How to SELF-STUDY Chinese | Tips + Resources

(Don't forget to use my code "GRACE20" to get 20% off! ✨)

In this video, I interview a Chinese learner who achieved a high level of proficiency through self-study in just 1.5 years. You'll learn about the techniques and resources he used to accomplish this. Enjoy!

Mentioned Video and Playlist:

Japanese subtitles provided by Andrew Haynes. Many thanks for his outstanding work and assistance

⚡️ Time code:

00:00 Introduction
00:45 A Fantastic Tool for Chinese Self-Study
02:42 How His Chinese Learning Journey Started
03:26 How He Learned Chinese
05:51 Chinese Learning Resources + Tips
07:50 Summing Up His Approach
10:11 More Resources for Self-Study
12:26 Techniques for Better Speaking and Pronunciation
14:28 Hitting a Plateau in Language Learning
16:30 A Question for You All
16:50 Thank You for Watching to the End!

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(Traditional and Simplified characters included)

(Traditional and Simplified characters included)

(Traditional and Simplified characters included)

﹝Real-life Chinese﹞

This video is sponsored by Juzi汉语.

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[GraceMandarinChinese]

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(Don't forget to use my code "GRACE20" to get 20% off!✨)

[xcbooux]

im a taiwanese, if i don't look at his face, i might considers him someone who really comes from beijing, his accent is just that perfect...

[monkeynorn]

His Beijing-accented Mandarin is so fluent. Can tell that he’s thinking in Mandarin when he speaks.

[peterwu]

This is a talented learner - I have studied Chinese for many years and it's rare to hear someone achieve this level of pronunciation and fluency as a foreigner.

[genace]

It’s so amazing that he became fluent in such a short period of time. Actually, even if it took 5-10 years to reach this level of fluency, I’d still be really impressed! It’s also amazing that you’ve become this proficient in English with mainly self-study! Thank you to both of you for sharing all this knowledge and advice.

[yazars]

Lots of credit to him for learning so much in a short amount of time. Seems like there are commonalities among successful strategies. However much progress can be made with "self-study, " ultimately language needs to be used for communication, so utilizing every opportunity to speak or write with someone else in the language provides opportunities to practice producing coherent sentences and phrases and to be exposed to new words and grammar structures.

[wtywemn]

He speaks fluent and authentic Mandarin like a real native Chinese person omg he is such an awesome guy and really gets the point of learning languages. I believe whichever language he wants to learn, he definitely would make it.

[karenzhang]

I am Chinese and I am currently learning French. This conversation encouraged me a lot because I can relate pretty much everything you guys said in terms of learning a language. Habits are way more important than goals. Now I just need more confidence, patience, and a little more passion.

[Faith-pgvv]

holy crap, his speaking is so good. ive been learning fro 3 years, but still cant even speak a sentence very well

[tamhung]

His Chinese is superb! Even much better than many native Chinese speakers

[belliwatching]

I have a degree in Japanese studies and took optional Chinese classes during my degree. I was terrible at Chinese😅 but my writing was always complimented by both my Chinese and Japanese teachers. I was writing Japanese all day, but my first Chinese class was all about stroke order. We didn’t learn stroke order as part of my degree. It tremendously helped the quality of my handwriting. On the other hand, we spent a lot of time learning radicals in Japanese class, and that helps me recognise meaning in new vocabulary in Chinese. Yes, because I was so bad in class many years ago, but now I am engaged to a Chinese man who speaks my native language perfectly, so I feel determined to master Chinese too (and maybe his dialect one day?!). So thank you Grace and Will for your precious advice!

[chloekoh]

to be told, I was way more in love with English and it became my native language. Chinese became something that I was extremely unconfident to speak or write with. But seeing this man learn it to such proficiency in 1.5 years that surpasses my 10+ years of formal education is the most inspiring thing today. want to revisit Chinese in my adulthood because of this. Thank you!! ❤

[thehighsandluos]

This really inspired me to work harder towards fluency! I've plateaued but I think figuring out my goal for Chinese will really help me move forward!

[DanielLeoSimpson]

Grace thank you for adding the CC subs (rather than 'burned in' the screen.} This enables me to use Language Reactor (free Chrome browser extension) which renders characters, pinyin and English (with popup dictionary at a click of a mouse) for a total learning experience. - Daniel

[DanielleBaylor]

I just started a week ago. I feel both defeated and motivated 😅

[taherehzahedi]

Wow what a good accent. I'm in to C-dramas for the last 2 years I've constantly watching C-dramas that make me interested in learning Mandarin by self study. His accent is so good I feel that I am listening to one of those C-dramas

[jssmedialangs]

For writing I was practicing by writing journals. I've also come to love writing on graphing paper (I use for Japanese and I feel it's made me more aware of how my characters should look.)

I'm also a visual learner, so I will watch calligraphy videos or videos on writing and try to copy the way they write.

[Tee_Chee]

His voice is so calm and clear....wow, amazing really 🎉 congratulations for this far

[perryisaninja]

Its so interesting the way Will speaks compared to the Grace speaks. Will speaks so casually with a very Mainland accent. He speaks with a very masculine tone and intonation that blends words together. Whereas Grace is very pronounced in her accents, especially the fourth tone. Its very clearly a Taiwanese accent here too! Amazing to listen to both styles and how they both sound. Will sounds so natural in a 18 months. Amazing!!!!

[vincytvholic]

Im currently studying Japanese (1 year 8 months) and just started practicing speaking but a lot of my vocabulary is passive and my grammar is horrible so i think this anki idea of making up your own sentences sounds like a good idea (definitely is going to extend my anki time by 3 but i think it may be worth it).