Terms of Service

These Terms are the agreement between you and ChineseFor.Us, LLC for using our website, courses and other services. We wrote them in plain English. Please read them, especially the sections on automatic renewal (Section 5) and arbitration (Section 15).

1. About these Terms

1.1 Agreement

These Terms of Service (the “Terms”) are a legal agreement between you and ChineseFor.Us, LLC, a Texas limited liability company (“ChineseFor.Us”, “we”, “us” or “our”). They apply to the website chinesefor.us and to our courses, videos, audio, quizzes, dictionary, worksheet generator and other tools and services that we provide (together, the “Service”).

You accept these Terms when you create an account, when you buy a subscription or other product, or when you check the box at checkout. If you use the Service without an account, these Terms apply to that use. If you do not agree to these Terms, do not use the Service.

1.2 Other terms that can apply

The plan details shown at checkout (for example, the price and billing period) are part of your agreement with us. An organization that buys a Group Account (Section 2.5) can also have a separate written agreement with us. If there is a conflict, a separate written agreement signed by us controls first, then the checkout details, then these Terms.

1.3 Privacy

Our Privacy Policy explains how we collect and use personal information. It is a notice to you. It is not part of this contract.

1.4 Definitions

• “Content” means all text, images, audio, video, software and other material in the Service.
• “Course Materials” means our lessons, videos, audio, quizzes, worksheets, lesson pages and other learning materials.
• “User Content” means content that you post, upload or send through the Service (Section 7).
• “Subscription” means a paid plan that renews automatically for a billing period (for example, 1, 6 or 12 months).
• “Group Account” means access that an organization buys for its students or staff.

In these Terms, “including” means “including but not limited to”.

2. Eligibility and accounts

2.1 Minimum age

You must be at least 13 years old to use the Service. If you are under 18 (or under the age of majority where you live), a parent or legal guardian must agree to these Terms for you. That parent or guardian is responsible for your use of the Service and for all purchases.

Children under 13 must not create an account or give us personal information, including through a Group Account. If we learn that an account belongs to a child under 13, we will close the account and delete the child’s personal information. If you think a child under 13 has an account, contact us at info@chinesefor.us.

2.2 Accurate information

Give us accurate information when you create an account or buy something, and keep it up to date.

2.3 One person per account

Each account is for one person. Do not share your login details, and do not let other people use your account. We can limit simultaneous sessions, and we can suspend or close accounts that show signs of sharing (Section 13).

2.4 Account security

Keep your password secret. You are responsible for activity in your account. Tell us immediately if you think that someone else has used your account.

2.5 Group Accounts

Schools, universities and companies can buy access for their students or staff (see group purchases). The organization that buys a Group Account confirms that:

• the person who buys has the authority to accept these Terms for the organization;
• each person who gets access meets the age rules in Section 2.1; and
• it is responsible for giving access to the correct people and for telling us when access must end.

Each person who uses a Group Account must also follow these Terms. Group access lasts for the period bought and does not renew automatically, unless the order says otherwise.

3. Free and paid access

3.1 Free accounts

With a free account, you can use a selection of free lessons. We can change which content is free at any time.

3.2 Paid plans

Our current plans, prices and billing periods are shown on our pricing page and at checkout. While your Subscription is active and paid, you can use all Course Materials that are available to your plan, including new content that we release during that time.

3.3 Delayed content on the monthly plan

On the 1-month plan, some Course Materials unlock 32 days after your membership starts, as shown on our pricing page. The 6-month and 1-year plans give immediate access to all Course Materials that are available at that time.

3.4 Changes to content

We add and update content over time, but we do not promise specific lessons, courses, levels or release dates. We can also revise, reorganize or remove content and features. If we remove a substantial part of the paid Service so that it is materially less than what you paid for, you can cancel and ask us for a pro-rated refund of the unused part of your current paid period.

