How to Learn Chinese if You’re Lazy
6 tips to turn your laziness into an advantage to help you learn Mandarin Chinese faster.
Many people feel stuck when learning a language.
They feel overwhelmed and demotivated. They can’t seem to break free from procrastination. They wonder why they feel so lazy when they used to feel passionate about learning.
They think they’re not “smart enough” for this, or that other people are just “naturally better” at learning languages.
They think, “I’ve already messed up this week, so what’s the point?”
They lack clarity on what to do, so they repeat the same beginner lessons, memorizing vocabulary lists without application, and never really progressing.
So it’s no wonder they get frustrated when it feels like they’ve lost all their progress. It’s no wonder they start to believe they’re lazy and not cut out for this.
But here’s the truth: laziness is not the problem.
Laziness Is a Good Thing.
Imagine if a lion was chasing you right now. Would you run away as fast as you possibly could, or would you be lazy and procrastinate? I doubt you would be lazy in that situation.
Laziness is not a flaw in our genes.
In fact, laziness is a good thing.
Being lazy helped us evolve as a species because it helps us conserve energy when we don’t need it and save it for when we do.
This is why it's so common to feel the urge to procrastinate on an assignment and then make a mad dash and cram the night before it’s due.
Your brain knows there is no urgency.
Laziness is a signal to save energy, just like hunger is a signal to eat.
Laziness is our brain asking us how badly we want to do something.
But being lazy is not a death sentence. It doesn’t mean we’re bad learners.
It doesn’t help your progress or your mental health to beat yourself up over this.
Being lazy just means that you are more sensitive to your energy being wasted.
When you accept your laziness as a healthy part of yourself, you can actually learn to leverage laziness to help you learn languages even faster, like I did.
I'm a lazy learner who learned to speak fluent Mandarin Chinese.
I hate sitting in class being lectured. I hate learning from textbooks. I hate learning boring material. I find it either too slow, too fast, or just not my style.
I get impatient if I don't see results. I have a hard time "believing in the process" when I don't enjoy the process.
So I used laziness to my advantage.
How to Use Laziness to Your Advantage.
There are many things that can trigger your lazy response, but this is the most common one I see:
You’re lazy because your goals are not compelling enough.
You don’t know what you want.
Your path is not clear.
You jump between different methods and resources frequently, and you don’t see any progress.
So the moment you meet some kind of challenge or resistance, it's easy to give up.
The solution that most people tell you is to be more disciplined and grind through more studying and vocabulary lists.
But discipline in this situation is just a bandaid solution. It may provide some temporary relief, but it won’t fix the root problem.
Grinding away will actually only make you more miserable.
It’s like working a 9-5 job that you hate, clocking in and out in a zombie state, dreading each morning, looking forward to the weekends but always living in a low state of anxiety and purposelessness.
The root problem is you lack a compelling goal or purpose that ties everything together.
So when you don’t have a compelling goal, laziness is actually a good thing because it’s conserving your energy so that it doesn’t go wasted.
But when you have a compelling goal, you start to enjoy the process even when things aren’t going your way, and you encounter challenges.
When you have a purpose, challenges start to look like opportunities for growth, and you’re not afraid to make mistakes because they are a necessary stepping stone to success.
These are some ways to use laziness to help you learn Chinese or any language faster:
1. Create a Big Goal.
You feel lazy because you don’t have a big goal that is compelling.
Ask yourself: Why do you want to learn Chinese or your target language?
Is it compelling enough?
Is it specific enough?
How badly do you want it?
A big goal helps us focus on the bigger picture when we are having bad days.
A big goal helps us work towards something bigger than ourselves.
A big goal helps us believe that what we do every day matters, even if we just improve a little bit each day (1% better every day).
A big goal makes your learning real.
When I started learning Chinese, my goals were to:
Travel to Taiwan
Order bubble tea in Mandarin
Surprise my Chinese friend by talking to him in Mandarin
Each one of these goals made my learning real and tangible, giving me something to look forward to every day.
A big goal is not set in stone. You can always change it as you grow.
But we need a big goal to keep us on track and going in the right direction.
Most importantly, a big goal helps us keep going.
Because the only true failure in language learning is giving up. If you stick with it long enough, progress is inevitable.
2. Create Small Goals (Daily Wins).
A big goal helps us focus on the big picture, but small goals help us enjoy the process.
Create daily goals to give yourself daily wins that keep you motivated in the moment.
Without small goals, it's easy to get demotivated while always delaying gratification.
Keep your daily goals so simple that you can see yourself doing them every day.
I see time and time again learners who try to learn 50 new words a day and end up studying for hours, burning themselves out in the process.
Set the bar low so you stay consistent.
