5 Things That All Fluent Mandarin Speakers Do to Learn

Study intensively at the beginning One of the things that many fluent Chinese speakers go through is an intense period of study that is usually spent in school, university or a study abroad time in China. The significance of this is that the for people who speak western languages as their native tongues, there are simply far too many new concepts to effectively take in and master without having a dedicated period of time just for learning Chinese. Obviously it can be done but it’s not very common.

Study every day - no matter what Real long term learners understand that usage and presence of the language can have a big impact on your overall fluency, usage and retention of the language. They usually stick to a set schedule and duration of study ( like 30 minutes every night ) as well as finding ways to incorporate the language into their daily lives. Some times this takes the form of changing the language interface on their phones, adding labels around the house or using iphone and ipad apps for learning Chinese. But it’s always a daily presence.

Talk, talk, speak and then more talking Since the most obvious indication of fluency is the abilty to speak well, many high level Chinese learners go out of their way to speak at every opportunity. When living in China this is easy but it also requires discipline in the larger cities such as Shanghai and Beijing. There, English is so common and foreigners are often spoken to in English, a learner must make a deliberate effort to use the language they are learning. On top of that, they usually engage with a tutor or language exchange partner again just to get more practice.

They pursue their interests and passions - just in Chinese Because studying anything can eventually become boring or viewed as a chore, many successful language learners will try to identify things that they already enjoy in their current lives, say reading business newspapers or listening to pop music, and then do the same things in Chinese. Because the topics are inherently interesting it can feel more like enjoying a hobby than the traditional studying.

Immersing themselves in the language Again there are different varieties of this concept. If you are living in China this can take the form of travelling to smaller towns or going out with a group of Chinese friends. The point is simply that they put themselves in situations where they have no choice but to speak the language. If you are not living in China then you have to be a little more creative. There are language corner events that one can attend or simply rely more and more on podcasts, movies, music and books. But the biggest difference is that where your average Mandarin learner will do these things for an hour or two, the fluent learner will spend 4-8 hours doing nothing but things in Chinese. Extend this across weekends or weeks of vacation and the complete ‘switching’ of the brain to the other language has a long term effect.

About the Author: Joel Linge is an American who lived in China for 2 years and is back in the US, continuing to learn Mandarin Chinese online and write about his experiences at http://studymorechinese.com/

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