The plan to get conversational with 1 hour a day
My Chinese learning looked good on paper but felt stagnant:
50 words reviewed per day.
(But I couldn’t confidently use them in conversation.)
Countless grammar rules.
(But I would freeze and forget them when speaking.)
It felt good to study so much vocabulary but the voice in my head wouldn’t go away:
"Can you have a conversation?"
After weeks of minimal progress, I decided to listen to that voice.
And simplified my studies ruthlessly:
Limited study time.
Limited words studied per day.
Stopped memorizing lists.
Focused on learning from native Chinese content.
Applied what I learned with speaking practice.
The goal was to cut out the fluff and focus on one thing:
Speak Chinese with confidence.
The transition was tricky at first.
But not long after, I found myself holding a smooth conversation with a native speaker without panicking.
The plan for the rest of 2024 is to continue this path and to be able to have conversations with confidence in whatever topics I want to talk about.
Here’s The Plan:
Learn from native content that I enjoy.
No more textbooks or dry materials.
I’ll immerse myself in content I genuinely enjoy, like podcasts, TV shows, etc.
They have to be native Chinese content, not scripted content created for Chinese learners.
If I enjoy the content, I will be more interested and motivated to continue.
Daily Listening Practice.
The easiest way for me to improve my listening and speaking is to immerse myself in Chinese audio daily.
This can be done with minimal effort and time commitment by listening passively during dead times.
Daily Speaking Practice
Every day, I’ll practice my speaking to work on pronunciation, vocabulary use, fluidity of speech, and sounding more natural.
The key is consistent practice.
Seek Feedback.
Speaking by myself is good. But it’s easy to build bad habits and overlook mistakes that will worsen over time.
Getting feedback from someone who “gets it” is better.
It saves me time and frustration so I don’t have to undo bad habits in the future.
I can focus on improving fast.
Grow the Chinese Speakers community.
This year, I want to help more learners.
Being part of a community where everyone has a similar goal makes everyone better.
Which is why I've made it easier to get access to all my resources in a new community called Chinese Speakers.
Chinese Speakers are Chinese learners who choose to speak.
Because you're on the list, you'll get notified on how to join at lower prices than everyone else.
That’s the plan.
But burning out in the past taught me not to study without boundaries.
So this time I'm setting them straight from day 1:
Focus on learning at least 1 word/phrase deeply per day.
Quality trumps quantity.
I rather learn 1 phrase deeply and be able to apply it in conversation than learn 20 words superficially without knowing how to use them.
No more than 1 hour of active study per day
I want to make learning as low friction as possible, so it’s easy to do every day.
I’ve found my retention and enthusiasm decline after 1 hour, so I’m capping my daily active study time.
I will still listen passively when I can because that’s easy and enjoyable.
Consistency over time is what matters.
Limit study material
With unlimited resources comes overwhelming choice.
My goal is to focus on a few high-quality resources rather than jumping between many.
This is the plan.
All that’s left is execution.
I’ll keep updating you as I go.
加油，
Danyo
P.S.
If you'd like to get notified before we open the community, reply "early" and I'll get you the details early.
(We're closing when we fill 9 spots. First come. First served.)