My 1 year journey learning 中文. Beginner HSK1 to advanced HSK4.

In this post, I’m going to write about my journey learning chinese from not even knowing a word to being able to speak, read and write at an advanced level with 1200 words, 1064 characters mixed simplified and traditional (explanation further down). It’s been an incredible journey and I can’t wait for Year 2.

This post is going to be huge so here’s an index of what to expect:

1. Intro to Mandarin Chinese and why I wanted to learn
2. What in the world is HSK??!!
3. The apps and methods I used to learn
4. Studying Chinese in Taipei
5. My study routine in greater detail
6. Summary

Intro to Mandarin Chinese and why I wanted to learn

Mandarin is the Western name that was historically given to the Imperial Court officials by the Portuguese. The name referred not only to the people but also the language they spoke. But Mandarin is actually the Beijing dialect of the overall group of languages spoken in many parts of China. The Beijing dialect was used in the Imperial Court and then later adopted as the official language of China.

In Mainland China, Mandarin is referred to as Putonghua (普通话), literally “the common language”.

As you’ve probably also heard many times before, learning Chinese means that you’re going to have to learn how to communicate using different tones. Mandarin Chinese has 4 tones, which when used in a sentence the correct way, sounds pretty cool.

Used in a wrong way, also sounds pretty cool but can mean totally different things. Here’s a memory and an example from my own experience that I posted about on facebook:

What in the world is HSK??!!!

I’m this typical goal oriented completionist. I cannot just do something because I want to do it for a while and then quit. I feel like I always need direction, a goal to strive for and actually reach that goal. For instance, I spent 6 months in the gym just bulking up and exercising for hours on end due to me wanting to join the local ice hockey team and I didn’t want to be out of shape. My goal oriented outlook came hand in hand with something called HSK tests. Chinese Proficiency Test (HSK), an international standardized test of Chinese language proficiency, assesses non-native Chinese speakers’ abilities in using the Chinese language in their daily, academic and professional lives. HSK consists of six levels, namely HSK (level I), HSK (level II), HSK (level III), HSK (level IV), HSK (level V), and HSK (level VI).

Studying for the HSK means that you need to be proficient to a certain level in reading, writing and speaking. If they had a 4th option “Setting the karaoke room on fire with skills”, I’d probably ace past the 6th level too.

For anyone who’s been on this HSK journey, this picture below sums everything up just fine. As you advance through the levels it takes longer and gets increasingly more difficult as the grammar you need to learn as well as sentence structures will take a lot of practice and throwing HSK 1–2–3 level stuff right back on its head. Re-learning is a huge part of progressing.

Here’s what my Chinese language training schedule looked like during my most intense period. This doesn’t count the hours watching movies, playing around on language apps and listening to music trying to translate it and picking up on new words.
Although it’s calmed down now during the past month due to Xmas Holidays, I’m back at it again in February as it’s proven to actually work really well for me.

This is what a normal day would look like for me. Around 3 hours of Chinese class, 8–9 hours of work every day of the week. Also, notice that the chinese class ends at 8pm so don’t think I skipped out on evening drinks or anything :D. Luckily, this was all while I was working a contract in Singapore so I could use some of my Chinese to a certain extent at the local markets, with co-workers and some of my friends there.

The Apps and methods I used to learn

The different apps and websites I’ve used to practice and learn are way too many to write down. My phone has probably tried to kill itself due to all the weird apps and spyware I’ve installed and most of them really haven’t helped that much anyway. Let me give you a rundown of the ones that have actually been really helpful.

DuoLingo: This is a really good one which I can recommend, however I only used for a brief 2 months before I got very bored with it. It just doesn’t offer that much variation in terms of learning, however the different segments are well thought out and easy to learn. A huge bonus that focus is on learning actual 汉子 and not pinyin.

ChineseSkill: a game-based and structured curriculum optimized for English-speaking beginners. I actually prefer this to DuoLingo. It’s less repetitive, has more modes where you can drill down on Grammar or just drill down on HSK related topics and vocabulary. This costs 6 USD/month.

Youtube

ChinesePod: ChinesePod is a web-based Chinese language-learning service composed of multiple key components: video and audio lessons, mobile apps and exercises for characters, pronunciation and dialogue. There are also virtual classroom sessions for private lessons with Mandarin Chinese teachers

Chinese Zero to Hero: Zero to Hero is dedicated to help you learn the world’s languages, from the very beginning (“zero”) to a very very advanced level (“hero”).

But here’s the catch though. I didn’t want to depend too much on apps but wanted real conversations with real people because there’s only one way to get better in a foreign language: practice. If you’re not having regular conversations in your target language, ideally with a native speaker, you will struggle to make progress. Books, apps, games, and all the other hacks and tricks can help, of course, but they’re only supplements. To rely on them alone would be like drinking lots of protein shakes without ever stepping foot in a gym. And I also have to add that while I was learning fast and was having great fun, I was still sort of shy about speaking Chinese to anyone except for my very close friends.

This is why I was looking for online Chinese tutors. Luckily I found two platforms called Verbling and iTalki.

On both pages, the teachers write a bio and record a short video so you can decide whom to pick. My favorite teacher of all time and one that I keep in close contact with is Stacey. If you’re interested in learning Chinese, she’s great with beginner level students as well as intermediate ones.

