It took me 1 year to become fluent in Mandarin, but did you know that before this point, I had already spent 4 years of my life learning Mandarin in one of the so-called “top” Universities of the UK.

Yep, that’s me below with my honours degree in Mandarin. Yet, if a Chinese person had approached me that day to ask for directions to the nearest cafe, I would have humiliated myself in front of my family by straining to understand his speech.

In retrospect, I’m not surprised this is the case. But at the time, I was dumbfounded and humiliated. I really thought, this is it, 4 years of studying the language and I still have not mastered it. I must be too stupid for this.

Yet, when I surfed online I saw foreigners who could speak fluently and confidently claiming to have became fluent in 1 year through self-study.

At first I was in denial, could someone really master anything outside of a traditional and controlled learning environment?

But hearing how they communicated with Chinese people, I knew this was reality.

University with its academic rigour never worked in the first place. I knew I had to change my strategy.

2 realisations I made

1. The time you spend learning a language does not exactly correlate with the progress you make.

2. Traditional teaching methods have failed language learners.

In this next part I will highlight the things I was doing wrong, and the things I started doing instead.

1. I stopped memorising vocabulary lists

“Isn’t this exactly what HSK textbooks and schools tell us to do?” you may ask.

Yes, but if it actually worked, by HSK 5 level you would have already mastered 4700 words in Chinese, DOUBLE the amount it takes to be considered fluent!

Yet most HSK 5 level students can hardly speak Chinese.

My point is, if something hasn’t worked for you for all this time. Why is it going to work if you carry on doing it?

What I did instead: I kept a notebook where I noted down intersting phrases and words from my conversations with Chinese language partners. Next to these phrases I wrote down the topic of discussion and the context. The context of the discussion acted as a memory cue for me.

2. I turned off the English subtitles

Quite simply, If you don’t turn them off, you will continue to think in your native tongue. Even if English is not your native tongue, you are still thinking in the wrong language.

In my lifetime, I have learnt 6 languages and with each language I noticed there was a distinct turning point at which I started to speak effortlessly and think less about what I wanted to say.

This turning point is the moment you stop translating in your head and instead start thinking in your target language. You will only reach this, if you immerse yourself in Chinese without English subtitles.

What I did instead: I turned off the English subtitles and started to associate all the sounds I was hearing with the characters I was reading.

3. I prioritised consistency over intensity

For me, Mandarin was admittedly tougher to learn than German or French, which as European languages are closer to my native tongue. As a University student, I would have 1 intense burst of work on Mandarin as I did all my assignments for the whole week on one day. Whilst this guaranteed an A+ in my assignment, most of the material that had entered my head, had already exited it the next day.

What I did instead: I made daily 1 hour sessions of Mandarin a non-negotiable part of my routine.

4. Learn the “untranslatable” stuff

My goal was and always has been to sound as natural as possible in Chinese. When Chinese people laughed at my Chinese, I would ask them what they found so funny. They told me my speech sounded like google translate.

It hurt, but it was just what I needed to push me to change my strategy.

Instead of obsessing over memorising huge vocabulary lists, I focussed on learning words that are untranslatable or not easily understood in English. This is exactly the stuff I was missing out on in my “google translate” speech.

This is just a snapshot of the strategy I followed to achieve fluency in Chinese. I wanted to share this because I am convinced that the traditional learning system has failed many language learners.

Schools and courses prioritise passing exams and therefore only teach the methods necessary to achieve this goal. Why should they teach students to develop an intutition or a feeling for the language if this doesn’t serve the higher purpose of passing the exams?

🚨This week I am launching my film course that I have designed to help all the lost students and learners of Mandarin who like me as a graduate, feel they are too stupid for Chinese. By the end of this course, you will have developed a profound understanding and intuition for Chinese and its structures. This is something you will never find in any textbook on the market. This intuition is what will get you watching C dramas and films effortlessly in the future and become the independent learner you always wanted to be. 🚨

To learn more check out: sinosphere.co.uk