Hello Listener,
We hope you’re staying safe and healthy.
While a lot of us are confined to our homes for the time being… Now is a good time to learn Chinese and spend your time productively. Even if it’s just for a few minutes a day. How?
So, here’s how to spend your time productively and learn some Chinese
Time required: 3-15 minutes
Just press play and follow along. Our Audio/Video lessons are only 3-15 minutes long, so it won’t take you long at all. Every word is translated. Every grammar rule is explained. The result? You learn a conversation, and you’re not left overwhelmed.
If you want, you can also read along with the lesson notes.
That’s it.
Now that you’ve taken the lesson and are familiar with some of the language, it’s time to practice. Below are just a few tactics you can do. You can choose just one method of practice so that you don’t overwhelm yourself.
Read the lesson dialogue out loud 5 times. First, go as slow as you need to sound out the words. By the 3rd or 4th try, you’ll be able to read the lines quickly.
Shadow the conversation. Meaning, repeat what you hear. So after you hear each line, repeat it out loud. You can do this with the lesson audio or with the Dialogue tool.
Write out the lesson dialogue. If you want to practice writing AND make sure you remember the conversation, then copy out the lesson conversation into a notebook. You can do this with the Dialogue Tool, Lesson Notes, or the Lesson Transcript.
Practice speaking with the Voice Recorder. You’ll find the recorder inside the Dialogue tool. Listen to the native speaker, repeat and compare yourself to the native speaker.
Suggested duration: 10 minutes
Reviewing is a crucial step for committing what you’ve learned to long term memory. It may feel repetitive, but just taking a few minutes to do any of the following will help the Chinese stick in your brain.
Re-read the lesson notes: Lesson notes give you the dialogue, grammar explanations, and cultural insights. You quickly go over everything you heard in the lesson.
Listen to the lesson dialogue: Instead of relistening to the entire lesson, you can review the lesson dialogue (conversation track) 5 times. These tracks are 10-30 seconds long, so it won’t take much time. This will make the conversation stick in your head.
Write out all the words, phrases, and grammar rules that you can remember. So, without looking at the answers, try and write everything you can from memory. By forcing yourself to remember (also known as active recall), you strengthen your memory.
Suggested duration: 5-10 minutes
Done? Tomorrow, move onto the next lesson and follow this same process.
Try this lesson plan out and let us know what you think.
To your fluency,
Team ChineseClass101