4. Payments and prices

4.1 Payment processors

Payments are processed by third parties such as Stripe and PayPal. Their terms also apply to your payment.

4.2 Authorization to charge

When you buy, you authorize us and our payment processors to charge your payment method the price and any applicable taxes at purchase, and again at each renewal until you cancel.

4.3 Currency and taxes

Prices are in US dollars. Taxes, if any, are shown at checkout. Your bank or card issuer can charge its own fees, for example for currency conversion.

4.4 Renewal price

Each renewal is charged at the price shown for your Subscription in My Account, unless we change it under Section 4.5.

4.5 Price changes

We can change our prices. If we change the price of your Subscription, we will email you at least 30 days before the first renewal at the new price. The new price never applies to a period you have already paid for. If you do not agree to the new price, cancel before that renewal.

4.6 Failed payments

If a payment fails, we can try the charge again. We can pause your access until the payment succeeds, or cancel the Subscription.

4.7 Billing problems and chargebacks

If you think a charge is wrong, contact us first. We can usually fix it quickly. If you file a chargeback or payment dispute, we can suspend your account while it is open. If a chargeback is made without a valid reason, we can close the account (Section 13.2).

5. Renewal, cancellation and refunds

5.1 Automatic renewal

Your Subscription renews automatically at the end of each billing period (for example, every 1, 6 or 12 months), and we charge your payment method the renewal price for the next period, until you cancel.

5.2 How to cancel

You can cancel at any time in My Account > Subscriptions, or by emailing info@chinesefor.us. To prevent the next charge, cancel before your renewal date. Cancellation takes effect at the end of your current paid period. You keep access until then, and we do not charge you again.

5.3 First purchases

We do not give refunds for first purchases, because our free lessons let you try the Service before you buy. Sections 5.5 and 5.6 still apply.

5.4 Renewal charges

If you forgot to cancel and a renewal was charged, we will refund that renewal if both of these are true:

• you ask us within 30 days after the charge; and
• you have not opened any paid lessons, topics, quizzes or other paid Course Materials since the charge.

We can deduct any payment processing fee that the processor does not return to us. When we refund a renewal, your paid access ends.

5.5 Rights under the law where you live

Some laws give consumers a right to withdraw from an online purchase (for example, 14 days in the European Union and the United Kingdom). When you buy a Subscription, you ask us to give you access to the digital content immediately. Where the law allows, you agree that you lose the right to withdraw after you start to access paid content. Nothing in these Terms limits refund rights that the law where you live gives you and that cannot be waived.

5.6 Exceptions

We can give a refund in other cases at our discretion. If your situation is unusual, contact us. If we close your account without cause, Section 13.3 applies.

6. Your license and our content

6.1 Our content

The Service and all Content in it, including Course Materials, videos, audio, text, graphics, software, logos and the ChineseFor.Us name, belong to us or to our licensors. They are protected by copyright, trademark and other laws. We keep all rights that these Terms do not give to you.

6.2 Your license

While you follow these Terms (and, for paid content, while your access is paid), we give you a limited, personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable and revocable license to use the Service for your own non-commercial learning. You can print or download materials only where the Service gives you a print or download function, and only for your own study.

6.3 Teachers and organizations

Do not use Course Materials to teach other people (for example, in a class, a tutoring session or a company training) without a Group Account or our written permission. Contact us about group access.

6.4 What you must not do

You must not, and must not help anyone else to:

• copy, download, record, screen-capture or save videos, audio or other Course Materials, except with the functions that the Service gives you;
• share, sell, rent, publish, stream or otherwise distribute Content, or give access to people who have not paid for it;
• get around paywalls, delayed content, access controls or security features;
• use bots, scrapers, crawlers or other automated tools to access the Service or to collect Content;
• use Content to train, fine-tune, test or build any artificial intelligence or machine learning model or dataset, or put substantial parts of Content into AI tools to reproduce it or to make materials for other people (looking up a single sentence for your own study is fine);
• use Content to make a product or service that competes with the Service;
• copy, change, reverse engineer or decompile the software of the Service, except where the law allows it;
• overload, disrupt or damage the Service, or try to get unauthorized access to it or to other accounts;
• upload viruses or other malicious code, or use the Service for phishing or spam;
• pretend to be another person or organization; or
• use the Service for anything illegal.

