TIPS FOR SELF-TEACHING A FOREIGN LANGUAGE 🌍 📚

How to get from zero to HSK 6 in less than three years 🥟 I have been getting lots of questions lately about how I learned Mandarin, so today I am sharing with you some of my tips about how to become fluent quickly through self-teaching 🐼😜

0:32 Why I learned Chinese
1:41 Why I didn't take classes
2:36 Is it really necessary to learn how to write by hand? (update: apparently the new HSK coming out next few years will require writing sone characters by hand, so if you plan to take HSK unfortunately the digital test will be phased out in 2023-4😭😭)
3:35 Importance of listening comprehension as a beginner
5:53 Don't rote memorize words without knowing how to use them
6:43 Make use of your new language as much as possible
8:05 Importance of being intrinsically motivated!!!!

Cartoons that I recommend:
Level 1 – Peppa pig 小猪佩奇，aka 佩佩猪 🐷(again, beware of the constant oinking, but it’s a great show to lay a foundation in listening comprehension):    • 小猪佩奇 中文 | 精选合集 | 工作和娱乐 | 粉红猪小妹| Peppa...  
Level 2 – 大耳朵图图👂    • 大耳朵图图（第一季） 01 出生的秘密  
Level 3 – 小丸子 🍡 (this is actually originally Japanese but it has a Chinese dubbed version）   • 櫻桃小丸子 #1 姐姐成日欺负我  

There are plenty of other cartoons out there too but I personally found these to be the best because the voices are clearly understandable (no screechy/weird voices, no super fast talking, etc), the animation is well done, and the storylines are reasonably interesting and won’t completely bore you to sleep. 😴 I watched pretty much every episode on Youtube of all three of these and it was more than enough to move on to shows for adults 📺

Good places to find example sentences:
Pleco smartphone app 🐟
Linedict app or website https://dict.naver.com/linedict/zhend... 🐻
Anki spoonfed Chinese flashcard set https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/53920083 🥄

Great tool for language learners: Youdao dictionary pen! Check it out here: https://amzn.to/36vHN5X
The perfect reading comprehension improvement tool for English learners and Chinese learners alike!
(affiliate link)

My instagram: kats_journey_east 🐲


Music credits:

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Your Little Wings by Tokyo Music Walker
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Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0
Free Download / Stream: http://bit.ly/-your-little-wings​
Music promoted by Audio Library    • Your Little Wings – Tokyo Music Walke...  ​
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Cover image credits:
Logohhh.com