how I learned Chinese | 10 tips to fluency (resources provided) 

Hey! I just learned I can set up a shop online to make it easier for those looking for Mandarin Chinese resources (www.amazon.com/shop/chaniece). It is commissioned, so feel free to check it out if you either want to see resources that I have used or if you'd like to support my channel. Thanks so much! I have a few Mandarin Chinese videos in the works--getting back into the groove of videos--so stay tuned!

I super agree with “If you don’t know the tone, you don’t know the word” that is awesome advice to avoid developing bad pronunciation habits...

As a Chinese, I know the difficulty of Chinese, just as I learn English. And I really wanna make a friend who wants to learn Chinese and whose mother tongue is English, and then we can practice together and make progress together. Learning together can be more motivating. Languages are amazing, but learning them is crazy!!!

Chiniese is a beautiful language, I also wanna learn it since I love their food. I'm still a beginner and I'm following several advices to learn in a smart way

This was so lovely!! I am currently learning Mandarin and taking classes on italki. For me it was just forcing myself to get over my mental block and kinda just tell myself "it's not about you" XD I am an ESL teacher and so I kind a just had to think about my students. When they speak they don't have a filter, they just say things with the words they have. If my students says a word wrong or doesn't use proper grammar I never ever would be mean or rude etc. lol So I guess thinking like that also helped and continues to help me just make lots of mistakes and keep learning. One of the sweetest moments was when I was teaching (I teach ESL to children in China) my student didn't understand the question, and so I was able to say it in Chinese and omg they were soo excited that I knew Chinese, and they understood the class assignment. It was the best feeling to see how excited and proud my students were, and I am finding that learning Mandarin is also helping me to be a better ESL teacher as well. Thanks for such a great video :)

“Working on my mimicking skills” “if you don’t know the tone you don’t know the word” is such a great tip. The first language I learned with tones was Thai and it took me sooo long to master the tones cause I attempted to just speedrun it instead of taking the time to practice in a repetitive manner, I was more worried about memorizing the words instead of pronunciation. When learning Chinese, I’d use an auditory resource and, as she said in the video, I would play it back over and over until I was confident and that helped a ton

As an English learner I find that your suggestions are also helpful and constructive! It feels like any language learning has the similar core, and one language’s learning methods can always be shared to another one.

You are absolutely right, Chinese is the easiest language to learn in the world for conversation purpose. But on the other hand if you want to master the artistical part of the language, that's the poetry and calligraphy you probably need a PhD equivalence.

this is soo well produced and put together with such good tips! thank you so much

The shows and book recommendations were exactly what I needed! Thank you so much!

If you speak English and you learn Mandarin , I automatically assume you are smart. Not just because it's a hard language ,but because you went out of your way to do something difficult and taught yourself !!! Such an amazing accomplishment.

This was such a lovely and motivating video, thank you for the helpful advice!!

Great video and tips! Love the idea of pronunciation chart and signing up for Chinese social media. I think out of your list of 10, living in China/immersion would have to be weighted the greatest opportunity to learn but the other 9 were very helpful too…time to start talking to myself!

I love your take on learning Chinese and techniques for mastering the language. It’s so refreshing to hear✨ talking to yourself is such a good tip 🤯 I get nervous talking to my Chinese friend so I like this idea a lot!! Hopefully I can immerse myself during my last semester of learning Mandarin!

Glad I found this! Awesome tips

Woooow! This was super super helpful! Very practical! Thank you for sharing😍

Love your videos. Straight to the point

I did step number two while I would shower when I learned Spanish and it really helped. These are some great tips!👏

Just started en I was in a bit of a dip but OMG, I’m so motivated again. Thanks. 😃

I used the same workbooks from the intro and video🤓📙 I never thought about talking to myself as a way of learning, because I talk to myself ALL THE TIME😅 It is reassuring to hear someone else using a lot of the same techniques as me to improve in a language. Now that I'm in St Pete, FL I found some Chinese people here and started a conversation club, which is fun and helpful.

