Would I ever be able to speak Chinese fluently, and what would that mean? I had reached a stage where I was starting to speak more coherently, but on some days it felt like I was not able to speak at all. Crucially, my speaking lagged well behind my understanding and I would often have […]

n this episode I explain how I initially learnt and revised vocabulary, and how I prepared for the next stage of my learning journey: speaking for real. Well, I had a number of attempts at trying to speak for real and not really succeeding at first. Eventually, I decided to speak Chinese to my ever-so-patient […]

In this episode I explore how I honed my different Chinese language skills: understanding, speaking, reading and writing. I look at all those wonderful tools, most of which are free, that are available to the intermediate learner. In my own learning, Chinese podcasts for learners, as well as Chinese television dramas started to play in […]

In this episode I’m looking at language tests and certificates. Would that be a goal for me, and which test should I aim for? Would preparing for a test really motivate me?I try to find ways to make my language learning at the intermediate stage fun and greatly motivating. Looking at implicit and explicit learning, […]

How do you even write Chinese text messages when you don’t have a keyboard with 5000 or more characters? In this episode I look at ways in which Chinese is used today, and at some of the changes to the written language within the last 100 years. Is the traditional Chinese writing system really more […]

In this episode I’m looking at the history of the Chinese writing system and why it is so successful that it is still used today. In my own learning, once I knew enough characters and had built up a basic understanding of how the system worked, I was suddenly able to decipher the words (and […]

Chinese has many homophones: words that sound the same. And when you are only just entering the intermediate stage and are still not very confident when it comes to the different ‘tones’, there are even more such homophones. What can the learner do to make sense of the chaos? And, what even is a word […]

In this episode I describe how learning Chinese became my treasured escape from reality. I wanted to tell everyone about my new language and also start speaking Chinese with real people, but I was still not very proficient, despite my efforts. Also, I was reluctant to use the language in a professional setting, reflecting on […]

When I realised that learning to read and write Chinese characters would help me in my learning, I started to add a writing app to my repertoire of learning methods. Suddenly the characters started to make sense and I saw a pattern behind the apparent randomness. Aside from writing, I also started to hone my […]

Do people really have different learning preferences, and how do you go about finding yours? In this episode I reflect on my language learning back at school, which, mildly put, was a disaster. Not only did my English teacher state that I had no ‘talent’ for languages, but languages were also my least favourite subject, […]