What 4 years of speaking Chinese looks like.
Let's play a game. Spot the difference.
Below is me speaking Mandarin in 2019 and 2023. Notice anything different?
2019:
2023:
To be honest I was embarrassed when I stumbled upon the old 2019 video today. This was when I first got to Taiwan and started to take speaking Mandairn more seriously.
Watching myself speak in 2019 I couldn’t help but hear all the little mistakes I was making.
Me speaking in 2019:
Trouble remember vocabulary
Incorrect tones
Unnatural grammar
Nervous/not confident
Unable to hold a conversation
Me speaking in 2023:
Can remember & apply vocabulary in conversation
Standard tones
Natural grammar & sentence structures
Confident speaking
Able to hold a conversation
The point of this email is not to shame myself or anyone else. We all go through this phase when learning a new language. It’s not easy.
And this is not to say I was speaking perfectly in 2023. Far from it.
But knowing what I know now I wish I could have given my 2019 self a bit of advice and guidance.
I made so many mistakes along the way and I could have saved myself a lot of frustration and time.
That's why I want to help learners now, so you can avoid the same mistakes I made.
My goal is to help you get from my 2019 self to my 2023 self and beyond, and do it faster.
My goal is for you to get to the point where you don’t have to worry about “speaking” because it happens naturally, so you can focus on the conversation and what you’re excited to talk about instead.
I help you do this inside the Chinese Speakers Community.
We open next week and I have space for 4 more learners to join in July.
If you want an early invite, reply “2019”
循序渐进,
Danyo
PS cool vocabulary I learned today:
手到擒来 (shǒu dào qín lái)
手 (shǒu): Hand.
到 (dào): Arrive; reach.
擒 (qín): Capture; seize.
来 (lái): Come.
Translation: Easy to accomplish; to win easily once the hand reaches out.
Example sentence: 对于这位经验丰富的医生来说,这样的小手术简直是手到擒来。(Duìyú zhè wèi jīngyàn fēngfù de yīshēng lái shuō, zhèyàng de xiǎo shǒushù jiǎnzhí shì shǒu dào qín lái.) For this experienced doctor, such a minor operation is very easy to accomplish.