Mandarin Institute and STARTALK present 野外中文学习秘籍播客！Welcome to the learning tips podcast. Our first episode discusses some essential listening and speaking skills for surviving and communicating in a 100% new language environment. We talk about listening strategies. Specifically, not getting stuck on the words you don't know, listening for patterns and frequently repeated words; and listening with your eyes (and other senses) for "context clues." What do you do if you want to say something you don't know how to say in Chinese??? Big fun word: Circumlocution. In simpler terms, talking around something. This is a skill that advanced-level speakers of foreign languages have ready to go and is essential for surviving in a 100% target language environment.