Getting Started with Meho

Hi, there! Welcome to the first preview of Meho (means “very good” in Shanghainese)! We are very excited to introduce this fun and useful new way to understand and communicate with China.

Thanks for joining our private beta test! As this is still beta, we’ll frequently update the app. So please check for updates and install them when available. Stay tuned for release notes for more details on what’s new.

If you run into any bugs or have any feedback, please send them to TheMehoApp@gmail.com. We really appreciate this! With your help, we hope to release Meho to the world this winter.

To help get you started, here are some tips:

Backgrounds

The Meho app consists of 4 key function areas in 4 different tabs (in the order from left to right on your screen):

• Top Stories: Curated content covering a range of trending and authentic topics about China such as tech, business, food, culture, entertainment, etc.. You can read them in English or in shortened Chinese version with HSK vocabularies highlighted— if you want to up your game and challenge yourself ;)
• Expressions: Useful survival phrases in such situations as travel, shopping, dining, business, festivities, etc.. Also, as language is always evolving, we are providing trending phrases so you can sound like the locals.
• Let’s Talk: Practice Chinese speaking with AI-powered speech recognition to get realtime feedback on your pronunciation. Based on real-life scenarios, the conversations cover a spectrum of interesting and current topics such as career, networking, travel, shopping, music, cuisine, etc..
• Foundations: Find Chinese characters and tones daunting? You can try the Pinyin playground with Emojis to help you better understand the example characters, and GIFs showcasing the modern Chinese characters and their pictographic roots from real-life objects. We also have a gamified way of memorizing some key idioms and proverbs with the help of Emojis.

Sign Up / Sign In

• Step 1 - Sign up with an email and set your password.
• Step 2 - Go to your email inbox and verify via the link.
• Step 3 - Back to the app and sign in with email and password.
• Step 4 - Go through 3 quick onboarding questions.

Top Stories

1. Toggle here to switch between the English and the Chinese versions — if you are up to the challenge ;)
2. HSK vocabularies are embedded in the Chinese version articles. Tap on them to see the translations and pronunciations. (In future releases, we will allow you to bookmark/save vocabularies so you can study them later.)
3. On the bottom, you’ll find Meho-curated vocabularies to help you better understand the topic — and learn some cool terms to show off your Chinese knowledge!
4. Tap on the “Mark as complete” button to indicate you have finished and understood the Chinese version. (In future releases, this can help you boost your Comprehension score in the upcoming Profile section.)

Expressions

1. For each expression, you can repeatedly listen to the sample pronunciation by tapping on the headphones button. If the recording is too fast, don’t worry — you can tap here to adjust the speed to 0.75x and 0.5x.
2. You can also practice speaking by tapping on the microphone button.
3. To listen to your own recorded voice, you can tap on the play button.
4. For any mispronounced characters, our speech-recognition will label them in red, so you can focus on them in your next practices for better improvements.
5. By default, we won’t show the score of your pronunciation for each expression, but you can choose to see the score by tapping on the toggle.
6. For trending phrases, you can expand to see the full descriptions and listen to their pronunciations.
7. [NEW FEATURE] You can now listen to the stories as audios — in both English & Chinese. Just tap on the headphones button either from the Stories landing page or from the story page. The audios will play on when you turn off your screen — just like how podcasts work.

Let’s Talk

1. You can see more talks on each topic by tapping on the category cards.
2. Under each category, you can filter by difficulty levels.
3. Tap on each talk and you’ll see a short description of the talk, and the choice to try either Solo Mode or Duo Mode.
4. In Solo Mode, you can practice the talk line-by-line, and your practices won’t be scored. The buttons are similar to in the Expressions section.
5. In Duo Mode real-life style role-plays, you will play one role at a time. Tapping on this button can switch your role in the middle of the conversation.
6. If you didn’t catch the original recording, don’t worry — you can tap on the play button to hear it again. If you are not satisfied with your first try, you can record it again. If you are satisfied, tap on the next button to proceed to the next line.
7. Your recorded voices will be scored for each line.
8. You’ll see your overall score for the role you just played, and can continue with the other role.

Foundations

1. In the Pinyin section, tap on an “Initial” and a “Final” to form a combination. For each combination, 1 example character is shown for each of the 4 tones, if available.
2. For each example character, you can listen to the pronunciation. When available, an Emoji will indicate the meaning of the example character.
3. In the Pictography section, GIF animations show the comparison of Chinese characters with the real-life objects they are derived from.
4. In the Idioms & Proverbs section, each character of the idiom or proverb has an Emoji indicating its meaning or the meaning of its homonym.
5. You can also listen to the pronunciation of the idiom/proverb.
6. On the bottom, you can find the meaning of the idiom/proverb and of each character.

[NEW FEATURE] Profile

In the Profile tab, you can change your profile picture, nickname, password and update your goals, interests, and profession. More importantly, you can keep track of your achievements, such as:

1. how many Stories you have completed
2. how many Expressions you have practices
3. how many Talks have you completed

Besides, you can also see quick reference lists for:

1. In-Progress contents
2. Saved contents
3. Saved vocabulary

FAQs

1. How do I provide feedback?

If you run into any bugs or have any feedback, please send them to TheMehoApp@gmail.com. We really appreciate this! With your help, we hope to release Meho to the world this winter.

2. Will there be new content updates?

There will be on-going content updates throughout the test period, which don’t require you to update to a new release of the app.

3. What level of Chinese proficiency is Meho good for? Can I use it if I have no prior knowledge?

Meho is meant for people with all levels of Chinese proficiencies, especially for people with no prior knowledge.

4. My question isn’t listed here…

Can’t find what you’re looking for here? No problem. You can create a help ticket by sending an email to TheMehoApp@gmail.com. We’ll do our best to get back to you as soon as we can.