This was no daydreaming. Vank, a promising right-hander who is the No. 1 starter for Northeastern Junior College, is playing for the Czech Republic in the He is one of only a handful of college players to make a 2026 WBC roster.

Japan is in pool for the tournament, setting up the possibility of Vank facing off against Dodgers superstar designated hitter Shohei Ohtani when the two teams play on March 10 at the Tokyo Dome.

“It’s every kid’s dream to face Ohtani,” said Vank, who will pitch out of the bullpen for the Czech Republic. “I’ve visualized facing Ohtani a couple times already. How I might start him off, and what I might throw in certain counts.

“I’ll take the showdown with respect, but I also don’t want to give him too much respect — I want to believe in myself that I can do the job and put him away.”

The appearance in the WBC for , the Region IX Pitcher of the Year last year for the Plainsmen, is a culmination of a lifetime of work in the game despite growing up in a soccer- and hockey-dominated country where baseball is very low on the list of sporting priorities.

Vank started playing for Czech Republic’s youth national team at 12, and by age 16, he was pitching in the country’s highest league, the Czech Baseball Extraliga. As a teenager competing against adult men, he won the award for the league’s top junior player.

His journey on the diamond took him all around Europe and the world, including to Taiwan, Italy, Nederland, Germany, Spain and Japan already. Vank also went to London for an MLB Development Camp, North Carolina where he played his junior season of high school, and Phoenix for a showcase before arriving on Colorado’s eastern plains.

The 6-foot-1 right-hander from Prague has a low-90s fastball, a slider and a curveball and also recently added a changeup. Before he got to Northeastern, he was primarily a fastball/slider pitcher. But the expansion of his arsenal, and a strong first season in Sterling, put him on the radar of Division I recruiters.

“In the last 18 months, him fully developing into a four-pitch repertoire type of guy is opening up opportunities for him, whether it’s Division I or professionally, to now have more options and be either a starter, a reliever or a closer,” Northeastern head coach said.

Kachel said Vank’s signature moment so far with the Plainsmen came in the regular season finale last season, when Vank baffled Western Nebraska Community College with eight innings of shutout ball, scattering three hits while racking up 10 strikeouts.

Vank’s catcher, Northeastern Junior College sophomore Brayden Stufft, says the sacrifices the pitcher is making to come play ball thousands of miles from home — leaving behind family and friends in the process ¡ª is apparent. So, too, is Vank’s “energy and aura.”

“At the beginning of last season, he was super quiet, and you could tell he was here for business,” said. “He was here to dominate and make his family back home proud. He has. Many of his starts have been electric.

“And for him to play in the WBC, it brings a lot of attention to us as a program. We’re striving as a team to win a (region) title and go to a district and eventually go to the JuCo World Series. That’s our goals, and seeing our ace on the world stage gives us confidence as a team that we belong.”

Vank’s mother, Marie Vankov¨¢, says that while growing up, her son earned the nickname “srdca?” from his teammates. The rough English translation of that is someone who does something with immense passion, because Vank was always determined to become one of the top baseball players in his country.

“He’s had times growing up when he was not as successful as he wanted, and he wasn’t on the path to (where he is now),” Vankov¨¢ said. “So he stopped speaking about it and went to work really hard. Before school, he would wake up at 5 in the morning and go to the gym. He’s always given this game everything he has.”

As the WBC begins on Wednesday ahead of the Czech Republic’s first game on Thursday against Korea, back in Sterling, Vank’s Plainsmen will be pulling hard for “srdca?”.

“We’re going to be eyes-locked on the TV — we’ll put the game on in the clubby, or we’ll just put it on a projector somewhere,” Stufft said. “We will be watching and supporting him from afar, with probably tons of phones out (to record) when he gets on the mound.

“And no matter what happens (against Japan), we’ve all been joking with him to get an Ohtani signature to bring us back as a souvenir.”

Players with Colorado ties in the 2026 WBC

Local names to watch for in the that culminates with the championship on March 17 in Miami.

Rockies players/prospects

LHP Brennan Bernardino (Mexico)
INF Cole Carrigg (Israel)
UTL Willi Castro (Puerto Rico)
LHP Antoine Jean (Canada)
OF Troy Johnston (Israel)
2B Edouard Julien (Canada)
RHP Michael Lorenzen (Italy)
RHP Juan Mejia (Dominican Republic)
LHP Jose Quintana (Columbia)
RHP Antonio Senzatela (Venezuela)
RHP Tomoyuki Sugano (Japan)
SS Ezequiel Tovar (Venezuela)
RHP Victor Vodnik (Mexico)

Ex-Rockies, locals

Puerto Rico 3B Nolan Arenado (ex-Rockies)
Dominican Republic RHP Carlos Est¨¦vez (ex-Rockies)
Puerto Rico RHP Rico Garcia (ex-Rockies)
USA RHP Griffin Jax (Cherry Creek, Air Force)
USA RHP Paul Skenes (Air Force)
Venezuela RHP Anthony Molina (ex-Rockies)
Italy RHP Adam Ottavino (ex-Rockies)
Nederlands OF Jurickson Profar (ex Rockies)
Canada RHP Cal Quantrill (ex-Rockies)
Czech Republic RHP Ondrej Vank (Northeastern Junior College)
Czech Republic UTL Terrin Vavra (ex-Rockies prospect)

Coaches of note

Mexico bench coach Vinny Castilla (ex-Rockies, current special assistant)
USA hitting coach Matt Holliday (ex-Rockies)
Israel bullpen coach Jason Marquis (ex-Rockies)
Canada hitting coach Justin Morneau (ex-Rockies)
Venezuela first base coach Gerardo Parra (ex-Rockies)
Great Britain third base coach Jeff Salazar (ex-Rockies player/hitting coach)

The founder of the Carbondale-based mountain bike maker says the company regained profitability within three months of him reviving the brand this spring, after the private equity firm that controlled it?announced it would shut down.

¡°We¡¯ve got the O.G. crew together to get the brand back to what we were doing and adapt it to the times,¡± said Miller.

Miller founded Revel in 2016 and said sales were growing 300% to 600% annually before he sold the company in 2021 to Next Sparc, an Ohio-based private equity firm. The investment was meant to boost Revel¡¯s supply chain.

