Jared here with some important news. As 2022 moves into its last quarter and learners around the world move back to school, John and I are excited to announce something big. As of today, Mandarin Companion has a whole new look.
Everything from our website to our logo to our fonts and colors have been updated and codified. This is part of a top-to-bottom rebrand—long in the making and the result of many years’ research.
Hold on, though, what about Level-3 graded readers?
Keeping you waiting was never something we wanted to do, but we’re hoping once everything’s explained, you’ll understand why we did this before moving on to higher levels.
The Bus from Shanghai to the World
When John and I pushed Mandarin Companion out of the station way back in 2012, we had little but our own experiences and intuition. Back then, that was the fuel we needed. My own journey from Chinese illiterate to conversational speaker showed me the value of graded readers beyond any shadow of a doubt.
But each year—as we wrote new books, researched our articles and podcasts, and most importantly got to know you guys and gals through the “You Can Learn Chinese” podcast, chat groups, and our memes on social media, something started to bother us.
We realized, in a word, we could do better. Some of what we’d included in the books was superfluous; some of what was helpful just wasn’t there. We were looking at that globe-trotting bus we set out on and realized it needed a look under the hood—not to mention a new coat of paint.
Mapping the Road: What We Learned
In 2021, you helped us complete a survey that would prove hugely important. The goal was simple: understand the motivations of Chinese learners. And thanks to 1,162 respondents, plus one wonderful data scientist, we did just that.
(A little confession—market research brings out Comicon levels of nerdiness in me. I could make a series of articles just on what we learned, but for now let’s restrict it to the greatest hits.)
The research helped us identify 6 different types of language learners: language enthusiasts, cultural connectors, aspirational learners, functional learners, career-focused learners, and obligated learners.
Figuring out who these groups were and what motivates them taught us how to better connect them to our content. Whether it was finding role models in travelers or diplomats, engaging with culture through personal interaction or Beijing opera, measuring accomplishment, or progressing on a career path, each group needed something particular.
Redrafting what we had already done to better meet these needs was the next logical step.
Revisiting Our Books: Improved Graphic Readers
The next round of books had to be different, but first we needed to get the old catalog in line. It just didn’t make sense to us not to apply what we’d learned.
Not too shabby if I do say so myself.
Every book in our existing collection from Breakthrough to Level 2 has gotten a major overhaul. Before you even crack the cover, you’ll notice improved art and design. New graphics and maps have been added on the inside too! With these additions, we hope to better contextualize the story and connect our readers to China’s rich culture and history.
New maps are not the only redesign! Check out the sample PDF’s in the resource section to get a fuller picture of how they look.
You’ll also notice major changes to the layout and a rewrite of the English content. Besides fixing a number of small errors, typos, and errata that we’ve discovered over the years, these revisions, snips, and additions are aimed at fine-tuning what we’ve learned to be the most useful to readers.
A New Central Hub: Redesigning Our Website
Whether you were looking for our books or this article, chances are you’ve already noticed the new and improved website. The changes to our logo, color scheme, and font come together in what we think is a far cleaner look that better represents what we always wanted Mandarin Companion to be. But these changes are far from superficial.
We shared our hard-acquired insights on the homepage to better guide first time visitors. Hopefully, those who arrive curious will find themselves one step closer to discovering the power of extensive reading. We even have a brand new Mandarin Companion Level Finder tool to help learners find the right level for them! With the Level Finder tool, it’s going to be easier than ever figuring out what reading level you’re at and when to move on to the next.
Give it a try!
To create this, we’ve applied our in-depth experience with leveling standards, word frequency, and learner experience with an algorithmic statistical sampling process. For 90% of learners, it will be able to assess your level in 20 words or less. With the Level Finder tool, it’s going to be easier than ever figuring out what reading level you’re at and when to move on to the next.
User Created Resources is something I’m personally very excited about. We are now accepting submissions for worksheets, activities, and other content from all of you to include in our new Resources section of the site! These resources are meant as study tools for Mandarin Companion’s graded readers, so whether you’re a teacher or a learner, you’ll have the opportunity to contribute and benefit.
We encourage you to swing on by as these resources grow. It’s the perfect thing to tide you over until …
New Level 2 Graded Reader: Sherlock Holmes
Kicking off the next level in Mandarin Companion graded readers is one of our all-time favorite recurring characters. Sherlock Holmes will return in Sherlock Holmes and a Scandal in Shanghai.
A movie star, a politician’s nephew, and a photograph with compromising implications, Gao Ming (Sherlock Holmes) faces a high stakes case involving the international community of 1920’s Shanghai. With the trusty Dr. Watson at his side, Sherlock finds himself pitted against the beautiful Hu Die, a star of Chinese cinema. Will Sherlock retrieve the picture in time or will Hu Die outwit the master of deduction?
This new story features all the changes we’ve applied to the old catalog, with a tighter focus on the most useful content. It is our hope that the preparation we’ve taken will make Level 3 the best experience for our long-time readers yet, and we have complete faith in Sherlock Holmes to see you through the next stage of your learning journey!
For everyone asking for Level 3, this meme might prove illustrative.
But seriously, it’s still in our plans!
Looking to the Horizon: Multilingual Versions
Coming soon!
Growing this community into a truly global outreach is something John and I wholly aspire to. We would like everyone, no matter where they come from, to have a chance to engage with Chinese learning.
That’s why our last big announcement is multilingual versions of our existing books. At the time of publication we have the following versions planned:
Spanish/Chinese
French/Chinese
German/Chinese
And more to come!
We’re hoping that anyone interested in having Mandarin Companion readers in their own language reaches out. Whether you’re a teacher with an undersupplied class or a lone struggler on the journey to Chinese mastery, we want to meet your study needs.
If you have a request for your language, send a message through our Contact page or email us at [email], and we can see what the possibilities are.
Watching the mile markers fly by, I can only reflect on what an incredible journey this has been since John and I first met on a bus in Shanghai. And without your incredible support, it would never have been possible.
An actual picture of Jared Turner & John Pasden in front of the very bus stop where they first met. A magical moment.
So you want to learn how to read Chinese? Here at Mandarin Companion, learning by reading is at the core of what we do.
This guide is to help even the most beginning Chinese reader learn how to read Chinese. We’ve included decades of experience and research into this 4 step guide to help even beginning learners like you read Chinese.
And before we get into it, trust me, you can learn Chinese.
1. Learn How to Read Pinyin
Pinyin is the phonetic spelling of Chinese characters termed “romanization”. It was developed in the 1950s by a group of Chinese linguists and was based on earlier systems of romanization (such as Wade-Giles and Chinese postal), traces of which can still be found in such spellings of Peking vs. Beijing. In 1958 it was adopted as the official standard by the Chinese government and today is the most common system used for romanization of Chinese characters.
It should be noted that Taiwan uses a slightly different system called Zhuyin 注音 (a.k.a. bopomofo) which uses a small number of unique characters, called Bopomofo, to represent sounds. The sounds in Chinese are spelled out using the alphabet but sometimes different from pinyin such hsieh = xie or tsai = cai.
Here are important steps to learning Pinyin
Learn pinyin really well
Far too many learners will think that because pinyin uses the alphabet that they can jump right in and correctly pronounce the sounds it represents; not so!
Pinyin was created for native Chinese speakers, not for second language (L2) learners like you! Therefore, it is not as intuitive as you might think.
Pinyin is used to represent all of the sounds used in standard Mandarin Chinese, many of which do not exist in English. Some of these are initial sounds such as zh, x, and c or final sounds such as -ui, -ou, and –eng.
Learning the sounds of Chinese as represented by pinyin is critical. In this step, it’s not even necessary to learn words (although we wouldn’t discourage you either). Focus on the sounds and get comfortable with them.
Get comfortable with pinyin first.
Learn what sounds do not exist in Chinese
There are all sorts of mistakes that are inherent in L2 (second language) Chinese learners. Frequently, Chinese learners will hear sounds through the filter of their native language then use the familiar sounds of their native language to approximate unfamiliar sounds in Chinese.
For example, as a learner you may hear a sound such as ja. The problem is that there is no sound in Chinese pronounced ja, however there are sounds pronounced zha or jia.
This is almost as important as knowing what sounds do exist in Chinese. Fortunately, there are only 409 unique sounds in Chinese which, in a sense, makes learning the pronunciation more defined compared to some other languages.
A pinyin chart can be a useful reference, however there are excellent resources such as the Chinese Pronunciation Wiki that break down the sounds of Chinese into steps ranging from “easy” to “advanced”.
Knowing this will help you head off problems early on, ensure smoother learning, and avoid mistakes that can be difficult to change later on.
Dictate in pinyin
Now that you feel comfortable with pinyin, have your teacher, tutor, or friend say words out-loud and then write the pinyin.
This activity helps you as a learner focus on and differentiate between the different sounds and the corresponding spellings in pinyin. You’ll quickly identify which sounds are more difficult for you and those which come easier.
This activity is an excellent gauge to help you identify progress and puts you on a path to become a better listener and writer as your learning progresses.
Practice typing using pinyin
In our modern days, pinyin is at the heart of all writing in Chinese. Typing out the pinyin for most basic words and common phrases, even for a surprising number of less common words used in context, will frequently bring up the correct characters.
You know how to spell nihao? It’s time to activate that pinyin input on your phone or computer, type it in, and watch the characters pop up.
