How to practice Chinese?

The Chinese language receives unnecessary tags for being difficult! Rome wasn’t built in a day, whether Chinese or any other language everything is equally intimidating until we step into it.  

But the truth is, learning Mandarin Chinese in your spare time, is one of the absolute best investments you can make. Chinese Isn’t as hard as believed to be. People complain Chinese is incredibly difficult. Luckily for Chinese learners, this is completely wrong.

Chinese has acquired a false reputation of being difficult for a number of reasons- especially because of the alien nature of its script. Unlike most languages, which use phonetic writing, Chinese is composed of pictograms and semi-phonetic ideograms which need to be memorized! Yes, this is probably the hardest thing about Chinese, but people assume all other elements of the language are equally difficult too.  

Chinese looks difficult, but if compared to a language like Finnish, which doesn’t appear to be tough until you start learning it, that’s one of the most grammatically complex languages on Earth!

Today I will be discussing ways how to practice the Chinese Language. If you are a working professional you may not have dedicated time available at a stretch, so we would be suggesting practice activities which can be done under 5 minutes for you, and as for the others who can spare some more time, we would recommend a second set of practice activities which would take about 15 to 20 minutes. If you have a question to yourself whether by practicing 5 minutes or 15 to 20 minutes in a day you can learn the entire Chinese language all on your own, well, then the answer would be NO! It is not possible. You can expect some progress in your studies by investing a few minutes diligently every day but you will not be able to learn the entire language giving this much time. The time invested every day would help you stick to schedules and that would go a long way in habit building!

1. Listen to Chinese Audio Lessons

You could listen to a short 3-5 minutes audio lesson while travelling to work on your phone. You hear a conversation, where the teachers explain all the words. 

Resources: Logon to on ChineseClass101.com, coffeebreakacademy.com, Takeaway Chinese, I love learning Chinese, Mandarin blueprint, Mandarin monkey etc

2. Get the Chinese Word of the Day

Sign up for the Chinese free word of the day from linguajunkiecom. Audio-video lessons just three to fifteen minutes with PDF Lesson Notes just press play to start learning!

3. Get the Daily Dose of Chinese Lessons

DailyDose is a language learning app that sends you a reminder to check your free short daily lessons that are quick and cover anything from slang, culture to words or phrases within 1-3 minutes a day

4. Learn Chinese with Duolingo

Duolingo is all about having fun with the game-oriented language program. Its not really a complete learning program. It’s a that works mostly on matching games and fill-in-the-blank quizzes, helping you learn words and phrases in an interesting manner. But be aware that it cannot impart you fluidity in speaking Chinese. Duolingo lessons are planned for 5 minutes.

5. Learn Chinese with Video Lessons

YouTube doesn’t really have recommendable 

5 minutes a day, video. Moreover, its the most distracting app that will destroy your flow of learning taking you from one to another unrelated video.

Simple. Things that are easy to do, are easy to continue… and finish! If you can learn some Chinese today, tomorrow and 4 weeks down the line without a problem, you’re on your way to fluency.

But, if you choose a Chinese textbook, which ends up being hard, you won’t continue.

So, starting easy sets you up for long term success.

At some point, you’ll think that 5 minutes is not enough. Which is good! At some point, you’ll feel you’re ready for 10 minutes. And so, you’ll add more time just like someone at the gym will add more weight because they’re ready to do more.

Time management is the key to learning Chinese especially when you cannot devote a lot of time learning the language everyday.

1. Use the Anki app to practice Chinese words and build vocabulary using hanzi-writing flashcards. You can create your own Deck of cards with selective words that are most commonly used in day-to-day conversation.

2. Feel free to use Chinese free lessons, pronunciations available on YouTube to your benefit.

3. Watch movies in Chinese with English subtitles and English movies in Chinese subtitles imitating the accent and the way the speakers are talking carefully listening to the native speakers observing where they tqkr breathers so that you will be able to know which vowel or consonant they are stressing on.

4. Baidu is another great online resource that gives you access to several lifetimes’ worth of Chinese reading material. 

5. You could use reading apps to practice the recognition of words from the play store. Ebooks on Kindle with an Amazon China account is a good choice.  

6. Look for Music playlists on Spotify or Chinese radio on your way back home and you’ve got Chinese listening practice.

7. Let the weekends illuminate with Chinese Netflix 

8. Find a conversation partner online through language exchange programs  to help you improve your listening and speaking skills in Chinese 

9. Use MeetUp or chat rooms to discuss different topics 

10. Engage in dictation to get your kanji letters on point.

11. Label items/objects in your house on your study in your kitchen in Chinese to be able to read and identify them with their Chinese equivalent words for reading practice.  

12. Change the language of your social networking media account and your device language to Chinese so that you are forced to identify the words in Chinese as you try to operate your device, and remember them. It is however a known fact that most phones have almost similar spread of icons and you will soon get used to it in no time.

13. Try mnemonics for your Chinese studies. 

14. Start writing a journey or a diary collect a few vocabulary words which you may find tough to write it will help you in your writing practice and if you are able to speak them we would recommend you talk to yourself in the mirror speak the words aloud until you get the pronunciations correct to speak to your pet or speak to any of your family members, record yourself and then make corrections as required.

We hope all the aforementioned options will be able to help you improve your Chinese through practice and utilize your spare time in the best manner!