I am motivated to write this re-introduction because, recently, we have received multiple questions about how we started LCTS and how it works. It’s almost 2025, and a little reintroduction not only helps our listeners make the most effective use of LCTS resources, but also reminds us that it has been 10 years since LCTS was founded.

Now, after 10 years—which include 400+ episodes of stories and story walkthroughs, 100+ sessions of weekly online meetups, 10 million+ downloads, 2 seasons of the RealLife Chinese for Beginners podcast, and thousands of engagements with curious individuals from all walks of life around the world—we are long overdue for a reintroduction.

Who are we?

Rui and I started our teaching careers around 2010. Both of us pursued master’s degrees in Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language before coming to the US (Rui from Beijing Normal University in Beijing and Simeng from Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou). That was over 10 years ago. Currently, we reside in Washington DC with our two kids and a dog, as you might have heard their voice and barks 🐶in our past episodes.

In 2011, there were very few podcasts teaching the Chinese language, and the majority of them used English to teach about Chinese or China. And we thought, why not create a podcast that uses Chinese to teach Chinese? We had a few ideas in mind. From that, we decided to start with Comprehensible Immersion, which provides maximum input while also creating opportunities for learning. And our original logo looks like this 👇

听故事说中文Podcast

That’s how 听故事说中文Podcast came about. We structured our stories into two parts: a story episode where we read the story at a moderate speed, and a story walkthrough episode where we explained the story using only Chinese. Each episode has a transcript and vocabulary list attached. Our first few episodes were 狼来了 (The Wolf is Coming), 过年的由来 (The Origins of Monster Nian), and 小猴子下山 (The Little Monkey Goes Down the Mountain)—all of which were stories we read as kids when we were in school.

And this concept was well-received. One listener wrote a review, saying, “This format is perfect for working professionals. I can listen on the way to work or at the gym because the program design gives you a good recap of the stories and songs and poems.” Another review said, “Very helpful for people who know Mandarin conversationally but need help with more vocabulary, etc.”

You can learn more about the origin of our stories by listening to these two AMA episodes that we recorded in 2020 exclusively for our patrons: Episode 1 and Episode 2. You can also preview the questions that our listeners asked us: Questions Part 1 and Questions Part 2.

As we grow, learn, and connect, we’ve had many conversations with our members. They’ve shared with us their wonderful WHYs and HOWs behind learning Chinese, some of which span over 50 years of time. You can find these inspiring stories in this post.

One of these conversations with our members inspired us to create our story on bilingual education for our kids. In that story, we shared our approach to engaging them in the Chinese language and culture, the baby talk moments along the way, and the books we read together. Inspired by this conversation, we also created a Cartoon and Book List for Toddlers as well as Our Children’s First 18 Chinese Words.

In July 2021, 阿诺 from France asked us a question: “谁想在Voice Channel上聊天？什么时候 (Who wants to chat on the Voice Channel, and what time)?”

Christine responded: “有的人在美国，我在法国。我们要找到适合最少我们两个国家的时间。周末会不会方便一点 (Some listeners are in the US, I am in France. We need to find a time that works best for at least our two countries. Would the weekend be more convenient?)”

It makes sense—after all, in order to be proficient in a language, a learner needs to use the language to communicate. In addition to the stories and story walkthroughs that attract our listeners to LCTS, many members expressed interest in connecting with other learners and having opportunities to practice speaking Chinese online to improve their fluency.

That’s how, in 2021, we added our Weekly Online Meetup – Mingle.

Weekly Online Meetups-Mingle

Our first Mingle took place on Discord. Among the early participants were 高安东尼, Cathy, 阿诺, Sergiane, Ky, Christine, Frankie, 聖禮, Jason, Warren, Kevin, Matthias, and Omar—many of whom are still very engaged in our community to this day. Later, we moved to the Kajabi Community.

Each Online Meetup  cohort lasts about 5 weeks ish, with each week focused on one topic and smaller discussion questions that we can relate to. We start each session with 4 questions, as seen in the following screenshot.

