Terms of Use

Effective September 18, 2026

1. Agreement

These Terms of Use ("Terms") are a binding agreement between you and SproutVest, LLC, a Washington limited liability company doing business as Learn Mandarin ("Learn Mandarin", "we", "us"). They govern your use of learnmandarin.app and related services (the "Service"). By using the Service, you agree to these Terms. If you do not agree, do not use the Service.

2. Eligibility

You must be at least 13 years old to use the Service. If you are under the age of majority where you live, you may use the Service only with the involvement of a parent or guardian.

3. The Service

Learn Mandarin is an educational tool for studying spoken Mandarin vocabulary. We may change, suspend, or discontinue any part of it at any time. We do not guarantee that the Service will be uninterrupted or error-free, and we may impose reasonable limits on usage to keep it available for everyone.

Studying HSK levels 1 and 2 is free, with every feature of the Service, and reading any word page on the site is free at every level. Studying HSK levels 3 and 4 in the app needs a one-time purchase (the "Unlock"), priced at US$29 and shown on Stripe's checkout page before you pay. It is a single payment, not a subscription. It is bought from the Progress screen, needs an account so that it can follow you to your other devices, and is taken by Stripe, which handles the payment on its own page. Anyone who has bought it will not be shown adverts. Pricing summarises what is free and what the Unlock adds.

What the Unlock buys is the app's scheduling, checks and progress tracking for those levels. It does not buy the vocabulary data, which is published under the licence described on the credits page and remains available on those terms to everyone. If the Unlock does not work for you, write to info@learnmandarin.app within 14 days of buying it for a full refund.

Parts of the site may show advertising. The Privacy Policy describes what our advertising provider receives.

4. Accounts

You can use the Service without an account. If you create one, you agree to provide an email address you control and to keep your password confidential. You are responsible for activity under your account. Tell us promptly at info@learnmandarin.app if you believe your account has been compromised. You may delete your account at any time by contacting us. We may suspend or terminate accounts that violate these Terms or that create risk for the Service or other users.

5. Acceptable use

You agree not to:

• Access the Service by automated means, or scrape, harvest, or bulk-download its content, except as permitted by our robots.txt;
• Interfere with or disrupt the Service, or attempt to gain unauthorized access to any account, system, or data;
• Probe, scan, or test the vulnerability of the Service without our prior written permission;
• Reverse engineer or attempt to derive source code except to the extent this restriction is prohibited by law;
• Use the Service to violate any applicable law, or to infringe anyone's rights.

6. Intellectual property and content licensing

The Service's software, design, interface, and audio recordings are owned by SproutVest, LLC or its licensors and are protected by intellectual property laws. Subject to these Terms, we grant you a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable license to use the Service for your own language learning.

Importantly, the language data in the Service is not proprietary to us. It is used under open licenses and remains subject to those licenses, not to the restrictions above:

• Dictionary definitions are derived from CC-CEDICT, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike;
• Example sentences are drawn in part from Tatoeba, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution;
• Stroke-order data is provided by Hanzi Writer and its underlying data sources;
• Vocabulary lists are based on published HSK word lists.

Full attributions and license terms are listed on our credits page. Your use of that data is governed by the applicable open license, including any attribution and share-alike requirements. Nothing in these Terms is intended to restrict rights you have under those licenses.

7. Educational content disclaimer

Learn Mandarin is a study aid, not a substitute for professional instruction, translation, or interpretation. Definitions, pronunciations, example sentences, and audio are provided on an "as is" basis and may contain errors, omissions, or usages that are inappropriate in a given context. Do not rely on the Service for medical, legal, financial, safety-critical, or other consequential communication.

8. Disclaimer of warranties

To the fullest extent permitted by law, the Service is provided "as is" and "as available" without warranties of any kind, whether express, implied, or statutory, including implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, accuracy, and non-infringement. Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion of certain warranties, so parts of this section may not apply to you.

9. Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, neither SproutVest, LLC nor its members, officers, or agents will be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages, or for any loss of data, profits, or goodwill, arising out of or relating to your use of the Service. Our total aggregate liability for any claim relating to the Service will not exceed one hundred United States dollars (US$100). Because most of the Service is provided free of charge, these limits are a fundamental part of the agreement between us.

10. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless SproutVest, LLC from any claims, losses, and expenses, including reasonable legal fees, arising out of your misuse of the Service or your violation of these Terms or applicable law.

11. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. We will update the effective date above, and material changes will take effect no earlier than the date posted. Continuing to use the Service after changes take effect means you accept the revised Terms.

12. Governing law and venue

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Washington, United States, without regard to its conflict-of-laws rules. You and we agree that the state and federal courts located in King County, Washington will have exclusive jurisdiction over any dispute arising out of these Terms or the Service, and you consent to personal jurisdiction there. Nothing here deprives you of the protection of mandatory consumer laws in your country of residence.

13. General

If any provision of these Terms is held unenforceable, the remaining provisions stay in effect. Our failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver of it. These Terms, together with our Privacy Policy, are the entire agreement between you and us regarding the Service.

14. Contact

Questions about these Terms: info@learnmandarin.app