Author: kriswarner88

The first requirement for learning a language is repetition, and the second is no fear. If you throw yourself into situations over and over again, where you can repeat specific phrases, you will quickly gain facility in small conversational modules, which then fit together into bigger conversation structures. The best way to start a conversation, very often, is to ask a question. How are you? How is business? How do I get to place X? It does not matter what the question is, as long as it is a question that can be repeated with a variety of people and in many different contexts. 

When you start the process, you know you will usually not understand the answer. That is okay; learning a language is, to a considerable extent, a matter of faking it. Over time, you can fake less and less while learning more and more. 

If you put yourself into situations where you can ask a taxi driver or a shop assistant “how is business” in Chinese, you will find there are probably only half a dozen or so possible answers to that question. Over time, as you ask the question over and over again, you will start to notice patterns in the replies.

Another tip: try recording the conversations and go back over it later. 

The internet also provides plenty of cool ways of speaking and getting feedback on pronunciation and making contact with people who will be able to communicate with you in various ways. Technology has made an enormous difference in learning a language, and you should take full advantage of the opportunities available. When you have the opportunity to communicate with someone in the language you are learning, which is Chinese, you must throw yourself into it without fear at every opportunity you get. The more you do it, the more progress you will make. 

Just make sure you go in comfortable with the knowledge that you are sure to make a mistake no matter what you say, and that you are not going to understand what is said in return. It does not matter. As long as you have that fundamental attitude of no fear, you will quickly make astonishing progress.

One of the most important parts in learning to communicate in the Chinese language is your ability to listen and comprehend. You can learn to speak, learn the tones and pronunciation, but you still need to be able to underrated what is said back to you.

The first thing is to be aware of context and body language. There is a of information available for understanding what is being said that is not related directly to the words. 

Next, be aware and accept that you are not going to understand everything that is said all the time, the first time round.

Learning a language and trying to comprehend what is said to you is like a game where you have to try to understand as much as you can, in the knowledge that there will be guesswork involved. 

Repetition is crucial. Put yourself in situations where you can ask the same question over and over again. With a question like ”How’s business?”, there are a only half a dozen potential answers, and before long you will be able to understand the response. Not bad, pretty good, awful… whatever. Then have a response ready for each one, and try and work out the response to the response. Then repeat.

Being prepared to not understand and to risk making a fool of yourself over and over again — that is a precondition. It’s okay to not understand.

In a language class I once did, one student only ever learned to say one phrase: “Please repeat that.” Which started out as funny, and then quickly got tedious. But asking people to repeat what they just said is fine. Do it.

Then there are videos and audio apps … and TV shows and the news in Chinese … there are lots of ways of listening to Chinese. But the best way of doing it is to be talking to someone live in your reality space. 

As you get better, you will understand more, but even after years of learning there will still be points in conversations where you lose the thread. It’s okay. Fake it or ask for clarification, or change the subject. But keep listening.

One trick for learning to speak Chinese fast and efficiently is to focus on pronouncing the initials and finals separately first, rather than focusing on all aspects of pinyin spelling. Mandarin consists of hundreds of different syllables if you include all the tonal variations, but there are only around 20 initials, many of them effectively the same in sound as English, and around 40 finals. 

First step, make sure you can say all of the sounds, initials plus finals, regardless of the tones and meanings or of the combined sounds used to make words. 

Second step, focus on combinations – two-character words and phrases where you can practice how the sounds of two syllables work with each other. Again, do this without any consideration to tones and meaning. 

Third step – add in the tones, and start getting familiar with the emphasis ups and downs of how different sound and tone combinations work together. Do this without any consideration for the meaning. it’s still just sounds. Do this while listening to the recording of a mother tongue speaker, which is easy to do – one way is using Google Translate. Type in an English word into the English box, then click on the Chinese combination that appears and you will be presented with a little speaker button that broadcasts a lady repeating the word. Click and click again, she is endlessly patient.

The point is to focus on the pronunciation, on the sound the words, and not on the pinyin.

To make progress in anything, including work, learning, and life, it is best to set goals and to prioritize by fixing deadlines and timelines. Achieving your goals and the steps to get there get easier the clearer you make them. Know where you are going and you’re more likely to get there. This is especially true for learning a language such as Chinese. Create a series of stepping stones that allow you to track progress while approaching your destination, which is the ability to communicate in the Chinese language fully. 

Goals serve multiple purposes, from small things to larger projects, with a time-frame of minutes to several years, they ultimately serve as guideposts along the way. The goals you set should help keep you accountable to yourself and what you are learning. They help you to track progress and to ensure you are on the right path to being able to engage in the Chinese language confidently. 

The key to learning is consistency and persistence. You need goals to involve daily modules, and a module can be as little as 15 minutes. If you do something consistently every day for 15 minutes a day, you will make progress no matter what it is. If you miss days, you will find yourself plateauing and unable to move forward. Clarity on the specific goals you are aiming for makes it easier to achieve them. 

There is also a useful mental trick of imagining yourself as having already achieved the goal. That is the feeling that you want to obtain that provides you with the motivation to be consistent and persistent in completing your modules.

We are not just teaching speaking in Chinese. We are teaching communicating in Chinese, which includes speaking, comprehension, reading and writing. Communicating in Chinese fluently is the destination. Having fun is a great mindset, but remember that developing goals and being serious about achieving those goals will provide you with more profound satisfaction, and a greater sense of self-achievement.