¡°We were considered one of the fastest-growing mountain biking companies,¡± Miller said. ¡°And we were growing so fast that I wanted to sell the business and stay on board.¡±

Next Sparc did go to work on the supply chain. In early 2023, the company opened a 12,000-square-foot satellite office in Taiwan, the?bike manufacturing capital?of the world, with six employees. Typically, smaller bike companies like Revel use third-party manufacturers instead of hiring in house.

But the expansion came with changes.

Instead of focusing on customizable bikes, as it previously had, Revel¡¯s new owner sold pre-built frames it had already boxed up, much to the chagrin of Miller. Wholesaling also became more of a priority than direct-to-consumer sales.

Sales started to tick down as a COVID-induced bike industry boom?subsided.

¡°It was extremely archaic and you had too much cash tied up in inventory,¡± Miller said of the system. ¡°We¡¯d have a sales plan for 18 months¡­ and just take a guess¡± at what would sell.

Miller stayed on as CEO through fall 2023 before transitioning to an advisory role. In April 2024, he left.

¡°I retained a minority stake and still ended up departing the company due to differences of ideas, the growth at all costs strategy that Next Sparc brought, which just ultimately takes away from creating the best products,¡± Miller said.

¡°It¡¯s a really unique business, and it¡¯s hard to pour money on things and expect things to happen,¡± he added.

In April of this year, Revel?announced?it was shutting down and that unsecured creditors would likely receive nothing.

¡°Regrettably, though we have tried every avenue possible, we have exhausted all options and run out of funds to support the business,¡± the company said.

A month later, Miller found out that JPMorgan Chase was going to foreclose on the business, so he bought Revel¡¯s assets from the bank. He declined to disclose what he paid.

Since assuming control, Miller has?hired Mike Griese, Revel¡¯s head of product from 2016 to 2018, along with three marketing and sales people from his original team. He has also had the company revert to focus on customizable bikes. That, he said, allowed him to reduce prices by 25% to 30% in June. The average Revel bike now costs $4,000 to $11,000.

The build-to-order model has also helped Revel better adjust to?rollercoaster tariff policy?from the federal government, Miller said. Even before President Trump¡¯s so-called ¡°Liberation Day,¡± tariffs on completed bikes from Taiwan to the U.S. were 11%. The number for parts was at 3.9%.

¡°That¡¯s an example of a tariff policy with logic behind it and we could adjust practices to that tariff,¡± Miller said, explaining that its carbon frame is nearly impossible to make in the United States. The old numbers, he said, protected American assembly jobs.

¡°But now there¡¯s no logic,¡± he added.

Today, Miller has to add 20% to those numbers. To avoid the duties on some international sales, Revel has set up a drop-shipping program in Taiwan. Instead of having every bike come to the U.S., only stateside orders come to Carbondale.

While international sales make up only 20% of Revel¡¯s business, it¡¯s a growing segment. Miller mentioned Japan as Revel¡¯s most emergent market.

¡°If a customer in Canada wants a bike, it makes no sense to ship it here first,¡± he said. ¡°It¡¯s very country dependent¡­ The main goal is to stay super nimble.¡±

Miller said 2025 revenue is projected to finish somewhere between flat and up a few percent from 2024. Revel¡¯s roughly $10 million in sales last year represented a ¡°significant drop¡± from the years before, he said.

On the product side, Miller said Revel has more experimental bikes in its stable than ever. Though he declined to share specifics on what trailriders can expect, he said they¡¯ll be out there ripping through dirt next year.

¡°We¡¯re not here to sell bikes at a discount and compete with Specialized and Trek,¡± Miller said. ¡°We¡¯re here to make the best bikes we can.¡±

Read more from our partner, .

Pig and Tiger, from chefs Darren Chang and Travis Masar, opens today at 2200 California St. in Denver. The pair have relocated and expanded from Boulder, where they started Pig and Tiger as a food-hall stall in Avanti Food & Beverage in 2020.

Related: Denver chefs from different backgrounds describe their Fourth of July spreads

Masar, who was a head chef at Uncle in Denver before becoming a contestant on the 11th season of Bravo’s “Top Chef”, met Chang after moving to Los Angeles in 2018, where they both worked for another of the show’s past contestants, Shirley Chung.

Chang’s parents emigrated from Taiwan to Los Angeles, where he was born, though it was in Denver, under the tutelage of chefs Kevin Grossi and Carrie Baird (another “Top Chef” alum), where he got his start.

He and Masar bonded over Asian cuisine, then moved to Colorado to open Pig and Tiger. The restaurant was named after their Chinese Zodiac signs, Chang born in the year of the pig and Masar in the year of the tiger. Some of their recipes are based on what Chang’s grandmother prepared when he was a child, he shared in a statement.

The Pig and Tiger menu features rice and noodle dishes, dumplings and large plates such as pork belly and lamb buns, and onion-and-cilantro rolls made with beef shank and tongue. Smaller plates include “jellyfish” cucumber salad, popcorn shrimp and Taiwanese street corn, grilled in spicy and sweet soy sauces.

The drink menu includes and makes use of imported Taiwanese products such as Mr. Brown, a brand of canned coffee; dried salted plums; and Taiwan Beer. Boulder’s Ku Cha House of Tea supplies teas served hot and cold and cocktails are available in larger sizes to share among a group.

Pig and Tiger was one of The Denver Post’s eight most hotly anticipated openings of the year.

The restaurant shares its corner of Five Points with an escape room company, Woods Boss Brewing Co. and Denver Comedy Underground, a comedy club.

There were almost no Asian groceries or Taiwanese restaurants nearby when the first workers began landing on the northern edge of Phoenix two years ago to work at a chip factory operated by the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.

Since then, the workers and their families have turned a mostly white corner of strip-mall suburbia into a Tiny Taipei.

Taiwanese businesses are popping up near taquerias and nail salons. Taiwanese cooks have joined Wang in ferrying meals to the chip factory¡¯s parking lot. Supermarkets have started stocking Taiwanese sauces and noodles. The sound of Mandarin floats through day care centers and schools, where 282 Taiwanese students are enrolled this year.

The spaceshiplike factory drawing thousands of workers and their families to the area is a crucial part of President Joe Biden¡¯s effort to bolster advanced chip production in the United States. The company, known as TSMC, has committed $65 billion to the project and is set to receive $6.6 billion in grants through the CHIPS and Science Act.

