Tip #2 – Intensity

It does not matter if you study online or offline, to progress in Mandarin you will need to spend time studying it.

However, it is not only about how many hours you spend studying, but also how far they are spread apart.

Spending an hour every week studying Mandarin will just not get you ahead, whichever way you study and for however long you will do it.

To learn Mandarin is very different for an English speaker than studying for example Spanish, German or French. It is a lot tougher.

Chinese words sound nothing like English ones and they are very easy to forget even after you learned and remembered them. If you do not regularly hear a word again and again after you learned it, you will simply forget it and all your previous learning effort was wasted.

Tones and characters work in a similar manner.

With many other subjects you can simply study a little bit every week and as long as you keep doing it for long enough you will still get there.

That is not how it works with Chinese for English speakers. For the best result you will need to repeat vocabulary very regularly for quite a while until a word moves from short term to long term memory.

This varies for each student but from our experience six hours a week is an absolute minimum, but for real progress you need at least 10.

Note: If you know a language similar to Mandarin, like Cantonese, Japanese, Korean or Vietnamese, this can be different.

Tip #3 – Nail The Basics

Sounds obvious again, right? Hear us out!

To learn Mandarin you do not necessarily need a teacher for everything, but for some things it is definitely best approach.

Tones for example you need to study with a teacher who can listen to your tones, correct you and help you how to say tones correctly. 

The same course goes for pronunciation and conversation practice.

Chinese characters and to a lesser extend grammar, however you can study relatively effectively yourself with the help of apps and books.

So the ideal Chinese online course should be a combination of Chinese online lessons with a teacher, review, and self-study with apps.

Note: For online classes to be effective you do not just need a fluent Mandarin speaker, but a trained and professional teacher.

You can practice to chat and talk with any Chinese speaker, however to actually learn Mandarin properly you need an experienced and qualified instructor.

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Tip #4 – Tones First

Following on from point 3 nicely into point 4 here. Basics means tones, a big part of it anyway.

Students who learn online often focus on vocabulary, characters and grammar first and do not pay enough attention to pronunciation and tones. This can backfire later.

While characters, grammar and vocabulary will simply improve over time, tones and pronunciation tend to stay the way you got used to them at the beginning.

The best way to learn is to get your tones and pronunciation right at the beginning and not only later in the course.

Note: Tones are essential for speaking Mandarin. Differently to what some people on the internet say, it is not possible to speak intelligible Mandarin without correct tones. If you do not hear them, that is not an as big problem, but you need to be able to say them correctly.

Tip #5 – Use Mandarin, Everywhere

Just studying is not enough, you need to practice and use your skills in real life.

This can be more difficult when you are not in China, however it is possible to create a Chinese language immersion environment at home as well. 

Make sure you pay attention to this.

You can be the best student in the world, spend endless hours practicing characters and have a fantastic teacher…

However, if you do not apply what you learned, you will not become fluent.

Tip: Do not get frustrated when people do not understand you. Most likely your tones were wrong. This happens to the finest students. Keep trying.