I have my own experiences with this, and my friends have had similar struggles. But how do you keep going? How can you avoid feeling depressed when it seems like you can never master Chinese?

Find the Why

I truly believe that no advice or strategy will help you stay motivated to learn Chinese in the long run if you don’t have “the why” to keep going. Find your reason to continue. Think about why you even started to learn Chinese. Was it a dream to visit China? Was it career opportunities you thought Chinese would open for you? Was it the calligraphy and art that fascinated you? Now pause and think, do they still resonate with you? If yes, congrats, you are lucky! Grab that feeling and remember it. This “why” will keep you going further.

So first and foremost, find your “why”s.

And now that you have your “why”, let’s talk about “how”.

Incorporate Chinese into Your Daily Life with Minimal Effort

The most common piece of advice and really the most practical one is to create a routine or habit of practicing Chinese and allocating some time for it every week (ideally every other day). While it is definitely the best way to keep going, consistent practice is easier said than done. We all have lives going on, families and friends to meet, work and studies to finish, movies to watch, and so on. So how can you make learning Chinese easy and unobtrusive?

#1 Social Media Channels

Make the Chinese language part of your daily life. Start with simple things, like following more Chinese speaking accounts on Twitter, Instagram, Tik-Tok, or any other social media that you use every day. Ideally, it would work so that when you browse through feeds, Chinese will become the most common language. (For hardcore advancer learners – change your phone’s language setting and every other device into Chinese!)

Practical tips – A Few Instagram accounts to follow

Here are a few examples of accounts that might help you learn the language. These accounts post easy cards with words and phrases, and the more you see Chinese in your daily life, the more you remember later.

• @666coolpanda
• @learnchinese_shawn
• @breezychinese

And why not follow your favorite singer or actress? Make procrastination in Instagram useful.

#2 Chinese Language Podcasts and podcasts about China

Another way to make Chinese part of your everyday life is to listen to podcasts. There are podcasts that are focused on language, such as Mandarin Bean, Chinese 101, and ChinesePod. Not only can they help you develop listening comprehension but also pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar. 

Language podcasts are useful, but you can also listen to podcasts about China and learn more about the country and culture. There are so many different podcasts in Chinese or about China out there that you can always find one that covers topics of your interest, be it Chinese food, fashion, society, trends, or economics.

Related source: TOP 7 Mandarin Chinese Learning Podcasts: Review and Comparison

#3 Dramas, TV shows and YouTube Videos

Learning Chinese does not need to be serious and boring. Keep developing your skills passively, by watching videos in Chinese. Instead of an episode from Netflix, opt for a Chinese TV show or drama.

Depending on your level, you may prefer to keep English subtitles or just go with Chinese ones. While it is challenging in the beginning, it gets easier with time, and your passive vocabulary develops a lot. You pick up new words and phrases, and most importantly, intonations, something that is very difficult to develop while living outside of China.

While you can find a lot of Chinese TV shows and dramas on YouTube, you can check the following platforms, such as 爱奇艺、优酷、and 腾讯. Though they might require paid subscriptions. And by the way, Netflix is now offering Chinese movies and TV shows too.

Practical tips

1) Record and check

When you see a new word or phrase, write it down and find it in dictionary. I use Pleco, for example. It is a mobile app, easy to use, and it allows you to draw unknown characters.   Plus, you can save new words under bookmarks and revise them later.

2) Review

• Handwriting

So after watching an episode and bookmarking new words, review them. Ideally hand write them a couple of times.

• Make sentences

Create a few sentences with each of the words.

• Review

And then after few days, check the same words again.

Sounds a bit tedious? It is. But you will be surprised how fast it becomes easier. With new episodes, you will get fewer and fewer new words. As your Pleco bookmarks grow, it is generally good to browse through bookmarks to review vocabulary.

