I'm Learning Mandarin

My eBook: https://www.peakmandarin.com/free-ebook Links: mandarinretreat.com/ - For more information on immersive Chinese learning trips and summer camps for learners based in Europe. imlearningmandarin.com - for more blogs and podcasts on learning Chinese https://www.amazon.com/TPRS-Chinese-Characteristics-Terry-Waltz/dp/0692442901 - TPRS with Chinese Characteristics. -- Hello and welcome back to the I'm Learning Mandarin podcast! We're finally back after a several month hiatus. On today’s episode I speak to Pamela Rose an educator and Mandarin teacher with a fascinating background. Pamela grew up in New York, to a Chinese mother and an American father. She didn’t learn any Chinese in early childhood but as a teenager became fascinated by the language, as well as her cultural heritage. From there she embarked on a journey which would culminate in her not only becoming fluent in Chinese but also qualifying as a Mandarin teacher. Pamela’s teaching style is largely inspired by Stephen Krashen’s comprehensible input - which we’ve discussed a lot on this podcast before - as well as a method called  TPRS, which stands for Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling. In this podcast Pamela shares her story with us and explains how her experiences in the classroom, both as an instructor and  learner, have shaped her teaching approach and methods.  

My eBook: https://www.peakmandarin.com/free-ebook Links: Mandarin Retreat Raffle: https://mandarinretreat.com/hc-raffle/ Refold Discord: https://community.refold.la/about-us/ Refold Website: https://refold.la/join/ On today’s podcast I speak to Ethan, the CEO of Refold, an immersion based language learning system that offers a guide and a community for learners who want to achieve language fluency. Refold was initially set up by Ethan together with Matt Vs Japan, who has appeared on this podcast before. Refold Chinese has its own Discord server which I recommend all Mandarin learners check out. The community is a great place to exchange tips, chat about language learning strategies and meet other Chinese enthusiasts. 

My eBook: https://www.peakmandarin.com/free-ebook Today’s episode is a very special edition in which, for the first time ever, the discussion is recorded entirely in Mandarin Chinese.  For some background: Last Christmas I wrote a blog in which I set my new years’ resolution. And the goal for 2022 was to work hard on my speaking skills and get to a level within one year where I’d feel comfortable recording podcast discussions in fluent Mandarin. So after several months of hard work, I’m finally ready to post my first episode - and hopefully the first of many - in Chinese. I’m joined by my Chinese friend Katherine who is a keen language learner and a graduate in translation studies. She’s currently studying a masters in English literature while living in the UK.  A few months ago she came on the podcast to talk about Chinese polite culture and common attitudes Chinese people often have towards learners of Mandarin as a second language. Today we chat about all the ways ways in which Chinese politeness differs from British politeness based on Katherine's experience of living here for over a year.

Links: Join the raffle here: https://mandarinretreat.com/hc-raffle/ Hack Chinese: https://www.hackchinese.com/ My blog documenting my experience of joining a Mandarin Retreat: http://imlearningmandarin.com/2022/08/14/i-tasted-full-immersion-for-the-first-time-on-a-weekend-mandarin-retreat-and-you-can-too/ -- Regular listeners to this podcast will be aware that a common thread running through many of the topics we discuss here is how to create an optimal language learning environment while studying Mandarin from outside Chinese speaking countries.  So on today’s podcast I explore the topic of immersion with the founders of a groundbreaking new language learning initiative. It’s called Mandarin Retreat and it’s organisers Karl, Ryan and Esther (who are also regulars on this podcast) aim to enable Mandarin learners of all levels in the UK to replicate the experience of living in a totally Chinese speaking environment for an entire weekend. The immersive weekend trips take place in Scarborough in the north of England. Small groups of native Chinese speakers and Mandarin learners are brought together to enjoy a weekend of walks, eating and fun activities all 100% in Chinese.  I recently attended one of the first ever retreats and found it was a real boost to my spoken Mandarin. As I documented in a recent blog, it was the first time I’d ever gone a whole weekend entirely immersed in the language. By the end of it, my Chinese was noticeably more fluent than it had ever been before.  Now, Mandarin Retreat are partnering with the space repetition website HackChinese.com to host a raffle giving UK based Chinese learners the chance to win a free place on a weekend trip. For full details and to enter the raffle visit the link in the description: https://mandarinretreat.com/hc-raffle/

