“When should you start speaking Chinese?”
This is the question at the centre of one of the longest standing debates in the language learning community.
I’ve interviewed several educators on my podcast who’ve each taken various stances.
On one end there are those who argue you should speak from day one. Delaying output too long, they claim, will allow your fears of speaking your target language to fester, perhaps even leading to full blown output phobia.
On the other end some influencers encourage learners to wait many months before outputting. They claim speaking before you’ve exposed your brain to hundreds of hours of listening input will cause you to develop bad pronunciation and grammar habits.
One commenter on this blog even claimed he studied Chinese for five years before attempting to speak it for the first time.
In this post I’ll outline my take on this divisive issue based on my personal experiences of learning - and coaching others to learn - Mandarin.
First of all, either argument only makes sense if we agree that the decision over when to start outputting is consequential. If the amount of time we wait before speaking makes little difference to our speed of progress or long term language abilities then the decision over when to do so is a purely personal one:
We should start speaking whenever we feel like it.
If, on the other hand, speaking too early or too late risks jeopardising our rate of progress or causing long term damage to our language abilities then it follows we should be very careful before deciding when to start.
The problem - as is often the case when it comes to adult language acquisition - is that there seems to be very little hard evidence in favour of any of the claims made by supporters of either early or late output.
Those who argue that early output leads to fossilisation of grammar and pronunciation mistakes rarely do so on the basis of data or academic studies. Instead, they typically base their beliefs about what works for everyone else on what worked for them personally.
In the absence of reliable data, it can be useful to turn to anecdotal evidence: What did the most successful Chinese learners do to reach high levels in the language? Did they start speaking from day one? Or did they delay speaking until they’d reached intermediate or advanced stages of comprehension?
Most of the successful learners I’ve interviewed began speaking from the start or within a few weeks of commencing their studies. Those who developed the best pronunciation tended to combine this early output with regular pronunciation drills and feedback from native speakers. Examples of this approach include Lionel Rowe and Will Hart.
Meanwhile, I’ve yet to encounter anyone who combined early output with effective pronunciation drills and ended up with major, long term pronunciation and grammar issues. This leads me to suspect that any dangers of fossilisation posed by early output can be mitigated with the right techniques - in particular tone drills and sentence mining, both of which I’ve covered in-depth on this blog and in my masterclasses.
But what about the claim that delaying output too long can lead to a fear of speaking? I believe this claim carries more weight. It is not uncommon for learners who’ve listened and read Chinese for hundreds of hours while spending very little time outputting to develop anxiety when it comes to speaking.
Consider the case of Brent, a Mandarin learner whose YouTube channel Brent’s Chinese Journal documented his progress over several months in 2021. Brent was a follower of the Refold Guide which previously advised learners they should wait until they could “understand close to everything” before speaking.
Nearly two years into learning Mandarin Brent had reached a solid level of comprehension when he recorded a video expressing his frustrations around speaking.
“I think that I’ve developed a quasi-phobia of output. Every piece of the language that I generate functions as a reminder of that painful disconnect that currently exists between input and output…beware of developing output phobia in strict adherence to Refold guidelines.”
Brent’s Chinese Journal
The video is worth watching in full for an insight into Brent’s experience of being able to comprehend Chinese to a decent level while remaining incapable of expressing basic thoughts and ideas. He is not alone. I come across similar stories regularly.
Ultimately the choice of when you choose to start speaking is entirely down to you. No influencer or linguist can provide you with a definitive date upon which you should start your speaking practice.
Still, if you do choose to delay speaking, you should be clear about your reasons for doing so. If you’re afraid your Mandarin abilities will be irreparably damaged it’s worth pointing out these fears aren’t grounded in evidence.
As numerous learners have demonstrated, early output can be part of a winning formula when deployed alongside the right techniques.