Thank you! A tremendous help and benefit to this baby Mandarin learner. I think I psyched myself out by saying Mandarin was hard all these years.

😍😍😍 soooooo perfect! You made my day ☺️ thank you very much for sharing all those ideas 😊🙏

this is such a great video! i wish your channel grows fast! :)

Thanks for the tips, especially about that pinyin chart for pronunciation.

You are So Smart and So Honest and So Nice a person.

Thanks for sharing, this is very helpful information

Thank you so much for the resources, especially for the Yabla pronunciation chart

Heyy thanks soo much for the infos/ tips 🙏

This is awesome that you learned this language

One of the best videos. 谢谢你

Everything suggested is on point. I studied Mandarin in college for three years, then a post grad summer scholarship in Shanghai (Hua Dong Shi Da), but it took living and working in Taiwan for 2 years to finally have dreams in Chinese. Immersive is the key. I wish I could have gone to the Defense Language Institute in Monterey. 现再我学了跟老是在詹娜大所以可刷新内存. Too bad Shanghai isn’t like it was in 1982 when I was there. It was like traveling back in time to 1945.

I have studied Chinese intermittently for years. Over a decade ago, I had a year of college-level intro to Chinese. I used the traditional-set integrated Chinese 1 parts 1 and 2. I had a very confusing time because my Spanish was negatively transferring. Then, years later, I had another year of college-level intro to Chinese in another state using the simplified-set integrated Chinese 1. That went better because, even though I hadn't used any of my paltry Chinese in years, I was more familiar with it. Now I have my integrated Chinese textbooks (and I eventually want to get parts 2, 3, and 4) and I bootlegged the HSK 1-6 texts and workbooks. I also have a subscription to YoYo Chinese and Du Chinese reading. Here's the thing: my pronunciation is good, although I struggle a bit with x, q, and j. Tones are descent, especially in isolation. I sound like an absolute dork when I try to speak. Just awful. I have zero speaking competence, while my listening, reading, and writing are kindergarten level. I'm somewhat burnt out with classes (and I'm a teacher, the last thing I need is more time in a classroom), but I did do well with the structure, routine, and accountability. Learning other languages is hard, and I find that I'm losing my heritage Spanish the more I try to learn Chinese. Honestly, I'm willing to lose it (and come back to it later) in order to really pick up Chinese. I'm the poster child for demonstrating that having a lot of resources means nothing if I don't actually DO anything. I'm a little embarrassed and intimidated to really get into speaking, but I have that good ol' can-do attitude. I just need to commit my tired-ass stressed overworked self to this somewhat strenuous task. I need to study again to pick back up basic grammar, read and expand vocabulary, immerse myself the best I can in an area that doesn't have much of a Chinese community, and find online language partners and parents. I know I'm rambling, but I'm tired of collecting learning materials and watching videos about learning Chinese. I just need to do the actual work. I expect my students to find motivation and develop grit, and I know it's not easy, but it's time I did, too. I should probably have a little grace for myself, too. But I'm trying to shape up! lol I work almost 50 hours a week teaching, grading, lesson planning, babysitting :P, and attending pointless meetings. It's hard to have energy to do anything. It's that time of the year for resolutions, but, resolutions don't work; instead, I have two goals: exercise more and learn Chinese. If you made it this far, sorry, but also have a good new year (in a year that promises to be even worse than 2022 was), and I hope that you and your loved ones will be happy, healthy, and wealthy.

Love these!!

acting out dialogue is important for me, when i was learning german in college i had to ride the trolley home over an hour and frequently found myself using that time playing out scenarios in my head like talking about childhood or asking about their hobbies in detail in the way i would want to in english. it helped me learn some of the nuances and reinforce the fundamentals.

I LOVED your video, seriously! And as a black woman, I feel so motivated cuz I don't see many black people (on RU-vid at least) speaking about how learn Chinese Mandarin or talking about their lives in China. So yeah, thank you so much for that! Also, I will come back to review these tips every time I feel lost. (Is it my English grammar correct?)

