How much Chinese did I learn in a year?
Send a text During the first few months of learning Chinese, I wanted to turn my learning into an experiment: how much Chinese would I be able to learn in a year? This motivated me greatly, but of cou...
14 Okt 202416min
Artificial intelligence for language learners
Send a text A hot topic in second language learning and teaching circles, artificial intelligence proved to be a game-changer for my learning of Chinese. I suddenly had that ‘friend’ who would happily...
12 Okt 202413min
Accent and dialect
Send a text In this episode I’m looking at accent and dialect. Many learners have a distinct foreign accent. Is that inevitable, or are their ways to work on your accent (and if so, is it necessary)? ...
10 Okt 202418min
Free-styling it
Send a text My spoken Chinese was getting more and more ‘fluent’, in that I could have uninterrupted conversations in real life, using my online conversation lessons with teachers to iron out any issu...
8 Okt 202411min
Working with Chinese teachers
Send a text This episode is about me, finally, finding teachers to Chinese. At first I was learning in a vacuum at home, building confidence in understanding the language, but now that I had taken the...
6 Okt 202415min
Finding Chinese speakers
Send a text In this episode I’m finally taking the plunge, looking for more speakers of Chinese to talk to. I’m considering tandem language exchange programmes and finding Chinese friends, eventually ...
4 Okt 202417min
What does 'fluent' mean?
Send a text 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 ...
2 Okt 202413min
Revision time and starting to speak 'for real'
Send a text In 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 a...
30 Sep 202425min
