How To Speak Fluent Mandarin Using Immersion: A Complete Guide

Watch this video to learn how to use comprehensible input (immersion) to speak fluent Mandarin faster and easier!

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[AngloSaks]

You can already use Chat GPT to create content at lower level, or with other limitations. I've created a bunch of texts asking it to use only the 500 most common words of the language, and generated audio (using LingQ makes this possible, plus basically gives you away to make 'flashcards' too. Other instructions, e.g. to make it A1 level or something, or getting it to focus on certain language (which it can translate from English even), can produce easier to understand texts to start with. And you can keep doing it and not have to get bored with what you're listening to/reading. One interesting thing I hit on was asking it to minimize use of nouns but to feel free to use as many 'indefinite nouns' as possible (that are general, referring to something more specific; e.g. place, person, situation, problem, theme, etc., etc.). Then I asked it to use 5 of them in a text, and to use each at least twice. The resulting texts were often interesting and varied (though not always, but you can keep going), and interestingly reasonably simple (though more like B1). Experiment with it and all sorts of stuff can be done with it. I'm also no fan of flashcards, find it tedious, so I collect new words and phrases, and then get Chat GPT to use them in a few texts, import them into LingQ, then listen to them first maybe more than once, making as much sense of them as you can, read them doing the same, create LingQs, do some of the stuff in there (particularly the mixed up sentence reordering), until you start to tire of the context. Move on. As you go you can create increasingly higher level material, and also stuff focusing on certain categories of language you notice, and on subjects or questions or situations that come to mind that appeal to you. A nice, free, individual, graded way to immerse in the language.

[agustinacanterino]

I can understand everything you said so easily like I do it in spanish. That is what I'm looking for with chinese. Is hard because I kind of forgot how I studied english 😅

[raywong]

Considering how big the difference between English and Chinese languages is, I can totally feel the pain as English is the second language for myself. I totally agree with the immersion theory, in order to get rid of the mother tongue, AKA the voice in your head, you need to practice like you never knew any other languages, treat the language you're learning as your first language, your brain is a powerful machine it can quickly adapts the linguisctical changes via compensation.

[ComprehensibleMandarin]

Khatzumoto & Matt vs Japan put out so much good information back in the day when immersion learning wasn't well-known, & inspired so many language learners! These days, there are finally a few YouTube channels with beginner listening material for Mandarin comprehensible input, hopefully someday soon it will be possible to learn from scratch with 100% immersion.

[degreesnowman]

I’ve been reading Chinese since I began. I’ve been working on my listening skills because that’s what is getting in the way of immense progress.

[Marinettefromrussia]

Great method, I actually learned English like that. Now I’m learning my 4th language via my 2d language learned 😂😄

[CrispyTube]

I can't believe how much great content you are generating and making available. Thankyou so much. Every time my enthusiasm wanes, there is another fantastic pep talk and new stimulating ideas and suggestions to get me back on track. I'm just heading back for some more lessons and also try some of these new ideas. I do manage at least something Chinese every day. Thanks again to all at Mandarin blueprint.

[ltyltmh]

I'm immersing in English, my second language, right now!

[BearvsTrout]

3:11 I actually burst out laughing at the Johnny 5 reference! I knew exactly the part you were talking about... "INPuuuUT!". Love the videos also, your systems are among the best!

[AmbientLifeStudios]

Great tips! I’m especially a fan of comprehensible input. I try to watch Netflix movies in Chinese with subs to follow along and train my Hanzi. For reading and listening I use DuChinese a lot. You can listen to a native person read, listen without the text, tap to translate the characters, and you can save words to either it’s own flashcard SRS or you can export to Anki. I think getting tons of input so it feels second nature is the key. I’m also trying a Chinese tutor on Preply soon since I need to speak more, but it’s the scariest part haha.

[TheGabygael]

If I'm understanding the way I work in English correctly, I believe that the best way to use traditional analytical learning is in addition to your normal use of the language as a way of polishing or ironing out any kinks in your practice and get a more global view and closer understanding of the language rather than gather new information, learned dutch mainly through the school system and despite having a really great surface level I really lack the personality and comfort I can inject into my English

[androiduser]

14:40 <~~ the immersion process step-by-step

[alisah]

This is what i did with my kids with little fox chinese and tutors. After 5 years my 11 year old is taking debate classes in chinese designed for taiwanese kids.

[petrosstefanidis]

Man, I've done at least 4-5 hours of English emersion watching your videos!😄
Your tip in a different video, about not over-pronouncing the high pitch sounds really helped me with the English /i/ as in beach!

[zephyrmj]

Immersion process sounds a bit like the Waldorf/Steiner School 3 day rhythm but in that system the sleep in between is important. You don't have to wait 3 days to start a new thing to learn, you just need to keep track of which stage of the 3 parts applies to what content.

[sunwukng]

9:44 I did this while watching lego monkie kid in chinese, and learnt a few new words, including 凡人, 尾巴 and 徒弟

I cheered when I could understand it more than the first time

[aminamangera]

I'm just starting and find listening to songs with the lyrics in English syllables makes it fun and easier to pronounce.

[TheInterloafer]

This video really resonates with me because it intuitively seems like it makes a lot of sense. I am going to try it! I immediately installed Migaku and I will say that one powerful benefit of it that isn't even stated in the video is that it can automatically translate between simplified and traditional character sets, so people who are learning one character set can draw in additional content from videos that use the other set. That's huge! It also color-codes by tone, which is very helpful, and has pixelated English captions that become clear if you hover the mouse. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to get Anki to work. It doesn't seem to work with Migaku. When I installed it yesterday, on Sept. 1, 2023, I got an error message that reads "Your Anki version 2.1.66 is newer than the currently recommended version for the Migaku addons (2.1.65). The Migaku addon may not work correctly." Indeed, it doesn't seem to work at all. When I attempt to use Anki add-on while using Migaku for viewing a video, I just get a rotating pinwheel and Anki ultimately fails to load. So what's weird about this is that I downloaded Migaku just a few minutes before downloading Anki, so I am assuming it is the latest version. There is no way to download the previous version of Anki that it says it the one that is compatible. Why would Anki create a newer update that is beyond the capabilities of the app it is supposed to sync with? Very strange. It makes it appear as if this is all bleeding-edge stuff and not really well-established functionality, which is fine. Hopefully it will get there as more people use it. (這個情況的原因可能是我現在使用免費的版本。) At any rate, it looks like for now I will be using Migaku to do two things. 1) to create flashcards manually, which I have been doing with the Sticky Study app, and 2) create subtitles that are better than the ones that are already in the video, colorful, possibly auto-paused for reading comprehension, and with definitions and English translations available by hovering the mouse. (What wasn't clear to me from watching this video is that although the majority of Chinese language YouTube videos have subtitles that appear on screen, often using cool fonts and video effects to highlight key moments, it seems at first glance that Migaku can work only with videos that already have Chinese-language closed captioning enabled natively within YouTube. This seems generally to be professionally produced TV series, but generally not your average vlogger, which is what I had tended to be trying to use for language learning.) So it isn't as if you can watch *any* Chinese-language video and have Migaku work with it. On a separate side note, I will just mention that Migaku appears to be a browser extension for Chrome, but lately I've been watching YouTube using Microsoft Edge because YouTube recently doesn't seem to work well with Chrome. It is slow and awkward. So basically everything would be perfect if Anki worked with Migaku and if YouTube worked with Chrome or if Migaku had a Microsoft Edge browser extension.

[sandram]

You are absolutely right .I am Lucky that I found you 👍

[tangalang]

First time watching your content and I subscribed immediately, extremely valuable and motivating, thank you!