Feeling adventurous? Type out what you want to say, assume the characters that pop up are correct, and hit send. You’ll likely find out pretty quickly if you had it right or not!
2. Begin Learning Chinese Characters
Now that you have a solid understanding of pinyin and the corresponding sounds and pronunciations of Chinese, it’s time to learn Chinese characters.
You may be asking “should I learn simplified or traditional characters?” We recommend learning the type which you anticipate using the most. If you plan on living, interacting, or associating with Taiwan or people from Taiwan, consider learning traditional Chinese characters. For all else, we recommend learning simplified Chinese characters. For reference, 90% of all of our book sales at Mandarin Companion are for simplified character versions.
While you may read that there are over 60,000 Chinese characters, a core group of 2,500 characters make up roughly 98% of everyday written language. It takes time, repetition, and, perhaps most importantly, context to fluently read and understand Chinese.
Here are the steps to take.
Know your pinyin really well
We’re serious! If you haven’t completed this first step, make sure you do it! Learn your pinyin forward and backward.
A fundamental reason has to do with the fact that we learn to speak before we learn to read. Trying to learn characters before you learn the pronunciation will increase the mental load on your brain and slow your learning.
It is also important to note that reading and writing is not intuitive. It took thousands of years for humans to develop systems of writing, all of which require explicit instruction on how to read and write them. Learn pinyin before you learn characters.
Learn the structure of characters
Characters have a form and a function.
The building blocks of Chinese characters are called components. Often, these are incorrectly referred to as radicals or 部首 (bùshǒu) which are a list of graphical character components used to reference and look up characters in a Chinese print dictionary.
Components are the individual elements of Chinese characters which are combined into distinct and unique characters. There are three main types of components
Meaning components – elements that provide a specific meaning, theme, or classification.
Phonetic / Sound components – elements that give a specific or approximate sound or pronunciation.
Graphic/empty component – elements that provide visual distinctness or uniqueness.
Not all characters will have all three types of components, some may have two or three, while some seemingly have none at all, yet all whole characters are distinct and unique from each other.
Understanding different components aid in making sense of how they all fit together to form characters and provide meaning. It’s as if they become “molds” for characters to fit into.
Learning how to handwrite can be helpful in learning characters and their components. Learning this skill is akin to dissecting a character into its most basic components then reconstructing it into its proper form.
Caution: we do not advise spending a significant amount of time learning how to handwrite Chinese characters. Learning how to handwrite Chinese characters fluently is a skill in and of itself and requires an immense amount of time to learn. As we talk with learners across the globe, we find the need to handwrite rarely arises, restricted mainly to life in China or Taiwan such as filling out a government form or writing an address. For most Chinese learners, handwriting characters is best employed as a party trick to impress friends or relatives.
If you are super motivated to handwrite characters, then go for it. However, don’t feel like you have to spend hours filling up notebooks with rows of characters, otherwise it can become a soul-crushing task, strangling the life out of your learning motivations.
Don’t do this.
Get serious about learning Characters with a good resource
This may be the right time to get into a Chinese language curriculum or textbook. Some will take you through some of what we have suggested thus far but almost all programs and curriculum have their own approach. Here are our suggestions for your consideration.
Mandarin Blueprint – Top-notch curriculum to take learners from beginners to advanced literacy in Chinese. (14-Day Free Trial)
Yoyo Chinese – 6 comprehensive courses and over a thousand videos to provide structure to your Chinese learning.
Private tutor through iTalki – If you want to go the private tutor route, iTalki is the best place to find one wherever you live.
Skritter – Offers advanced functionality for flashcards and a unique handwriting interface to help practice writing characters.
Outlier Chinese – An online course that teaches you how to master characters.
A quick note. While popular, we do not recommend using Chineasy as a method to learn Chinese characters. While it portrays Chinese characters primarily as pictographs, in reality only a minority of characters fall into this category. It is a fun book but something that we recommend for your coffee table as opposed to a serious method of learning Chinese characters.
Find what works best for you
After interviewing so many fascinating Chinese learners for our podcast, You Can Learn Chinese, I have learned that there is no one path to proficiency.
Your motivation is key in this area and be sure to follow what works best for you and pursue your interests. Don’t be afraid to switch to something different if you don’t feel it is working well or if you simply want to try something new. Find out what works best for you!
3. Learn Vocabulary
You’ve learned pinyin, you’re learning characters, now it’s time to start acquiring the fundamentals of all languages, vocabulary!
Learn the words most relevant to you
You’re likely to use the word 你好 nǐhǎo more frequently than 链接 liànjiē, the word for a website link.
The reasoning is simple: saying hello is more frequently used and more relevant to your life than the word for a link on a website. That’s not to say you’ll never need the word for a link but it is of lesser relevance compared to more commonly used words.
Learn the characters of things you frequently use. If you want to order food at a restaurant, learn the words for rice, meat, pork, beef, etc. (reading a menu is a different matter entirely). If you want to connect with that special someone you’ve had your eye on, get their WeChat and type some characters that will help you break the ice!
In the same sense, if you are following a course or curriculum and it has a chapter on going to the post office, consider skipping it. After living in China for 8 years, I think I found myself in a post office only a few times at most. Don’t spend your time learning words, phrases, and characters that you never plan to use. Get functional fast.
A note: frequently learners will be exposed early to 成语 chéngyǔ which are a type of traditional Chinese idiomatic expressions, most of which consist of four characters. These are a hallmark of a cultured and educated Chinese speaker. In general, we recommend holding off on delving into these as they often require a more advanced and nuanced understanding of Chinese to grasp and properly use. There are common and easier to use chengyu, such as 马马虎虎, but in general we don’t recommend focusing too much on this at an early stage.
Learn tones
There is a lot of bad advice regarding the importance of tones. We are here to tell you that tones are essential to the Chinese language and don’t let anyone tell you differently.
At this early stage, you’ll want to start matching tones to characters. To highlight the importance of tones, earlier I mentioned there are only 409 unique sounds in Chinese, however a native speaker will have a vocabulary of 9,000 words. Stated succinctly, there are seemingly infinite homonyms in Chinese.
However, with the introduction of the 4 tones of Chinese combined with 409 unique sounds, it becomes possible to produce (4*409)= 1,636 distinct sounds in Chinese. Using these unique sounds in a variety of two-syllable combinations and in a variety of contexts creates infinite possibilities of unique sound combinations involving tones.
Mastering tones can be the subject of many articles and courses. In general, we recommend the following step-by-step approach.
Learn individual tones
Become familiar with tone pairs
Successfully pronounce tone pairs
Successfully pronounce multiple tones in a row
Consistently pronounce tones correctly
Easy, right? In reality, the quest for accurate tones can be a lifelong pursuit. A piece of advice from a veteran learner I know suggests making your goal to be 100% accurate on tones. If you do, you’ll get them right 80% of the time which is actually pretty good.
But the first step is matching those tones to individual characters.
This is kind of par for the course.
Practice and reinforce new words
There is a saying that the most important thing to study is what you learned yesterday. Research into vocabulary acquisition shows that it takes 10-20 encounters of a word or character before it is truly learned.
As you are learning new characters and words, be sure that you are seeing them again and again. Practice using them in written sentences and chat conversations. Many people like to use flash card apps with spaced repetition software (SRS) to reinforce characters in your memory.
Whatever you do, ensure that you are getting consistent exposure and using the new characters you are learning.
Utilize literal translations to your advantage
Most Chinese words are a combination of two existing characters with their own distinct meaning. Sometimes identifying how the meanings of two characters combine to form a unique word can be a useful memorization technique.
For instance, 你 (nǐ) you and 好 (hǎo) good form to combine 你好 (nǐ hǎo) hello or you good.
手 (shǒu) hand and 机 (jī) machine combine to form 手机 (shǒujī) mobile phone or hand machine.
And John Pasden’s favorite, 袋 (dài) bag and 鼠 (shǔ) rat combine into 袋鼠 (dàishǔ) kangaroo or bag rat.
Not all characters make sense to break down in this way but when they do it can be helpful.
4. Get Comprehensible Input
Comprehensible input is language that the learner understands. It’s not a strategy, or a method, but a thing, and getting lots of it is going to accelerate your speed of learning and reading Chinese.
We learn best when we read at a high level of comprehension. Research into applying comprehensible input into reading and language learning has revealed that the “sweet spot” for learning is reading at a 98% level of comprehension, also known as extensive reading.
Here are the ways to use extensive reading to get comprehensible input from the start.
Read easy materials
At the beginning, this may be as simple as sample sentences from a textbook or basic sentences written by a teacher. Have a teacher write what you can say and then offer a corrected or edited version.
It can be difficult at beginning levels, but the more you level up, the more options that open up to you. We have an article “What If “Beginning Level” Chinese Books Are Too Hard? 10 Tips for Beginning Readers” that has proven very useful for early readers.
Level up to graded readers
Graded readers are books that are specifically written for second language (L2) learners like you and use carefully controlled words and characters for readers at a target level.
Once you learn around 150 characters then you’re really ready to level up with graded readers. At that level, you should be able to begin reading the Mandarin Companion Breakthrough Level of graded readers that features entire books that are written using only 150 basic characters that a learner is likely to know.
