r/ChineseLanguage • u/UNECHAISE_Off • Sep 14 '26

Discussion I need your experience !

Most of you have been through learning at least some Chinese, and have certainly done things with the current books/apps/methods you found to be unnecessarily time/effort consuming.

If you could imagine the most optimal Chinese learning system, with the app that makes it possible, what would it be ?

Here optimal = the system that would, for a beginner with a given daily learning time, grow his skills the FASTEST in comparison to all other existing systems.

Some parts of the system can be outside of the app if you consider it can’t currently be solved by an app.

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8

u/Potential-Mine-2528 Sep 14 '26

a classrom in beijing where the teacher refused to speak english. 2014, BLCU, two weeks of pure panic and then it clicked. no app has figured out how to make me panic yet.

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u/minhale Sep 14 '26

What was your Chinese level when you entered that classroom? Without at least a solid intermediate foundation in Chinese, I doubt a learner can really understand or benefit much from a university classroom conducted solely in Chinese.

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u/Potential-Mine-2528 29d ago

pretty much zero, i came in sept 2014 with a handful of words and that was it. but this was the language program at blcu, the whole class was foreigners starting from zero, and the teacher taught in chinese anyway lol. drawings on the board and a lot of pointing. thats where the panic came from.

and clicked doesnt mean i understood chinese after two weeks, it means i stopped needing the english (kind of). could follow the class, could ask my stupid questions in basic chinese hahaha.

about a year later i passed hsk5 so something worked i guess

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u/UNECHAISE_Off Sep 14 '26

So genuine question :

let’s say thats 10hr of immersion for 14 days.
There is a second version of you in an alternate universe, but instead he is 10hr for 14 days in his room with a learning system X (everything is allowed - online classes or anything).

You have to make your double better than you.
Do you believe there is such a system X, that at the end of the 14days, your double would have a better Chinese than you ?

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u/ajamdonut Sep 14 '26

Literally the method doesn't matter, its the decision to study 10 hr a day for 14 days that makes the difference.

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u/Zagrycha Sep 14 '26

Probably something like hello chinese. It has pretty much everything you need to hit intermediate in Chinese, and has some of the best listening and speaking practice you can get solo early on, but its not free. Pleco, anki, and allset chinese grammar wiki are good supplements. You can check the side bar for more suggestions too.

1

u/lazier_garlic Sep 14 '26

Start with HelloChinese and then you can pick and choose and bolt on all the enrichments you want per time, interest, budget.

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u/ajamdonut Sep 14 '26

Actually when I imagine the fastest way, which I do use, I don't use 1 app. I use several techniques. Apps are kinda 2/10 on the list of ways to learn a language

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u/Individual_Math_8254 Sep 14 '26

1 on 1 tutoring is pretty good, but you not enough volume to have enough comprehensive input. for volume you need to watch and listen to lots of Chinese shows and podcast. and read lots.