I'm Learning Mandarin

Links:

My blog: https://imlearningmandarin.com/

Sara's YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@sarajaaksola

On today’s episode, I speak to Sara Jaaksola, A Ph.D. researcher and Chinese teacher originally from Finland

Sara first moved to China in 2010 to study Mandarin, before deciding to settle there long-term.

After working as a Chinese teacher for several years, she recently embarked on A Ph.D. program, researching Mandarin learners’ motivations for studying the language.

Sara has loads of interesting insights from living, studying, and teaching in China for over ten years, as well as some great tips on staying motivated throughout the learning process that we can all learn from!

Link:

Duncan's app: https://www.artilanguages.com/

My blog: imlearningmandarin.com

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If you google “what’s the best way to learn a language”, you’ll be bombarded with hundreds of different methods, each claiming to be completely original and groundbreaking.

But if we study history, we’ll discover many of these modern approaches are actually very similar to the ways our ancestors learned foreign languages, hundreds or even thousands of years ago.

That’s according to my guest today, Duncan Parrish.

Duncan is an educational technologist with a keen interest in history. As a developer working on an innovative Chinese learning app, he took the unusual step of looking to the past for inspiration.

In this episode, we discuss the rich history of language learning, from the Romans through the Jesuit missionaries in China right up to the emergence of the internet at the end of the 20th century.

So how did people learn languages in times gone by? How did technological advances impact language learning? And what lessons can we take from our ancestors to improve the way we learn languages today?

Listen on to find out.

Links:

My blog: imlearningmandarin.com

My Facebook community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/imlearningmandarin

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Most of my guests on this podcast have had experience and success in either learning Chinese, teaching Chinese or researching Chinese. Occasionally, I have the pleasure of interviewing people with experience of all three, my recent episode with Olle Linge being a perfect example. And today I have the pleasure of interviewing another such guest. Rob Neal from the UK works for the Swire Chinese Language Foundation, an organisation that funds the teaching of Chinese in British state schools. He has over 20 years of experience engaging with the Chinese language and recently completed his PHD at the University of Cambridge. His thesis asked a question that many learners and teachers have wondered about: how important is it for Mandarin learners to get the tones right? And his findings may surprise you.

Links:

Mandarin Retreat Survey: https://www.mandarinretreat.com/choose-your-dates

Carolina's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carolina-navarro-plata/?locale=es_ES

Our Facebook community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/imlearningmandarin

I'm Learning Mandarin blog: imlearningmandarin.com/

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Today’s podcast episode is all about Carolina Navarro, a language educator from Spain whose Chinese learning adventures saw her overcome numerous cultural obstacles on the way to reaching professional proficiency in the language.

Speaking of learning adventures, if you're a Chinese learner based in Europe, listen up! This year Mandarin Retreat are planning an awesome, fully immersive five day summer camp in the UK, packed with fun Chinese learning activities. And they want your input.

In order to plan the best event we possibly can, we’re currently running a survey giving you the chance to register your interest and have your say on preferred dates, locations and activities: https://www.mandarinretreat.com/choose-your-dates

Our last camp took place in Wales in August and saw learners flying in from three European countries to participate!

Everyone had an awesome time learning Tai Chi, playing Mahjong, making Chinese dumplings, watching Mandarin movies and exploring the stunning countryside together, all under the guidance of professional tutors in a totally immersive Mandarin language environment (check out the photos!)

Now back to today’s guest, Carolina.

Carolina first went to China in 2010 where she worked and studied for the next few years, becoming fluent in Mandarin. After returning to Spain she put her Chinese skills to use working for the Confucius Institute for nine years.

Her current focus is on aiding learners in discovering their motivation for language acquisition. She conducts talks on language learning and assists families in comprehending and supporting their children's needs in learning Chinese.

Links:

Olle's blog: https://www.hackingchinese.com/

My blog: imlearningmandarin.com

Chinese Masterclasses: https://www.mandarinretreat.com/store/p/masterclasses

In today’s episode I interview one of my most hotly anticipated guests, the Mandarin educator, blogger and teacher, Olle Linge.

Olle is well known for being the founder of the blog Hacking Chinese. For over a decade, Olle has been drawing on his extensive experience of learning and teaching Chinese to offer tips and advice for other learners. If you’ve ever googled anything related to learning Mandarin, it’s likely you’ll have encountered his blog towards the top of the search results.

His own Mandarin journey began all the way back in 2007 when he studied Chinese at university. This was followed by two years studying in Taiwan, after which he completed a Master of Education in his native Sweden, focusing on teaching Chinese and English.