Now, the future of TSMC¡¯s Arizona factory — and the lives of its Taiwanese workers here ¡ª may rest on whether President-elect Donald Trump tries to undercut government aid for the company or imposes new restrictions on foreign workers. Although the TSMC project began during Trump¡¯s first term, he has criticized the CHIPS and Science Act and accused Taiwan of poaching the American semiconductor industry, and a debate over visas for skilled workers has already caused a rift among Trump¡¯s backers.

For the Taiwanese workers, the shifting geopolitics of immigration and trade are far beyond their control. They said their main concerns were long workdays spent trying to bring the plant online while adjusting to a new life of eight-lane freeways, children¡¯s play dates and blistering desert heat 7,200 miles from home.

The growing numbers of workers are seeding a cultural and demographic shift where the Phoenix sprawl melts into the Sonoran Desert. Real estate developers are converting a beige outdoor mall into an Asian shopping center. Its name, 808 Union Hills Plaza, plays up the lucky number eight in Chinese numerology. The wife of one engineer at TSMC¡¯s plant has already opened a boba tea shop there. Other developers are hoping to build Taiwanese-style town houses in the desert off a dead-end road near the factory.

¡°It all happened so quickly,¡± said Wen Chang, a Taiwanese restaurateur who moved to Arizona this year from New Mexico when he heard about the influx of new workers.

Chang opened Taiwan Bistro, a stir-fry restaurant a 15-minute drive from the plant, and now delivers dozens of boxed lunches there every workday. Many evenings, the restaurant is packed with Taiwanese patrons singing karaoke and TSMC employees introducing signature dishes such as three-cup chicken to their American co-workers.

¡°They say it feels like home, like a community center,¡± Chang said. ¡°In America, you don¡¯t have this kind of Taiwanese food culture and lifestyle. Many people find life quite dull.¡±

New Taiwanese families said they had felt welcomed. Some of them had struggled with different traffic rules and the absence of universal health care. But as a whole, they are finding their feet in this diffusely populated land that is the opposite of Taiwan, an island of nearly 24 million people a little bigger in size than Maryland.

But their arrival has stoked tension inside the plant, where about half of the approximately 2,200 employees have been brought in from Taiwan. Some other Taiwanese workers have come to Arizona on temporary contracts for constructing the factories. The company expects the proportion of American workers to increase as it builds out its plants.

Labor unions in Arizona complained when TSMC sought visas for 500 Taiwanese workers to install highly specialized equipment. And 13 former employees have filed a lawsuit accusing TSMC of having an ¡°anti-American culture.¡± The suit said TSMC had denied workers who were not Asian or Taiwanese opportunities to advance, giving them poorer evaluations and forcing them out of the company.

TSMC declined to comment on the lawsuit but said in a statement that it believed in the value of a diverse workforce and that it provided channels for employees to raise concerns.

Current and former TSMC employees have said some American workers are not accustomed to the company¡¯s demanding workplace culture and rigorous hours. Cultural differences, including communication style, have led to frustration on both sides.

TSMC said its first factory in Phoenix was expected to begin commercial production in the first half of 2025. The company has two more factories in the pipeline. The plants will make advanced chips critical for enabling artificial intelligence and defense systems.

In more than a dozen interviews, Taiwanese workers, their spouses and their children said they had decided to uproot their old lives for a combination of new experiences, English education for their children and financial incentives — up to triple the usual salary along with perks such as housing subsidies.

¡°As long as you have thick skin, there are no problems,¡± said Katie Wang, a former TSMC contractor who moved to Phoenix with her husband and children in 2022.

Employees said TSMC had helped their families with housing and transportation when they arrived. Leaders from an established Taiwanese community on the opposite side of the Phoenix metro area stepped in to help them learn English, get driver¡¯s licenses, and find Asian markets and doctors.

In quiet ways, the TSMC families have started to announce their presence. Some place corporate awards in their front windows at apartment complexes near the factory. Children have joined baseball teams and dance classes, and parents have been invited to schools to explain Lunar New Year traditions. Deliveries of fermented bean paste and soy sauce from the Asian market Weee sit on their stoops alongside the more familiar sight of Amazon boxes.

Two years ago, a Taiwanese pastor at the Northwest Chinese Baptist Church began offering English conversation classes at the request of a handful of people. These days, the classes attract more than 100 participants, many of them spouses of TSMC engineers.

¡°Taiwanese people help Taiwanese people,¡± said Gary Chen, a real estate broker originally from Taiwan who helps as a translator during the English classes. ¡°They have all kinds of different needs as an immigrant community. They didn¡¯t have enough help.¡±

Many new arrivals use Line, the dominant messaging app in Taiwan, to ask more unexpected questions: How do you find a Mandarin-speaking dentist? Where can you buy hockey skates? Why is all American Chinese food so sweet?

¡°It¡¯s so different,¡± said Rebecca Wang, 43, who moved to Phoenix with her husband and two young children in November 2022.

Before she arrived, Wang said, people warned her that gangs were everywhere and that the streets were unsafe after dark. Instead, she said, she has been stunned by how many fathers show up at school pickup, and how quiet the streets of her new subdivision are. She said she did not know whether the family would stay after her husband¡¯s three-year contract with TSMC ended. But last year, the family decided to buy a Spanish-tiled home with a palm tree out front and a pool out back.

¡°This is what we want from America,¡± Wang said.

Like many women whose husbands work at TSMC, Wang gave up her career in Taiwan to become a full-time mother in Arizona. She had been a project manager with a solar company, but she said the time difference and demands of caring for two young children made it impossible to sustain her job, especially when her husband often worked until 8 p.m.

Other women said finding work was hard when they spoke limited English and did not have the necessary visas. Instead, several have started their own businesses from home, selling meals and crafts, styling hair or doing nails.

Kate Yu, 33, started her business after her husband¡¯s colleagues at TSMC began salivating over the braised chicken and pork belly she prepared for his lunches. She made extra for them and soon expanded into baked goods and Taiwanese staples such as popcorn chicken and bubble tea. She now has her own cafe, Taiwan Mama, and opened a second location over the summer.

¡°When we came here, we didn¡¯t know what to do,¡± she said.

Running a kitchen was a departure from her Taiwanese career as a computer engineer, but Yu¡¯s grandfather and father had been chefs and had owned restaurants. Making milk tea and bento boxes felt like something familiar in an unfamiliar place. As her business grew, Yu¡¯s mother flew over from Taiwan to help care for her three children.

