How to Speak Chinese Fluently

Building fluency in any language requires a complete immersion, sink or swim approach, but this is especially true of Mandarin Chinese with its four lexical tones and widespread use of pronouns without antecedents and even the complete dropping of subjects and objects. Tone distinguishes many seemingly identical words: ma with a high tone meaning mother, má with a rising tone meaning linen or numb, ma with a falling/rising tone meaning horse, and mà with a falling tone meaning scold. Subjects, objects and pronoun reference are often recoverable only through context.

Things You'll Need

  • Audio learning materials (CDs, MP3s or DVDs)
  • Notebook
  • Chinese grammar book
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Instructions

  1. Audio-lingual method and total immersion

    • 1
      Trade your tunes for Chinese language files on your MP3 player.

      Listen to Chinese at every opportunity possible. There are many audio courses available. Buy one, follow along with the guide book, but slowly ween yourself off the guidebook to the point where you can understand what you hear. This is the audio-lingual method, developed for the U.S. military during World War II and still in use by language learners who need to obtain maximum fluency in the shortest period of time.

    • 2
      Overcoming barriers to speaking Chinese fluently requires time and hard work.

      Go to China. Live there for at least two years. Teach English in a small town with few other foreign teachers and socialize only with Chinese speakers who do not want to practice their English for free. Approach your task with utter fearlessness; when your interlocutors snicker at your accent, forge ahead towards your goal undaunted. Forget the meanings of shame and embarrassment. If it works for babies and infants, it can work for you.

    • 3
      Keep a journal of your language learning experiences.

      Reflect on your experiences at the end of every day. Recall the people, places and topics of conversation. Record these experiences along with the new words and concepts you met that day in a language learning journal. You may never read it again, but writing it down will help you remember it.

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