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Don't feel down hearted if you've been studying for longer and you have not achieved his level yet, and if you haven't started studying don't expect to be that good in a such a short time frame. I've been studying mandarin for 6 years and just recently I feel somewhat comfortable with the language Everyone's different. Keep thriving
@@vitaliy1858 Agreed, you also have to keep in mind that Will spent roughly 4 hours of study a day, for 1.5 years. 1.5 years is subjective, the average person doesnt spend anywhere near this in study time and some dont study everyday (some people even only take a class 1-2 times a week) , so technically someone could achieve what he did in 4-5 years by just studying 1 hour a day. And the best practice of all is actually conversing with a Native speaker which he did everyday. Still what he did is an absolutely amazing feat and he far surpasses my Mandarin level and I have been learning over a year BUT I only spend about 10-20 mins learning per day so of course theres a huge difference. So take his advice, don't be disheartened at all due to your level difference and have been learning longer than Will. Take it at your own pace.
@@azrilntdrill It's not nonsense. It's literally possible. BUT you have to replicate the conditions under which he accomplished his level of fluency to receive similar results.
OMG, I can't believe that he has been learning Mandarin for only one and a half year! His Mandarin is amazingly good! Pretty close to a native speaker!
The key thing that this dude did was LEARNING LIKE A NATIVE. He literally learned Chinese by speaking with Chinese people, just like a baby who is born in China. If you don't have this opportunity please don't get discouraged. Reaching this level of Chinese is great but definitely is not a regular thing. Most of the people don't have enough time to study for even 1 hour a day so if we would be able to calculate how many hours did this guy studied in 1.5 years maybe it will be equal to your 4 year study. So if you are a starter please don't expect this type of development but try to study as much as you can and also try the methods that he mentioned.
Thanks I’m learning Chinese and really enjoying it. But actually I have no opportunity to talk with lime him. I’d like to meet Chinese people in my business field to practice 🤩
For all you guys stating this isn't possible, thanks for the motivation. I love when people say something is not possible so I can go out and prove them wrong. Regardless, my main motivation is getting to one day live in china and learn the culture through speaking to people
His sentence structure and pronunciation is soooo good, too good. Better than most people I know that have been speaking Chinese for many years as a second language.
i think the most impressive is his pronunciation. honestly his vocab is like HSK5, which is very possible in 1.5 years. And the grammar he uses is not complex, about HSK4 and HSK5. But his pronunciation really shocks me, its very native! he must have focused a lot in immersion with Chinese friends to reach this level.
Ironically enough, I started learning Spanish 1.5 years ago, also because of Covid. I am at a high intermediate level now. I just started learning Mandarin a couple weeks ago. So far, so good. Interesting interview!
This guy is mind-blowing! A year and a half! He learned Chinese faster than a toddler! Seriously amazing! He is my biggest inspiration! Thank you for sharing this!
For every one of his kind, there are 100 that won't have that success with the exact same techniques. Those guys are just not invited to language focus podcasts. It's a selection bias.
after studying Chinese for about 4 semesters online, i realize that i know a lot of simple words and sentences but without the fluency to fully describe what i'm thinking about... now that I've found a native language partner, its slowly coming together although not as fast as i would like ;-)
so he never actually studied and just learned through chatting and watching tvshows and anki, and got to this level? 😳 damn, now i feel stupid haha spending so much time studying grammar and sentences and everything for 7 months now and I'm not even close to intermediate level while speaking 😭
I don’t know if you have been following a more systematic curriculum or learning order, but I believe if you are learning the whole new sound system (listening and speaking) and the whole new written system (reading and writing characters), the learning process is definitely a lot more time-consuming. And for Mandarin Chinese learning, the first phase of building up a solid foundation for everything I mentioned is relatively longer than other languages that are closer to your native language. No need to feel stupid or frustrated, you’re just starting a fascinating journey! If you put more attention and consistent practice on listening and speaking, you will progress faster in using the language to communicate with natives through the sounds for sure, like Will did! 加油💪
@@RitaChinese I think the same as Franscica; When I watched the video, I wondered how one can speak so well by only learning vocabulary; And yes, he spent a lot of time talking with his friends but how did he build sentences then? It's great for him that he got to this level! Me, these kind of testimonials tend to make me think that I'm stupid I have been learning for more than 3 years using several applications and at the same time, I read and write. I also watch a lot of Drama and listen to songs, which means that I hear Chinese everyday ; The advantage is that I don't forget the words and sometimes even think in Chinese! Only what is still difficult to remember are the sentence structures.
@@elodieperochon931 Probably trial and error as well as having very kind friends, who would correct and teach him. At one point he mentioned his ex was a Chinese teacher. He has also stated that he studied at least 4 hours a day, but from what he was saying, he had a lot more exposure to Chinese than that. Finally, I do think he has a knack for language learning, to be honest.
