You can’t rely on Chinese speakers.

I was speaking with a Chinese learner and asked her if she had opportunities to practice speaking Mandarin.

“I have lots of opportunities to speak at work,” she said.

“Do they give you feedback?”

“No, and sometimes I feel I’m not expressing myself properly based on their responses…”

This is not uncommon at all.

Think about the last time you corrected someone’s grammar or pronunciation in English. If you’re like me, it doesn’t happen often.

Most people are like that. They don’t go out of their way to offer unsolicited feedback, especially if communication is unaffected and they understand what you mean.

Most native speakers are too busy, don’t care, or don’t want to hurt our feelings as learners.

Once native speakers can understand the gist of what you’re saying, they usually won’t bother to open an awkward dialogue about what you did wrong and what you could do better.

This is why you can't rely on the average Chinese speaker to give you feedback.

As learners, this makes improving our speaking after a certain point difficult (upper beginner to intermediate).

Speaking without feedback is better than nothing. But you risk making the same mistakes and building bad habits. This is why you feel like you're not improving.

Speaking with feedback helps you see your blind spots and fix nagging mistakes so you can express what you want clearly faster.

The Solution?

Step 1 is seeking feedback from native speakers who are trained or from other learners who have done what you want to do.

Step 2 is knowing how to ask for feedback. The quality of the feedback you receive is proportional to how you ask for it.

I used to assume that Chinese teachers could read my mind and give me the perfect feedback at the perfect time. But you’ll improve much faster if you know your learning style and tell them the type of feedback you need.

We help you do this 1-on-1 inside Chinese Speakers.

You’ll get personalized feedback based on what you need and not on what you don’t so you improve your speaking faster.

The goal is to help you speak Mandarin with confidence and talk to Chinese speakers about whatever you want.

(Without studying 8 hours a day).

I can only help 3 more learners in July (we close tomorrow so we can focus on helping them).

Hit reply and I'll get you the details.

熟能生巧，

Danyo