For many learners, graded readers are a game changer. It is hard to describe the sense of accomplishment you will feel when you can read an entire book in Chinese.
One you read one book, then read another, and then continue reading up to higher levels. At the time of this article, Mandarin Companion has up to a 450 character level, but there are also other graded reader series out there which are helpful for learners such as the Chinese Breeze, Rise of the Monkey King series by Imagin8 Press, and the Terry Waltz graded readers.
Tim Budong immediately after reading his first Chinese graded reader, circa 2013.
You Can Learn Chinese
Learning Chinese can be a lifetime pursuit but learning how to read Chinese need not take a lifetime! The length of time since you started learning Chinese is less important than the time you put into learning.
If you follow this guide and get serious about learning to read Chinese, it is not unrealistic that you can begin reading Chinese graded readers within 3-6 months. From that point, the sky’s the limit!
With the right combination of a clear motivation, effective resources, and a deep understanding of core language learning concepts, you can be well on your way towards fluency as you self study Chinese.
Keep reading to learn our best advice on how to learn Mandarin by yourself!
My Story of Chinese Self Study
I taught myself Mandarin & survived!
I moved to China with the intention to learn Chinese and experience life in a different part of the world. However, I came with a wife, two kids, and no job. With the mentorship of friends, I was able to quickly learn the basics of survival.
However, I realized early on that my career path in China would necessitate sending my kids to local Chinese schools as opposed to international schools that required hefty tuition rates. In a few short years they would be starting school and I knew I needed to learn Chinese if that was to become a reality.
After I got my first job, I bought a textbook at a bookstore and for a while I studied Chinese for an hour every day before I went to work. I learned pinyin and began typing out characters via an instant messaging platform to coworkers in my office. I still communicated everything important in English and my Chinese was limited to simple conversations and basic communication.
After two years, I spoke broken Chinese and knew about 500 characters, but I still struggled to converse in Chinese and confidently use the language.
The Breakthrough Moment
I first learned about extensive reading from an English teacher who had taught at the University of Bangkok, and immediately became so intrigued that I thought it could help me with my Chinese. I found a Chinese graded reader series and proceeded to read 10 books in Chinese in three months, mostly on the metro commuting to and fro work every day.
In that short period of time, my Chinese went from broken to conversational. All of my work colleagues were amazed and asked me how my Chinese had improved so quickly. “I don’t know, I’m just reading these books” was all that I could say. It was so simple and easy that I felt like I was cheating on a test.
Since that time, my Chinese has continued to develop. While it is not perfect, my Chinese is proficient. I am fluent in what I know.
Now 10 years later, after having been immersed in Chinese education, helped hundreds of learners, coached and trained countless Chinese teachers, and interviewed dozens of people about their experiences learning the language, I will pass along these insights if you want to learn Chinese by yourself.
How to Succeed at Chinese Self Study
✅ Find and understand your motivation
You must have a reason to learn Chinese. This is the #1 factor I have found among anyone who has achieved a high level of proficiency in Chinese. They have their reason and you need to find yours.
Maybe it’s the challenge and the thrill of learning a language. Or perhaps you’ve fallen for a guy or a girl. It may be because you simply must survive in your environment, or because you want to connect with another culture. It could even be because someone said you can’t do it!
Whatever the reason, you have to find it, own it, and let it sustain you through your studies. That reason may change over time and that’s ok! Just be sure that you have a reason to do it.
Why Your Reason is Important
Classes provide you structure and accountability for learning. When you self study, it’s up to you. Nobody is there keeping you on track or providing structure and accountability. You are one of the few, the brave, the independent learner.
You don’t need a class to learn something. In fact, there is a school of thought that argues all learning is self-learning. Think about it: just because you’re in a class doesn’t mean you’re paying attention, and just because a teacher is teaching, doesn’t mean that you’re learning.
Ultimately, even if someone is teaching, that doesn’t mean you’re learning; YOU have to take an active role in your learning.
✅ Take advantage of explicit and implicit learning strategies
Explicit learning is when you are intentionally trying to learn something such as “I’m studying this character” or “I’m trying to pronounce this properly.” Implicit learning is when you unintentionally learn something; you’re not trying to learn but you’re picking up stuff and learning along the way.
That’s one of the goals behind gamification of learning. While you’re playing a game and having fun, you’re learning, and you don’t necessarily *realize* you’re learning.
You can successfully teach yourself Mandarin if you lean into both explicit and implicit learning.
A core concept behind extensive reading is that there is a huge amount of implicit learning taking place, especially with grammar. Grammar is simply patterns of language usage and when you see grammar patterns over and over again, you start to recognize those patterns and simply become capable of replicating them without effort.
Studying Grammar = Unnecessary? ?
Some expert linguists say that studying grammar is unnecessary. Instead the focus is on acquiring vocabulary, providing enough exposure to sample texts and dialogue, and then clarifying grammar points as questions arise.
Just look at Steve Kauffman. The man speaks 20 languages and he’s never studied grammar. Instead, as outlined above, he simply exposes himself to enough language to pick up grammar patterns.
And while we know that deliberate instruction can help clarify at times, it stands to reason that you don’t have time to think about grammar rules when it’s time to use them. You just have to instantly recall and use.
When the time to perform arrives, the time to prepare has passed.
Peter Vidmar, Olympic Pommel Horse Gold Medalist
Avoid less effective methods to teach yourself Chinese
❌ Studying flashcards till your head explodes
Flashcards can help you gain knowledge about characters and words, but it won’t help you become conversational or fluent. It’s an easy way to focus on specific words and characters, but all of these elements of Chinese are learned in isolation from each other without context. All of these bits of knowledge are siloed off from each other without a fluid understanding of how they all work together. The knowledge is abstract, and stays abstract, because it was learned abstractly.
Just because you study a book about guitar doesn’t mean you’ll be able to play guitar.
This is a favorite way for many who think it is the best way to self-study Mandarin, especially with popular apps citing spaced-repetition algorithms (looking at you Duolingo and Anki), but alone it won’t get you fluent.
❌ Forgetting output
Language consists of two sides of the same coin: input and output. At times we may be so focused on studying or the “input” side that we neglect the “output”. If you’re looking for the best way to self study Chinese, you have to find ways to generate output in the form of speaking and writing.
Most learners can understand more than what they can speak. It seems reasonable to think that if we can understand something, we should be able to reproduce it ourselves. However, when we first learn a new bit of Chinese or have only seen it a small number of times, it has yet to firmly implanted itself in our memory.
The Value of New Learning
New learning has a place in our receptive vocabulary, but if we want to move it into our working vocabulary, we must encounter it enough times in context before we understand it well enough and feel confident enough to use it. Most research indicates this is 10 to 20 encounters with a word.
This is a critical step, but the next critical step is to begin using what we have learned so that we retain the knowledge of what we have learned. You can teach yourself Mandarin, but at the end of the day, language is a tool to communicate and communication is a two way process.
Start finding opportunities to speak or write (and when we say write, we mean type) in Chinese. Basically, use it or lose it.
How to learn Mandarin by yourself
1. Start with multimedia platforms.
For the modern language learner, we can do much better than the traditional textbooks of yesteryear that are tied to the solitary dimension of written input. Today’s learning technologies offer learners a wealth of multimedia interactions in the form of reading, listening, writing, and even speaking.
Pro tip: Find a distraction-free study space so you can focus
At Mandarin Companion, we’re fans of Mandarin Blueprint and Yo Yo Chinese. A tried and true platform such as ChinesePod is still relevant to our day (the platform for which my co-founder John Pasden was the academic director of for many years).
However, there are many platforms out there, some are better than others, but almost all of them have advantages over traditional textbooks. Find one that is relevant to you and your reason for studying Chinese (don’t forget your reason when doing this!).
Start on these three platforms. They each have their own curriculum, and each is important because they’ll teach you a mix of listening and reading.
WARNING: Do not, I repeat, DO NOT spend your hard earned dollars on programs such as Rosetta Stone, Pimsleru, or any program or app which claims you’ll be speaking fluently in three months.
Many of these programs have slick and convincing marketing, but they lack real substance. If you want to learn enough Chinese to get by during a trip to China, then you can try those. If you are serious about learning Chinese, then don’t waste your time. And just a note (and unpopular opinion), Duolingo is not a serious platform for learning Chinese.
2. Learn pinyin and pronunciation before learning characters.
First learn to read pinyin and properly pronounce the unique sounds of Chinese. Once you have a firm grasp on this, start learning characters.
There are so many great resources out there to get started. We recommend the Chinese Pronunciation Wiki which will help you get a firm grasp on the pinyin and pronunciation. It’s a free resource, but there are also countless YouTube videos out there with people to help coach you through the sounds that are most difficult to you.
A word of caution: Pinyin can become a “crippling crutch”. In many learner materials, the pinyin is written above the characters and the alphabet-loving-eyes are naturally pulled away from the characters towards the pinyin.
While helpful in the early stages, avoid becoming over-reliant on pinyin, which can slow down your progress to fluency and character recognition. If you can’t read a given text without the support of pinyin, then you’re probably not reading at the right level.
3. Get a tutor to review and reinforce what you have studied.
Now that you have been studying and building Chinese skills, that learning is still quite “fragile.” It’s time to put it to use and reinforce what you have studied.