I don't think what you did is stupid because not many people have such a great learning environment like his. He has many Chinese friends and even an ex-girlfriend who was a Chinese teacher. He could easily find an answer through his Chinese friends, not to mention he spent over 4 hours per day to practice Chinese speaking and listening. Systematic learning through basic words, sentences and grammar may still be the best and even the only way for most people. I don't have as much time as he has. I only have 1 hour per day to learn English at most. I have to make a living, so it is impossible for me to practice like him.
This was a great interview, and I learned about a lot of other resources I wasn't aware of before. As someone that has been trying to use various self-teaching resources for studying Chinese over the past ~8 months or so, it's really amazing to see someone that has done so well. Unfortunately, much like Will has no one to practice Spanish with, I don't really have anyone to practice Chinese with. I may need to look into something like Tandem and see if that works for me. Looking forward to the next part of this series.
Such a good inspiration. I spent like 2years trying to learn Chinese by myself but it was to hard for me, so I decided to take classes and in 1 year I’m way too far from his level. He really found his language 🥳🥳🥳🥳
his Chinese is A LOT better than most of the students in the China Studies department (me included) after 1 1/2 years, it's crazy! he must've spent a lot of time every day on it
I don't think I'm alone when I say, more intermediate/advanced learners can listen and understand what is said, but the problem is mainly recreating the sentences for themselves later in conversations. Or more simply put, I can listen and understand what someone says, but I can't create a perfectly grammatical sentence in return. There is always some element missing or 搭配 is incorrect. At least that's the hurdle I'm currently experiencing.
Ya, im currently on the same stump learning arabic and i cant also understand like you said but when i need to recreate i get problems with rebuilding it in good grammar
I don’t get why some in the comments are doubting he get that fluent in 1.5 years. He said he spent hours a day studying. It takes 2000 hours for an English speaker to learn Chinese , so it’s not much of a stretch that he could get good that fast by studying 4 hours a day.
I think I’ll start practicing Chinese with my wife cause I don’t feel I’ve improved since my first 2 years of studying. I can say the biggest progress I made was when I was doing 3hrs of lessons per week mostly chatting with an online tutor. The topic of conversation matters and I could follow most of this one but I can’t speak that fast.
Humble learner who took up learning the language because it was interesting and they felt they could get more out of it. 1.5 years and he sounds very natural and relaxed. Not unlike some of these "other" learners who just learn/learned it because it can get them likes or "shock" people. They speak well but sound way too excited and of course have a camera recording so that adds another level of "difficulty". This is a great example of learning a language because you want to versus because you need to. His 1.5 years sounds better than people with 5+ years. Good for him. He doesn't seem to let it go to his head either.
Thank you for the excellent subtitles! This kind of quality is hard to find. I'm 25 minutes into it so far. I've spent around 6 hours watching this video already, pausing to look up vocabulary, re-listening to sentences until I hear the words. 你們說很快啊！ Once I got halfway through the video, I changed the speed to 0.75x speed and that really helps. This video is definitely taking me to the next level!
What a wonderful interview and video. This guy is an inspiration for all us language learners! I feel I had a similar arc as him with Spanish and Portuguese, just fully immersing myself in audio materials and hanging out with people that speak those languages. Now I am beginning to improve my Mandarin and it seems like a big hill to climb, but watching your channel and interviews like this keeps me motivated !!
I have learned about 300 words and can read and write some characters. I chose not to study grammar, asI did with Spanish and have learned Chinese grammar naturally. I have nobody with whom to practice, and, like Will, I am speaking to myself and watching Chinese programs on my level (or close to it). Now that I have learned the basics, I am only focusing on memorizing whole sentences and speaking them too. I just found Anki and am looking forward to uploading a deck. Thank you for the great interview! I felt inspired! 太好了！我喜欢学习汉语。谢谢你！
He did something called sentence mining and reviewed his cards as closed deletion. He didn't memorize the sentences, there's there's huge, game changing difference here. If you care about copying his steps you better learn what those things are and how to setup your anki accordingly 👌
You won't forget your Chinese if you learn Spanish. I speak English and Spanish fluently and I am adding Chinese. I think the key is to alternate inputs and outputs in the 2 foreign languages alternating every other day to maintain fluency in all three languages. You can have communication in English for a small portion of the day.. There are books on strategies of how to maintain fluency in three to five languages.
Rita, what a fantastic video, thanks for putting together those meticulous subtitles, that must have been a lot of work! Will's level is incredibly impressive!
Well now I have some more inspiration to get back to studying. I kick myself for even stopping. Rita, I have your course and I'm starting it over right now!