Related source: Learning Through the Screen: How Chinese TV can Become Your Chinese Teacher

Keep Practicing Chinese in an Easy, Constant, and Structured Way

Having Chinese in your daily life without active studying helps with maintaining language level, but not necessary in advancing it. You will need to put in effort to break through the learning plateau.

#1 Get Social, Get Friends

People tend to be more enthusiastic about studying languages when they can actually use them. After all, we learn languages to be able to communicate and build connections. So, to keep going forward in your learning journey, consider finding a person or group of people with whom you can speak Chinese.

It is great if you have Chinese friends already and use Chinese in your conversations. But can you make your meetings regular? And what about if you don’t have such an option?  Luckily, we live in times where you can find language partners and practice Chinese by chatting with native speakers. Check some Facebook groups, your city might have a language exchange club that organizes meetings, and you might meet your next best friend there. Alternatively, you can use services such as iTalki, Tandem, or Hello Talk. You can search for people who have similar interests and then choose different communication methods, including video calls, text messaging, or voice messaging. And everything that was mentioned above, like listening to podcasts about China and watching dramas, will give you more topics to discuss with your language partner.

#2 Read in Chinese Regularly

Ideally, reading in Chinese should become a habit. And as with movies, the more you read, the easier it becomes. Depending on your level of Chinese proficiency, you can choose different resources. Go for news and articles if you are an intermediate or advanced learner. News websites like BBC or NYT have news in Chinese. Alternatively, check Chinese media outlets like Xinhua. Reading news about China will also deepen your understanding of the country.

If you consider reading articles in Chinese too time-consuming for your level, and you just cannot make it a habit due to its difficulty, go for graded reading. There are websites like MandarinBean and DuChinese that offer different kinds of texts for just about every level of learner, from beginner to advanced. Reading a graded text is so much easier than a newspaper article since you don’t need to check every unknown word in a dictionary because the word translations pop up, making the reading experience rather seamless.

Graded reading makes reading in Chinese feel like actual reading rather than constant dictionary word searching or guessing the meaning of every word. Which makes it a great option for continuous practice.

Practical tips:

1) Determine your level

While graded texts are much easier than original ones, you should still consider your language proficiency and find graded texts with the level that suits you and does not kill interest. Let’s take MandarinBean as an example, as I more familiar with it as a user. My level right now is somewhat advanced, so I check texts with level of HSK 5 or 6. Since there are always new words in each article, I mainly prefer level 5 for my regular learning content (and HSK 4 level on a lazy day), which makes the reading not too slow and not too difficult. If you are not sure about what your level is, you can check it directly from MandarinBean, as it has HSK test practice to help you determine it. Or you can just try texts of different levels and feel out which fits your needs best.

2) Listen

Before reading, I often listen to the new lesson’s text’s audio first. I would listen to it a couple of times until I get the general idea. One small tip, if you feel  that audio is too slow, play it on1,5 speed!

3) Read

Now, reading is a crucial step and the one that feels (and is) the actual studying. At this stage I already have an idea about the text after listing to it. So here I will open the text in Chinese without using pinyin or translation functions and skim through it while listing once again. I won’t check any words and just mark in my head places or passages that I don’t understand.

Then come the tedious tasks made easier with grading help. I will read the text sentence by sentence or paragraph by paragraph with the help of the pop-up translation as well as Pinyin. And at the very end I will also check the translation, just to be sure if I understood the text fully and correctly.

4) Review

I used to always write new words in a notebook, and then I would hardly ever look at those words again. The notebook would always be somewhere else. Now, I use Pleco as my e-notebook. Whenever there is an unfamiliar word, I keep notes of it in my Pleco bookmarks. Your phone is most likely always around so that you can go through these words whenever you have a moment. Mandarin Bean also has Quizlet vocabulary lists, which are quite helpful for review too. Creating your own Quizlet lists also works.

If the process looks heavy to you or too long, don’t be scared! You will be surprised to find how convenient and easy it is. MandarinBean’ texts are short, topics are very common and relevant and best of all, you can always select level that fits you best.