She does not know whether the family will stay for good, but she has signed a five-year lease on the new restaurant. ¡°When we first opened the store, it was simply because we craved some Taiwanese food,¡± she said. ¡°I still find it hard to get used to things like burgers and pizzas. Occasionally is fine, but having them every day feels strange.¡±

This article originally appeared in .

A new project, orchestrated by Stanford University and published this month, is inspired by the Federalist Papers and contends that today is a broadly similar historical moment of economic and political upheaval that calls for a rethinking of society¡¯s institutional arrangements.

In an introduction to its collection of 12 essays, called the Digitalist Papers, the editors overseeing the project, including Erik Brynjolfsson, director of the Stanford Digital Economy Lab, and Condoleezza Rice, secretary of state in the George W. Bush administration and director of the Hoover Institution, identify their overarching concern.

¡°A powerful new technology, artificial intelligence,¡± they write, ¡°explodes onto the scene and threatens to transform, for better or worse, all legacy social institutions.¡±

The most common theme in the diverse collection of essays: Citizens need to be more involved in determining how to regulate and incorporate AI into their lives. ¡°To build AI for the people, with the people,¡± as one essay summed it up.

The project is being published as the technology is racing ahead. AI enthusiasts see a future of higher economic growth, increased prosperity and a faster pace of scientific discovery. But the technology is also raising fears of a dystopian alternative — AI chatbots and automated software not only replacing millions of workers, but also generating limitless misinformation and worsening political polarization. How to govern and guide AI in the public interest remains an open question.

¡°Technologists are pushing the AI frontier, and that¡¯s great,¡± said Brynjolfsson, who initiated the project. ¡°But there¡¯s been no comparable effort given to the institutional innovation needed for this technology to be used less to fuel misinformation and polarization, and more to empower people more broadly.¡±

By now, many governments, nonprofits and universities and even a few companies have recommended AI guidelines and guardrails, typically a list of dos and don¡¯ts. The Stanford initiative, subtitled ¡°Artificial Intelligence and Democracy in America,¡± has a different focus, not so much prescriptive solutions as different perspectives on the AI threats to democracy and technology¡¯s potential to revitalize democratic decision-making.

The project¡¯s five editors and 19 essay authors and co-authors span different disciplines and outlooks — economists, political scientists and technologists, liberals and conservatives. Two pillars of the Silicon Valley establishment were invited to contribute essays: Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn and a venture capitalist, and Eric Schmidt, former CEO of Google.

Support in funding and staff time for the Digitalist Papers came from Stanford and the Project Liberty Institute, a nonprofit focused on fostering a more human-centered internet.

Most of the Stanford project¡¯s authors share a concern that the economic power of the big tech companies will increasingly result in political power. The essays also look at how to let citizens and consumers, rather than lobbyists and big tech companies, shape AI policy.

¡°The potential for democratic innovation is there, but the current political economy, shaped by moneyed interests and polarization, does not allow change,¡± said Lawrence Lessig, a professor at Harvard Law School.

One potential avenue to address the problem is what he calls ¡°protected democratic deliberation¡± — in which some issues can be debated and moved along outside the legacy political process.

Lessig points to the work of ¡°citizen assemblies¡± in Ireland. Same-sex marriage and abortion were politically off-limits for the Irish parliament, given the influence of the Roman Catholic Church. Citizen assemblies were freer to debate those issues. They came up with positions that the public overwhelmingly ratified in referendums to legalize same-sex marriage and abortion.

Taiwan is cited repeatedly in the essays as a leader in the practice of digitally enabled outreach to citizens to solicit their views on a range of subjects.

The issues tackled by citizens there have included the rules for admitting Uber to compete with local taxi companies and setting priorities to shape AI policy.

Taiwan uses what it calls ¡°alignment assemblies,¡± soliciting the ideas and views of thousands of randomly selected citizens. One such assembly on misinformation online this year helped influence anti-fraud legislation that includes stronger reporting and disclosure requirements for big tech social networks.

A key to Taiwan¡¯s success, said Saffron Huang, co-founder of the Collective Intelligence Project, which has worked with the Taiwanese government, is that the citizen views have repeatedly been translated into policy actions, which has built trust in the process.

Audrey Tang, Taiwan¡¯s founding digital minister, said the online forums could be ¡°a very effective way for citizens to contribute to the agenda and guide the trajectory of technology policy instead of the brakes and pedals of traditional regulation.¡±

The conservative contributors to the project also see a strong ecosystem of civic and other independent institutions — like those in Taiwan ¡ª as crucial counterweights to the rising power of the big tech companies. But they regard them as players in a marketplace for ideas best left free of most government controls.

¡°It is AI regulation, not AI, that threatens democracy,¡± writes John H. Cochrane, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution.

The main danger, Cochrane said, is having a government or corporate bureaucracy decide what is and is not appropriate speech. ¡°We¡¯re talking about censorship,¡± he said.

Regulation, Cochrane said, should come after abuses become clear instead of preemptively setting rules. Who in 2004, when Facebook was founded, could have predicted the problems coming with social networks harming teenage girls in particular?

¡°It¡¯s a process of constant learning and reform,¡± Cochrane said. ¡°Bit by bit, in a contentious democracy, that¡¯s how we figure out what to do.¡±

After the publication of the project, its organizers, including Rice and Brynjolfsson, plan to meet with policymakers and make presentations. Their goal, they say, is to encourage analysis and debate, and begin to build a case for optimism.

¡°We can build new systems of governance and guide technological development with an eye toward supporting and even enhancing democratic principles, rather than undermining them,¡± the editors wrote.

This article originally appeared in .

But evidence is mounting that, for many in China, the iPhone no longer holds the appeal it used to. During the first six weeks of the year, historically a peak season for Chinese shoppers to spring for a new phone, iPhone sales fell 24% from a year earlier, according to Counterpoint Research, which analyzes the smartphone market.

Meanwhile, sales for one of Apple¡¯s long-standing Chinese rivals, Huawei, surged 64%.

It¡¯s a challenging time for Apple. Analysts say its latest product, a $3,500 virtual reality headset released in February, is still years away from gaining mainstream appeal. This month, Apple has taken two regulatory hits: a European Union fine of nearly $2 billion for anti-competitive music streaming practices and a U.S. government lawsuit claiming Apple violated antitrust laws.

For a decade, China has been the iPhone¡¯s most important market after the United States and accounted for roughly 20% of Apple¡¯s sales. Now, the company¡¯s grip on China could be dislodged by a series of factors: a slowdown in consumer spending, growing pressure from Beijing for people to shun devices made by U.S. companies and the resurgence of national champion Huawei.