Awesome, William!! Glad my video gets you motivated to be back working on our course😄🙌 Looking forward to talking to you at live stream and hearing your progress in the course💪💪
Amazing achievement! Very inspiring. It also hammers home the importance of speaking (from early on if possible)..which also presents the greatest hurdle for most of us 😅 Love the idea of talking to oneself in the target language, or pretending to be on the phone. Maybe i'll try speaking Mandarin to my cats from now on, I don't think they care, as long as there is food involved in one way or another 😆. 加油, fellow learners x
I'm learning Chinese only casually a little bit each day. The main language I'm learning is Japanese. I've been learning for 6 years and I can't speak as comfortably as he can! After I finish my exams I'm turning my brain into Japanese, I love talking to myself anyway! By the way, I'm applying to graduate school in Japan hopefully it goes well
"Casually a little bit each day" while focusing mostly on another language, is totally different from 2-4 hours per day of focused study on one language. He very well may have put in more hours of study than you, which is far more significant than how long it has been since you started.
Awesome good luck with your application! When you are surrounded by native speakers and use the language as much as you can, I’m sure that you’ll feel so much comfortable using the language to communicate with people😄
I am not a very skeptical person, but are we sure he only studied for 18 months here? I've never seen anyone reach such a level so quickly. Maybe 2.5 years I could believe, but 1.5? Seems unlikely. I kind of doubt some of what he says. Maybe he was studying like 10 hours a day. Maybe it's a little more than 1.5 years. I think he is at least slightly altering some of the facts. If he had said he was immersing 9-12 hours a day, I might believe it, but he is claiming less than that.
@@RitaChinese If you don`t have community around yourself - it`s impossible to achive small targets - it takes too much time for practise - minimum 3-4 hours per day !
@@gdup1728 Oh just start with spanish. Immerse yourself in that language. I must admit I'm not a native speaker, but I had to force my brain to start thinking in english language.
He is very good and sounds native to me as a Cantonese American. I lived in an enclave in a Los Angeles suburb for two years where the demographics are mainly Mexican and Chinese from Mainland and Taiwan and I dont believe my level is anywhere near his. What epiphany I got from this video is that Chinese or ANY non English speaker will CELEBRATE and APPLAUD your level of achievement learning their language BUT IN REVERSE , Ive NEVER seen ANY American or British (Aussie NZ Canada as well) media FEATURE a non White person trying to learn English and show the same RESPECT and
I wish it happened both ways equally. i think the reason a lot of the time is that it comes from an inferiority complex. i took a paper at uni that touched about racism and white renervation and inferiority complexes in south america stemming from colonial times. and also maybe bc english is a global lingua franca that too a lot of people it basically feels that english is a common language learnt around the world. and i also think that a lot of white people in western countries can get nervous about commenting and someones english in fear of offending them for some reason, ik that i do unfortunately. i work at a shop thats in an area where a large portion of the demographic is asian/indian and obviously a lot of them have learnt english so well after having lived here (New Zealand) and some not so fluent, mostly in the older generations, and it makes me happy when i speak to particularly those that arent as fluent. bc im a language student for both spanish and chinese and im not that good. learning any language is hard and i know that even as a native english speaker that english is a bitch of a language so i have mad respect for people that learn it as a language thats not their mother tongue
I love your video introduction with the Fàn Lǎoshī expression. So unique and original, plus your videos are also very analytical and educational, love your videos ! Keep it coming.
Amazing in all aspects! Chapeau!!! Yet one little note: At one point he mentions that his ex-gf was Chinese, even a Chinese teacher..... as if it was a small unimportant side info....in fact this is a KEY FACTOR. So if we want to use his approach the key is: 1. date someone ... 2. do all the things he mentions in the video. 😜😉
okay so his method is unrealistic for the average person in terms of time lol. but one thing he didn't explain is how he even got to a level to have even basic conversations in the first place. was this after duolingo and anki?
Glad you like it!! The second half will publish when the subtitles are done. And we can definitely invite Will again to talk more about his experience!
If you're watching this video, I would encourage you to ignore.... or at least not get caught up on the timeline. It's either true or it isn't. And that's on him. Regardless, he's put in the time to improve his Chinese and this process is totally possible for anyone to use and deploy at any stage and any level. Massive amounts of input and output. Creating opportunities to use the language on his own and with others. And flashcards based on words he wants to learn in a context that makes sense to him. Chinese is a part of his daily routine (clearly), and the language he's learning was based on his life, experience, interests, and focus. Add that into your own study process and you'll see results, too.
