I'm Learning Mandarin

Links:

My free Mandarin learning eBook: https://www.peakmandarin.com/free-ebook

My blog: imlearningmandarin.com

In my first few years of learning Chinese, there were many occasions

This might take the form of a direct comment from a native speaker

These moments can be pivotal in shaping our learning experience for better or worse.

Recently I was talking about this to one of my students, Lewys, who

So in this episode, we share our experiences of having our egos

Links:

Get 20% off first month of Mandarin Mosaic: https://mandarinmosaic.com/imlearningmandarin

Karl's blog on ChatGPT: http://imlearningmandarin.com/2024/05/19/does-chatgpt-speak-authentic-chinese-the-results-of-my-study-may-surprise-you/

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My guest on this week’s episode is an app designer who has made several appearances here in the past.

Karl Baker, recently launched his new Mandarin learning app, Mandarin Mosaic.

The App seeks to make sentence mining accessible. Like Anki, but easier to use and

And if you’re interested in trying it out, you can go go mandarinmosaic.com/imlearningmandarin to get 20% off your first month.

I caught up with Karl and began by asking him all about his new launch, as well as his plans for the future.

Links:

Peak Mandarin Newsletter: https://www.peakmandarin.com/free-ebook

My blog reflecting on the summer camp experience: http://imlearningmandarin.com/2024/08/04/5-things-i-learned-from-5-days-of-total-mandarin-immersion/

Will's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@willhartmandarin/videos

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Last week I attended a five-day immersive Mandarin Retreat Summer Camp as a lead organiser.

A group of 14 of us, including learners, organisers volunteers, and native tutors got together in Cheddar, in the south-west of England, and spoke nothing but Chinese for five days straight.

While it’s all still fresh in my mind, I decided to get my colleague and co-founder of Peak Mandarin, Will Hart, to chat about the experience.

Will also attended the retreat as an organiser and in this episode, we chat about what the experience of deep immersion was like and how we plan to make these camps bigger and better in the future.

Links:

Phillipps blog: https://philippmarxen.com/?p=256

My free Mandarin learning eBook: https://www.peakmandarin.com/free-ebook

My Blog: imlearningmandarin.com

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In this podcast and on my blog, I've often discussed how Anki flashcards can be used to boost your Mandarin learning.

Anki is a Spaced Repetition flashcards program that enables you to drill and create flashcards to aid your memory's retention of new information.

And my guest on today's podcast recently decided to take the Anki plunge, setting himself an ambitious challenge to drill flashcards for several hours a day every day, while documenting his progress on his blog.

Philipp Marxen is from Germany and has been learning Mandarin on and off for over two decades.

In this episode, we discuss his recent one-month challenge, including how he structured his learning and what it was like drilling Anki for several hours a day.

Does he recommend the method to others? Listen on to hear more.

If you like this episode please don't forget to subscribe on your favoured podcast provider.

Now onto the episode!

Links:

Follow along with a transcript and translation on: imlearningmandarin.com

Get your free copy of my eBook on: https://www.peakmandarin.com/free-ebook

Subscribe to Will's YouTube channel at: https://www.youtube.com/@willhartmandarin/videos

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Today's podcast episode features a Chinese learning superstar who should need no introduction.

Will Hart, created waves in the Mandarin learning community when he reached an incredible level of fluency in just 1.5 years while living in the UK during the Covid pandemic.

Will is the co-founder of our learning platform Peak Mandarin. And he's also the subject of my eBook, Lessons from a Chinese Learning Phenomenon, in which I unpack how he used a mixture of immersion and sentence-mining techniques to become fluent in Chinese - and how I put his methods into practice to learn the language myself.

In today's episode, Will talks in Mandarin about his recent attempts to learn Spanish using similar methods to the ones that previously worked so well for him.

As usual, you can follow along with a transcript below, as well as an English translation.

And if you like this podcast, please don't forget to subscribe to your favourite podcast provider.

Now on to Will's Spanish learning adventures!

Links:

Kristen's Instagram Channel: https://www.instagram.com/learnchinesewithkristen/

My Free Mandarin Learning eBook: https://www.peakmandarin.com/free-ebook

My blog: imlearningmandarin.com

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On today’s episode, I speak to Kristen, a Mandarin speaker and teacher from Canada.  

Kristen has been learning Chinese since 2013. Like me, she initially began learning outside China, and is full of insights based on her experience of overcoming barriers on the path to spoken Chinese fluency. 

More recently, Kristen turned her attention to helping others learn Chinese, teaching the language through her popular Instagram channel.

