Learning Chinese: from gruesome, to good, to great

"Wow. Your Chinese is amazing!" (哇，你的中文说得好棒啊！真厉害！)

...That's something I heard a lot when I first started learning Chinese.

It wasn't true, though. My Chinese was terrible. In fact, it was gruesome.

But for a long time I thought people meant it (which they kind of did, in a feeling-sorry-for-the-foreigner way). I felt great. I was getting somewhere. I was a natural with a special talent! (a 天赋 - Tiānfù in Chinese)

So I kept going.

As the years passed the reality became clear. And the more I worked at it, the worse I seemed to get. But there wasn't really any choice but to carry on.

Fast forward 15 years, I still occasionally get these weird compliments, like when I was in Beijing recently talking to a colleague:

"Mr An, your listening skills in Chinese are very good". (安总，您的听力是不错的!)

In other words, everything else was rubbish, but at least I could understand what he said, just about.

That hurt. But it was true.

Some of my tones were off, I forgot a couple of words, and I even dropped in some English intonation for bad measure. It was a disaster.

While swimming in feelings of self-loathing I re-had an old thought:

BECOMING (AND STAYING) GREAT AT CHINESE IS ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE!

But somewhere along the way there is an invisible threshold. Beyond it, there is a flow to the language; thoughts come in Chinese, tones just seem to happen (most of the time), sentences form on their own.

So how is it possible to break through that final barrier?

Well, apart from years of lonely and obsessive hard work, there are three small but fundamental changes that I made which helped.

The first is changing where you talk from, physically.

The beginner student talks in a high-pitched voice. They strain, and over-try, and in doing so, they speak several pitches higher than normal.

Chinese comes from lower down. For me it's feels like it's just under the diaphragm. You have to make a conscious effort to speak from that place until it comes naturally.

The second is changing how you breathe.

There is no short-cut, it comes from an obsession with tones.

The best way I have found is to print out a page of sample sentences in Chinese. Write the tones above each character, including the sequential changes that happen to third tones, and other mind-bending ones like how the first tone (一) changes from first to second or fourth tone, or when "no" (不) changes from fourth to second tone, or when characters are repeated and become a mysterious fifth tone.

You can go for daily usage stuff, or if you're feeling pumped you can go deeper. Here is some light reading from Lao Zi with tones included:

Then, read the sentences out loud over and over again, re-writing the tones above each character each time.

It helps to speak louder than normal. Push yourself to go faster. Slowly you’ll notice a slight change in breathing pattern as the tones come more naturally.

The third is changing the rhythm.

That means un-remembering your usual intonation.

The best way I have found is to watch a Chinese drama series (All is Good 都挺好 is my current favourite). Find the bits that are emotional (喜怒哀乐 in Chinese) - pleasure (喜 - Xǐ), anger (怒 - nù), sorrow (哀 - āi), and joy (乐 - lè).

Once you've got a good one, press pause, and copy and repeat. Deliver as if you were Yao Chen (姚晨) - below - on the set of All is Good yourself.

Finally, two more tips: one practical, one about mindset. The best way to get really good at speaking Chinese is to record yourself and play it back. It will sound awful, and you will feel awkward. But it's the best way to monitor how you are doing on making these three changes.

On mindset, believe in the confusing but well-meaning anti-compliments about your 'amazing' Chinese. Tell yourself the same every morning. One day it will be true. At the same time you have to be deeply self-ware so you can self-correct.

And keep going... It's worth it in the end.

What tips do you have for the unsuspecting learner of Chinese?