Once you book a lesson, you’re taken into the lesson interface. The setup is pretty cool and works like a virtual classroom. There’s an example pic below. In the virtual classroom you can write to each other, see each other on video and the teacher can share learning materials. Our learning materials consisted of all the different HSK-Level books that have been given out all the way from Level 1–4.

Other than that, we didn’t really want to keep following a plan or specific curriculum but casually talked about a wide range of topics which really helped me boost my vocabulary which I entered into a vocabulary sheet with over 600 words that we’ve used during this past year.

My total amount of classes on Verbling is up to 173 x 1 hour classes. It’s been a good learning experience but although I’ve tried 5 different teachers in total, I only stuck with one until today. That was the one I found to be the most educational, easy going and fun to learn Chinese with. If you do happen to use Verbling, I recommend trying out a few teachers before settling for one because:

1. It’s not exactly cheap. Averaging around 15 USD per hour you’re going to want value for money
2. When learning a new language it’s not easy to express yourself. If you want to learn schoolbook Chinese, it’s pretty straightforward. But if you want to learn schoolbook, slang and conversational, pick someone you get along with really well. Someone with the same interests.
3. It’s not a dating site or a match making service folks. Honestly.

Like I mentioned before, being exposed to a language as much as possible helps you pick up on the fluency of things. What I still do is listen to a whole bunch of Chinese music, translate the lyrics and pick up on new expressions.

雨后总会有彩虹，而你至少还有我
- There’s always a rainbow after the rain. At least you always have me

With that said, this is what my playlist currently looks like:

I also spent almost every evening of the week, immersing myself in Chinese movies and series. It’s definitely been a great way to learn for me, picking up local accents, expressions, perfecting tonality and also watching dope stories unfold. Here’s a couple of good movies you could watch:

The Continent: Three men living in the Eastern most island of China go on a road trip to the Western most end of the country, and facing crises of love, friendship, and faith on their journey to the West.

Duckweed: In the near-death after an accident, a sports car driver time-travelled back to the 1990s to meet his severe father and never-seen mother in a small Chinese town.

Looking Up: When his space shuttle flight has an accident, an astronaut remembers the lessons his father taught him growing up.

Us and Them: During the hectic chunyun period, 2 strangers traveling home meet on the train.

Dear Ex: A teenage boy and his mother are further driven apart when they find out that his father’s life insurance policy is to be received by his lover.

Studying Chinese in Taipei

My best experience so far and probably best decision I’ve made in a long time was to spend 3 months in Taipei studying Chinese at Taipei Mandarin Center.

I’d heard before that Taipei is a great place to study Chinese as the level of teaching is above standard and being convenient as well as an incredibly exciting destination. Having been to Taipei twice before, the decision was easy. Good music, good food, spend 3 months working remotely towards Hong Kong while studying in Taiwan.. I was GAME!

I signed up at Tapei Mandarin Institute for classes, 3 hours every day + 1 hour self study, 5 days per week. This wasn’t the simplified Chinese I’d been practicing for about 9 months, but this was full on traditional characters that mostly look different. Studying Chinese in Taiwan generally means that you actually have to start learning how to read and write in those said traditional characters. You could opt for just learning Simplified, but what’s the point in coming to Taiwan then?

Getting there was easy, and my teacher was still not a fully graduated teacher but she was one of the best teachers I’ve ever had in any subject and she became more than a teacher — a good friend. Our classes were classroom based but once or twice a week we just decided to have our classes somewhere else such as a cat cafe, food markets, restaurants, anywhere where I could practice my newly learnt vocabulary and grammar IRL with her and people around us.

Knowing I would need some help after class to even get around this huge hurdle that had landed in front of my path to success, I had to be clever.
Close to where I was staying there was a quaint little bar. It’s one of those quiet ones you wouldn’t really notice hence it’s usually pretty quiet. I decided to have a couple of drinks on my own before I continued to try and find a solution to my problem.

As I stepped into the bar, I sat down, ordered a drink and started reading through my textbook. So me and the bartenders and some of the people there started chatting and it was overall a good night. Immediately after leaving to go home, I decided this is where I’m coming to next again!

So I returned, many nights after that (almost every night), bad for the liver but great for my studies. The guys and girls at the bar and also regulars started to help me out with my homework, helping me read the traditional characters, helping me spell properly and pronounce words as they should be pronounced according to the correct tonality.

All in all, a great experience :D! These 3 months in Taipei definitely boosted my knowledge level to new heights and made me feel very comfortable speaking to people in Chinese instead of mixing it with English words or shying away.

My study routine in greater detail

I’m going to break my routine down in a sheet here for better understanding :D I know a lot of people use HSK-practice tests to study for the exams but I wanted to work on a more comprehensive approach rather than just focusing on knowing a set of grammar rules, words and vocabs.

Summary

Learning Mandarin chinese this past year has been a great experience so far, and it’s one that I’m going to continue. It’s allowed me to communicate with so many different people in various situations and places while also learning as much as I can about different cultures around Asia. I’ve found new favorite movies to watch, new exciting people to talk to, new music to listen to but most importantly a sense of accomplishment while also working on my career progression which is to broaden my network and look at new opportunities within selected markets across Asia.

I’ve also learnt in hindsight that studying mandarin just to complete HSK-tests isn’t really what I want to dedicate my time towards. I want to have fun with the language instead so my 2020 goal is to deepen my knowledge in popular culture as well as reading much more than I have this past year.