Get a tutor and start reviewing and practicing what you have learned. You can search for a tutor through friends, the community, or even online. For online tutors, iTalki is one of the best platforms to find a competent online tutor.
Instead of starting a new curriculum, give your tutor access to what you’re studying so that they know what you have been exposed to.
Begin having conversations in Chinese with your tutor. Ask clarifying questions about words or points of grammar. Become familiar and comfortable in what you have studied and move that knowledge into your working vocabulary.
If this is being done well, you’ll be working through a curriculum on a multimedia platform and practicing the Chinese you learned with your tutor. Your progress will be determined by the time you devoted to study and practice, as well as how consistent you are with your efforts.
It is better to break up your studying and practice over time. For instance, if you devote five hour per week to Chinese, commit to spending one hour over five days than to spending 2.5 hours in two days.
An axiom states “The most important thing to study is what you learned yesterday.”
This is the real secret to teach yourself Mandarin; get on the implicit learning train ASAP.
In simple terms, extensive reading is reading a lot in the language you are learning at a high level of comprehension. Decades of research has proven that we learn best when we are reading at a high level of comprehension of roughly 98%. This is about one to two unknown characters or words out of every 40-50.
To do this properly, learners need special books that are written specifically for learners at the appropriate level. These types of books are called graded readers. There are three key characteristics of a graded reader.
1. The Language is Selective. The book should be written using only language that you, a learner, is likely to know at your level. Graded reader series typically have a leveling system to help you determine if the level is appropriate for you.
2. The Language is Controlled. Graded readers also pay close attention to the grammar structures used, sufficient repetition of words, and making sure the content is not too complex for the reading level of the learner.
3. The Book is Long Enough. Short articles and sample sentences simply are not long enough to provide the benefits of extensive reading (not to mention they’re not very engaging). Proper graded readers will be long enough to provide enough repetition of words and patterns.
What is Not a Graded Reader
Just to be sure, there are a lot of books out there masquerading as graded readers, but here is a list of books learners commonly turn to but are NOT graded readers nor are they the best books to self-study Mandarin.
A collection of short articles
Kids books
Text books
Books/articles intended for learners that pay little to no attention to grading the text
Short articles in a text book
Newspaper/magazine articles with dense subject matter
A story too short to provide enough repetition
What You Can Expect with Extensive Reading
When you begin reading at an extensive level, a lot of amazing things begin to happen. Here are four things that you can expect:
1. You can learn vocabulary twice as fast. Many studies show that learners have doubled their vocabulary acquisition through extensive reading. But it’s more than just learning vocabulary. Because you are seeing words over and over again in many different contexts, learners begin to concretely understand how words are used in different ways and become confident in using it themselves.
2. Grammar is acquired naturally. Grammar is nothing more than patterns in language and our brains are very good at recognizing patterns. By reading, learners will see these same patterns over and over again until they just become understood. Grammar ceases to be an abstract concept, instead it is seared into the brain of the learner until it becomes common and natural.
3. Your brain will begin to automatically process the language. When we begin learning a language, we start by using our native language to understand the second language. After enough comprehensible input of Chinese, our brains will simply begin to understand it in Chinese. Extensive reading shortcuts this by giving the reader a mass amount of comprehensible input in the form of reading until you, the learner, just begin to understand it in Chinese without translating in your head. It’s almost magical when this happens! This is where fluency really begins!
4. It is fun. When was the last time you picked up a textbook for fun? That’s what I thought. However, when was the last time you got lost in a book? Stories have a way of captivating our senses, the ability to bring us into a new world unlike anything else.
One of our readers expressed his experience in this way:
“During the most dramatic moments, I found myself on the verge of tears. Partly because it is just a really great story, but it was also because I was moved by this new experience in Chinese! I felt like a child filled with the wonder of learning a new language; this wonder that gives you a chance to explore yourself in an entirely new context. You’re still you, but your experiences, your identity, all have to be constructed and retold using new words, new phrases, and new cultural references.”
Extensive reading is very powerful and it provides all new ways to work with a tutor. Remember English literature classes back in high school? You’d be assigned to read books, then come together with your peers to discuss the plot, the characters, their motivations, etc. It’s a very engaging way to speak deeply about a topic of conversation. Writing is often then inspired by these discussions, where you are tasked with assessing characters, authoring tangential stories, and more.
If you want to teach yourself Chinese, you can apply this same approach to Mandarin.
Start discussing the story with your tutor. This opens up a cornucopia of ideas for discussion and writing! Here are just a few ideas for discussion.
Explain what you read since the last tutor session.
Discuss the motivations of the characters.
Talk about how you see the characters actions as right or wrong.
Predict what you think will happen in the next stage of the story.
Identify alternative choices the characters could have made.
Grant Brown, an experienced Chinese teacher who has helped his classes reach a 100% pass rate on Chinese exams, shared his experience with extensive reading in this way.
“Once a student understands enough Chinese to start reading extensively, learning new characters just becomes easy and learners have a great time doing it. They get on this implicit learning train that is just constantly picking up new things all the time. The sooner we can get students onto that train, the fewer students will be lost in the grind of character memorization.”
Reading in Chinese doesn’t have to be a chore. You can have reading gain without the pain. Our graded readers are specifically designed to reflect common stories from our childhood (like Journey to the Center of the Earth or The Secret Garden) so you can focus less energy on understanding the overall story and more energy on soaking up those grammar patterns and vocab words.
5. Find peers so you can celebrate (and commiserate…)
So now you’re on this Mandarin train, and yes, you’re thrilled at the idea of achieving fluency without the restrictions of classrooms, textbooks, exams, and homework.
Even so, the reality remains that Chinese is challenging and it is really nice to have a community of peers around you who just “get it.” Others who, like you, are on their own mission towards self taught Mandarin. They’ll be able to relate to you on so many levels: the highs, the lows, the laughter, the tears (just sayin’…), and everything in between.
Here are just a handful online resources we’ve found to be helpful while we learned Mandarin on our own:
Follow Mandarin Companion for the worlds best Chinese learning memes.
TL;DR:
When you teach yourself Mandarin—or are learning a language period—know that there is a difference between knowledge and proficiency.
You can acquire the knowledge, but not be proficient. The proficiency comes the more you’re exposed to and use the language. Therefore, you must consciously seek for ways to be exposed to and use the language.
Teach yourself Mandarin successfully!
Wait, wrong Mandarin
Learning Mandarin by yourself takes a mix of motivation, commitment, and fun. Understanding core language learning concepts, like explicit vs implicit learning, comprehensible input, and extensive reading, can set you up for success on your path towards Chinese fluency.
Other resources like graded readers, podcasts, and tutors can help accelerate your language proficiency more quickly.
However, if there is one thing I have learned, its that there are many ways to learn a language, and they all can work, it’s just that some ways are more effective than others.
What are some tips you used to teach yourself Chinese? Add them in the comments below. And remember, you can learn Chinese!
It’s always an exciting endeavor to work on ideas for new books. When John and I conceptualized a lower level that used only 150 characters, we didn’t realize the challenges that lay ahead of us. Now that we are announcing the release of the 5th book, Just Friends?, at the new 150 character Breakthrough level, it’s quite exciting to see the feedback and buzz that these new books have generated.
Perhaps the most rewarding feedback we are getting is that so many Chinese learners around the world are now able to begin reading a book at a much earlier stage and are seeing for themselves how this seemingly simple experience of reading in Chinese has such a huge impact on their language ability. That translates into a general increase in Chinese language proficiency for these readers and a lower drop-out rate simply because these learners are feeling progress and experiencing wins sooner. This is exactly what John and I had hoped for with this new level.
At the same time, Chinese teachers are jumping on this series and using them in greater numbers in the classroom. I’ve had the opportunity to work with many Chinese teachers in dual immersion, middle school, and high school Chinese programs who are experiencing exciting results with their students. As part of this, I am in the process of writing a teacher guide for extensive reading in Chinese that combines our collective experience with graded readers in the classroom, academic research, and best practices from around the world into one guide specifically for Chinese teachers. I expect that this will be released by summer of 2020.
Just Friends?
Dapeng and Wendong are best friends attending the same college. When the beautiful Zixin arrives on campus, they soon discover they both share an interest in her. To preserve their friendship, they make a promise not to pursue her. However, when Wendong sees Zixin going for a ride in Dapeng’s car, the truce dissolves into a battle between the two friends trying to gain the affection of Zixin. Whom does she really like, or are they “Just Friends?”
John and I worked on this story last of all, simply because it was the most complex of the five stories that we came up with. The idea of two guys who had fallen for the same girl and ensuing hijinks elicited a plethora of hilarious ideas to my mind. I took this story and ran with it.
Some of what I thought were the best ideas sadly ended up on the cutting room floor simply because we just didn’t have the vocabulary to tell it. One idea for a scene involved one of the friends trying to sabotage the others dinner date by borrowing a jackhammer from construction workers outside the restaurant and proceeding to tear up the sidewalk and create unbearable noise. While we had the word for workers (工人), we couldn’t spare the words for jackhammer or even loud or noisy!
That being said, we did come up with a number of quite humorous scenarios for this story. It required more editing than normal, but both John and I are happy with the final story and we hope you enjoy it too!
“We can’t have any animals in any of the stories” John said as we sat down to discuss story ideas.
“Not any animals at all? Why not?” I defiantly stated.