Then, we dive into the topic of the week by going through the questions together and brainstorming the vocabulary needed for the discussion. After that, we begin our discussion, sometimes in breakout rooms depending on the number of participants. We try to limit each session to around 12 people. After 3+ years and 100+ sessions of discussions, we are proud to say that our weekly online meetups have helped over 150 people improve their ability to speak Chinese and regain their confidence and motivation to learn.

If you feel stuck at the beginner level and are losing motivation to keep up with your Chinese learning, we strongly recommend you join our weekly online meetups. You can listen to and watch inspiring stories from some of our members.

RealLife Chinese for Beginners

Imagine if you are completely new to Chinese—starting to learn Chinese with 听故事说中文Podcast, which speaks no English, is definitely overwhelming. Though there are successful and determined learners like Makus, this challenge can be daunting for many. That’s why we later added the RealLife Chinese for Beginners podcast at the request of our listeners. The purpose of RLC is to build foundational Chinese vocabulary and language structures to prepare learners for the immersive experience with LCTS or native speakers.

With two seasons published, each RLC episode brings you into everyday Chinese conversations that happen naturally between two native speakers. Along the way, we break down key vocabulary and structures with English definitions.

As we mention in the description, to really make the most of it, we suggest an immersive approach: listen to the conversation with the transcript, then without it, shadowing along as you go. It's a method designed to help you internalize the rhythms and sounds of Chinese.

As I was writing this reintroduction on Dec 29, 2024, I received a message from Milan asking whether there is anything new coming. The answer is YES. We are working on it. It might take a few months before Season 3 is ready.

What Next

We started LCTS 10 years ago to create authentic and immersive podcasts to help learners around the world develop Chinese language skills and cultural competency. That focus still holds true today.

Last year, we reorganized the 听故事说中文 Podcast into 5 levels: Beginning, Intermediate, Intermediate High, Advanced, and Superior, which is also how our Spotify playlists are organized. The rationale behind this is that Chinese learning is not linear, and the intermediate stage takes the most time and effort to grow into and out of. If you are completely new to learning Chinese, I would definitely recommend you start with the RealLife Chinese for Beginners Podcast. After that, you can move on to the 听故事说中文 Podcast, which is entirely in Chinese.

Looking ahead, we will continue curating the best content to help learners worldwide enhance their Chinese skills, stay motivated and connected, and ultimately live a more joyful and fulfilling life through language learning. This includes the podcast episodes we are creating, the online community we are nurturing, the annual CNY Karaoke we are hosting, the one-on-one calls we are doing, and the book(s) we will be writing etc.

We hope you’ll become a member of LCTS, like hundreds of others, and support us in this ever-evolving project and labor of love. To those who are already members, we're so grateful for your support and generosity ! 🙏

Membership is $216 per year (10% off our $240 annual plan) if you join our 🍲 Community tier🍲. Our hope is to build long-term relationships with our most supportive subscribers. And I hope we’ve earned your trust by consistently creating content for the last 10 years (mostly for free) to show that we are committed and can deliver long-lasting value.

🍲Community tier benefits include:

🎧Early access to ad-free episodes

📖Story transcripts

📖 LCTS Favorites ebook (collection of favorite stories by our patrons)

📖 Story walkthrough transcripts

📚Episode-specific vocabulary lists

🎧 Access to Reallife Chinese for Beginners Podcast

📩 Direct message to the R&S

💬 Vote on what story we record

🏘️ Join our exclusive online community to Fluency

📚🔄👥Interactive Circles for book clubs, accountability groups and monthly challenges

🤝 Weekly online Meetup to practice speaking Chinese

🔗Your Private Rss feed to listen to our ad-free episodes on Spotify

🌟 Acknowledgment on the podcast

🙏Our eternal gratitude

😎 Early access to our new future projects, e.g. book

Thank you for reading! Thank you for supporting us !

Happy New Year !

_ Simeng