My eBook: https://www.peakmandarin.com/free-ebook Links:  Blog discussing the study Karl mentions demonstrating tolerance of ambiguity plays a decisive role in language learning success: https://sla-materials.blogspot.com/2013/11/the-tolerance-of-ambiguity.html My podcast discussing the Input Hypothesis and Comprehensible Input with linguist Professor Karen Chung and founder of Hack Chinese Daniel Nalesnik: http://imlearningmandarin.com/2022/08/22/does-stephen-krashens-input-hypothesis-comphrensible-input-work-for-learning-mandarin-chinese/ My blog on how graded readers helped me learn Chinese: http://imlearningmandarin.com/2021/03/17/why-im-a-fan-of-chinese-graded-readers/ -- New language learners often find it difficult to cope with the experience of not understanding.  We’re used to being in situations in our native language where we can understand almost everything perfectly.  To go from that to suddenly being bombarded with words, phrases and grammatical contractions that are totally alien and incomprehensible to us can be quite jarring.  Yet studies have shown that having higher tolerance thresholds for ambiguity can be a decisive factor in language learning success.  So on today’s podcast, I invited two friends, Karl and Jorge, to discuss how they’ve learned to cope with not understanding and how we can all Chinese learners can develop our tolerance of ambiguity to make our the process of acquiring Chinese smoother and quicker. 

My eBook: https://www.peakmandarin.com/free-ebook Links:  For more information on the UK Mandarin immersion weekends visit: https://mandarinretreat.com/ Check out my in-depth guide to tones here:  http://imlearningmandarin.com/2022/02/12/its-never-too-late-to-learn-chinese-tones-heres-how/ -- If you ask any Mandarin learner which aspect of the language they find most challenging, it’s highly likely they’ll give a one word answer: tones.  For years I would have said the same. Tones did not come easily to me and like many learners I neglected them for years thinking I could get away with it. In fact I only really started taking tones seriously around four years in and it took months of retraining my brain to perceive and produce tones properly before I truly felt comfortable. I regularly get asked about how learners should go about learning tones so I thought this topic probably merits an episode in itself. On today’s podcast I’ve assembled a group of Chinese learning friends who are all at different stages of learning and have interesting insights to offer. 

My eBook: https://www.peakmandarin.com/free-ebook Links: To learn more about the UK Mandarin immersion retreats visit: https://mandarinretreat.com/ Blog with information about the immersion retreats: http://imlearningmandarin.com/2022/08/14/i-tasted-full-immersion-for-the-first-time-on-a-weekend-mandarin-retreat-and-you-can-too/ Essie Birt's Twitter: https://twitter.com/Essie_M_B -- Professor Stephen Krashen has arguably had more of an impact in the  field of modern language education than any other living academic linguist. His Input Hypothesis – a group of five hypotheses developed  in the 1970s and 80s, argues that comprehensible input is the key  component required for successful second language acquisition. Language education in schools and universities has traditionally been  based on the belief that practicing speaking, vocabulary memorisation, repetition drills and grammar rules are the keys to learning a second language. According to Krashen, however, studying information about languages in the form of grammar rules and practicing speaking through repetition  drills are of marginal importance. Instead we acquire languages when we  understand messages through reading and listening to our target  language. If we follow his principles, our task as language learners is simple:  seek out reading and listening material we find compelling and  comprehensible, then consume enough of it until we’ve internalised the  language. If we get enough comprehensible input appropriate to our  level, our comprehension skills will consistently improve and our  ability to speak the language will then gradually emerge. The online language learning community is full of influencers and learners – myself included – who have been inspired by Krashen. The likes of Steve Kaufmann and Matt Vs Japan (who I interviewed for this podcast) are examples of what can be achieved when Krashen’s principles are applied successfully. But Krashen is not without his critics and there are question marks  over how applicable his ideas are to learning Mandarin. Can Mandarin pronunciation and tones be acquired through comprehensible input alone or is in necessary to  learn rules, use rote memorisation and repetition drills to become  proficient? And what about grammar? Can we acquire Mandarin to a high  level without deliberately studying grammar rules? In this episode I want to take a critical look at the input  hypothesis. To do so I’ve invited two Mandarin learning experts, both of  whom have appeared on this podcast before. Professor Karen Chung is a linguist with decades of experience working at National Taiwan University. Daniel Nalesnik is the founder of the leading flashcard website hackchinese.com  Together we explore the strengths and limitations of the input hypothesis in the context of learning Mandarin.