And with over 15,000 followers, she’s become well-known within the online Mandarin learning community for her short reels teaching Chinese grammar points, phrases and pronunciation tips. 

My interview with Kristen is full of gems for anyone looking to become a fluent Chinese speaker. In particular, listen out for her tips on learning Mandarin outside the classroom and structuring your learning around your interests.

For anyone interested in checking out her channel, I’ve left a link to it in the description. 

And as usual, if you enjoy this podcast please don’t forget to hit the subscribe button on your favoured podcast provider. 

Now on to today’s interview with Kisten!

Links:

My free Mandarin learning eBook: https://www.peakmandarin.com/free-ebook

My blog: imlearningmandarin.com

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My guest on today’s podcast has a Mandarin can trace his Mandarin learning journey all the way back to the 1980s.

Stacy Bridges, from the US, began learning Mandarin at school and has continued studying the language on and off ever since.

He recently attended one of our Peak Mandarin Subscriber Q&A sessions on how to go about practicing speaking Mandarin.

After the session, Stacy reached out for advice on improving his pronunciation and speaking.

We decided to record our conversation which explores his long Mandarin learning journey and challenges with tones and speaking as we thought it might be helpful to listeners facing similar challenges.

As usual, if you like this podcast don’t forget to hit the subscribe button on your favoured podcast provider.

Links:

Follow this episode along with a Chinese transcript and translation: imlearningmandarin.com

My free Mandarin learning eBook: https://www.peakmandarin.com/free-ebook

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One of the most rewarding parts of running this podcast and creating Mandarin-learning content is receiving messages from learners whose lives have been changed in profound ways after taking our learning advice.

Recently this podcast has featured several of these inspiring stories, and today’s episode features another one.

A few weeks ago, Peak Mandarin Co-founder Will Hart and I received an email from a Pharmacy student based in Liverpool called Simon Griffiths.

Simon had just finished reading my eBook, Lessons from a Chinese Learning Phenomenon – in which I unpack Chinese learning phenomenon, Will Hart’s, incredible story of Mandarin mastery – and wanted to get in touch to

After reading Simon’s email, Will and I reached out to him, asking if he’d be interested in recording a podcast in Chinese about his inspiring story.

So on today’s episode, we hear Simon tell his story in his own Mandarin words, including his advice on how to get hooked on Chinese learning.

As usual, if you like this podcast please don’t forget to hit the

And if you’re interested in recording your own podcast in Chinese please get in touch by emailing [email protected] and I’ll be happy to support you through the process.

My free Mandarin learning eBook: https://www.peakmandarin.com/free-ebook

My Mandarin learning blog: imlearningmandarin.com

Our Peak Mandarin Masterclasses: https://www.peakmandarin.com/masterclass

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Hello and welcome back to the I’m Learning Mandarin podcast. 

On today’s episode, I have a really insightful chat with one of our Peak Mandarin students, Lewys Thomas. 

Lewys has been learning Chinese for a few years but recently realised despite getting a tonne of input his speaking wasn’t improving. 

After coming across my blog, he reached out for help and is now thankfully well on track to acing his speaking goals. 

One of the most interesting things to come out of my conversation with Lewys was his admission that when he first saw a video of me speaking fluent Chinese, he felt a pang of jealousy, like I was doing something that was beyond his abilities. 

But what he’s since been able to do is to channel that jealousy into something much more productive: curiousity. 

And after becoming curious and opening his mind to learning about how we became fluent in Chinese, he began putting these methods into practice himself and things really started changing for Lewys. 

So we get into all of that later in the interview but to start with, I began by asking Lewys how his Chinese learning journey all started. 

Links:

My free Mandarin learning eBook: https://www.peakmandarin.com/free-ebook

Karl's Mandarin Mosaic App: https://mandarinmosaic.com/

Episode transcript and translation: imlearningmandarin.com

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On today’s I’m Learning Mandarin podcast episode, app developer Karl Baker gives us his five top tips for mining Chinese sentences.

Karl began learning Mandarin several years ago as a way of communicating with his Chinese wife’s family and he’s previously written for the I’m Learning Mandarin blog about using sentence mining to improve his speaking skills.

Recently, he’s started developing a new app called Mandarin Mosaic which is designed to facilitate the sentence mining process.

As usual, you can follow along with a Chinese transcript below. If you’re interested in recording your own short episode in Mandarin, please get in touch at [email protected] and I’ll be happy to

Finally, if you like this podcast please don’t forget to leave a review or five-star rating on your preferred podcast provider!