Lewys’s 6-Month Transformation to Conversational Mandarin (Video)

Over the last six months, Welsh accountant and father Lewys Thomas has been working to improve his Mandarin speaking skills with I’m Learning Mandarin founder, Mischa, as his coach. In this post, he writes about what the process has been like and showcases his impressive results in a video interview recorded entirely in Mandarin.

Introduction

Hey! My name is Lewys, and I’m a 31-year-old accountant from Wales. I’m married to a Chinese wife, and we have a young daughter together who we’re raising in the UK.

I took up Mandarin with the goal of being able to communicate with my mother-in-law and wider Chinese family. But after nearly two years of using almost every language app available and working tirelessly, I still struggled to make myself understood.

I’d often send voice messages on WeChat to my mother-in-law, but most of the time, she just couldn’t comprehend what I was saying.

Here’s a clip of one of those voice recordings from April 2024:

To say it was frustrating would be an understatement. The final straw came when she came to visit us in the UK last year, and I went to pick her up from the airport.

I was really looking forward to an opportunity to practice my Chinese. But when I met her at the arrivals hall we were unable to communicate without hand signals…

She couldn’t speak any English, and my basic, atonal Chinese proved completely useless in the moment.

I’d hit a wall and after putting in so much energy, it felt humiliating. The worst part was knowing that my inability to communicate was preventing me from fully connecting with my wife’s family, which was one of my biggest motivations for learning in the first place.

The Catalyst for Change

I was on the verge of giving up when I stumbled on the I’m Learning Mandarin blog and Mischa’s story.

In his blog, Mischa documented how he had also struggled to speak Chinese for years, and his subsequent journey to fluency with excellent sentence structure, pronunciation and tones.

What struck me was how his description of his early struggles mirrored my own, and yet he had managed to turn things around.

Reading about his transformation made me realise that my lack of progress was due to an ineffective approach rather than lack of effort.

Inspired by his story, I reached out to Mischa, and we had an initial discussion about my learning challenges. He immediately identified that my biggest issue was tonal accuracy and sentence structure.

In other words, the reason my mother-in-law couldn’t understand me was because I’d been speaking Chinglish, not Chinese.

After that conversation, I knew I needed a structured plan and expert guidance, so in August last year, I signed up for his coaching program.

The Coaching Program

The program began with a comprehensive diagnosis of my Mandarin skills. Mischa assessed my pronunciation, listening comprehension, and sentence structure, identifying the key areas holding me back.

The biggest revelation was how inconsistent my tones were, especially my third tones, which often sounded either flat or incorrect in context.

Mischa also identified that I also needed to step up the amount input, I was getting and develop a habit of mining and drilling sentences from conversational content I was consuming.

After analyzing my learning habits, he created a structured 12-month plan to fix these weaknesses, with two clear goals:

1. To be conversational by Christmas so that I could confidently chat with my wife’s family and enjoy our planned visit to China.

2. To achieve a more fluent level within 12 months, with effortless delivery and an ability to chat in natural sounding Chinese with excellent tones on a wider range of topics.

At the 6-month point, Mischa and I agreed he would interview me entirely in Mandarin for his podcast, regardless of what level I was at.

At 12 months, I would attend an immersive Mandarin Retreat where I’d be completely surrounded by Chinese for an entire week.

Unlike my previous approach of relying heavily on apps, this plan was tailored and methodical and focused on deliberate practice rather than merely passive exposure.

Months 1-2: Mastering Tones

The first phase of the plan focused entirely on training myself to perceive and produce Chinese tones. Mischa emphasized that without a solid foundation in tones, everything else—vocabulary, grammar, sentence structure—would be compromised.

My routine involved daily pronunciation drills using the echo method, where I mimicked native speech in real time. I would record myself, compare it to the native audio, and then get feedback from Mischa.

At first, the process was frustrating. I had to break long-standing bad habits, which meant unlearning incorrect pronunciations before I could start getting things right.

But with daily practice and consistent corrections, I began to hear the difference and, more importantly, feel whether the tones were right or not as I spoke and correct my own mistakes.

