Do You Have What It Takes to Become a Successful Mandarin Learner?

0:20 foreignch.

0:52 They are before we get started. If you are serious about learning Mandarin, then you can check out my Mandarin learning planner on my website. First, we'll book a one-to-one call where I'll learn about your current situation, your goals, and the way you learn best. And from that, I'll help you build a personalized, realistic learning plan that you can stick to every day. What's also included is I'll help you set up the best apps and resources based off your current level. I'll show you the best methods that suit your strengths and also create a customized content bank so that you don't have to waste time. searching for content. Within that content bank, there's lessons, videos, podcasts, and other content that you'll actually enjoy. So, yeah, overall, if you want a clear plan and someone to point you in the right direction, the links to all of that are below. Now, let's get into the video.

2:02 All right, so for this part of the video, I want to mention some of the patterns that I've noticed when working with a lot of Mandarin learners. And to be honest, these aren't really language problems. They're actually mindset problems. And interestingly, they're the problems I had myself when I started learning. First thing I've noticed is that everyone is trying to find the most perfect method for learning Mandarin. You've probably heard this before. People spend hours trying to watch videos about learning the language instead of taking the initiative to go and learn the actual language themselves. The irony of this is that there isn't one universally best method. The highest ROI approach is the one that suits you, your schedule, and your habits. Me personally, I've experimented with loads of different methods. I've done things like wrote learning, speaking with myself, but in the end, it always boiled down to the same few fundamentals. Those fundamentals were always speaking regularly, whether that's with tutors, speaking with natives, or even just speaking with yourself. Building vocabulary through sentences and not just random words. And also spending a lot of time exposed to the language, i.e. listening to podcasts and content that I actually enjoy listening or watching. So my point here is that I had most of the learners actually simplify their routine having less methods and less clutter which actually allows them to focus more over the long term and keep consistent with their Mandarin study. The second thing I've noticed, and it might actually sound quite surprising, is the fact that the most motivated learners at first seem to come across the most difficulty. In fact, it's usually the students that tell me, "I'm willing to study three hours a day that end up quitting after even a few days." The reason for this is that motivation is short-lived. So once you realize just how much there is to learn, that motivation quickly drops off. What keeps people going isn't motivation. It's having a clear goal in mind and then micro goals on the way to the bigger goal. It's normally the learners that say, "I want to learn Mandarin." That have the least amount of success because essentially learning Mandarin is almost impossible to complete. There's always more words you can learn, right? So, what I mean by that is if your goal is just learn Mandarin, you'll almost never be completely satisfied with the progress you're making. From my experience, the learners who normally stick with it have something more specific in mind. Maybe they want to be able to hold a conversation with a colleague or order food at a restaurant. And these goals actually give them something measurable to work towards. And because they can actually see themselves making progress, it's going to be a lot easier for them to remain motivated, but also have some kind of guidance and direction for moments when you don't have motivation. Now, the third thing I've noticed is that people don't actually fail because they don't know what to do.

4:54 They actually fail because they can't stick to a routine that they can realistically stick to every day. Everyone seems to understand the basics, you know, get in touch with the language, review vocabulary, listen to Chinese. But the problem isn't knowledge, it's actually just the execution. What often happens is people build routines that are way too ambitious. They're way too regimented. And you can maybe stick to it over a short period of time, but over the long run, you're going to lose momentum. You're not going to be able to stick to it every day because of events in your life, etc. and before you know it, you're no longer following the learning plan. Because of this, I put a huge emphasis on habits. For example, instead of having a routine that has review flashcards, which is also important, instead I'd say follow a routine that helps you build the habit.

5:44 So then you no longer need a routine written down on paper. Once you've built these habits, it just becomes ingrained into your daily life. For example, after waking up, I'll always check my Mandarin flashcards. And for somebody else, it might be shadowing an audio track for 3 minutes. It doesn't matter about the task. It matters about ingraining different Mandarin learning habits into your daily routine. Okay. The fourth thing that I've noticed is that there's loads of conflicting information out there about learning Mandarin. And the problem is that most Mandarin learners don't filter it through their current level. So beginners will often try to do things that sound advanced, i.e.

6:20 skipping straight into heavy input or even trying to speak which aren't necessarily problems themselves. But the reality is at the beginning you don't have enough vocabulary or a base as I call it to actually understand or be able to get any use out of things like heavy input. That's why for beginners I'd often recommend them to build a foundation maybe the first 150 characters or 300 vocabulary words of Mandarin that they can start to build off of. The foundation includes core vocabulary, basic sentences and just understanding how the language is composed. Even things like rote learning get a bad reputation. And amongst advanced learners, yes, it's very inefficient and boring. But for a beginner, rote learning and going to memorize your first 100 to 200 characters or words is actually very useful and it's something I did myself.

7:13 The same thing goes for writing and structured study. Early on, it can actually be more valuable to understand how characters work and also how sentences are structured and how people express different ideas rather than trying to jump into real world content. So, the message is simple. You don't need the quote unquote best method. You need the right method that suits your current level. Now, the final thing I've noticed is that most people's expectations around time are completely skewed. And because of that, they end up misreading their own progress. Now, plateaus are a normal part of learning Chinese. But a lot of learners just simply don't expect them. On one side, some people actually underestimate what's possible with consistent efforts.