Olle returned to Taiwan in 2012 for a two-years master’s program for teaching Chinese as a second language. And since returning to Sweden in 2014, he’s been working mostly at university teaching Chinese and professional development for language teachers.

In the interview we had a wide ranging discussion covering his insights into learning tones, criticisms of conventional teaching methods and thoughts on the future of self-directed online language learning at a time when the numbers of people registering on formal Chinese studies courses are in decline globally.

Links:

Our Masterclasses on Sentence Mining & Tones

Upcoming Mandarin Retreats

Will's Youtube Channel

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One year ago I interviewed someone who totally transformed my perspective on learning Chinese and particularly reaching high levels in the spoken language.

By now, listeners will be familiar with Will Hart, the Mandarin learning phenomenon who became incredibly fluent in Chinese within the space of just a year and a half.

Since I last interviewed Will here last year we’ve become friends and collaborated on a number of Mandarin learning projects.A few weeks ago he interviewed me on his YouTube channel in Chinese, which I reposted as an episode on this podcast.

I wanted to catch up with Will again to discuss what he’s been up to since the last time we spoke. In this episode Will tells us about how his learning methods have evolved over time. He also shares his experiences of immersing in Chinese both in the UK as well as on his first ever trip to China last month.

Links:

Our blog: Imlearningmandarin.com

Our immersive Mandarin learning retreats and masterclasses: mandarinretreat.com

Jiaqi Laoshi's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/themandarinstorm/

Jiaqi Laoshi's YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@speakyourchinese

The Mandarin Storm: https://beacons.ai/themandarinstorm

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When I think back to all the Chinese tutors I’ve had in the past, the best have without fail been people who have a passion for learning languages themselves. They draw on their own experiences of overcoming language learning challenges to help other learners acquire Chinese.

My guest today is a perfect example of this. Jiaqi Laoshi is an Instagram superstar with over 85,000 followers who began teaching Chinese while living in Spain in 2020.

She speaks fluent English and Spanish as well as her native Chinese and her engaging video clips have helped thousands of Mandarin learners around the world, providing them with comprehensible and compelling input.

In this episode we explore her passion for languages, motivations for becoming a teacher and tips for learners looking to find engaging Chinese content appropriate to their level.

Links:

Mandarin Retreat: https://mandarinretreat.com/

Will's YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@will3267

I'm Learning Mandarin Blog: imlearningmandarin.com/

Our Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/imlearningmandarin

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This episode is a little bit different than usual. Instead of assuming my normal role of interviewer, on today’s show I’m taking the guest seat.  

So I recently had the pleasure of being interviewed in Chinese on my friend Will Hart’s YouTube channel. We chatted about my Mandarin learning journey, the I’m Learning Mandarin blog as well as the Mandarin Retreat project. And with Will’s permission, I’m reposting the interview on today’s episode. 

Will is very well known in the Chinese learning community for reaching a truly elite level of spoken Mandarin within an incredibly short space of time. Some listeners may recall I interviewed Will last year on this podcast to discuss his incredible story. If you haven’t heard that episode yet, I recommend you check it out. 

I won’t deny it, making my YouTube debut in Chinese was nerve wracking. But I enjoyed it, and hope you will too listening to our conversation. I also thought it would be a good way of documenting my Chinese progress since I last recorded a podcast in Mandarin about nine months ago.

The I’m learning mandarin podcast, features stories, hot takes and considered opinions from the world’s leading linguists and successful mandarin learners.

Each episode, we explore the most effective methods for studying mandarin and interview distinguished guests about their learning journey.

Whether it’s tones, characters or listening comprehension or anything else you may be struggling with, the ultimate goal to help you learn how to learn Chinese.

The I’m learning mandarin podcast is produced in partnership with mandarinretreat.com . Mandarin Retreat organise immersive language learning weekends and extended camps for Chinese learners in the UK and Europe. Check out their website for more details.

Links

Mandarin Retreats: https://mandarinretreat.com/

I'm Learning Mandarin Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/imlearningmandarin

My Roadmap to Mastering Chinese Tones: https://imlearningmandarin.com/2022/02/12/its-never-too-late-to-learn-chinese-tones-heres-how/

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Hello and welcome to the I’m Learning Mandarin podcast. On today’s podcast we speak to a guest whose interest in Buddhism led him to begin self studying Chinese two years ago. However, after teaching himself to read the language he faced a common problem: speaking was still incredibly difficult. After years of delaying speaking and using input heavy methods he decided to start outputting and reached out to the I’m Learning Mandarin community for help and advice. Taking this step to work on his speaking led him to have an experience that would change his life forever.