“If you look at all the characters for animals, they all fall outside of the 150 characters we have for the Breakthrough Level”.
John had spent months systematically creating the Breakthrough level standard. To develop the standard, he used special text analytics tools we have developed, employed a comparison of essential characters across different leveling standards, discussed results with his team at AllSet Learning, and added a little bit of his own intuition of the Chinese learning experience. He was quite clear about what or what would not be included in the Breakthrough Level.
“We have to be so careful about adding complexity to the story. For example, rabbit 兔子. Yeah, it’s a simple animal, but…” John went into an explanation about how when we use a new character it comes at the expense of a different character and we need to focus on the most relevant and useful characters for a learner to know at this level.
I’d heard this before, and I certainly agreed with it even if it stood at odds with my ideas for new stories. I found myself playing scant attention to this lecture as I was shifting through sheets of paper that held lists of characters and words that were within the 150 character standard. Then my eyes fell upon it.
“Horse!” I exclaimed. “Look, we have 马上 on the list, so we can use horse 马!”
“Of course we can use horse!” John exclaimed.
“Well, horse is an animal, so there!”
“Right, but we don’t have any other animals we can use!”
This is one of my favorite Breakthrough Level stories thus far. It has a fantastical theme to it, somewhere along the lines of Alice in Wonderland, a heart-warming story with a twist ending.
In the story, a boy named Nanan 南南 goes searching through the mountains near his home in search of flowers for his mother’s birthday. As he gets further into the mountains, he come across an ancient house with an old lady who beckons him inside. She asks him to help her find “Hua Ma” and if he does, she will give him some special flowers for his mothers birthday. When he leaves her home, he finds himself inexplicably transported to the tropical and distant island of Hainan while the old lady and the house have disappeared. Unsure of who or what Hua Ma is, he sets out on a quest to find him, realizing this mysterious Hua Ma may be his only chance to find his way back home!
In a favorite scene from the book, we have a fun word play with three characters 马 (horse), 妈妈 (mother), and 吗 (question particle) all which are pronounced ma. Here is an excerpt.
Get this new story for yourself or to help that friend who you think is ready to start reading Chinese. We hope that this new level will help an entirely new group of Chinese learners being building their proficiency at an even earlier stage and inspire them to reach to greater heights! Chinese really is a language you can learn. You can do it!
Steven Kaufmann is a world renown polyglot (a person who knows and is able to use several languages) who speaks 20 languages. I had the privilege to interview him for our podcast and talk about his story of learning Chinese and his perspectives on learning languages in general. Chinese is his 3rd language he learned back in the 70’s as a Canadian diplomat to China. Many people will find his unique perspective on the challenges of learning Chinese in comparison to the other languages insightful. The following is an excerpt from the interview. You can listen to the full podcast and interview here or listen on the player below.
Jared: Steve, thanks for
taking the time to talk today! Could you introduce yourself?
Steve: Jared, very happy at any time to
discuss learning Chinese. It’s a subject that I’m fascinated by, it was major
influence on my life. My name is Steve Kaufman, I’m a grandpa, 73 years old,
and I live in Vancouver, Canada. Throughout my professional life, I’ve had
reason to learn various languages. Right now, I’m involved with my son in a
project called Lingq which is a language learning platform.
Jared: How many
languages do you speak right now?
Steve: Well, I have varying sort of levels
of proficiency in call it 20. But 10 or 11 of them I could jump right into and
hold a conversation in. The others would take a bit more warming up or
improving before I could do that.
Jared: Steve, start at
the beginning. Why did you start learning Chinese?
Steve: It started in 1967. I had just
joined the Canadian diplomatic service as Canada was getting ready to recognize
the People’s Republic of China. They needed to train up some people in Chinese
and I had just graduated from university in Paris which was all in French. I
was quite confident that I could learn Chinese. A lot of people didn’t think
they could do it.
Jared:You went to Hong Kong to learn
Chinese, right?
Steve: Yes, I was hired by the Canadian
government and I then had the choice to go to the Defense Language Institute in
Monterey, California, or to Hong Kong. I couldn’t go to Taiwan because that
would have been politically unacceptable to mainland China. In those days, the
Cultural Revolution was going on in China and going to Taiwan was not going to
work. I chose to go to Hong Kong at the Chinese University of Hong Kong in Kowloon.
All the instruction was one-on-one,
no classes. I’m a strong firm believer in one-on-one. We had three hours a day
with three or four different teachers. They were very much into the drill
approach to learning languages. Then I would spend the rest day on my own. It
was the rest of the day that was really important.
Jared:What kind of progress were you
making at that time and what other things were you doing to learn Chinese?
Steve: I did a lot of reading. Initially I
put a lot of effort into learning the characters, at least one hour per day. I
literally put in six seven hours a day including the three hours with my
teacher. But eventually, I said I didn’t want to do the drilling anymore I just
wanted to talk in class and they agreed to do what I wanted to do. After 3 months
I could pick my way through a newspaper, then a few months after that I read my
first novel. I pushed hard.
It’s important to
remember that this is before online dictionaries and before all of the
wonderful resources that we have now. I would scour the bookstores for books
with glossaries behind each chapter. I refused to look anything up in a Chinese
dictionary because it was so time-consuming, and, as with any dictionary, no
sooner have you looked up the word and closed the dictionary you’ve already
forgotten what you looked up.
Jared: How long did you
have the opportunity to study Chinese in this way?
Steve: I went through it as quickly as I
could. I think I put more into it than the diplomat students studying with me
and I certainly read more and listened more. But in 10 months, I passed the
British foreign service exam, and I had my British foreign service Mandarin
Chinese certificate.
Jared: What happened
after you finished your language study?
Steve: Then I went to work for the Canadian
Trade Commissioner office in Hong Kong where we Canadian businessmen regularly
visited on their way into China. Typically, I would help Canadian business
people, sit in on their meetings, help with interpreting, and offer any
background information that might be helpful to them.
The other thing that we
did was to scour the Chinese press to see if we could learn anything that might
be helpful. For example, we may look for information in regards to grain
supplies in China which might influence Canadian wheat sales to China. We also
kept track of the Cultural Revolution and other political developments. I did a
lot of reading of the Chinese press just to stay on top of what we could learn
about the situation in China.
Jared: That sounds like
it was a very interesting time to be in and around China.
Steve: Oh, yeah it was very interesting. People
don’t realize that you had all these people trying to interpret what was going
on in China at the time. You couldn’t just go into China and travel around. It’s
amazing to me now that I can just go into China, go to any hotel, talk to
anybody I want, jump in a train. In those days you couldn’t go anywhere without
someone from the China travel department traveling with you You weren’t free to
move around. If I wanted to go to Shanghai or somewhere else, it was a big deal
when they gave you permission.
Once we established diplomatic
relations, I was with the first group that went to Beijing in October 1970,
which was quite extraordinary. I remember at that time it was getting cold and
the peasants would bring in their cabbages and dump them into big piles on the
sidewalk to sell. That was their distribution system and people would come and pay
for the cabbage. I can remember in the hotels in Beijing, you could get either
red or black caviar for 1 RMB, a mountain of caviar, sturgeon caviar or salmon
caviar. It was a different time and it was so cheap to eat and it was amazing. But
it was during the cultural revolution and everybody was dressed drably and the
average living standard was quite low.
Jared: Have you been
back to China since your diplomatic days.
Steve: Yes. I traveled there quite often
in the 70s. Not much changed until in 1979 when I was at the Peace Hotel in Shanghai.
All of sudden, there were these older gentlemen wearing ties and playing jazz. Another
time in Beijing, there was a dance with girls from a dance academy and we were
allowed to dance with them. There were these little indicators that things were
loosening up.
This was the beginning
of the thaw. I didn’t go back to China for over 20 years until I visited in 2002
and I was absolutely amazed.
Today you can jump on a
bullet train from Beijing and there are massive factories and modern highways. There
is no one in the 70s who could ever have predicted that one day China would
look like this.
Jared: What do you think
really helped you improve your proficiency in Chinese?
Steve: First of all, reading. I believe
you need to know a lot of characters. I don’t know exactly how many characters
I can recognize, but it’s enough so that I can read a book. There will be
characters that I don’t know, but I’m still comfortable reading the book. Reading
is a tremendous way to increase your vocabulary and to gain familiarity with
the language. I’m a great believer in the power of reading.
The other is listening
because the listening prepares you for speaking. It also gives you momentum for
your reading because are then able to sub-vocalize. If you have listened to something
a lot, you’ll be better at sub vocalizing as you’re reading. I think that the
other students studying with me did as much talking as I did, but I did an
awful lot more reading and listening.
I feel like my tones are
not bad in Chinese, but a lot of people struggle with tones. I attribute that
to the xiang sheng 相声, something one of my
teachers exposed me to. I had a cassette tape from a well known performer.
Although I couldn’t understand it well, there was something about it that I
enjoyed. They exaggerated the tones and it’s very lively and engaging, almost
like music. You have to listen the stuff that grabs you and that has high
resonance.
I passed the British
service exam after one year and most people struggle to do it after two. I
attributed that to the sort of focus on listening and reading. I have a library
of Chinese readers that I would buy. If I saw one and the book store, I’d buy
it. If there was any audio material, I’d get it.