¡°The golden time for Apple in China is over,¡± said Linda Sui, a senior director at TechInsights, a market research firm. One of the biggest reasons is the rising tension between the United States and China over trade and technology, Sui said. Without a significant lessening of geopolitical stress, it will be difficult for Apple to retain its position.

¡°It¡¯s not just about consumers,¡± Sui said. ¡°It¡¯s about the big picture, the two superpowers competing with each other — that¡¯s a fundamental thing behind the whole shift.¡±

Few American companies have more to lose from these heightened tensions than Apple, whose newest handset, the iPhone 15, went on sale in September. It is the first iPhone line to feature a titanium frame and include an action button that can be programmed to take photos or turn on the flashlight.

¡°Five years ago, Apple had really strong branding in China — people would bring tents to wait through the whole night outside the Apple Store for the next product launch,¡± said Lucas Zhong, a Shanghai-based analyst at Canalys, a market research firm. ¡°The iPhone 15 launch wasn¡¯t nearly as popular.¡±

Six months later, Apple has plastered billboards across cities such as Shanghai, reminding residents they can still buy an iPhone 15 nearby. Similar promotions helped the iPhone account for four of the six top-selling smartphones in China in the final three months of last year, the company said during a call with Wall Street analysts. But the prominent advertising did not persuade Jason Li, 22, to visit the Apple Store on Nanjing East Road, in the heart of Shanghai¡¯s shopping district, when he needed to replace his iPhone 13 Pro Max.

Instead, Li went to the Huawei flagship store directly across the street, where he contemplated the Mate 60 Pro.

¡°I don¡¯t want to use iOS anymore,¡± he said, referring to the iPhone¡¯s operating system. ¡°It¡¯s a bit stale.¡±

Apple declined to comment.

For some in China, buying a phone has become a political statement. Debates over whether using an iPhone is disrespectful to Chinese tech companies or akin to handing personal data over to the U.S. government have erupted online. Last year, employees at some Chinese government agencies reported being told not to use iPhones for work.

These directives surfaced less than two weeks after Huawei unveiled the Mate 60 Pro, a smartphone equipped with the company¡¯s own operating system and a computer chip more advanced than had previously been made in China.

Huawei released the device in the final days of a trip to China by U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo. Chinese commentators and state media heralded it as a triumph for Huawei in the face of Washington¡¯s attempts to restrict the company from developing just such technology.

The Mate 60 Pro was an immediate sensation. Its boost to Huawei¡¯s sales carried over into the first six weeks of this year, when the company claimed the second-largest share of the smartphone market, up to 17% from 9% a year earlier, according to data from Counterpoint.

¡°Today, holding the Mate 60 series gives people a feeling like they had many years ago if someone saw them holding an iPhone on the street,¡± said Ivan Lam, a senior analyst at Counterpoint Research in Hong Kong. This is especially true for people older than 35, the age group that buys the most smartphones, he said.

China¡¯s smartphone market is divided up by a number of companies. The domestic brands Vivo, Oppo and Xiaomi jostle with Apple and Huawei for the largest pieces.

Apple started selling iPhones in China in 2009. The last time it was losing ground to Huawei, in 2019, the Trump administration inadvertently extended Apple a lifeline by restricting U.S. technology firms from dealing with Huawei. Google, which makes the Android operating system, and several semiconductor companies cut off their support of the Chinese smartphone maker.

As Huawei struggled, Apple rebounded. In 2022, its share of phones sold in China rose to 22%, from 9% in 2019, according to Counterpoint. Apple reported record revenue of $74 billion from the region during its fiscal year ending in September 2022.

But the restrictions also forced Huawei to develop its own wireless chip and operating system, resulting in the technology behind the Mate 60 Pro. The operating system has been a draw for Chinese shoppers, and many of China¡¯s biggest tech companies have made apps exclusively for it, further walling off users from platforms used outside China.

Huawei¡¯s innovation has made Apple¡¯s latest models appear stodgy by comparison. And as China¡¯s economy has struggled to rebound from the COVID-19 pandemic, many consumers are hesitant to spend on what feels like an incremental upgrade. The owners of about 125 million out of 215 million iPhones in China have not upgraded to newer devices in the past three years, according to Daniel Ives, an Apple analyst at Wedbush Securities.

Apple has responded to the challenges in China. Its CEO, Tim Cook, has traveled to the country and visited Apple¡¯s suppliers. Last week, he attended the splashy opening of an Apple Store near Shanghai¡¯s Jing¡¯an Temple — the company¡¯s eighth store in Shanghai and 57th in China ¡ª to a crowd of Apple fans. The company also said it was expanding its research and development labs in Shanghai.

But for some shoppers, Apple¡¯s efforts have been overshadowed by Washington¡¯s approach to the company¡¯s Chinese rival.

While waiting at the Genius Bar for help with his ailing iPhone 12 at the Apple Store on Nanjing East Road in Shanghai, Chi Miaomiao, 38, said he had recently bought Huawei¡¯s Mate 60 Pro as his second phone. He was drawn to Huawei after its chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, was arrested by Canadian authorities in 2018 at the request of the United States, which accused her of misleading banks about Huawei¡¯s business in Iran. Meng¡¯s detention set off a flood of support in China, where many saw her as a hostage.

¡°Huawei is our own brand, and because of this political incident, I think we Chinese should be united,¡± Chi said.

Upstairs on the Apple sales floor, Li Bin, 23, and two friends debated the latest iPhone models. Huawei and Apple were nearly comparable in quality, Li said, and although he thought the iPhone was slightly better, it was also more expensive.

¡°I may switch to an iPhone,¡± Li said, ¡°when I get richer in the future.¡±

This article originally appeared in .

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HUALIEN, Taiwan (AP) — The strongest earthquake in a quarter-century rocked Taiwan Wednesday morning, killing nine people, stranding dozens at quarries and a national park, and sending some residents scrambling out the windows of damaged buildings.

The quake, which injured more than 1,000, struck just before 8 a.m. and was centered off the coast of rural, mountainous Hualien County, where some buildings leaned at severe angles, their ground floors crushed. Just over 150 kilometers (93 miles) away in the capital of Taipei, tiles fell from older buildings, and schools evacuated students to sports fields as aftershocks followed.

