Christmas Reflections & Ambitious New Year Goals
Reflecting on my progress over the past year I am left with a strange feeling. On the one hand I believe my spoken proficiency, listening comprehension and character recognition have…
Tag: Mandarin
“Wow! Your Mandarin is Awesome!” Decoding Chinese Politeness (Podcast)
Anyone who has learned Mandarin will be familiar with how encouraging Chinese people tend to be towards those of us who take an interest in their language. For the most…
Christmas Raffle: Win Twelve Chinese Graded Readers!
Update, 17/12/2021: The winner of the raffle has been announced as Søren Friis Hansen, from Denmark! Congratulations Søren and thank you to everyone who took part! — I’ve previously written…
Can you be Literate Without Writing Chinese Characters by Hand?
Recently one of my Tweets sparked a lively discussion among Mandarin learners, teachers and the wider language learning community. I recalled an encounter with a beginner Mandarin learner who told…
Expectations Vs Reality of Learning Chinese (With Luke Truman)
*This podcast is also available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Anchor, Pocket Casts and Breaker. Please subscribe on your favoured podcast provider and leave a review. On today’s podcast I discuss…
Don’t Blame Native Speakers for Not Understanding You
I recently came across a video parodying a phenomenon allegedly encountered by many Japanese learners. The sketch (see below) involves a group of five friends about to order food at…
Learning Chinese While Dreaming
A little over a year ago I had an experience which led me to become interested in the role of dreams in language learning. It was during lockdown and I…
Three Ways Native Speakers React to Chinese Learners
Two years ago I hosted a party for the language exchange group I run. My guests included a mixture of Chinese and English friends who were all keen to practice…
I'm Learning Mandarin 