#3 Take an Online Course or Find a Tutor

Many people struggle to continue learning Chinese because they lack not (only) motivation but (also) discipline. They learn the language without a structure or timeline. Registering for a course or finding a Chinese tutor are options worth going for in case you cannot manage to practice Chinese on your own regularly. A course or tutor becomes the external force to push you forward.

The internet is full of courses and tutors, and I won’t go into details on how to choose one or what you should take into consideration here. DigMandarin is one such website, and I encourage you to check out their selection of courses

Related source:

• 5 Practical Tips to Find the Best Online Chinese Tutor
• The Most Recommended Online Chinese Courses

Apart from bringing structure into the learning process, taking a course or learning with a tutor adds another important thing – you can follow your own progress clearly. Finishing a course, passing a test, or getting praised by a tutor gives you an estimation of your performance, which is very important as a visible form of progress. Improvement of language skills on its own can boost your motivation. 

#4 Set a Goal and Prize

While motivation might be vague like interest in language, a goal is something concrete. And it is best to have one. Having a goal will keep you afloat and be your guiding light in times of despair.

Practical tips

Setting a goal might sound easy, but in fact, it is only part of the deal. You need to have a plan for how to achieve the goal. And you need to define smaller goals that bring you closer reaching the main goal.

Dividing your main goal into smaller ones

Let’s look at an example. Imagine your goal is to pass HSK 6 in 2 years. Consider what is your current level, and what are the areas you should focus on. You have an HSK 6 study book with 20 chapters. Then roughly you need to study one chapter per month. That is your monthly sub-goal #1. Next, how many words does each chapter have? So then how many new words per week do you need to memorize – that is your weekly sub goal #2. 50 words per week, so per day…I guess you got it.

Every completed sub-goal is a little victory that paves the road to your main destination. And don’t forget to celebrate small victories! Even 5 words per week is already 250 new words in a year. It is not much, but still more than zero.

Related source: HSK Test Guide

So how can you stay motivated and keep learning Chinese? I don’t have a final definite answer. I just tried to summarize above what helped me to keep going and continue studying Chinese for more than 10 years.

I was stuck on a learning plateau for a couple of years, not able to “unlock” ways to continue learning Chinese. I felt like no matter what I did or how much effort I put into learning. I would never be able to become fluent in Chinese.  Language lost its magic for me. 

My “why” to keep going came to me as my interest in China, its society and culture, developed and grew. And instead of stressing out about how to master the language, I became curious about it. Curiosity, interest in language, culture and country became my motivators.

While I managed to incorporate Chinese into my daily life relatively easy, by following some accounts on Instagram and watching Chinese TV programs now and then, I could not develop discipline for consistent practice. I tried and failed multiple times, and finally realized that learning with a tutor was the best option for me. 

How is my Chinese now, after 10 years of learning? Definitely not at the level I wished to be at.  Will I ever be fluent in Chinese and pass the higher HSK levels? My answer is “never”. But I no longer stress about it. I simply enjoy the learning process, appreciate the beauty of the language, and explore the culture that the Chinese language opened up to me. For me, learning the language has become not a sprint, but a marathon (or maybe even a life lasting journey).

The post How to Stay Motivated to Keep Learning Chinese? – Keep Calm and Learn Chinese appeared first on .

Why Are You Learning Chinese?

Before you decide whether to learn to handwrite characters or not, pause for a moment and ask yourself another question: “Why am I learning Chinese?” Depending on your learning goals, you might choose a different path.

If you study Chinese just to manage as a tourist on a trip to China, then handwriting characters isn’t the most efficient way to spend your time. You can enjoy your trip with basic Chinese and a phone with a translation app.

If you learn Chinese for business reasons, being able to handwrite Chinese characters will impress your business partners, but you might prefer to focus on developing your speaking and listening comprehension skills, instead of spending hours on learning stroke order.