Consistency is better than perfection.
My goal every day is to:
Listen for 30 minutes
Learn 1 word deeply (everything else is extra)
Speak for 1 minute to apply new vocabulary
3. Make It Personal.
You feel lazy because you’re only “studying” Chinese, and it’s too impersonal and logical.
I used to lock myself in my room and learn only from textbooks and flashcards, but my learning felt empty.
Humans are social creatures, so even an introvert like me craves human connection, even if just a little bit.
The fix? Make your learning personal.
Use the language to connect with native speakers.
Find a teacher or language exchange partner so you can build relationships and make connections while also learning the language.
When we make learning more social, we get more excited and motivated to learn because there’s another person on the other side, and we want to get to know them, impress them, learn more about their culture, etc.
My learning changed when I traveled to Taiwan, forced myself to talk to the locals, made friends, and met language exchange partners regularly.
This was when my Chinese improved the most, and I felt the most motivated because learning Chinese was not just a chore but an exciting adventure that could help me make new friends.
Think of the last time you traveled to a foreign country and how curious and excited you were to learn the native language there.
But what if you can’t travel?
No problem. The internet has made it easier than ever to make online friends, connect with language exchanges and teachers, and even find online communities with similar goals through platforms like Discord, Facebook, Instagram, etc.
4. Make It Fun.
You feel lazy when learning is not fun, when you’re using material that you don’t enjoy, or when you find the material dry and boring.
Use laziness to your advantage by noticing when it comes up. Laziness is a signal that the material you’re using is boring.
If you’re lazy, you’re more sensitive to boring material, which helps you figure out what doesn’t work for you faster.
I get easily bored. I found HSK textbooks and flashcards boring and ineffective, so I quickly moved away from them and found something else that worked for me.
Instead, I love learning from podcasts and videos with native speakers because it feels like I’m eavesdropping on another culture. To me, that is super exciting.
I try to make learning so fun that even if I don’t get the result (get fluent), I would still choose to learn.
Don’t force yourself to use methods that drain you.
Find materials that excite you, whether it’s videos, podcasts, books, or whatever keeps you engaged.
Some people love learning from textbooks and flashcards, and it works for them.
The key is to find what works for you.
Try different methods and materials, drop what doesn’t work, and stick with what does.
Are you a visual learner? An audio learner? Do you prefer reading?
If you stick with learning material that doesn’t match your learning style, you will get bored and procrastinate.
Don’t stick to a particular method just because everyone else uses it or someone on the internet says you need to.
Try it for yourself and make the decision.
In order to figure out what your learning style is, you need to figure out what your learning style is not.
Unless learning Chinese or your target language makes you feel good, you will eventually lose motivation, run out of willpower, and give up.
A healthy learning approach must work with your emotions, rather than against them.
5. Integrate Learning Into Life.
You feel lazy because you associate “studying” with “studying alone in your room.”
Instead, change it up and integrate learning into your life so that you don’t get bored.
I do this by:
Passively listening to Chinese audio while doing other things: walking, commuting, working out, doing chores, etc.
Talking to myself in Mandarin throughout the day
Taking classes in Chinese: this can be Chinese classes or other interest classes
Changing my phone’s default language to Chinese
Making friends who speak my target language
These strategies work by making it easier to be exposed to your target language.
In a sense, you are “immersing” yourself in the language without traveling to the country where it’s spoken.
This reduces the friction of “studying,” which sounds dry and dreary, and makes it easy to do because you were going to do those things anyway.
Over time, it becomes part of your daily routine and habit.
6. Limit Your Studying.
You feel lazy because you don’t have clear boundaries around your studying.
You study for hours but are distracted most of the time.
This used to be me until I learned about Parkinson’s Law:
Work expands to fill the time available.
If you give yourself 8 hours to study, it will take you 8 hours to complete it (inefficiently).
If you give yourself 1 hour to study, you will figure out a way to finish it in 1 hour (efficiently).
1 hour of focused studying is better than 8 hours of distracted studying.
When I made this change and started limiting my study time, I felt more focused and came back the next day more refreshed and excited to study again because I wasn’t burnt out from yesterday.
Remove distractions on your phone and computer, like social media and distracting websites.
Give yourself permission to stop when you’re not feeling it so you come back more refreshed the next day to study.
I hope these tips help you.
循序渐进，
Danyo
PS Here are some ways I can help you:
Copy Paste Speak Course: The science-backed system I used to effortlessly understand Chinese speakers, quickly build native vocabulary and have confident conversations in Mandarin.
Chinese Speakers Community: I help you level up your Mandarin speaking faster so you can talk about what you want in 30 minutes a day. You get all my courses, trainings, exercises and personalized feedback.