There are many reasons to learn Mandarin Chinese. But for me, one of the main reasons has always been to become conversational.
Becoming conversational in Mandarin helped me travel the world, talk to native speakers, make lifelong friends, find romance, and expand my work opportunities.
Being conversational in Chinese completely changed my life.
Unfortunately, learning Chinese has become overly complicated. So today I’m going to share the top 3 problems I see stopping learners from speaking and having conversations and how to fix them.
PS This month I’m helping a few students 1-on-1 get conversational in Chinese. If you want help message me or email me at danyopang@gmail.com.
1. “I don’t understand”
Conversations are a 2-way street. To have conversations, you have to first understand what is being said.
Spoken Mandarin in real life is different from what is taught in classrooms or textbooks. Native speakers can speak very fast, use lots of slang and colloquialisms, and have many different accents.
The problem is that traditional classrooms and textbooks (e.g. HSK) don’t train us to understand real speech. Instead, we learn too much vocabulary we will never use.
They shove a bunch of outdated vocabulary down your throat and expect you to learn everything without real practice. You’re overwhelmed because you’re studying the wrong material and it doesn’t “work” when you try to apply it in real life.
As a result, you don’t remember what you learn and are more likely to resent learning and give up.
To fix this you need to change the material you learn from. You need to learn from material that is practical, interesting, and relevant.
No boring textbooks and vocabulary lists.
Training your listening using practical real-world material that mimics what you’ll actually hear in daily life is key. Even though you can learn about any topic, you’ll build confidence and momentum quicker by focusing on core topics you will encounter regularly.
The result? You’ll be confident in your ability to understand native speech in everyday situations, without burning yourself out.
Every conversation starts with good comprehension. If you can understand, you’re already halfway there.
I’m helping a few students this month improve their listening and get conversational in Chinese. If you’re interested message me “SPEAK” here.
2. “I don’t know what to say”.
After knowing what is being said, you need to know what to say (the “speaking” part).
Speaking requires 2 main things: Knowing what to say, and how to say it.
The problem with not knowing what to say is very similar to not knowing what is being said.
To be confident speaking, you need to have confidence that what you are saying sounds “right”. Unfortunately, traditional methods have failed us here again.
We learn too much about how to speak “textbook Chinese” with little exposure to real-life speech. Thus, when we try to speak, we sound robotic and unnatural.
As a result, you don’t feel confident, you don’t practice speaking as much, and you feel less confident... it’s a vicious cycle.
The fix for this is simple: again, change the material you use. I wrote a guide about my favorite types of study material to learn Chinese here.
Step two is to learn how to speak by training our mouth muscle memory. This is practicing the habit of speaking so it becomes second nature.
Many learners don’t feel confident speaking because they don’t practice the muscle of speaking. They think they can just practice listening and fluent speech will come naturally. Unfortunately, I’ve tried, and it doesnt work like this.
Listening does help speaking but it’s not enough. To speak and practice your tones and pronunciation, you need to put in the work of practicing every day.
I’m helping a few students this month with their pronunciation. If you’re interested message me “SPEAK” here.
3. “I don’t have anyone to practice with”
Many learners struggle to improve because they don’t have anyone to practice with.
They’re missing one key thing: feedback. Feedback, especially from someone experienced, helps you prevent making the same mistakes, build bad habits, and helps to save you valuable time.
Unfortunately, many native speakers or locals are too polite or busy to offer you personalized feedback when you speak. You can’t count on them to be your teacher. This is why having a dedicated coach or teacher is important.
Moreover, having someone to practice with also makes learning “real” and interactive, rather than just a textbook exercise. Learning is the most effective when it’s interactive and fun. You learn something, immediately apply it, make mistakes, and learn from it.
Furthermore, many learners give up because they feel overwhelmed, don’t see progress, or lose motivation. When you have someone to practice with, like a language exchange or teacher, this also gives you motivation to continue, like an accountability buddy. You don’t want to let them down.
You could probably learn Chinese all by yourself, but chances are you’ll make a lot more mistakes and take a lot longer to get to where you want.
So if you haven’t already I highly recommend having someone experienced help you with personalized feedback.
I’m starting a case study group to help a few students this month with these 3 issues and get them conversational in Chinese. If you’re interested in personalized feedback just message me “SPEAK” here or email me at danyopang@gmail.com.
Recap
Learning to speak Chinese is simple if you boil it down to its base components. Most learners fail because they:
Don’t understand what is being said
Don’t know what to say
Don’t have anyone to practice with
I’m helping a few students this month with a case study to get you conversational in Chinese. If you’re interested in personalized feedback just message me “SPEAK” here or email me at danyopang@gmail.com.
If you’re looking for something self-directed, check out the Copy Paste Speaking Course.
循序渐进,
Danyo
PS Here are some other ways I can help you level up your Chinese:
Copy Paste Speaking Course: The self-directed system I used to learn to get conversational, improve my listening and pronunciation and speak Chinese like native speakers
Language Learner OS: This is a digital system to help organize your language studies, track vocabulary, build connections, stay productive, and learn faster!
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