6.5 Feedback

If you send us ideas or suggestions, we can use them without any obligation to you.

7. Content you post

7.1 What User Content is

User Content includes comments, profile pictures, word lists, links and embedded media that you post (for example, links to voice recordings or images), messages to us and form submissions.

7.2 Comments are public

Comments, your display name and your profile picture are visible to other people and can appear in search engines. Links that you post to recordings or images are also public. Do not post personal information that you want to keep private.

7.3 Your rights and our license

You keep ownership of your User Content. You give us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to host, store, copy, display, format, adapt and distribute your User Content to operate, provide and improve the Service, including showing your comments to other users. We will not use your name or User Content in paid advertising without your permission.

This license ends when you delete the User Content or your account, except for copies in backups for a limited time, copies we must keep by law, and comments that other people have replied to. We can keep those comments so that discussions still make sense. If you ask, we will remove your name from them.

7.4 Your responsibilities

You confirm that you have the right to post your User Content, and that it does not break the law or anyone’s rights. Do not post content that is harassing, hateful, threatening, sexually explicit or misleading, advertising or spam, or other people’s personal information. Any community guidelines that we show with comments are part of these Terms.

7.5 Moderation

We can review, format, refuse or remove any User Content at our discretion. We do not have to monitor User Content, and we are not responsible for User Content that other people post.

8. Copyright complaints

We respect copyright and we respond to notices under the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). If you think that content in the Service infringes your copyright, send a written notice to our copyright agent that includes:

1. your physical or electronic signature;
2. identification of the copyrighted work that you think is infringed;
3. identification of the material that you think is infringing, and where it is on the Service (for example, the URL);
4. your name, address, telephone number and email address;
5. a statement that you have a good-faith belief that the use is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent or the law; and
6. a statement, under penalty of perjury, that the information in your notice is accurate and that you are the copyright owner or are authorized to act for the owner.

Copyright agent: ChineseFor.Us, LLC, Attn: Copyright Agent, PO Box 602, Prosper, Texas 75078, USA. Email: info@chinesefor.us.

If we remove your content because of a notice and you think this was a mistake, you can send a counter-notice as the DMCA describes. We close the accounts of users who repeatedly infringe copyright, when appropriate. If you knowingly make a false claim in a notice or counter-notice, you can be liable for damages.

9. Third-party services

The Service uses and links to third-party services, for example payment processors, video players and embedded media. Those services have their own terms and privacy policies. We do not control them and we are not responsible for them.

10. Disclaimers

10.1 Learning results

We work hard to make good courses, but we do not guarantee any learning result, level of fluency or exam result (for example, in the HSK). Your progress depends on your own effort and practice.

10.2 No warranties

To the maximum extent permitted by law, the Service and all Content are provided “as is” and “as available”, without warranties of any kind, express or implied, including implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title, non-infringement and accuracy. We do not warrant that the Service will be uninterrupted, secure or free of errors, or that defects will be corrected.

10.3 Availability

We try to keep the Service available, but it can be interrupted for maintenance, updates, technical problems or events outside our control.

11. Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law:

1. ChineseFor.Us and its owners, employees, contractors, agents, licensors and suppliers are not liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary or punitive damages, or for any loss of profits, revenue, data, goodwill or use, arising out of or related to these Terms or the Service, even if we were told that such damages were possible; and
2. our total liability for all claims arising out of or related to these Terms or the Service is limited to the greater of (1) the amount that you paid us in the 12 months before the event that caused the claim, or (2) US $100.

These limits apply to all legal theories, including contract, tort (including negligence) and statute.