My eBook: https://www.peakmandarin.com/free-ebook *To contact Karl about his sentence mining app email ActiveLearningApps@gmail.com *For a full guide on sentence mining visit: http://imlearningmandarin.com/2022/07/03/your-ultimate-guide-to-chinese-sentence-mining-in-5-basic-steps/ *Join the I’m Learning Mandarin Facebook Community on: https://www.facebook.com/groups/imlearningmandarin/  Last Christmas I set myself a new years resolution to improve my spoken Chinese to the  point where I’d feel comfortable recording podcast interviews in  Mandarin. Of all the methods I’ve used this year the one that I feel has helped me the most towards my goal is sentence mining. The term basically means collecting large numbers of sentences  conveying key grammatical structures before revising them later. Each time you’re watching a TV programme or have a conversation with a native speaker, you listen out for  sentences you feel you might want use yourself and record them down in a  document or using flashcards. The idea is that by collecting and learning hundreds of these  sentences you will start to develop 语感, or a deeper sense of the  language. I recently wrote a guide to sentence mining for my blog and in this episode I’ve invited a few of my Chinese learning friends –  Karl, Ryan and Jorge – to share  they’re approaches and discuss how the technique has helped them.

My eBook: https://www.peakmandarin.com/free-ebook Links:  Benny's Blog: https://www.fluentin3months.com/ Benny's Ted Talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0x2_kWRB8-A Benny's Book on Learning Mandarin: https://www.amazon.co.uk/LANGUAGE-HACKING-MANDARIN-Learn-Mandarin/dp/1473674271 My Blog on Learning Tones: http://imlearningmandarin.com/2022/02/12/its-never-too-late-to-learn-chinese-tones-heres-how/ On today’s episode I interview arguably the world’s most popular language learner, the one and only Benny Lewis.  To many listeners, Benny or Benny the Irish Polyglot as he’s also known, will need no introduction.  He first began blogging over a decade ago at a time when the online language learning community was still in its infancy.  His engaging style and optimistic message that languages is about communicating, having fun and embracing mistakes stood in contrast to other polyglots whose methods seemed more dull and academic.  Through his blog, books and Ted Talks Benny brought the idea of self learning a new language to millions of people, many of whom had been put off by bad experiences at school. In 2012 ago he set himself the challenge of becoming fluent in Mandarin within three months. Ten years on I caught up with Benny to reflect on his Chinese learning experience as well as discuss his approaches to language learning in general. 

My eBook: https://www.peakmandarin.com/free-ebook Links:  Karen's Ted Talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQEWEPIHLzQ My Roadmap to Learning Mandarin Tones: http://imlearningmandarin.com/2022/02/12/its-never-too-late-to-learn-chinese-tones-heres-how/ On today’s podcast, I chat with a very distinguished guest. Someone  who has designed a technique she believes can help learners of any  language achieve near native accents. Karen Chung from the USA has lived in Taiwan for more than 30 years  and for most of that time has worked as a linguistics professor at the  National Taiwan University. In 2018 a Ted Talk which she delivered in flawless Mandarin received over a million views  and brought her methods to the attention of a large international  audience. In the video she explains her accent training technique which she  calls the echo method. The method which is based on her own learning  experiences takes advantage of our echoic memory. First we listen to a sentence or phrase in our target language,  waiting for the audio to replay or echo in our minds, before finally  mimicking it out loud. Doing it this way allows us to mimic native  speech much more closely than conventional listen and repeat methods. In this podcast, we explore her own language learning journey, how  she learned Mandarin to such a high level and why she disagrees with  conventional language learning opinion which argues accents don’t matter  as long as we can more or less make ourselves understood. She also kindly agreed to give me a brief demonstration of her method to help improve my own Mandarin accent.