣華語: the Mandarin spoken and taught in Taiwan, with its own readings and vocabulary. It is not Taiwanese Hokkien.

Does it teach Simplified characters?

No. Wu Ji Bi Fan teaches Traditional characters only, as they are written in Taiwan.

Zhuyin or pinyin?

Either. Choose 注音 (bopomofo) or pinyin when you start, and change it any time in 我 Profile under Script.

Do I need an account or an internet connection?

No account, ever. The course works offline. You only need a connection to buy or restore Pro through the App Store.

How is my speaking scored?

The app tracks the pitch of your voice and compares each syllable’s tone with the model, on your iPhone. If iOS has its offline Chinese (Taiwan) speech model, Sparring and Scenarios also check the syllables themselves. Without it, the app scores tones alone rather than send your voice to a server.

The syllable check is lenient by design: a recogniser sometimes hears the word you meant rather than the syllable you said. How to get the offline model.

Will it give me a TOCFL score?

It tells you the share of a mock paper you got right and the level that suggests. No practice app can convert that into an official TOCFL score, because TOCFL does not publish a conversion. Wu Ji Bi Fan is not affiliated with or endorsed by the organisers of the TOCFL.

What happens if I stop paying for Pro?

You keep white and yellow belts with every discipline, and your reviews stay free. Words you have learnt are never locked. Green belt and above, and the TOCFL mocks and writing tasks, close again until you resubscribe.

Which devices does it run on?

iPhone, running iOS 26 or later.

入門 Begin training

Free on iPhone. White and yellow belts, every discipline, no account.

Download on theApp Store