Some places do not allow some of these exclusions or limits, so they may not all apply to you. Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits liability that cannot be excluded or limited under the law that applies to you.

12. Indemnity

You agree to defend and indemnify ChineseFor.Us and its owners, employees, contractors and agents against third-party claims, and the related losses, damages and reasonable legal fees, that arise from (a) your User Content, (b) your breach of these Terms, or (c) your violation of any law or of anyone else’s rights. This does not apply to the extent that a claim is caused by our own wrongdoing. We can control the defense of any claim that you must indemnify, and you agree to cooperate with us.

13. Suspension and termination

13.1 By you

You can cancel your Subscription at any time (Section 5.2). To close your account, email us. When we close your account at your request, we also cancel any active Subscription.

13.2 By us, for cause

We can suspend or close your account, with or without notice, if you break these Terms (for example, by sharing your account, copying or scraping Content, fraud, or chargebacks without a valid reason), if your use creates risk or harm for us or for other people, or if the law requires it. In these cases, we do not give a refund.

13.3 By us, without cause

We can close accounts or stop offering the Service for other reasons. In that case, we will tell you in advance when reasonably possible, and we will refund the unused, prepaid part of your Subscription on a pro-rated basis.

13.4 After termination

When your account closes, your right to use the Service ends. Sections that by their nature must continue will continue, including Sections 6, 7.3, 10, 11, 12, 15, 16 and 17.

14. Changes to these Terms

We can update these Terms. We will post the new version on this page with a new effective date. If a change is material, we will tell you at least 30 days before it takes effect, by email to the address on your account or with a notice on the Service. Changes that a law requires, and changes that only affect new features, can take effect immediately.

If you continue to use the Service after the new version takes effect, you accept it. If you do not agree, stop using the Service and cancel your Subscription before that date.

Changes are never retroactive. A new version applies only to disputes that arise after its effective date. A dispute that arose earlier is governed by the version that was in effect at that time. Section 15.9 has more rules for changes to the arbitration agreement.

15. Dispute resolution and arbitration

Please read this section carefully. It affects your legal rights. Unless you opt out (Section 15.8), you and we agree to resolve disputes by individual arbitration instead of in court, and you and we give up the right to a jury trial and to take part in a class action.

15.1 Talk to us first

Before either of us starts arbitration or a small claims case, the party with the complaint must send the other a written notice that gives their name, the email address of the account (if any), a description of the dispute and the relief that they want. Send your notice to info@chinesefor.us or to the address in Section 18. We will send our notice to the email address on your account. We will both try in good faith to resolve the dispute within 60 days after the notice is received. Time limits for bringing a claim are paused during those 60 days.

15.2 Agreement to arbitrate

Except as Section 15.3 says, any dispute, claim or controversy between you and us that arises out of or relates to these Terms or the Service (a “Dispute”) will be resolved by final and binding arbitration on an individual basis. This includes Disputes about events before you accepted these Terms, unless a court or arbitration case about them was already started. The Federal Arbitration Act governs this Section 15.

15.3 Exceptions

Either of us can (a) bring an individual claim in small claims court if it qualifies, and (b) ask a court for an injunction or other equitable relief to stop infringement or misuse of intellectual property (for example, copying or scraping Content) or unauthorized access to the Service.

15.4 Rules and procedure

The American Arbitration Association (AAA) administers the arbitration under its Consumer Arbitration Rules that are in effect when the arbitration starts, as changed by this Section 15. The rules are at adr.org. One arbitrator decides the Dispute. If the claim is for US $25,000 or less, the arbitration takes place by video, by telephone or with written documents only, unless the arbitrator decides that an in-person hearing is necessary. Any in-person hearing takes place in the county where you live, or in another place that we both agree to. Payment of filing, administration and arbitrator fees follows the AAA rules, and we pay the fees that those rules make the business pay.