If you are interested in Chinese culture and history and think that learning Chinese might be useful for you in future, then you could still reach a low-intermediate Chinese level and manage by typing characters using pinyin input.

As you can see, you don’t need to learn how to handwrite characters to be able to speak Chinese, understand it, work using it (to a certain extent) and even live in China! But there is always a “but”.

Why Learn To Write Characters By Hand

Before we talk more about the “but”, let’s see why anyone would decide to learn to handwrite Chinese characters? Why spend time and effort on something that you can manage without?

Well, there are a few good reasons to learn handwriting Chinese characters:

• First of all, knowing how to handwrite Chinese characters is just cool. It feels like magic when you write a few strokes on paper, that don’t normally make sense, but they suddenly come together and create a meaning, a word. And amazingly, you can understand it.
• Second, handwriting characters is a form of meditation. Once you learn how to stay focused, you will not only notice that your concentration skills improve, but you will also find yourself feeling calm and relaxed when writing characters. Seriously!
• Third, handwriting characters trains your muscle memory, making characters stay longer in your memory and improving your reading and speaking skills. And here lies aforementioned “but”. You can manage without handwriting characters and learn Chinese to a certain level, but without knowing how to write characters by hand, you are very unlikely to reach level above intermediate.

✓ 快 vs 块, never mess them up again

Many characters look the same and only have a different radical. For example, 快 and 块. They have the exact same pronunciation, kuài, but the meanings have nothing to do with each other. One means “fast”, and another one is “a piece”. You might originally memorise them as separate pictures, but would you still remember them in a month or two, or a year? When you handwrite a character, you learn the parts it consists of, you memorise it by those parts, and so you are more likely to remember the character much later and see the difference between similar characters.

✓ Use dictionaries faster

Another bonus of knowing how to handwrite characters is that you can easily use electronic dictionaries to look up characters you’ve never seen before. Just write it on your phone and a dictionary like pleco will recognize it and give you the meaning.

How to start handwriting characters

So you’ve decided to learn to write characters by hand, what’s next? The most important thing is getting basics right from the very start. Here is a brief guide on how you can do it.

– Understand the structure of a character

A character consists of one or more components, called radicals. Spend some time figuring out how characters are structured because understanding that will help you in future. Simply put, a radical on the left side of a character is (often, but not always) connected to the meaning, whereas, a radical on the right is connected to the pronunciation of the whole character (again, often, but not always).

– Get familiar with strokes

Characters are similar to legos; they can be broken down into pieces. They consist of radicals, while radicals consist of strokes. There are eight traditional fundamental strokes, but only five of them are considered modern modular strokes, called “’札字法” （zházìfǎ).

Take some time and practice writing each of the strokes separately. Keep in mind that it does make a difference if you draw a line top to bottom or bottom to top. I recommend drawing each stroke about 30 times. It might sound strange, but it will help you in future – you’ll see a character, recognize the strokes, and your hand will just write them correctly.

– Learn the radicals

Now that you know how to write strokes, learn the radicals. There are 214 radicals in the original Kangxi radical list, but a few of them are no longer used in simplified Chinese. It is highly recommended to learn them all, but realistically, you should memorize the most common ones and then, once you advance in your studies, learn the others.

– Get the stroke order right

Now that you can deconstruct a character into separate pieces, learn how to write it correctly. The proper stroke order for writing characters has been developed for over thousands of years, and Chinese people are very attentive to it. And to be honest, when you write a character with the correct stroke order, it just flows naturally, as if there is no other right way to write it.

There are some general rules, such as writing from top to bottom and left to right. However, the exact stroke order of each character should be learned and memorized individually, especially when you just start learning handwriting characters. Later, you don’t need to memorize each new character’s stroke order. In most cases, you will already know the order based on previously learned characters. Just remember, it is ok not to be sure about the stroke order, you can always check in a dictionary. 

