Hanashi

There's a point in learning a language, or just being curious about another country, where you stop wanting exercises and start wanting a person. Someone who'll tell you what their neighbourhood is like or what they're listening to this week.

Hanashi sells that conversation. The people you can book are called Senseis, but the site is clear that they don't need to be professional teachers. A Sensei is someone willing to share their interests, everyday stories and point of view, and a short online interview is required before anyone becomes one.

As a learner you browse Senseis by interest and personality, pick someone you'd enjoy talking to, choose an available time, and review the duration and price before booking. The home page describes the topics as travel, culture, music and life.

The feature that makes this workable for beginners is live translation. During the call, captions show what was said alongside its translation, so each person can speak their own language and follow the other.

The home page shows a written example in Spanish and English, and it's labelled as an illustration and not a live call. It adds that caption timing and accuracy depend on speech, connection and provider availability, which is a fair warning.

Calls are paid for with Points. The terms give the base rate as 100 Points per US dollar, say packs may offer savings, and say the exact Points and dollar price are shown before checkout. Points can only be spent inside Hanashi and can't be transferred or withdrawn. The service is in beta, and during beta learners must be at least 16 and Senseis at least 18. The privacy policy says age is asked during onboarding.

The privacy policy deserves a careful read here, because the calls themselves are the data. The policy, last updated November 9, 2026, says required operational transcripts are kept. Those are the finalized original speech and translations from calls, with speaker identity, timestamps and languages, retained for 30 days from the start of the call. Participants acknowledge that notice before joining.

An optional setting can remember word counts for up to 90 days, and the policy says that doesn't save audio, captions or AI answer text. Claiming welcome Points requires SMS verification, and your phone number is sent to Twilio to deliver the code. The policy also says Hanashi doesn't sell personal data, doesn't share it for behavioural advertising and doesn't use conversations to train AI models.

Both the privacy policy and the terms name the operator as Hanashi Chat Limited, with a Hong Kong business registration number. If a relaxed chat with a stranger about music or travel sounds like your kind of evening, browse the Senseis and see who you'd like to meet.