First Week of Chinese - Sensible Chinese

Getting started in Chinese is tough. But it doesn't have to be.

Lots of people consider Chinese one of the world's hardest languages... I'm here to show you why this is wrong.

The real difficulty is that the first week of Chinese is difficult! 

Don't fail before you start! If your first week in Chinese is hard you will likely give up before you've really started. Please don't fall into this common trap.

Chinese is front-loaded.  Day 1 introduces a foreign pronunciation system, the tones and the Chinese characters. Trying to tackle them all at the same time, without guidance, is a recipe for disaster. 

Chinese is "too hard"! 

You've heard this one before. Everyone knows at least one nay-sayer who tried to learn Chinese and failed.

To protect their pride these people will claim that Chinese is "too hard!". If no-one can learn Chinese then their pride is protected!

The truth is that these people used the wrong methods. Their methods were inappropriate and they failed as a result. Claiming Chinese is "too hard" is just a way to save face.

In a week's time don't be the person saying "Chinese is too hard". I want you to be the person saying "Chinese is just another foreign language. No problem!"

With the right early foundation in Chinese it's possible to push through the first "tricky" week of Chinese and come out on the other side wondering what all the fuss is about. 

I wish I had known how to learn Chinese when I started!

I struggled with my first week of Chinese. Just getting to the first "hello" takes time! 

I managed to get through due to sheer stubbornness and a lot of luck.

But I saw a lot of people give up and decide that Chinese is "too hard"!

Hi, I'm Kyle! I have a confession

The first time I tried to learn Chinese was a disaster.

I, like so many others, failed to get over the initial difficulty hump of Chinese. 

After a couple of weeks of ineffective flailing about and rote memorization I quit.

To save my pride I would tell people that "Chinese is just too hard" and suggest that no non-Chinese is able to learn Chinese.

Nonsense.

I was lying to myself so I didn't feel stupid.

But I didn't need to do this. The problem wasn't Chinese. The problem wasn't me.

The problem was the method I was using to learn.

In Beijing making dumplings for Chinese New Year

I lied to myself to save my pride  - telling others that Chinese is too hard is one thing. It helps you save face. But telling yourself that Chinese is too hard is inexcusable - it is a self-limiting belief that limits you.

Cracking Chinese

Thankfully I came back to Chinese and I conquered it. I realized that Chinese is not impossible for a foreigner to learn. Chinese is just like any other foreign language - there are easy bits and there are hard bits. And even the hard bits can be worked through with the right method.s. 

I went on to set up a couple of companies operating in China and set up a Chinese language learning blog. Since then I've helped thousands of people crack Chinese.

Talk about over-compensating for an early failure!

If I were to start from Week 1...

The key to successfully learning Chinese lies in nailing down the fundamentals early in your study. 

There are a number of key skills and methods that, if understood and implemented immediately, can make the pathway to Chinese much smoother and more enjoyable.

Start speaking with native Chinese speakers immediately - from Day 1! With today's (free) technology there's no excuse not to.

Don't stress the tones but instead focus on replicating native pronunciation and getting feedback ASAP.

Understand how the Chinese characters work before trying to brute force memorize thousands of them.

Common Week 1 Mistakes Don't do these:

Waiting to Speak.

Most learners think they need to wait until their Chinese is a certain level before trying to speak to a Chinese native speaker. Some people wait months or even a year before trying to speak to a stranger! When this conversation is a mess (as any first conversation should be!) they lose confidence and give up. Instead we need to immediately practice the skill we want to acquire

Hiding behind the textbook.

Textbooks and courses are safe, cosy places where we can't make mistakes. Even when we do make mistakes there's no-one to see our mistakes. Beginner's therefore tend to hide behind their textbooks, focusing on studying the language and not using it. 

But using a foreign language is a skill not a subject ; we've got to start making mistakes, getting feedback and learning from these mistakes if we want to progress rapidly. 

Spending too much time with the Characters.

Characters are often what draw us to the Chinese language in the first place. But it's very easy to become too engrossed in learning the characters too soon. Instead it's important to build a foundation of communicative spoken Chinese first. 

After that there is plenty of time to get lost in the characters - don't you worry!

Focusing on Handwriting.

Learning to hand-write characters from Day 1 is a mistake. It takes up a huge amount of time and the payoff is very limited. 

This time can be better spent learning how to type in Chinese (which is SUPER easy) and using the written language to communicate with native Chinese speakers. 

Rote memorizing characters.

Brute-force rote memorization from vocabulary lists in textbooks is the most old-fashioned, wastefully inefficient way to learn vocabulary. It is this sort of activity that puts kids off languages in school. There are now better ways to learn vocabulary and Chinese characters that are faster, more efficient and not mind-numbingly repetitive. Horray!
How to set yourself up for success in Chinese from Week 1

By simply focusing on a small number of incredibly vital skills we can make our first week in Chinese a breeze.

The key here is focus.

Focusing on what is important means cutting out a lot of the nonsense that Week 1 learners normally participate in. 

We'll employ the 80/20 rule here (also known as Pareto's Law) - 80% of the results come from 20% of the effort.

By focusing on the most effective 20% we can achieve 80% of the result.

Less work, Greater results

The common textbook and classroom approach to Chinese throws too much material at you in Week 1 and expects you to juggle it all. 

As a beginner you don't know what is important and what isn't important so you have no choice but to learn it all!

Instead we can be sensible about how we approach the language. Instead we can focus on what is important for us, right now and discard the rest. 

By doing so we can both reduce our Week 1 workload and achieve better results. It's this sort of sensible approach to Chinese that we need to help us get over the first week difficulty hump!

The key to success is not doing more. It's doing more of what works. 

What is the key to knowing what works? Here it is: WEEK 1 IN CHINESE 

From years of thinking and writing about the best ways to learn Chinese I've distilled the perfect first week in Chinese. For the first time it is available as a step-by-step, day-by-day video course to give you the perfect foundation for your future study of Chinese.

1. Start Strong:  this is the only course of its kind - a course designed specifically to give you a strong foundation in the Chinese language during the critical early period.
2. Step by Step: the course is broken up into short videos and exercises to be worked through each day. This isn't just theory but also actionable tasks to carry out during your first week.
3.  Skill focused: every textbook or course can give you the material to say "hello" in Chinese. Instead we give you the material you need and show you how to actually learn and use it immediately. We'll focus on the skill of using Chinese rather than just knowledge of Chinese.

What Learners Are Saying  Best possible start."

"I've been working through the course...and am so relieved that I found the course. Having a guide for the first week has been invaluable....I would highly recommend this course to anyone else starting to learn Chinese."

Michael K. 
USA

Simple, to the point...not too much."

"Thank you for the work you've put into the videos...it really shows... My wife and I have been watching together...we were surprised to be speaking Chinese this week. I never thought I'd end the week being able to talk to people in Chinese."

John V.
USA

Excellent foundation."

"I tried to learn Chinese in university...but to no avail. I agree that the textbook/teacher method is old fashioned... I like your novel approach, much more practical. Communication should be the goal but this is often forgotten."

Rose A.
UK

Ready to start strong?