There is another more detailed article on how to write Chinese characters and get the stroke order correct. It will give you a better overview of character composition and provide some insights on stroke order. You can check it out here:

How to Write Chinese Characters (Quick Start Guide + Free Mini Course)

Tips to practice writing Chinese characters

What’s next? Well, here comes the hard part. There isn’t really a workaround to learn   to handwrite characters without spending time on it. In the very beginning, handwriting characters is exciting. You start something completely new, and it’s exciting. After writing 50 lines of characters, none of which look pretty or similar to ones in the book, you get bored and tired. my advice? Be persistent, and don’t give up. The more you practice, the easier it becomes, and the faster you memorize characters.

– Use worksheets

Find or print out some Chinese writing worksheets. If you are totally new to handwriting characters, I recommend getting worksheets with character stroke order and gridlines. You can even create a worksheet of your own, with characters that you want to practise. There are many websites that have worksheets, archchinese being one of them where you can customize your own practise sheets.

– Deconstructing a character

When feeling bored of writing characters in worksheets, try another exercise. Select a character from your textbook, and don’t check pronunciation or meaning. Try to analyze it. What radicals does the character consist of? Can you guess its meaning? Can you guess its pronunciation? Think of its stroke order. Write it. And finally, look up the character in a dictionary.

The online dictionary MDBG not only provides the meaning of a character but also shows the number of strokes in it, its radical, the radical’s pronunciation and the stroke order. But there are plenty of other dictionaries, choose whichever one suits you best.

– Checking the origins of a character

Another way to learn characters is to look up their origins. Understanding why the character for water looks like this 水 will help you memorize it. Of course, you can’t do it for every single character, but again, in the beginning, it can help you a great deal. And by looking into the etymology of a character, you will better understand Chinese culture. Check out another article here to dive deeper into the etymology of characters.

Handwriting characters is difficult. And if you are like many others, you may want to give up at some point. Because it requires a lot of time, a lot of concentration and a lot of patience. And it’s ok if you quit. But if you choose to continue, remember, it gets easier the more you practise. I remember when I just started handwriting characters, I needed to write a character at least 20-30 times before I could remember both how to read and write it. Later I could memorize a character after writing it 5-7 times. But you need to practise continuously. Now, after years of only typing in Chinese, I find that writing a character 5 times is not enough. Handwriting doesn’t feel natural anymore, and sometimes I struggle to write even simple characters. So don’t repeat my mistakes, be consistent in your practice. 加油！

The post Why You Should Learn to Write Chinese Characters by Hand and How to Start appeared first on .

Imagine you are having some chit-chat with a Chinese lady you met some five minutes ago at a bus station, and she is asking you normal questions like “Where are you from?” and “How long have you studied Chinese?”.  And then suddenly she goes: “Do you have a girlfriend/boyfriend?”,  “Do you want to have a Chinese boyfriend/girlfriend?” “How much do you earn?” These questions are a bit too personal, aren’t they? How do you respond? What do you do? What an awkward situation…

Well, that’s exactly what happened to me during my first ever trip to China. Just a few hours after I landed in Shanghai, I was lost at a bus station and asked someone for help. The lady was very nice; she helped me buy a ticket and then we had a chat while waiting for a bus. I was so excited to talk to a native Chinese speaker! Wow, I could understand her and she understood me! I had this amazing feeling that all those Chinese classes and hours of studying were not wasted.

And then came the questions about boyfriends, marriage, salary…To be honest, I did not know how to answer those. It’s pretty private information to share with a person you just met at a bus station. Yet these questions are just a few examples of uncomfortable questions Chinese people ask. Such awkward questions are very common.

More often than not, foreigners get frustrated and even offended by these awkward questions. But it is very easy to get the wrong idea if you don’t understand the culture. Learning any foreign language is indivisible from gaining an understanding of that country’s customs and beliefs. As a student of Mandarin, you should be aware of these differences and try to understand Chinese culture and the reasons behind people’s questions and behaviour.

In this article, I’ll introduce the most common awkward questions and explain the reason behind them.