7:59 They don't quite realize how far you can actually get by sticking to a simple routine every single day. However, on the other hand, some people massively overestimate what's realistic in a short period of time. They almost expect too many results to come within even a few weeks of starting to learn Mandarin. And you will get results, but they're nowhere near as ambitious as some of the ambitions I've heard. I'll drop an example. Somebody wanted to reach business proficiency within their first year of studying with only 30 minutes a day. Sure, if you're an absolute genius, maybe 0.0000 0000 1% of the population could pull that off. But in reality, it's very unlikely that that's going to be possible. Now, even with good study habits, that just isn't how language learning works for most people. Now, the reality is somewhere in the middle. Progress is real, but it's not linear. You'll certainly have periods where you feel like you're improving very quickly, but then you also have periods where you feel like you're not improving at all or even regressing. The learners who succeed are the ones that expect these periods and continue no matter what. They don't panic during plateaus and they don't assume slow progress means failure. It's simply part of the process. They just stay consistent and let the long-term curve of effort do its work.

9:23 Okay. Now, for the second part of the video, we're going to go over what actually separates the learners who make consistent progress from the ones that struggle. The first thing I've noticed is that successful Mandarin learners all have checkpoints along the way. They're not just learning in a vague open-ended way. They actually have a specific goal that they're working towards. Sometimes that's the HSK exam. Sometimes that might be a trip to China or even an upcoming work event. But the key point is that there's always a clear milestone coming up in the near future. And on top of that, they also have often a long-term reason for learning as well.

10:01 That might be for career opportunities, relationships, travel, or even the goal of just living abroad. Whatever it is, it gives them the why that sits behind everything else. What's interesting is how these two things work together. The long-term goal keeps people going when motivation drops, but the short-term checkpoints make the process way more adaptable and practical. For example, if they've got a meeting coming up in Mandarin, then they can prepare some vocabulary in advance. Or if they've got a trip planned, they can focus on survival phrases and maybe listening skills. So instead of just learning Mandarin, they always know what they're working towards and they've got little checkpoints along the way to keep them with a kind of sense of direction.

10:49 Now, the second thing I've noticed is that the most successful learners are genuinely interested in Chinese itself. They don't treat it like a school subject that they're forced to learn. They treat it as a passion and something that is fueled by pure curiosity. What this looks like in practice is actually really simple. Say they come across a thought or just walk past something in the street and they don't know how to say it in Mandarin. They'll simply open their plecco dictionary, search it, and then screenshot it for later flashcard edition. Something like that is an example of how I would use curiosity to kind of fuel my Chinese learning. And when you're genuinely interested in the language itself, you'll get loads of moments throughout your day where you'll kind of just out of curiosity look something up and then add it to your flashcard deck or looks look up how to express a certain idea in Mandarin. Over time, that creates a very different relationship with learning. It stops feeling like studying and feels more like exploration. You're not just ticking off lessons. you're actually actively trying to express concepts and things that you're genuinely interested in. And overall, this has got to be one of the biggest differences.

12:06 The Chinese learners who are genuinely interested, they really enjoy the process as well. So there's a lot less friction when it comes to doing quote unquote harder tasks. For example, active recall and other tasks that require a little bit more attention. For example, shadowing. That was definitely true for myself as well. I would spend hours listening to Chinese podcasts, not because I felt that I had to, but because I genuinely wanted to. So, to put it simply, when learning becomes something that you're genuinely interested in, the effort that you exert doesn't feel like effort in the same way as if it was a school subject, for example. And it's that consistency that comes from being genuinely curious that leads to exponential gains over time.

12:51 Okay, now getting on to the third point that I notice that a lot of successful Mandarin learners have and that's the fact that they create speaking opportunities for themselves. They don't wait until they feel ready to speak. They just start speaking from very early on in the learning process. That might be through tutors, language exchanges, shadowing, speaking to a native or even recording themselves speaking. But the key idea is the same. They put themselves in a situation where speaking is unavoidable. What also stands out is their attitude towards mistakes. It's often the ones that have a much more openminded kind of mentality that make faster progress because they understand that mistakes are part of the process and some of them even enjoy making the mistakes cuz it means that they're learning. People often make a lot slower progress when they want to be perfect from day one. only speaking once they know how to pronounce something perfectly etc. And I've also experienced that myself. when I when I started learning Mandarin, I had a slight ego where Chinese people had always told me that I spoke perfectly. In reality, it was far worse than how it is now. But essentially, when people tell you that you're amazing, it makes you want to live up to that standard. So if I was to say another sentence in Chinese to them, I would want it to be absolutely flawless. Try to make the pronunciation perfect. which would often lead to me just simply not speaking because I don't know how to exactly pronounce a certain word or I don't know the word for a certain object. So yeah, instead of waiting until you feel confident, just start using the language. That's the best way to go about it. So the fourth and final tip is the fact that the successful learners, they all go and find reasons to study instead of excuses. The most successful learners treat it as something non-negotiable, almost like going to the gym. They schedule it into their day and it almost becomes automatic. But what's really interesting is they don't think of learning as something that requires a big block of time. They really understand that there are small pockets of the day everywhere. For example, when you're on the toilet, the five minutes you spend on the toilet every morning could simply be used to search a few new words or listen to a beginner friendly podcast if you're a beginner. So yeah, the learners who progress the fastest always have a sort of no zero days mindset. Even if it's just one word, one character, one second of immersion, you're still building habits over time.

15:28 And these habits become more and more ingrained into your daily routine over time. That mindset is ultimately what separates overthinkers from pure doers. And it's the doers that find success with Mandarin. Okay guys, thank you very much for watching this video in its entirety. I really appreciate the support recently. The channel has been growing exponentially. I really hope this video gives you a clear idea of what it takes to become a successful Mandarin learner. As I said at the start, if you are interested in a learning planner, do check out my website below. And I thank you for watching the video and I'll see you in the next one.