I was attracted by the
idea of learning Chinese because it’s was so exotic to me at that time. As I
got into the language, the history of China just grabbed a hold of me. I just
found it fascinating. It’s like if you’re at a feast and you can eat all you
want and you’re not going to get indigestion, you just keep eating. What’s going
to prevent me from just keep going?
If I weren’t chasing other
languages to get a bit of a taste of what those cultures are all about, I would
want to get deeper into Chinese. I got a rush when I started learning Korean. Now
I’m into Middle Eastern languages like Turkish Arabic, and Persian. It’s
endless. I get into the history and there are so many different things that I
would love to get into in more depth but there’s only so much time in the day.
Jared: You developed a high
level of proficiency in Chinese. How did that impact your life going forward?
Steve: I think it’s important to note that
I first became very fluent in French. The experience of converting yourself
from someone who only speaks one language to becoming genuinely fluent in a
second language, gives you confidence that you can do it. Later, for a variety
of reasons, I ended up going to Japan. I had no doubt that I could learn
Japanese, so I learned Japanese entirely on my own with the benefit of being
able to recognize many of the characters.
Learning Japanese opened
up opportunities for me in the wood industry. On two different occasions, major
Canadian lumber exporting companies hired me to run their operation in Tokyo. Then
I got to know the Japanese timber trade very well and eventually set up my own
company in 1987 aimed at the Japanese market. You never know what’s gonna lead
to what, I always say that.
Jared: How did you get
into learning all of these other languages and what are some of those languages?
Steve: In some languages I’m better at
speaking, in some I’m better at reading. If I go in order of proficiency, it
would be English, French, Japanese, Mandarin, Spanish, then Swedish. Swedish
was very important for my lumber business because for a long time we would buy
wood in Sweden. I also have German, Italian, Cantonese, Portuguese which I
don’t really speak as well. However, if you speak Spanish, with a minimum of
effort you can learn Portuguese. These are the languages I learned during my
professional career.
Then starting13 years
ago as we started LingQ, I got into the second wave of languages. Korean and Russian
were next. My approach to language learning is to focus on immersing in listening
and reading, acquiring vocabulary and then visiting the grammar.
When I pick up some of the
books that people use today, it’s full of all these complicated grammar explanations,
but I never refer to those. The basic parts of speech, noun, verb, adjective, I
understand those, but beyond that I don’t use grammar. However, there are
patterns.
The idea that you have
to first learn the basics of grammar is completely wrong. I don’t care who
tells me that they learned the basics of grammar first; I don’t believe it. It’s
impossible to learn the basics by seeing this theoretical explanation of the
language. All of those explanations only make sense once you have had enough experience
with the language, so that you have something to refer to.
To me, it begins with
listening and reading simple stories, simple material that needn’t be
completely brain-dead stuff. It needn’t be “hello, how are you?” or situations
where a lot of books start you out at the airport going through customs which
are totally unrealistic scenarios. It can be anything, such as I went and had a
cup of coffee, I met Joe we talked about this. It can be anything almost, but
shorter with an emphasis on the most common verbs.
Once you have
experienced the language, you now become curious, what does this really mean? I
see all these words but I can’t really make sense of it or how does this
pattern work? At that point you can look up a grammar points. Grammar is a bit
a sort of a reference thing you have at your side but it’s not something in my
view that can be taught up front. Your brain has to get used to the language.
Some people disagree
with this and someone once said “Yeah, but you couldn’t do that for Russian!”
I said, “Oh yeah!”, then
I decided to learn Russian when I was 60. After having learned Russian, I went
and learned Check, Ukrainian and Polish, and to some extent Slovak. Then
because we buy a lot of wood in Romania, I had to go visit Romania, so then I
learned Romanian which is not that difficult because a lot of the vocabulary is
identifiable from other Romance languages.
Then my wife and I were
going to visit Crete so I decided to learn Greek. Then I said, I don’t know
much about the Middle East, so why not learn Arabic. Then I said, “geez, if
I’ve learned the Arabic script and there are so many Iranians here in Vancouver,
I should really learn Persian because I run into people who speak Persian”. Then
my wife started watching Turkish serials on Netflix, so I got interested in
Turkish.
Anything can trigger the
interest and once the interest is triggered, then the language itself becomes
the attraction and you just want to get into more and more of the language.
Jared: What kind of
advice would you give to someone who’s learning Chinese today?
Steve: First of all, realize that you are
dealing with a very rich culture, history, a fascinating world that’s actually
quite different from ours. There’s a whole world there to discover. It’s 22% of
humanity, you’ve got to allow that to get you excited.
Then the second thing I
would say is, invest a lot of time in the characters. Because reading is a big
part of learning. Now I know there are people who learn to just speak by
listening and who can manage. But it’s so much easier to acquire vocabulary
when you can read. If you can read, then you can see how so much vocabulary in
Chinese consists of different characters arranged in different ways. Actually,
vocabulary acquisition in Chinese is easier than in many languages, because of
the characters. Once you overcome the obstacle of actually learning the
characters your vocabulary can grow quite quickly.
Then the other big
stumbling block in Chinese is the tones. You can look at the individual tones
for each individual character, but it’s hard to remember that when you’re
speaking. You have to learn in phrases, chunks of phrases.
You have to listen a lot.
Then you have to trust yourself when you speak and don’t try to second guess
what-tone-is-this and what-tone-is-that, just let yourself go. That would be those
three things.
Don’t spend too much on
the fancy grammar terms that have been meant to confuse people about Chinese.
Chinese grammar is the easiest grammar of any of the 20 languages I’ve learned.
It’s very difficult to make a grammatical mistake in Chinese. It’s the polar
opposite of the Slavic languages. I don’t know any more complicated grammars
than Georgian or Finnish, but Chinese is very easy.
Jared: You have a very
good knowledge of many languages. From your perspective and not just difficulty
for you, what is the difficulty of Chinese in comparison to other languages.
Steve: Every language has its difficulty. In
the case of Chinese, you have to learn all the vocabulary because there is no
common vocabulary. I’m talking from the point of view of an English speaker or
even a speaker of the European language. You’ve got to learn all the vocabulary,
there’s no freebies. If you’re an English speaker learning French, 50% of the
vocabulary is more-or-less already known to you.
Learning Chinese is more
of a question of time. You have to work at it every day and put in the time, but
if you get a toehold on characters, then you start reading things of interest
and see these characters over and over again until it’s like anything else. We
have to trust the fact that our brains, with enough exposure and with enough
stimulus, will do what the brain is set up to do; learn.
Chinese has so many
homonyms that comprehension can be a problem. But on the other hand, the
grammar is very easy and straightforward.
I would say that tones
are a problem, but for any language you speak, you have got to get a feel for
the intonation of the language, so the real obstacle is the characters, which is
really a matter of time. Other than that, I don’t think Chinese is particularly
difficult.
For instance, I’m never
concerned that I’m gonna make a mistake when I speak Chinese. Whereas when
you’re speaking, for example, a Slavic language, you’re forever second-guessing
yourself on the case endings. Even in speaking a Romance language, you’re
second-guessing yourself on the gender. Whereas in Chinese you can’t get go
wrong with that, you can say it in 5 different ways and it’s still okay.
Jared: Steve I really
appreciate you talking with us. If people want to find out more about you,
where can they find you?
Steve: I have a YouTube channel called, “Lingo Steve” and I have a blog which is www.thelinguist.com. Together with my son Mark, we created a language learning platform community website called Lingq.com. I hang out there on the forum and I’m busy learning languages like Turkish, Persian and so forth. We offer some 33 languages including Mandarin, of course and Cantonese.
We are pleased to announce all of the Mandarin Companion Level 1 books are now available as audiobooks on Audible, Amazon, and iTunes!
Over the years, we’ve had numerous emails from listeners asking for audio versions of the graded readers. We’ve constantly been focused on other projects at Mandarin Companion (such as our new podcast and Breakthrough Level, for instance), but last year we decided to finally tackle this one. It took longer than we anticipated, but it is done and now available!
Listening to the audio as you are reading a book can be a very helpful tool for learning a second language, especially Chinese! Every Chinese learner knows what it is like to come across a character you don’t know. In English, Spanish, German, Korean, Arabic, or virtually any other language, you could at least sound it out, but not in Chinese! An unknown character is like a black hole. Listening to audio while you are reading can help you to know how to pronounce unknown characters and reinforce the pronunciation of ones you already know or are still learning.
The speed of the narration is recorded at a slower pace of about 120 characters per minute,a target reading speed for second language learners. However, the platforms on Audible, Amazon, and iTunes all have speed controls that allow you to slow down, or even speed up, the speed of the audio to an appropriate rate for you! So if you are beginning reader, no problem! Just drop it down. If you are reading at a good speed and are trying to elevate it further, you can increase it up to as much as 2x! You have control.
Just a note, currently only the Level 1 books are available, but we will be producing the Breakthrough Level and our Level 2 books as audiobooks in the future. Here is a list and links to the audiobook titles available.
Audiobook Links
Thanks for listening! And if you are looking for more things to listen to, here is a short plug for our podcast, You Can Learn Chinese, and what one of the listeners had to say.