Rescuers fanned out in Hualien, looking for people who may be trapped and using excavators to stabilize damaged buildings. The numbers of people missing, trapped or stranded fluctuated as authorities learned of more in trouble and worked to locate or free them.

Some 70 workers who were stranded at two rock quarries were safe, according to Taiwan’s national fire agency, but the roads to reach them were damaged by falling rocks. Six workers were going to be airlifted on Thursday.

In the hours after the quake, TV showed neighbors and rescue workers lifting residents, including a toddler, through windows and onto the street. Some doors had fused shut in the shaking.

Taiwan is regularly jolted by quakes and its population is among the best prepared for them. But authorities expected a relatively mild earthquake and did not send out alerts. The eventual quake was strong enough to scare even people who are used to such shaking.

“I’ve grown accustomed to (earthquakes). But today was the first time I was scared to tears by an earthquake,” said Hsien-hsuen Keng, who lives in a fifth-floor apartment in Taipei. ”I was awakened by the earthquake. I had never felt such intense shaking before.”

At least nine people died in the quake, according to Taiwan’s fire agency. Most of the fatalities were caused by falling rocks, including four people who were struck inside Taroko National Park, according to the state Central News Agency. One died in a residential building that was damaged, the news agency said.

A small tsunami washed ashore on southern Japanese islands but caused no damage.

At least 1,011 people were reported injured. Authorities initially lost contact with 50 hotel employees in minibuses in the park after the quake downed phone networks; three employees walked to the hotel, while the others remained stranded. About two dozen tourists were also stranded in the park, the state news agency said.

The quake and aftershocks caused many landslides and damaged roads, bridges and tunnels. The national legislature, a converted school built before World War II, and sections of the main airport in Taoyuan, just south of Taipei, also saw minor damage.

Hualien Mayor Hsu Chen-wei said 48 residential buildings were damaged in the city, which shares a name with the county. Hsu said water and electricity supplies were in the process of being restored.

Taiwan’s earthquake monitoring agency said the quake was 7.2 magnitude while the U.S. Geological Survey put it at 7.4. It struck about 18 kilometers (11 miles) from Hualien and was about 35 kilometers (21 miles) deep. Multiple aftershocks followed.

Traffic along the east coast was at a virtual standstill after the earthquake, with landslides and falling debris hitting tunnels and highways. Train service was suspended across the island of 23 million people, with some tracks twisted by the stress of the quake, as was subway service in Taipei, where sections of a newly constructed elevated line split apart but did not collapse.

The initial panic quickly faded on the island, which prepares for such events with drills at schools and notices issued via public media and mobile phone. Stephen Gao, a seismologist and professor at Missouri University of Science and Technology, said Taiwan’s readiness is among the most advanced in the world and includes strict building codes and a world-class seismological network.

By noon, the metro station in the busy northern Taipei suburb of Beitou was again buzzing with people commuting to jobs and people arriving to visit the hot springs or travel the mountain paths at the base of an extinct volcano.

The earthquake was felt in Shanghai and provinces along China’s southeastern coast, according to Chinese media. China and Taiwan are about 160 kilometers (100 miles) apart.

The Japan Meteorological Agency said a tsunami of 30 centimeters (about 1 foot) was detected on the coast of Yonaguni island about 15 minutes after the quake struck. Smaller waves were measured in Ishigaki and Miyako islands. All alerts in the region had been lifted by Wednesday afternoon.

Taiwan lies along the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” the line of seismic faults encircling the Pacific Ocean where most of the world’s earthquakes occur.

Hualien was last struck by a deadly quake in 2018 that killed 17 people and brought down a historic hotel. Taiwan’s worst quake in recent years struck on Sept. 21, 1999, with a magnitude of 7.7, causing 2,400 deaths, injuring around 100,000 and destroying thousands of buildings.

The economic fallout from the quake has yet to be calculated. Taiwan is the leading manufacturer of the world’s most sophisticated computer chips and other high-technology items that are highly sensitive to seismic events. Parts of the electricity grid were shut down, possibly leading to disruptions in the supply chain and financial losses.

Taiwanese chipmaker TSMC, which supplies semiconductors to companies such as Apple, said it evacuated employees from some of its factories in Hsinchu, southwest of Taipei. Hsinchu authorities said water and electricity supplies for all the factories in the city’s science park were functioning as normal.

___

Bodeen and Mistreanu reported from Taipei, Taiwan. Associated Press journalists Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo, Ken Moritsugu in Beijing, Lorian Belanger in Bangkok, Jim Gomez in Manila, Philippines, Audrey McAvoy in Honolulu, and Fu Ting and Didi Tang in Washington contributed to this report.

___

This story has been updated to correct that the 70 people stranded are in rock quarries, not coal mines.

That’s because the South Korean-based chain, whose popularity in that country is akin to Starbucks in the U.S., hadn’t yet expanded as far as it has today.

So when Song, who is Korean-American, had a chance to open a location near Denver, she took it. “I would always go (to New York or L.A.) to get my fix, but I wanted to bring Paris Baguette to Colorado, where we don¡¯t have that type of variety or options to choose from,¡± she said.

An entrepreneur who owned Explicit Streetwear, which sold graphic tees and jeans in Aurora before closing during the pandemic, Song?opened her first Paris Baguette store at 10601 E. Garden Drive in Aurora last July.

She isn’t the first local franchisee — there’s another Paris Baguette in Parker, which opened in March — but she has plans to grow quickly, and has signed on to open three more stores in the future. One of those will be in Colorado Springs, where Song has already signed a lease.

The opening of Paris Baguette was big news for some people in Colorado’s Asian communities because there is a special culinary connection between French pastries and South Korea and other Asian countries, said Adam You, a local foodie and founder of , an online blog that writes about local Asian restaurants and events.

¡°In Asia overall, we have something we always call the Western bakery,¡± You said. ¡°A Western bakery is normally French-style because we don¡¯t like sugar-coated or too sweet pastries. Paris Baguette is targeting a group of people who already know who they are.¡±

Founded in 1988, the company is now a subsidiary of SPC Group, one of the biggest food suppliers in South Korea. It has 3,600 locations in South Korea and nearly 100 in the U.S., which it expanded to in 2005, starting with L.A.

“Here in the U.S., we have leaned in on the French bakery inspiration while incorporating many of our traditional Korean roots to create truly unique products,” said Mat Miskiman, Paris Baguette¡¯s Senior Manager of Real Estate & Franchise Development.