This is really helpful thank you!!

Tbh people say the language is hard because of it being a tonal language but i find it cooler and easier with it being tonal

Your Chinese is quite fluent and you also made this video fun to watch. well done:)

Found ur channel finally. Subscribed.

Great video. Been learning chinese for 3 years (university), not only it is online, because of corona, and studying chinese became a torture, but I also neglected tones at the start, and because of that now I suffer. You said it right in the video. Never underestimate tones in chinese. I was also more into grammar, which isn't bad, but my vocabulary is extremely poor. What's the point of knowing all the grammar when you don't know any words to express your thoughts :/

Thanks for this!!

Hi, I really love ur video, thanks for sharing it, I love chinese as well🤗

I'm Silvia from Brasil and my native language is Portuguese , but I speak English , I've been studying Chinese and Korean language , Korean from 2 year and half and Chinese from one year and half . I loved your video thanks a lot ❤️ you are very nice

i'm vietnamese and i wanna learn a little Chinese lol. so thanks a lot i can improve listening english skill and learn the way studying chinese. so great!!

Currently learning Chinese Medicine and have been thinking about taking on the language as well. I believe it will help me immerse myself in the culture more and help with my studies. Thanks for these tips. You are absolutely gorgeous btw. 💜🌺🇨🇳

Great perspective

Despite my age I will try to learn some Mandarin at the earliest convenient opportunity. I am feeling quite handicapped and out of place in this new China dominated world

Hi Chaniece - Great video! I had three years of Chinese in school so I speak moderately well. I agree with pretty much everything you said here. Especially #9, Chinese is not hard! It's pretty easy! I would just re-emphasize something you said - do not skimp on learning the tone of each word. It's not a shortcut - it's a way to end up confused in the long run. On the other hand, if you do learn the tones well, Chinese people will tell you you speak so well. I have one thing to add: It's a little bit difficult to use flash cards for vocabulary because there are only two sides and you have to learn three things - the character, the pinyin and the English. I figured out some workarounds that let me quiz myself on all three things. Anyway, congratulations on moving to China, learning the language and making it work!

I agree with the talk to yourself!!

Thanks for the tips! I am sitting in my apartment in Pudong practicing as we speak lol.

作为一个中国人，我给那些想学习中文的人一些建议，就是一定要熟练掌握汉语拼音，然后再常备一本新华字典和汉语词典，接下来就是积累你的汉语词汇量，最后开始学语法

You're gorgeous btw and your hair is amazing!

We need your hair care routine, your curly hair is so stunning

As a Chinese, I appreciate your passion for learning this language. Are you still in Shanghai?

Glad you were reading "Journey to The West". Sun Wukong is definitely my favorite character.

been in china 2 years... and i really wanna master the language... thank you for this vid

The reason I started learning Chinese in the first place was I was using your bonus tip to begin with :P

Huh, that's an interesting video! Many thanks to the author of the channel for the recommendations! The problem with many people is that they want to take a "magic pill" or get "secret knowledge" and immediately have skills and abilities. However, the truth of life is that knowledge, skills, and abilities do not come by themselves. You can't learn a foreign language without doing anything, without wasting your time and effort, just like you can't learn to ride a bike lying on a comfy couch, listening to lectures and watching videos about "modern methods of learning" on a bike. To really learn something, you have to really practice every day. You're going to fall down while you're learning, and you're going to get bumps - that's normal! The ups and downs of learning are an integral part of our lives. Motivation from success and depression from failure will always be your study companions. However, every student has problems in his or her studies that he or she lacks the knowledge to solve. It can be: poor memorization of words; no progress in language learning; the student can speak, but does not understand speech by ear; misunderstanding of grammar; incorrect pronunciation, etc. Agree that a problem you don't know how to solve is very demotivating. In order to find the answer to our question we have to spend a lot of time to read videos, articles and books by polyglots. In today's world, we have to solve problems as quickly as possible. I don't have time to study and analyze a huge amount of information. My goal is to master the basic knowledge of a foreign language as quickly as possible and already start earning money effectively in the international arena. I settled on the practical guide by Yuriy Ivantsiv " Polyglot's Notes: practical tips for learning foreign language". This book is always in my bag. If I have a problem while learning a language, I quickly find the answer in this book. There are many different techniques and tips for learning a foreign language in Polyglot Notes. I have made my own individual schedule and plan for language learning. Now I know what I am going to study, how I am going to study, when I am going to study and what results I am going to achieve. No problem could stop me! With an effective language learning plan my professional skills are more and more in demand internationally every day. Friends, don't stop there! Everyone has talents that millions of people around the world need! Learn the language and make your ideas and dreams come true! Thanks to the author of the channel for the informative and useful video! Your videos motivate me.