“So much more than just “talking about learning about” Chinese. Practical, learnable, and copyable advice for all levels of speakers. John and Jared really lay out some fascinating insights, and their guest interviews are fun and equally as interesting. A must-have podcast, I’ve been a subscriber since episode #1!” – by R. Smeith
Or this glowing review from Tanner H (汉天恩)
I have been following Jared Turner and John Pasden through Mandarin Companion – since 2016. Those books raised my reading ability, along with other resources, to a score a perfect reading score on HSK 3 while studying Chinese only part time, working full time in an English-speaking environment in China. Needless to say, I could not be more excited to see these guys collaborating on another platform. This podcast strikes such a helpful balance between practical and technical, educational, and experiential advice and inspiration to learn Chinese, no matter where you live in the world. The most valuable aspect of their perspectives is their combined 20+ years of experience as 2nd language Chinese learners. Give it a listen, and be prepared to be inspired to new heights in your learning!
Since John and I started Mandarin Companion back in 2012, we have pursued a vision of a revolution in learning Chinese marked by the advent of easy-to-read and interesting (key word interesting) books in Chinese. Few things have the impact on any language development as does reading and the mounting testimonials from readers is a testament to the impact it is making around the world.
As the years went on, we came to realize that for many learners it may take several years before they reach the point when they are able to read the Level 1, 300 character, stories. In discussion with many learners and teachers, they loved the concept of the books, but most needed something even easier to read. We also found that in Chinese programs all over the world, students tend to drop out after a year or two. A significant reason behind this has to do with the slow progress of learning Chinese in that it can take years before a learner feels like they can do anything with the language.
When John and I discussed these various issues, we decided that we need to do our part to help this generation of learners to read Chinese at an earlier stage, to help them get a “win” earlier, to make the goal of reading in Chinese even more obtainable. This was the genesis of the Breakthrough level.
The Breakthrough 150 Character Level Standard
When we started out, we knew we had to make it as simple as
possible AND interesting, two things that are at odds with each other. We
floated out different numbers of characters until we settled on only 150 and, at
the time, we weren’t even sure if we were going to be able to write anything
good with that little!
We had to set some strict rules for this level because otherwise it can be too easy to compromise your standards for the sake of the story. Once you begin adding a harder character, it becomes easier to add one more, and then one more, and before you know it your book is filled with words and characters that slow down a reader, tripping them up every paragraph. We all know it’s hard enough to read at these early stages!
In this new level, you’ll only find the most useful and common characters and words. For example, all of the 150 characters in the Breakthrough Level are a subset of the Level 1 standard. On top of that, all of the key words in the Breakthrough standard fall within the 300 characters in the Level 1 standard. That means you’ll never waste time learning characters that are not important to your fluency at this stage of Chinese.
Breakthrough Titles
We will be releasing five Breakthrough Level books by mid
2019. We found that due to our constraints it was nearly impossible to adapt existing
stories so we wrote our own! All of these are original stories written by John
and myself. Here is a preview of the upcoming books.
My Teacher is a Martian 《我的老师是火星人》- Two good friends notice their teacher is very strange, so strange that they begin to suspect that he is actually from Mars.
Xiao Ming, Boy Sherlock《小明》- Xiao Ming would one day grow up to be a great detective, but it all started when he was just a boy.
In Search of Hua Ma《花马》- All he wanted to do was give his mother a simple present, instead a son finds himself transported across China on bizarre quest…
Three Friends《三个朋友》- Two guys have been friends forever, but what happens when they fall for the same girl in college?
First Release: The Misadventures of Zhou Haisheng
The Misadventures of Zhou Haisheng is the first book in the Breakthrough Level. It follows the antics of 9 year-old Zhou Haisheng whose parents own a small noodle shop. Always well-intentioned, he finds ways to help out his hard-working parents with the family business. Whether its inventing his own noodle recipe, delivering the wrong order to a customer, or resorting to extremes when a competing noodle shop opens across the street, Haisheng manages to combine his mischief and wit to save the day. Here is a small sample.
“我爸爸妈妈出去了，我不会做菜1。你们晚上2再来吧。”海生对那那几个人说。
“那你们吃的是什么？”一个男人一边3笑4一边3问。
“面，他做的。”海生的朋友说。
“好吃吗？”男人又5问。
“很好吃。”海生的朋友开心6地说。
几个男人又5笑4了：“好，那我们今天也吃面。去做吧。”
做菜 (zuòcài) vo. to cook food
晚上 (wǎnshang) n. evening
一边 (yībiān) conj. while doing… (two things)
笑 (xiào) v. to laugh, to smile
又 (yòu) adv. again
开心 (kāixīn) adj. happy
When you get to the Mandarin Companion Level 2 books, don’t forget about this story! You’ll see how they all fit in.
Get your copy today on Amazon or Kobo! And if you are a teacher or administrator looking to place an order for your school, contact us directly. If you want to be the first to know about the new releases, subscribe to our email list below.
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We are ever grateful for all of the support from all of our readers. We’ll be releasing even more titles this year and be sure to have a listen to our podcast. 加油！
Since John and I started Mandarin Companion back in 2012, we have pursued a vision of a revolution in learning Chinese marked by the advent of easy-to-read and interesting (key word interesting) books in Chinese. Few things have the impact on any language development as does reading and the mounting testimonials from readers is a testament to the impact it is making around the world.
As the years went on, we came to realize that for many learners it may take several years before they reach the point when they are able to read the Level 1, 300 character, stories. In discussion with many learners and teachers, they loved the concept of the books, but most needed something even easier to read. We also found that in Chinese programs all over the world, students tend to drop out after a year or two. A significant reason behind this has to do with the slow progress of learning Chinese in that it can take years before a learner feels like they can do anything with the language.
When John and I discussed these various issues, we decided that we need to do our part to help this generation of learners to read Chinese at an earlier stage, to help them get a “win” earlier, to make the goal of reading in Chinese even more obtainable. This was the genesis of the Breakthrough level.
The Breakthrough 150 Character Level Standard
When we started out, we knew we had to make it as simple as
possible AND interesting, two things that are at odds with each other. We
floated out different numbers of characters until we settled on only 150 and, at
the time, we weren’t even sure if we were going to be able to write anything
good with that little!
We had to set some strict rules for this level because otherwise it can be too easy to compromise your standards for the sake of the story. Once you begin adding a harder character, it becomes easier to add one more, and then one more, and before you know it your book is filled with words and characters that slow down a reader, tripping them up every paragraph. We all know it’s hard enough to read at these early stages!
In this new level, you’ll only find the most useful and common characters and words. For example, all of the 150 characters in the Breakthrough Level are a subset of the Level 1 standard. On top of that, all of the key words in the Breakthrough standard fall within the 300 characters in the Level 1 standard. That means you’ll never waste time learning characters that are not important to your fluency at this stage of Chinese.
Breakthrough Titles
We will be releasing five Breakthrough Level books by mid
2019. We found that due to our constraints it was nearly impossible to adapt existing
stories so we wrote our own! All of these are original stories written by John
and myself. Here is a preview of the upcoming books.
My Teacher is a Martian 《我的老师是火星人》- Two good friends notice their teacher is very strange, so strange that they begin to suspect that he is actually from Mars.
Xiao Ming, Boy Sherlock《小明》- Xiao Ming would one day grow up to be a great detective, but it all started when he was just a boy.
In Search of Hua Ma《花马》- All he wanted to do was give his mother a simple present, instead a son finds himself transported across China on bizarre quest…
Three Friends《三个朋友》- Two guys have been friends forever, but what happens when they fall for the same girl in college?
First Release: The Misadventures of Zhou Haisheng
The Misadventures of Zhou Haisheng is the first book in the Breakthrough Level. It follows the antics of 9 year-old Zhou Haisheng whose parents own a small noodle shop. Always well-intentioned, he finds ways to help out his hard-working parents with the family business. Whether its inventing his own noodle recipe, delivering the wrong order to a customer, or resorting to extremes when a competing noodle shop opens across the street, Haisheng manages to combine his mischief and wit to save the day. Here is a small sample.
“我爸爸妈妈出去了，我不会做菜1。你们晚上2再来吧。”海生对那那几个人说。
“那你们吃的是什么？”一个男人一边3笑4一边3问。
“面，他做的。”海生的朋友说。
“好吃吗？”男人又5问。
“很好吃。”海生的朋友开心6地说。
几个男人又5笑4了：“好，那我们今天也吃面。去做吧。”
做菜 (zuòcài) vo. to cook food
晚上 (wǎnshang) n. evening
一边 (yībiān) conj. while doing… (two things)
笑 (xiào) v. to laugh, to smile
又 (yòu) adv. again
开心 (kāixīn) adj. happy
When you get to the Mandarin Companion Level 2 books, don’t forget about this story! You’ll see how they all fit in.
Get your copy today on Amazon or Kobo! And if you are a teacher or administrator looking to place an order for your school, contact us directly. If you want to be the first to know about the new releases, subscribe to our email list below.
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We recommend moving this block and the preceding CSS link to the HEAD of your HTML file. */
We are ever grateful for all of the support from all of our readers. We’ll be releasing even more titles this year and be sure to have a listen to our podcast. 加油！
We are excited to share the inspiring story of Jonathan Coveney! His story is one of a kind. Drop us a note if you want to share your story! – Jared
I grew up in the suburbs of Dallas, Texas…a stark contrast
to my adult life. My father is a network engineer, my mother worked in
non-profits, and that combined with my younger sister and I make our family of
4. Although my mother is Venezuelan, I never learned Spanish because I rebelled
at the age of 4, an opportunity I felt I missed!