A Taiwanese native who has lived here for 30 years, You said that since Aurora boasts a large South Korean population, there is a built-in customer base. ¡°People know what to expect when they order at Paris Baguette because they¡¯re really famous in Asia, and it brings a lot of variety to the food scene in the greater Denver metro area.

¡°There are so many Asian bakeries coming to town now, but before it was so difficult to find a good Asian bakery,” he added.

You likes to get to early for fresh-baked pastries, which customers can see being made by bakers through the glass window. Some of its specialties include the King Cream Donut with powdered sugar on the outside and soft Bavarian cream bursting at the seams. There are also a few classic Korean items, including whole red bean bread and garlic sausage wrapped in croissants, or Japanese-inspired mochi donuts.

Despite its built-in base of Korean customers, however, Song said, ¡°We have a melting pot of different cultural customers coming in. It¡¯s not just one group within the Aurora community that frequents us, and we already have regulars just three months in. I think people love the idea of a local community bakery, and they might already be familiar with the big franchise name.¡±

That familiarity is why Miskiman said the company¡¯s goal is to open 10 more Colorado stores in the next five years, including in downtown Denver, Boulder, Westminster, Littleton, Castle Rock and Fort Collins.

¡°When we had a strong market brand and success overseas, there was an increased desire to move to the U.S. and bring this brand over from South Korea,¡± he wrote in an email. ¡°We are seeing a lot of success in North America and are excited to keep growing.¡±

Paris Baguette is beefing up its presence in Denver alongside its competitor Tous le Jours, another South Korean-based bakery chain with French-inspired baked goods. Tous le Jours opened its first Colorado location in Westminster in December 2020, and has two more stores now in Aurora and Thornton.

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You gush. You glorify. You genuflect. You joke about committing a felony to try and keep a legend from showing up. Only the more you think about it in real time, the better idea said felony becomes.

¡°(We¡¯re going to) try to catch him coming out of his house and kidnap him,¡± the Lakers coach cracked at Ball Arena when asked about defending the Nuggets¡¯ star center.

Ham¡¯s grin said he was kidding. We think.

¡°No, I mean, obviously, everyone knows how great he is,¡± the Lakers coach continued. ¡°And you just have to mix up pitches ¡­ but we have a few different guys that will see action against him and just try to put your best foot forward every time out.¡±

You laugh, but kidnapping might be the best card the Lake Show can play against the Joker this week. Tinseltown¡¯s glorious 2020 supervillain, Dwight Howard, is 7,000 miles away in Taiwan at present, playing for the Taoyuan Leopards . Big man Mo Bamba was still in Los Angeles Monday getting his wonky left ankle looked at.

Which means that after Anthony Davis, the Lakers for Games 1 and 2 in Denver at Jokic that consists of 6-foot-9 Tristan Thompson, 6-8 former Nugget Jarred Vanderbilt and 6-9 Wenyen Gabriel.

They¡¯d be better off with the whole felony plan, frankly.

Since the fall of 2020, per NBA.com tracking data, the Joker¡¯s scored 64 points over his last 31 minutes and 41 seconds of regular-season action while being guarded by either Thompson, old friend Vanderbilt or Gabriel. In simplest terms, that¡¯s a bucket (2.02 points) per minute.

In slightly less simple terms, that¡¯s 24.2 points per quarter. In somewhat hilarious terms, that¡¯s 80.8 points every 40 minutes. He¡¯s shooting 60.8% from the floor, combined, against that combo of Lakers reserves while drawing a shooting foul every 7.9 minutes.

When it comes to slowing the Joker, Ham would probably get more juice from rolling out than he would from the law firm of Thompson, Vanderbilt & Gabriel.

¡°You’re not going to speed (Jokic) up, you’re not going to slow him down,¡± the Lakers coach stressed. ¡°You just have to make sure you have a presence on him at all times. (There are) going be times where you’re not going to pitch a shutout against him.¡±

Given the benefits of hindsight and 7,000 miles of safe distance, Howard¡¯s goonish Game 1 antics against the Nuggets in 2020 proved to be a masterclass in the dark arts of the postseason. He popped his noggin inside the Nuggets¡¯ huddle. He poked. He prodded.

¡°The crazy part about it is that we were all staying in the same hotel,¡± Howard told podcaster Etan Thomas in November 2020. ¡°For me, I just felt like it was mental warfare ¡­ ?(Denver¡¯s) meal room was actually across the hallway from our meal room. So we saw them every day, and I would go in there and I would speak to everybody. And every time I saw The Joker, I would be like, ¡®You ready for the game tonight? You ready for tonight?¡¯

¡°I was just trying to get in (Jokic¡¯s) head because I think he¡¯s a really good player and sometimes the battle is won off the court.¡±

Here¡¯s the thing, though: Head games don¡¯t work as well on the Joker as they did three years ago. He¡¯s a dude and a dad, eight victories away from forcing Kendrick Perkins and Nick Wright to kiss his ring forever. The man¡¯s grown up before our very eyes, hardened by the peanut galleries at ESPN and FS1 hurling tomatoes at both of his MVP awards. More smiles. More shrugs. Fewer shoves.

¡°I think (in 2020), that was a couple of years back,¡± Ham noted. ¡°I think (Jokic has) grown tremendously since then.

¡°The biggest thing for us is just to try to disrupt him, try to keep him off-balance and create some type of indecision with our work, our activity, our multiple efforts and live with the results.¡±

Or die by them. Jokic is a cagey son of a biscuit who¡¯s learned when to twist a knife once it¡¯s stuck between somebody¡¯s shoulder blades. Last series, the Joker even ripped a page out of Howard¡¯s 2020 manual, crashing one of the Suns¡¯ huddles during Game 5 and drawing a shove from Kevin Durant in the process.

A game later, Phoenix was toast. Talent still borrows plenty in the NBA Playoffs. But genius kidnaps.

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For an English-speaking visitor to Asia — which spans close to 50 countries ¡ª navigating a new language can be daunting at first. A walk down a busy road in Malaysia, for example, may bring you into contact with Malay; written Simplified Chinese; spoken Mandarin, Cantonese or Hokkien; Tamil and perhaps even Hindi.

But while language can be a hurdle, it can also be a joy. We¡¯ve collected some of the best language apps and technology for travelers to Asia — from full-fledged machine-learning translators to a simple tweak to your phone¡¯s keyboard. With a small amount of help, you can translate dozens of languages and scripts, illuminate pictographs and characters, and learn something new.