I think your partly right at the beginning, but I was able to self-study chinese completely for free in 1 year up to AP standard (and because I didn't originally follow "textbook" based things, I can just talk normally like a native). Although, I think what you're saying is that its hard for many people to get good without paying for courses.

Thank u so much

This is definitely one of the most honest and reassuring vids out there for learning Chinese specially about the fear of speaking and making mistakes in front of others. The last tip was duly noted HAHAHA 😜

your advices are so helpful. thank you . i watch billibilli animes and some tv shows in iqiyi.

As a Chinese native speaker, speaking English as second language, and teaching my daughter reading and writing Chinese, I found this video interesting.

This is really encouraging! Xiexie!

Proud of your Accomplishments !!! Tieng Viet Oi

1) Very comprehensive! 2) Suggestions A) reference grammars---most important 1 sort of book or website in any language--- example--wikipedia s Chinese grammar websute, China and Taiwan books 3) Chinese African American if N and S America, and African continent connections A) Both had non Euro agricultural societies 1) clan based villages 2) multi deity religions 3) tonal languages (Niger Congo giant language family--- easy fir such speakers to learn Chinese tones--- some tones are the SAME!!) 4) In Spanish and English speaking Caribbean islands, Chinese men often married Afro Caribbean wine 5) Ming era China traded much with Kenya Chinese fleet stayed fir 2 years), Tanzania, Somalia 6) Both groups have highly developed drum and percussion.music 7) US, Carubbean, Continental Africans joined China and US, Caribbean Chinese to help Republic in Soanish Civil War vs fascism and Nazism 8) US 1) Paul Robeson, supported Spain China vs Japan empire, performed, recorded Yiyong Jun,Xingqu (Volunteer Army March), or Qilai, now national.anthem 2) 1963, Mao Zedong issued state meant pro US African American movement 3) Robert Williams? for a while broadcasted political shows from China to US on Radio Beijing 4) Black Panther Party was much influenced by Mao Zedong s China 9) Wilfredo Lam was world famous Afro Chinese Cuban surrealist painter 1) had series on Yoruba deities Cuba 2) went to Spain in Civil War 3) Was student and friend of world famous painter Pablo Picasso Etc There may be more Cuba Carnaval time, some bands use Chinese suona, or trompeta china, etc etc etc Hope that these help. Xiexie!! Zhu ni, hao yunqi!!!

That means u hv bright thoughts... Ummh I really love beauty with brain ❤️

thnx fr ths vidd i wana learn it

Good point that skills aren't hard if you have a good plan. If others are learning faster, they prolly be doing it a different way.

Great video! Question, once you learn the sounds properly using the Latin alphabet on the pronunciation chart, will courses allow you to learn to speak Chinese using the Latin alphabets without learning Chinese characters?

too be honest living 8 years in a country is more than enough to become fluent in the language. sadly some immigrants live way longer in a country but can still barely speak the language, i notice this is because some people dont try to learn the language of the country they moved to, and they only link and mingle with other migrants from their home country this way they never become better at the language of the new country and only mainly keep speaking they mother tongue, this is how you stay behind in a language! if u wanna learn a language u should focus on having to converse with the locals, at work, social events, daily life etc. just natural way and you will learn and become better ande eventually become fluent.

