The Poster That Calls You a Big Sucker
An anti-fraud poster, a "customer service" call, and one very loud auntie.
Learn Chinese from the world around you
Point your camera at China. Come away speaking it.
Photograph a sign, a menu or a ticket. Pictoglot reads it, explains every word, remembers where you've seen it before, then turns it into a lesson, a quiz and a role play you can actually act out.
- Free to start
- Your photos stay private
- Works on your phone and your laptop
Photograph anything with Chinese on it. A sign, a menu, a ticket or a poster, from your camera or your camera roll.
Tap a word
Every word explained, with pinyin, meaning and what it means on this poster, not just in a dictionary.
禁止seen 3 times
No-parking signFire lane · 23 Oct
No-dumping noticeAbove a sink · 23 Oct
Train safety noticeSuzhou 苏州 · 26 Oct
A personal corpus. The same word is linked across every photo, with where and when you met it.
🎭 phone call with a scammer
The Poster That Calls You a Big Sucker
Scammer
您好，我是客服。您有一个退款。
Nín hǎo, wǒ shì kèfú. Nín yǒu yí gè tuìkuǎn.Hello, I'm customer service. You have a refund.You
退款？什么退款？
Tuìkuǎn? Shénme tuìkuǎn?A refund? What refund?Auntie Wang
等等！看海报：冒充客服退款，都是诈骗！
Děngdeng! Kàn hǎibào: màochōng kèfú tuìkuǎn, dōu shì zhàpiàn!Wait! Look at the poster: fake customer-service refunds are all scams!Scammer
请马上转账一块钱，确认账户。
Qǐng mǎshàng zhuǎnzhàng yí kuài qián, quèrèn zhànghù.Please transfer one yuan right now to confirm the account.You
不要转账，对吗？
Bú yào zhuǎnzhàng, duì ma?Don't transfer, right?Auntie Wang
对！醒醒吧，大冤种！
Duì! Xǐngxing ba, dà yuānzhǒng!Right! Wake up, big sucker!Lessons written from your photo, as scenes with a bit of edge, in natural voices.
Now you're in the scene. The AI plays Auntie Wang, stays inside the words you've learned, and nudges you when you slip. Type anything.
How it works
From a stray sign to something you can say
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1
Capture
Take a photo or pick one from your library. Where it was taken is saved too, if you let it.
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2
Unpack
The text is read, split into words, translated, and explained in context: what it means here, how formal it is, what to watch for.
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3
Connect
"You've seen 禁止 three times." Words link across photos, so you see every place you met them.
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4
Practise
A short scene from your photo, a quiz from its own phrases, and a role play with the AI.
Lessons
Not flashcards. Scenes.
Every lesson is built around what you photographed, in a format that suits it: a call with a scammer, a haggling match, a mix-up at the table, a neighbour decoding a sign. They build on what you already know, and they hold back on repeating themselves.
- Real phrases from your photo, with how they're actually used
- Pinyin and English on every line, and natural voices to listen to
- A culture note, and what to look out for next time
A syllabus behind the photos. Pictoglot keeps a graded syllabus of words, phrases and sentence patterns, from beginner up to advanced, grouped into topics like numbers, food and shopping. When your photo fits, the lesson teaches items from it, so what you find on the street also builds the basics. Say where you're starting, pick a level for each lesson, and see how much you've covered in Progress.
The "Free" Vegetables Trap
"All the greens you can eat." Does that include the fish?
The Snowman, the Auntie, and the Two QR Codes
Buy one get one free, or second cup half price?
Menus
Menus, decoded
Photograph a menu and every dish is broken out: what it is, what's in it, whether it's spicy. Ask about any dish in plain English.
AI can be wrong. For allergies or dietary needs, always confirm with the restaurant.
Practise
Test yourself, then talk back
Each lesson comes with a quick quiz made from its own phrases and dialogue, and a role play where the AI takes the other part. Adventures can even reuse words from several lessons, with a couple of new ones sprinkled in.
Try one
都是诈骗！
🎭 Adventure
The park is quiet, until someone lights a cigarette right beside a no-smoking sign.
Park warden
先生，这里请勿吸烟。
Sir, no smoking here.对不起！我不知道。
✓ Nice! Sorry, I didn't know.Park warden
没关系。前面有吸烟区。
No problem. There's a smoking area ahead.Who it's for
Whether you live there or you're just passing through
If you live in China
Turn the street you walk every day into a classroom. Your own photos, your own neighbourhood, your own words, remembered and linked.
If you're visiting
Photograph the menu or the sign in front of you and know what it says in seconds, then pick up a few phrases that make the next one easier.
Privacy
Your photos are yours
Private by default
Photos are stored privately and only you can see them.
Location is your call
Where a photo was taken is saved only if you allow it, and you can switch it off in Settings.
Walled off, in the database
Each account's data is separated from everyone else's by the database itself, and we test that it holds.
Start free. Take a photo of something you can't read.
Everything works on the free plan, with daily limits. Paid plans with more room are on the way.
An iPhone app and a browser extension are on the roadmap.