The most important lesson I've learned about speaking Mandarin is this: The more I speak, the more I am allowed to speak. When I started building a daily speaking habit and recording myself speaking every day, something interesting happened. I didn’t suddenly gain more vocabulary or better tones after the first day. But I noticed myself speaking MORE Mandarin immediately after recording. I started thinking in Chinese. I started talking to myself in Chinese. Why? Because speaking builds...
about 1 year ago • 1 min read
When I moved to Taiwan in 2019, my Mandarin was terrible. I could say a few phrases, but my tones were wrong, and I lacked confidence. I remember passing by a bustling food market by my Airbnb on my first day of arriving. I was enthralled and wanted to check it out. But I was afraid to speak. I remember the fear vividly—nerves rising, social anxiety creeping in. What if someone noticed? What if they judged me? What if they mocked me? But I decided to be bold. I walked up to a fruit stall and...
about 1 year ago • 1 min read
For the second year, I’ve teamed up with 24 Chinese language companies to bring you the best Black Friday deals to master Chinese. Details and links below. Happy learning! :) Danyo Courses (8) Danyo Pang - Improve your spoken Mandarin with 50% off Copy Paste Speak Course at https://learn.danyopang.com/#bf24. Offer valid Nov 15 to Nov 30. Chinese Zero to Hero - 30% off any HSK course or bundle. Use code BF2024 at http://chinesezerotohero.com/. Offer valid Nov 24 to Dec 2. Mandarin Blueprint -...
about 1 year ago • 2 min read
What I've been thinking about recently: When you start learning Chinese, you’re asking it to commit a lot of energy to something new. But your brain loves the status quo. It’s wired to save energy and stick to what’s familiar. It’s why passive activities like listening feel easier. They require less effort. You don't need to actively engage. It's why practicing speaking feels harder. We have to actively engage. Speaking adds pressure. Pressure = growth. Think about working out at the gym. If...
about 1 year ago • 1 min read
I just had a fascinating discussion in Chinese with other leaners and teachers inside the Chinese Speakers Community. We chatted about making friends and the 剧本杀 phenomenon taking over China！ 剧本杀 (jùběn shā), or "script murder," is a popular role-playing game among young people in China and many young people use 剧本杀 to make new friends. Have you heard of it? Making new friends and staying social is not easy in this new age of technology and decreased attention span. It can be easy to keep...
about 1 year ago • 1 min read
There’s an unspoken trap that many Mandarin learners fall for. It’s the belief that adding more and more words will make you fluent. It’s the idea that if you just keep building your vocabulary, speaking will eventually become effortless. This approach feels logical. It keeps you busy and makes you feel like you’re making progress. But that feeling can be deceiving. Don’t get me wrong, I love listening to podcasts and learning new vocabulary. Input is essential. But listening alone is not...
about 1 year ago • 1 min read
Learning to speak Mandarin is hard because there are so many moving pieces. You have to remember new words, tones, and sentence patterns, all while trying not to freeze up. This is why I love using templates. Using Speaking Templates helped me build a daily speaking habit and get conversational quickly (without even talking to people). Think of them as training wheels in the beginning. Once you get started, it's a lot easier to keep going. What's a template? A Speaking Template is a written...
about 1 year ago • 1 min read
I learned a new idiom: 視若無睹 (shì ruò wú dǔ). It means “to turn a blind eye.” Pretty cool, right? But when I first tried to say it, I struggled. Pronouncing each character on its own wasn’t too bad. Saying them all together fluently? That was a different story. My mouth felt clumsy and uncoordinated. Why? Because my mouth muscles weren’t used to this combination of sounds. They had never encountered this exact pattern before. It’s like trying to pronounce a long, complicated word in English or...
about 1 year ago • 1 min read
For a long time, I hated sounding "awkward" when I spoke Mandarin. I wanted to sound "normal", blend in, and avoid drawing attention. But I’ve realized that this thinking is completely backward. When you try your hardest to sound "normal", you box yourself in your comfort zone, and progress stalls. You’re stuck, repeating the same patterns without growing. Alternatively, sounding "awkward" means you’re stepping out of your comfort zone. You’re trying new words, testing sentence structures,...
about 1 year ago • 1 min read