I’ve spent about 100,000 hours studying English humor and Western culture, and many years studying Chinese culture. My native language is Chinese. I teach Chinese in humorous way and with cute pictures. Hope somebody recommend my videos to those who want to learn Chinese.

Great video, I'm more intentional about learning Chinese and would like to know... How long did it take you from day zero (knowing no Chinese at all) to fluency?

HAHAHA loved the ending🤣

I like to learn zhoug and hanyu😊😊🥰

The first thing to drill into one's mind about pinyin is that it is the use of the English alphabets as pronunciation indicators, nothing more. Think of letters a b c in seat arrangement in a theater. While there are incidental similarities to English pronunciations, do not let these similarities prejudice yourself. Pinyin letter b is very much in line with English b, but the Xi in Xijinping is quite dissimilar to any x in English. Xi is rather similar to see or sea in English. Just a few hours of study will be enough to correctly pronounce pinyin (when written as pinyin), except for the tones. For the tones, some people have good ears, and some do not. I think this is related to music talent or tone recognition ability in music.

As for the last tip, I've been given that by a Japanese chef when I asked him how I could improve my Japanese. I wonder how effective that really is.

I think I know you from fotki years ago. You use to post hair pics. I'm glad that you're doing well. Cool I didnt know that you spoke chinese.

Im here cause I just got accepted to an exchange program in China, Im going for a year and I dont have any knowledge of the language so Im kind of nervous to not understand anything. What do you recommend I should do? I love your videos, Thank you

lol love the bonus tip

The hardest part with me has been speaking out loud confidently, I know quite a bit (in intermediate) - but then it comes time to speak I tend to freeze up. So difficult!! lol I already speak softly in english so it's extra hard for me. I love Wuhan dialect especially because it's so intense and it's the opposite how I speak, my girlfriend and her family is from Wuhan so it would be fun to learn more Wuhan dialect as well. These are really really great tips. How do you access Chinese Tiktok though from the US? I think I have to change my region? Is it possible to have both?

Thanks for the wonderful video! I am learning Mandarin. Love the Stephen King Carrie scene in your video!! :) I am looking to visit China perhaps in 2022. I am interested in your life there and how you get around and what kind of work you do? I would like to create a documentary in China, but I don't know what are the regulations for doing so, thus I need to to learn them. I want to bring my cinema camera and film quality learning skills of children and adults. I have other ideas as well. Thanks again for your video. I am now a subscriber.

我同意播主讲的是标准中文普通话❤视频最后的老奶奶讲的是地方方言。 我可以很好的讲普通话，但是我想学美国英语，我们可以交换学习吗❤

Hi , I have a Chinese root . And for me this is good moments learning English. I’m so sorry my English its not well.

Pronunciation nerd - finally! Someone as evul as me! :D

Sis, you are writing the map for me!

9:56 WOW!

Hi, great channel. What's the Chinese version of Italki? There's an app for tutors of Chinese in China.

What do you mean by stretch vocal cords

THE SONG 😭😭😭

Please can u recommend me great short TV show for learn Chinese fast ?

What do you think about skipping writing characters part? I know that many Chinese people don't write characters anymore because they are using smartphones and keyboards...Maybe it would make sense to skip that part for now and focus on more useful things? I understand that being able tow rite a character helps to memories it better I just thought maybe skipping that would boost the learning part.

I always talk to myself in korean and i think i can do that with chinese no problemo

Yay

Does somebody know a free chinese course online??

I too use the Chinese Practical Reader. I talk to my dog. Lol

Hi Chaniece, Thank you very much for this. Is there a beginners books available you suggest? I coming to China in July. I have basic but really need to move forward in Chinese.

March 3 2022❤️

Hope folks who want to learn 'Chinese' can first tell the difference between 'simplified' Chinese characters and 'traditional' Chinese characters, let alone Cantonese and Mandarin. They are mostly different. Never get confused and misled into believing that you know 'Mandarin'/'Putonghua' and simplified Chinese characters and you know 'Chinese'.

thinking of going to school in singapore ty