The arbitrator decides all questions about the interpretation, scope, enforceability and formation of this arbitration agreement, except that a court decides questions about Sections 15.5 and 15.7. The arbitrator can award any individual relief that a court could award, subject to these Terms. A court with jurisdiction can enter judgment on the award.

15.5 No class actions and no jury

You and we can bring claims against each other only as individuals, and not as a plaintiff or class member in any class, collective, consolidated or representative proceeding. The arbitrator cannot combine claims of more than one person and cannot award relief to anyone except the individual party. You and we give up the right to a jury trial.

If a court decides that this Section 15.5 cannot be enforced for a particular claim or request for relief, that claim or request (and only that one) must be decided in court after the individual arbitration is complete, and it is never decided in a class arbitration. The rest of the Dispute is still decided in individual arbitration.

15.6 Public injunctive relief

If the law that applies to you does not allow an arbitrator to award public injunctive relief, a request for that relief is decided by a court after the individual arbitration is complete.

15.7 Mass filings

If 25 or more similar demands for arbitration are filed against us or by us, and the same or coordinated lawyers or organizations are involved, the AAA’s Mass Arbitration Supplementary Rules and fee schedule apply. The demands will be administered in batches of up to 25, one batch at a time, so that results from early cases can help to resolve the others. Time limits for bringing a claim are paused for demands that wait for a later batch. A court can enforce this Section 15.7.

15.8 Your right to opt out

You can opt out of this arbitration agreement. To do this, send an email to info@chinesefor.us from the email address on your account, within 30 days after you first accept these Terms (or, if you were already a user on the effective date of this version, within 30 days after that date). Include your name, the email address of your account and the statement “I opt out of arbitration”. If you opt out, Disputes are decided in court under Section 16, and the rest of these Terms still applies.

15.9 Changes to this section

If we change this Section 15 after you accept it, the change does not apply to any Dispute that either of us gave notice of before the change took effect. You can reject a material change to this Section 15 by emailing us within 30 days after the change takes effect. If you do, the last version of this Section 15 that you accepted continues to apply to you.

15.10 Severability

Except as Section 15.5 says, if a part of this Section 15 cannot be enforced, that part is removed and the rest of Section 15 still applies. This Section 15 continues after your account closes.

16. Governing law and courts

The laws of the State of Texas, USA govern these Terms, without regard to conflict-of-laws rules. The Federal Arbitration Act governs Section 15. Any Dispute that is not arbitrated (for example, because you opted out, because of an exception in Section 15.3 or because a court decided a claim) must be brought only in the state courts in Denton County, Texas, or in the federal courts for the Eastern District of Texas. You and we agree to the jurisdiction of these courts.

If you are a consumer who lives outside the United States, you keep the protections of the mandatory laws of your country. Where those laws give you the right, you can also bring a claim in the courts where you live.

17. General terms

• Entire agreement. These Terms, together with the documents in Section 1.2, are the complete agreement between you and us about the Service. They replace all earlier versions and agreements about the same subject, except as Section 14 says for earlier disputes.
• Electronic notices. You agree that we can give you notices, agreements and other information electronically, including by email to the address on your account or on the Service. Send notices to us at info@chinesefor.us or to the address in Section 18.
• Assignment. You cannot transfer your rights or obligations under these Terms without our written consent. We can transfer ours, for example in a merger, an acquisition or a sale of our business or assets.
• Events outside our control. We are not responsible for delays or failures that events outside our reasonable control cause, for example outages of hosting or payment providers, internet failures, natural disasters or acts of government.
• No waiver. If we do not enforce a right, we do not give up that right.
• Severability. If a court decides that a part of these Terms cannot be enforced, that part is changed only as much as necessary, and the rest of these Terms still applies. Section 15 has its own rules.
• No third-party beneficiaries. These Terms do not give rights to anyone except you and us.
• Relationship. These Terms do not create a partnership, employment or agency relationship.
• Language. If we give you a translation of these Terms, the English version controls.

18. Contact us