BeChineseIs there an app that turns a YouTube video into a Chinese lesson?
Yes, on iPhone: share the video to BeChinese. It doesn’t work inside the YouTube app, because an iPhone doesn’t let one app draw over another. Instead the video opens in BeChinese as a lesson: the clip at the top, and under it what’s said in it, line by line, with the line being said lit as it plays. Videos and Shorts both work.
It’s for learning to hear and read the Chinese yourself, not for translating it: the lines are in Chinese, and the pinyin shows on the word you tap.
How to share a video
- Open the video in YouTube.
- Tap Share, then BeChinese. If it isn’t in the row of apps, it’s under More.
- BeChinese opens, and the lesson takes a moment to make.
Or copy the video’s link, and in BeChinese, on Scan, tap Import from social media, then Paste.
What the lesson does
- The lines come from the video’s own Chinese subtitles, or the Chinese captions on the picture, and otherwise from listening to it.
- Tap a line to play the video from there.
- Tap a word, and the video pauses with that word’s pinyin over it and a card with its meaning. You hear it in the speaker’s own voice, and save it with one tap.
- Swipe along the card to go word by word through the line.
Videos with Chinese subtitles work up to 30 minutes long, and ones without up to 5 minutes. Videos YouTube only shows to signed-in viewers can’t be imported.
Which videos work best
Videos where people speak Mandarin clearly: vlogs, street interviews, cooking, travel and channels made for learners. Ones with Chinese subtitles give the cleanest lines. Songs work too: see learning Chinese from song lyrics. Simplified and traditional characters both work.
The words you save
Every word you save comes back as a flashcard, shown on the line where you met it and scheduled by FSRS, a spaced-repetition algorithm, so you review it until it’s familiar. Lessons you’ve made stay in Scans to come back to. BeChinese does the same for TikTok, Instagram, 小红书 and X.
What you need
An iPhone on iOS 26 or later, and a connection: BeChinese’s server fetches the public video and makes its lesson, with a daily limit for each account. You sign in with Apple or Google, then choose a plan, yearly, monthly or weekly, through the App Store. The yearly plan can start with a free week.