After studying Business and Computer Science at the University of Pennsylvania, I spent a year in Uruguay living with relatives. That year was very formational for me…I had studied Spanish for a long time but in a very halfhearted way as I had always felt that Spanish was a birth-right that had been denied to me…and I guess I felt ashamed about it. However, being there forced me to get over that and just dive into the language, something that helped me lay the groundwork for tackling Mandarin. After my time in Uruguay, which was beautiful, difficult, challenging and transformational, I went off to join the work force!
I’ve since worked and moved around among a number of companies. My first job was at Credit Suisse, went to comScore as a data analyst, got a job at Twitter, then my quarter life crisis found me working for Spotify in Sweden, then back to Twitter in San Francisco, then a relationship with a Chinese American woman (FORESHADOWING) led me New York also working for Twitter, then for the hedge fund Two Sigma, next onto Stripe where many of my friends from Twitter had gone to, and then onto Google, after which I up and moved to China! I guess by personality I just sort of…I do things 100% or 0%. It’s a blessing and a curse. I’m bad at balance. But when I focus, I just can’t do something half-heartedly.
I started learning because of my ex-girlfriend who I moved
to New York to be with. She is a New Yorker through and through, but grew up in
China till the age of 5. Although her mom could speak fairly basic English, her
dad didn’t. We would go to her parent’s house fairly regularly for meals, but
my girlfriend was not inclined to translate what they said. Usually after some long-heated
exchange between her and her parents, I’d ask what they said and she would say,
“oh, nothing, nothing important.” Me and that girlfriend were fairly
serious, so I wanted to be able to have my own relationship with her parents. My
father never learned Spanish, and after having learned Spanish as an adult and
finally being able to have my own relationship with my maternal extended
family, I basically resolved I would never have such important people in my
life that I couldn’t talk to. It always saddens me to think that my father has
extended family through my mother for over 35 years that he doesn’t know. Although
at times they have lived in close proximity, he just does not know them. I’ve
oft times reflected on my grandfather from my mother’s side who was sort of the
patriarch of the family. We never had much of a close relationship as a child
because I didn’t speak Spanish. He has since passed away and while I lived with
relatives in Uruguay learning Spanish, I heard all of these stories about his
sense of humor, his good, his bad, and I resolved to never let that happen
again.
My girlfriends’ parents were very touched that they were a
big reason for me learning Chinese and were always very, very nice to me! While
this was a major motivating factor, there were also many others that provided me
with the fuel to study. Perhaps an understated factor at that time was the fact
that I currently didn’t have any big obsession! Work was steady but frustrating
and I wanted an intellectual outlet I could pour myself into. I had also made
many Chinese-American friends in college and had many Chinese coworkers at my
job.
My apartment in New York at the time had a pretty big living
room and you could usually find me on the couch, studying while my girlfriend would
work on her various crafts. I had been studying a textbook and flashcards for
maybe 8-9 months
At this time, I was feeling a bit burnt out on Chinese…I
was sticking with it, but I had been studying with a textbook and flashcards
for about 9 months, however I would frequently study 30-40 hours per week on
top of my full-time job. You could say I had really gotten “into” studying
Chinese. I was using flashcard programs to study a boatload of lists with
random vocab. I would use the Chinese Text Analyzer to add vocab from novels I
wanted to read. I made a lot of mistakes and I spent a LOT of time doing data
entry in Anki. A LOT of time.
However, I felt like I would never be able to read anything
of value. The characters are a huge challenge and, as someone who loves
reading, it felt really sad that it would take so long to read anything worth
reading. One day I was reading an article that mentioned the Mandarin Companion
series while I was looking for graded readers in Chinese. My first impression,
if I’m being honest, was “Dear god I hope these are better than Chinese
Breeze!” Graded readers seemed to fill in a nice niche, and as I looked
more into Mandarin Companion, it felt like…graded readers done right. Graded
readers done by someone who cared about making them fun and interesting and
compelling. Someone who didn’t just want to make a study tool, but making
something someone would actually want to read!
That night I decided I would try and read Great Expectations. I started reading…and I felt something entirely familiar and yet entirely new: I was hooked. I love to read and that familiar call was alluring me to abandon myself to a new story, yet this feeling was different because I had never felt it before in Chinese. And yet as the story unfolded, I found myself caring…caring in a way I hadn’t had the chance to care about Chinese before. I had never read Great Expectations in English and even though it has been the source of inspiration for thousands of tropes that have been riffed in countless stories in popular culture, it gave the story a timeless appeal, an experience that became all my own.
I don’t want to spoil the story, of course, but through the
ups and downs of following Pip 小毛
through his life, I found myself emotionally engaged and connected. This is
perhaps where the presence of my girlfriend matters, as she was used to me
studying in peace on the sofa, but she was not use to me getting increasingly
excited when I would continue blurting out “I’m reading!
This story is good!”
I finished parts 1 and 2 that night, staying up far past my
normal bed-time. It’d been a long time since I had done that in any language,
and it felt so amazing to tap into that universal joy of reading in this
language I was putting so much blood and sweat into learning.
During the most dramatic moments, I found myself on the
verge of tears. Partly because it is just a really great story, but it was also
because I was moved by this new experience in Chinese! I felt like a child
filled with the wonder of learning a new language; this wonder that gives you a
chance to explore yourself in an entirely new context. You’re still you, but
your experiences, your identity, all have to be constructed and retold using
new words, new phrases, and new cultural references. Many people say they feel
like a different person in each language they speak, but that night, I was
filled with joy knowing that whoever I was in Chinese, I would also be a
reader.
When I finished reading Great Expectations, I had this feeling of a whole new world unfolding to me. I felt like I could cry. The simple fact that I could read something in Chinese and that I didn’t have to wait 5 years and 5000 characters to get there AND actually be moved by it filled me with such intense joy! I was completely overwhelmed!
A short while after this, I decided to take a break from the
grind of character memorization. Grinding so much flash cards rocketed me into
reading fluency, but I think I could have done it in a much less stressful and
more interesting way if I had engaged with the various forms of content that’s
out there, even if there is not as much as I would like. But with this much
grind, I eventually burned out, however I laid the foundation for the breath of
vocabulary to read things and I eventually moved onto reading native level
books in a meaningful way. The point is that I did what I think no person
should ever have to do. Plus I had sustained a repetitive strain injury from
writing so many characters.
I broke up with my girlfriend near the end of 2016 but less than six months later I decided that I wanted to move to China so I picked up reading characters again. I went to the Chinese Language Institute (CLI) in Guilin to continue my Chinese studies. When I got to CLI, I didn’t meet anyone who had gotten as fluent as I had as quickly. I met a lot of people who had a more solid foundation in the language, but few of them could talk to anyone. Ultimately, in my opinion, if you want to really master the language, engaging in native media can give you such a broader view into the culture, the history, and the range of life experiences in China.
Regardless, I have now gone on to read many native Chinese
novels and comic books. Overall, I read more slowly than I’d like, but I can
read most anything contemporary and use the dictionary maybe once or twice per
page. Specifically, I really like martial arts (武侠) a lot and am just a big fan
of reading in general…in fact, if anything, perhaps I read TOO much, and
probably should prioritize watching more TV. I’d also say reading is very
helpful from a grammar perspective…it’s very, very helpful to see how all
sorts of different authors describe all sorts of different situations.
Reading 武侠 helped
a lot with my understanding of how to describe action, because they have to
describe these complex fight scenes…especially the author Jin Yong 金庸, he
really gets into it. So I’d pay extra attention to the various ways one could
describe swords flying around.
Classic Wuxia style
I should mention that I’m not the type of person who reads “just
to get the gist” of something. I know a lot of language learners will read
to try and understand as much as they can and sort of cement the words they do
know, but I always read for 100%. This slows me down a lot as I can usually
guess the meanings of new words and chengyu and whatnot, but I want to be 100%
sure! I have the soul of a translator…
I’d say my views on language learning have evolved a lot. I
think people should be honest about their goals, and then construct a plan to
achieve those goals. I think tools like Mandarin Companion are absolutely
essential, and like I said, I loved
reading Great Expectations and really wish I had spent more time
with the earlier ones earlier on. I think basically people should buy more or
less every graded reader out there and read them as soon as they can, and while
I think flashcards are an invaluable tool, mass reading is so much more fun AND
is quite effective in helping to cement so much of what is important in
studying a language! I think if I had spent more time reading mandarin
companion and other graded readers early on — and I do mean study… one can
read them, but I think can also study them in more depth — I would have had a
lot more examples to learn from and I think I could have avoided a lot of
grammar issues that plague me to these days. I believe that mass exposure to
vocabulary and grammar in context is an absolutely critical tool to not just
build one’s vocabulary, but their knowledge of the language.
In total, I’ve been studying about 3.5 years, and although I
believe conversation is the lifeblood of language and without that, it would be
hard to motivate myself, but reading offers a billion windows into billions of
different stories and lives…that’s true in English as well, but
exploring that in Chinese is just too much fun! And you know what? I really
wouldn’t be able to explore any of that if I couldn’t read! Thanks to you guys,
as you publish more and more books, this will be less of a problem for all of
us learning Chinese! Keep it up!
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