Let your camera do the work

When I first used a translation app in Asia, at the relative dawn of the industry (circa 2014), the only real option for non-Roman characters was Waygo. I could point my phone camera at a menu or a sign, it would take Chinese characters, Japanese kanji and kana, and Korean hangul, and instantly translate it to English on the screen. A feat, almost of magic.

Since then, the world of photo translation apps has boomed. The behemoth of translation, Google Translate, offers photo translation for Chinese, Filipino, Hindi, Hmong, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Lao, Malay, Mongolian, Nepali, Tamil, Thai, Uyghur and Vietnamese. Microsoft Translator offers it for Chinese, Japanese and Korean. The Korean-made app Papago excels at Korean especially, and also provides Chinese, Indonesian, Japanese, Thai and Vietnamese.

Across the board, photo apps are quick, functional, and generally offer decent translations — especially of printed material. Google¡¯s translator easily dealt with a customs import form written in Thai, or a simple newspaper story written in the Hindi script Devanagari.

Travelers should also keep in mind that Google is blocked or otherwise hard to access in mainland China, meaning that you may have to use one (or multiple) of the alternatives.

Try ¡®handwriting¡¯ what you want translated

Some smartphone apps let you use your finger to sketch any character you see — whether Chinese characters or Korean hangul ¡ª to get a quick translation.

Character drawing is useful for translating unusual fonts or reflective surfaces, which can confound photo translation apps. Calligraphy, say, on a banner outside a restaurant, can be more common in parts of Asia than a typeset sign. When I tested it recently in Manhattan¡¯s Chinatown, a shop window¡¯s heavily laminated sign would not register on Google¡¯s photo app.

Google Translate and Papago offer character drawing, but Google had an annoying habit of inputting a character before you¡¯ve finished fully drawing — which puts you into a somewhat frantic race against time, and can radically change meanings. (An initial translation for the Korean for ¡°How much is it?¡± came out as ¡°Is it frozen?¡±)

Regardless, to commit to character drawing is to sign up for some time spent scribbling on your palm. The process works more smoothly for simpler scripts like Japanese hiragana and katakana, and is more involved for Chinese and some Korean hangul. (Those traveling to Taiwan should remember that Traditional Chinese characters are the standard, which are even more complex.)

The kinetic process of handwriting in these apps can be good for an intermediate or advanced language learner, who might want to learn characters in a more active way while traveling. Those learners can try Pleco (for Chinese) and Kanji Recognizer (for Japanese, Android only), which are essentially dictionary apps and provide more detailed translations and shades of meaning.

A useful tip: Some smartphones actually have handwriting as an installable option in their keyboard settings. So while Microsoft Translator, for example, does not have handwriting functionality, you can just use your keyboard to draw characters into its standard text translate field, and it will work just the same.

Speak up!

For those who prefer to talk, speech-to-text (and text-to-speech) is offered on many of these translation apps, including Google Translate, Microsoft Translator, Papago and Pleco.

The app SayHi — which has Cantonese, Hindi or Thai, among other languages ¡ª specializes in voice and audio, and can play your translation in a man or woman¡¯s voice and vary the speed. It also keeps a history of all your translations, so you can replay a phrase you use often, like ¡°I¡¯m allergic to seafood!¡± It even has a conversation mode: You select two languages, set the phone down between two people, and take turns speaking back and forth.

Overall, Google and Microsoft worked fine, but would often halt after five or six seconds while SayHi routinely managed 20 to 30 seconds at a time. This extra listening time is often crucial to catch the half-sentences, or general confusion of a live voice translation.

The real issue with voice-to-text is its practical value. In a busy cash-only rice roll restaurant in Manhattan¡¯s Chinatown, I used SayHi to ask if the cashier had change for a hundred. The noise of banging sheet pans and steamers drowned my phone¡¯s microphone out; she ended up reading the translation off my screen instead.

Learn the language

Any travel can be improved by memorizing even a little bit of the local language, and there is an abundance of learning apps to help. A few lessons in Korean and Japanese, for example, will teach you the characters of hangul and hiragana, which will at least let you read things out phonetically.

Duolingo is the giant green owl in the room, but its Asian language courses are generally less robust than its European ones. Beginners might have more luck trying Lingodeer (for Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese) or Memrise (for Chinese, Japanese and Korean). Both use videos of native speakers, which Duolingo lacks; Lingodeer also provides lengthy grammar lessons and explainers.

I personally had the greatest success with Memrise, and learned about five different characters of hangul in 30 minutes during a particularly long taxi before a flight took off. However, be aware that Memrise and Lingodeer¡¯s free offerings are limited.

All three apps can also be combined with the alternative keyboards mentioned previously. So instead of just tapping on buttons, you can answer your Japanese Duolingo prompts by drawing kana on your phone screen, which speeds up the learning process.

For other languages, the learning app Drops has a wider array that includes Cantonese, Hindi, Indonesian and Thai.

Find online communities

Asia is a tremendously diverse place for languages, and there is no one-stop shop to navigate all its regional variations and dialects. Even a language like Cantonese, which has millions of speakers across multiple countries, can be hard to find apps for.

Broadening your toolbox can be key. One of the best ways to learn Cantonese, for example, is a podcast. Search for CantoneseClass101 in your podcast player to find free episodes, stretching back to 2014, that teach you basics in 10 or so minutes, along with cultural background — such as the ubiquity of ¡°m goi,¡± (ßíÔ“) which can mean ¡°thank you,¡± ¡°sorry¡± or ¡°excuse me,¡± depending on context. The similar podcast VietnamesePod101 has a section on ¡°survival phrases,¡± with which, in about eight minutes, I learned not just ¡°thank you,¡± but how to say ¡°auntie¡± and ¡°uncle¡± ¡ª probably the most important words you can utter.

Another great Cantonese resource is the subreddit r/Cantonese, which is full of people who are passionate about learning and preserving the language and culture.

You can also tap into the resources that other learners have already created for you. Anki (on iPhone as AnkiMobile, on Android as AnkiDroid) is a general learning app that lets you create custom flashcards — with custom recorded audio ¡ª and has a rich library of community-created language sets that you can download. You can choose a beginner¡¯s set for Shanghainese with 1,500 cards, a set of Thai tones and characters (complete with helpful mnemonics), a set of 33 Vietnamese foods ¡ª or make your own.

This article originally appeared in .