Not everyone gets to spend so much time and effort on consistently learning and practice, use better materials and efficient method, and have native speakers around to have massive input and output. But everyone CAN make it all happen if they are really determined to😊💪
@@RitaChinese Hmmm, I've been learning for almost the same amount of time as him. I use diverse materials, focus primarily on listening, speaking, and input. But it's still not at this guy's level. Honestly, I really don't believe it's been a year and a half. I study at least 2 hours per day, but oftentimes up to 5 hours (and sometimes even 8 hours). I do use Anki, so I encounter the sentences and words A LOT. But it feels like this dude has been consistently exposed to, and has used, a LOT of vocabulary. He seems so ready to communicate. In a year and a half, that just can't be possible, right? When the pandemic lockdown started, I dove deep into this and had tons of time to dedicate to this, and I've made learning Chinese and incorporating it into my life a consistent habit. But I still cannot begin to compare to this. For Will, it's almost second-nature, almost as if he's been living in China for years. If he's really, truly been learning Chinese for only a year and a half......... y i k e s
@@iamclarity he's probably spoken a lot chinese with his friends and that surely makes a big difference with someone who gets a lot of input but who doesn't frequently use the language to communicate with other native speakers
I understand nothing without the subtitles and add ups.😢 But I’ll come again after a year and maybe some months and I’ll understand everything. And I’ll speak as fluently as him.🤞
I was watching a show called 76 Horror Bookstore, and the main character of the first episode was researching on the computer and used the characters 手語 and from my very basic understanding of japanese I understood this as sign language. I'm just starting out on my Chinese journey but I felt accomplished in understanding something without having to read subtitles.
As a fellow Brit I am inspired by his dedication. I need to do more immersion and speak more? I think that's how to learn faster and in context . I've been learning for about a year but not at the level of time he did. I can say the basics 😁
His pronunciation is excellent and I admire his fluency. I’ve got to be honest though that there is no way you can get to this level with just 1.5 years of learning the language.
@@former_junk_eaterIt seems VERY unlikely. You don't absolutely master the Chinese language in 1.5 years. My 12 years in China I've NEVER met someone who spoke Chinese like that in that amount of time, even university students at Beijing Language and Culture University are NOWHERE close to this level after the same time, and they study the language day and night daily. Most of them aren't even that fluent when they get their degree. He also has 北方 accent (according to my GF)... He got an accent through self study? Please...
@@former_junk_eater I’ve been surrounded by Chinese people, living with Chinese people for years and I would say his fluency level is better than mine. During that time I’ve put in the hard work and watched all the TV shows and immersed myself in everything. Most people I’ve seen and met who have studied for years don’t have this level of fluency and pronunciation. He must have been exposed to Chinese culture for years to know about all the subtleties he uses in his speaking.
@@Renvaar1989 Admire but don’t get jealous. You should take notes on what he shared. I personally met quite a few Chinese learners can speak it as fluently as he does in couple years. They have never been to Mandarin speaking countries. Some people are more intelligent than others or they just simply have the talent /language learning ability. This guy is a Medical student; he is both smart and talented perhaps.
It's really not that miraculous that he achieved such a high level of fluency in such a short time compared to other Mandarin learners. He basically learn via the immersion method which is the natural way that humans acquire languages from birth. Babies don't learn their first language from textbooks. I really think classroom teaching methods for languages need to be reformed because they are clearly ineffective. It's extremely common for students to study a language at school for years without ever learning how to speak the language. Clearly there is something wrong with this method if the student can't even master the most basic function of the language which is to talk to other people in that language.
True, although most (many) language classes in the US are immersion-based: you are only allowed to speak the target language in the classroom. No English. And this works wonders for languages like Spanish, French, German, etc; however, for something like Chinese, it’s simply impossible because there’s no linguistic similarity to English. In a German class, a teacher can say “Das ist mein Lieblingsfilm”, and the students would understand oh, he’s saying this is my something-film, I’ll have to infer what that means, etc. But in a Chinese class, the teacher says “zhe shi wo zui xihuan de dianying”, and the students will, understandably, have a blank expression on their faces. So the immersion does not work until the upper intermediate classes.
It's not the role of schools or the education system to teach you how to speak another language. Stop suggesting that the 'methods should be changed' because there were none to begin with. The education system was not built for that. The best they can do is show you the way pique your initial curiosities. But the sole responsibility for really learning another language as an adult rests completely on you.
@@musical_lolu4811 tf? Their claim was not about whether schools have an obligation to provide foreign language classes. It was merely that within the foreign language classes already offered by schools, the pedagogy should be completely reformed. In other words: if you’re going to teach a subject, teach it right.
hi,i am a chinese student ,my IELTS speaking score is 6 ，i want to find a native English speaker who wants to learn chinses,so we can help each other to improve speaking skill
This is very interesting. I did something similar when I was learning Spanish some years ago ... My biggest problem is still vocabulary, but I can attest to the viability of this quasi-immersive approach. I'd love to be as fluent in Chinese as this young man is 2 years from now, but now that the worst of the pandemic is over, I'm unlikely to have the extended blocks of time to immerse myself the way he did.