QUESTIONS ABOUT YOUR AGE

 – How old are you?

• 你多大了？ (Nǐ duōdàle?)
• 你多少岁啊？ (Nǐ duōshǎo suì a?)
• 你是几几年出生的？ (Nǐ shì jǐ jǐ nián chūshēng de?)

This is one of the most common questions. While in some parts of the world it is considered a rude one, in China no one wants to offend you! A Chinese person will ask your age not only out of curiosity, but this question has a deeper cultural meaning: age defines how people address each other.   “大哥”( dà gē)/ “哥”(gē) or “大姐”( dà jiě)/ “姐”( jiě), “小哥哥”( xiǎo gē ge) or “小姐姐”( xiǎo jiějie) – these are common ways to address someone you know, and the word you choose is related to the age difference between the speakers. 

QUESTIONS ABOUT YOUR RELATIONSHIP AND FAMILY

• 你有男朋友/女朋友吗？(Nǐ yǒu nán péngyǒu/nǚ péngyǒu ma?)

Do you have a boyfriend/girlfriend?

• 你想结婚吗？ (Nǐ xiǎng jiéhūn ma?)

Are you planning to get married?

• 你结婚了吗？ (Nǐ jiéhūnle ma?)

Are you married?

• 你有孩子吗？ (Nǐ yǒu háizi ma?)

Do you have kids?

• 你怎么不要孩子？ (Nǐ zěnme bùyào háizi?)

Why don’t you have kids?

• 你打算生孩子吗？ (Nǐ dǎsuàn shēng háizi ma?)

Do you plan to have kids?

• 你还想再生一个吗？ (Nǐ hái xiǎng zàishēng yīgè ma?)

Do you want to have another one?

Feel a bit awkward even just reading these questions? Well, imagine them being asked by a stranger during casual chit-chat. These questions are so common that you are very unlikely to avoid them, but don’t get frustrated or angry. As with other questions on this list, Chinese people do not want to embarrass you. Actually, they care about you. Family, marriage and children have always been important in Chinese culture and society; they are the insurance for a stable life. Without them, one is left alone to face all the troubles and uncertainties of the world. So by asking you these questions and giving advice on getting married sooner, Chinese people express their concern for you. They treat you as a friend (even if you met them 5 minutes ago) and worry about your future.

QUESTIONS ABOUT YOUR BODY

• 你怎么那么瘦？ (Nǐ zěnme nàme shòu?) Why so skinny?
• 你多重啊？ (Nǐ duōchóng a?) Did you gain weight?
• 你脸色怎么那么苍白？ (Nǐ liǎnsè zěnme nàme cāngbái?) Why so pale?
• 你身体怎么样？ (Nǐ shēntǐ zěnme yàng?) Are you healthy?

Questions about one’s health are another set of the most common ones. And again, don’t take them personally! Health is an extremely important concept in Chinese culture, and in Chinese traditions, it reflects the harmony between complementary energies, yin and yang. Nowadays, most Chinese people are actually very comfortable with the duality between western and traditional Chinese health beliefs, yet some issues, which they see as “imbalances,” indicate health issues. Health questions show that the person sees you as a friend, and as your friend, they want to know if you are ok or need help.

QUESTIONS ABOUT MONEY

• 你赚多少钱啊？(Nǐ zhuàn duōshǎo qián a?) How much money do you make?
• 你工资是多少？ (Nǐ gōngzī shì duōshǎo?) What is your salary?

Almost every professional working in China gets this question. The wealth gap between the poor and the rich in China makes many wonders what their place is in the income pyramid. Knowing how much money others earn gives you an idea of average income across different spheres. So this question is something like a Glassdoor salary check. Moreover, if your salary is lower than the average, your Chinese friend would push you to ask for raise!

So hopefully now you won’t get frustrated when getting these personal questions and won’t put the Chinese people asking them on the “rude list.”

Share your thoughts on the article with us. Did I forget any awkward questions? Tell us! :)

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