By the end of the second month, my tones had become much more consistent, and I started receiving positive feedback from native speakers, which boosted my confidence tremendously.

Months 2-3: Improving Sentence Structure

With my tones improving largely fixed at the basic level, we shifted the focus to sentence structure and mimicking natural speech rhythms to sound less robotic.

This phase involved intense exposure to native conversational Mandarin. I spent hours listening to dialogues and practicing shadowing, speaking along with the audio to match the rhythm and intonation.

One of the biggest breakthroughs during this period came from repetitive listening. Instead of passively hearing different conversational podcasts once before moving on to the next one, I would listen to the same native conversations over and over again until I could anticipate each sentence structure and phrase.

I used the LingQ Chinese podcast to increase my input and saved useful phrases in Anki, which I reviewed daily. This approach allowed me to internalise common sentence structures and use them naturally in conversations.

By the end of the third month, I noticed a huge shift. I was no longer hesitating when forming familiar sentences, and my speech felt smoother and more automatic.

For the first time, I felt like I actually found myself thinking in Chinese when speaking, rather than translating from English in my head.

Months 4-6: Preparing for the Trip and using Hello Talk

As Christmas approached, I knew I needed to shift my focus to real-world application. Mischa and I worked on simulating actual conversations I would likely have with my wife’s family.

We created scripts based on common topics: my work, my language-learning journey, my family life, and general small talk. Instead of trying to learn everything at once, I focused on becoming micro-fluent in these specific areas.

This strategy was incredibly effective. By narrowing my focus, I was able to speak with confidence and depth in these selected topics.

I also practiced impromptu speaking exercises, where I would respond to random questions on the spot, forcing me to think quickly and naturally in Mandarin. By the time my trip was just weeks away, I felt more prepared than I ever had before.

At this point, the language app, Hello Talk, also became an important part of my routine. I would use it on a near daily basis going into chat rooms and having conversations on the topics I was focusing in in order to reinforce what I’d learned.

The Trip to China: A Breakthrough Moment

The moment of truth arrived when we landed in China for our Christmas visit. This was the ultimate test of everything I had worked on.

From the very first conversation, I knew things were different. My mother-in-law, who had previously struggled to understand me, now had no trouble following my speech. She even commented on how much I had improved, which felt incredibly rewarding.

At the dinner table, I was able to engage in discussions instead of sitting silently. I shared stories, asked questions, and even joked around.

The trip provided a full two weeks of immersion, reinforcing my listening and speaking skills even further. By the time we left, I felt I’d reached a milestone in my Mandarin journey.

My 6-Month Transformation Results:

Shortly after returning from China, Mischa interviewed me for a video documenting my 6-month progress.

Watching myself speak Mandarin with ease was surreal. Six months earlier, speaking had been a painful, frustrating experience. Now, it felt natural and enjoyable.

Of course, I still have a long way to go to reach true fluency, but the transformation in just six months was beyond what I had imagined. I no longer felt intimidated by the language, I felt in control of it.

Looking Ahead: The Next Six Months

My next major goal is to prepare for the Mandarin Retreat, a two-week immersive camp this summer.

Over the next six months, I will focus on refining my fluency, increasing the naturalness of my speech, and expanding my ability to discuss a broader range of topics. I plan to engage in more conversational practice, expose myself to more complex native content, and continue building upon the solid foundation I’ve developed.

This journey has been life-changing, and I’m more motivated than ever to see just how far I can take my Mandarin skills.

Want to Transform your Spoken Mandarin?

If you resonate with Lewys’s story and dream of experiencing a similar transformation, help is at hand!

Mischa has just launched the I’m Learning Mandarin Gym, enabling you to transform your speaking skills with Mischa as your coach. When you sign up to the gym, you will benefit from:

• Structured one-to-one coaching with Mischa
• Daily homework and regular feedback via voice recordings
• Continuous support and guidance
• Membership of an exclusive community of other gym members
• And much more!

And as a reader of the I’m Learning Mandarin blog, you can benefit from 50% off your annual gym subscription if you sign up before April 9th. Just click the link below and use this code at checkout: IMLEARNINGMANDARIN50%

Interested? Find out more about the I’m Learning Mandarin gym here!